Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
Richard Haass: Goodbye to Europe as a high-ranking power
Europe’s loss of centrality also reflects its failings. Greece is the most pronounced problem, one brought about by its own profligacy and a weak EU leadership that permitted it to live beyond its means and violate the terms under which the euro was established. But the crisis was made worse by German dithering, and initially timid responses from European institutions and governments. The euro could be one of the casualties, writes Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
John Gapper: Facebook’s open disdain for privacy
Mark Zuckerberg, the 25-year-old who founded Facebook as a private social network for Harvard students, has recently been displaying a disregard bordering on disdain for Facebook users’ right to maintain control over personal information, writes the FT columnist. Not only has Facebook gradually eroded the privacy rights of its users, but it has done so in a confusing and opaque way.
View of the Day: Global slump will stop gold momentum
The price of gold is likely to retreat sharply from current record highs by the end of the year, believes Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics.
David Pilling: Unruffled Asia resumes its economic ascent
The pillars of the Parthenon may be crumbling. But half a world away, the stone slabs of the Great Wall of China, the basalt arches of the Gateway of India, and even the Twin Towers of Petronas have rarely looked in better shape. As Europe grapples with glacial growth and cavernous deficits, Asian states have rather different problems, says the FT’s Asia editor.
Lex on UK banks
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have their guns trained on the banks. They are clearly in touch with the zeitgeist. So the appointment of Vince Cable, the self-styled scourge of bankers, to a cabinet post should have struck fear into the hearts of UK bank chiefs. Yet the coalition’s anticipated reform measures are surprisingly tame.
Analysis: Insider trading – a bigger bite
The quest to restore faith in markets is leading to a more co-ordinated and increasingly aggressive approach by the world’s leading watchdogs.
Brussels: Every step you take, David, EU will be watching you
As you’d expect, European Union leaders were quick to congratulate David Cameron on his appointment as British prime minister. But for all the warm words, they will be watching his first moves on the European stage like hawks. An important test will come next week at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. There the UK will find itself under pressure from a majority of countries to agree to new arrangements tightening the regulation of hedge funds and private equity.
Money Supply: Art in good times
The Chicago Fed today put out a rather unusual paper discussing the art and science of risk management. It concludes that too much focus was put on the science of risk management, rather than the art.
Energy Source: Images, video of oil leaking into sea
BP has published the first photos of the leaking Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.