Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Mainstream Keynesian economics is facing its last hurrah, writes Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The global fiscal stimulus championed last year by the Obama administration is coming undone, repudiated by the same Group of 20 that endorsed it last year. Now, against a backdrop of a widening sovereign debt crisis, we need to abandon short-term thinking in favour of the long-term investments needed for sustained recovery.
Philip Stephens: Bus pass test for Cameron’s mettle
Everyone is agreed. The squeeze on public spending needed to reduce Britain’s budget deficit will be severe. So severe, David Cameron says, that the effect on the economy and society may be to change the nation’s very way of life. But, the FT columnist asks, if things are really this bad, why is Mr Cameron’s government refusing to touch billions of pounds spent on welfare benefits that the recipients do not need — like free bus passes for wealthy pensioners, for instance?
Michael Gordon: Exchanges are coming close to the edge
Equity market gyrations of recent weeks have become a hot topic for both regulators and participants, writes Gordon, chief investment officer at BNP Paribas. With some questioning whether the markets are currently fit for purpose it maybe useful to step back and remind ourselves of the primary purpose of the equity market — and whether we want its venture into a prog rock version of itself, the rise of high frequency activity.
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Analysis: General Motors – the marques man
The drive to turn around General Motors is now firmly identified with Ed Whitacre, the chief executive also installed as chairman by President Obama last year, write the FT’s John Reed and Bernard Simon. Almost a year since Whitacre’s initial appointment and six months on from when he was confirmed as chief executive – much rides on his continued success, not just in the US but around the world.
Lex on the markets’ mixed messages
The cliché is that markets are driven by greed and fear, Lex writes. Less remarked on is the asymmetry of tolerance between the two. House prices, say, can triple over the years with barely a murmur. But the moment they fall by even a 10th, investors squeal like little girls. Are the latest wobbles in markets, therefore, an overreaction or a sensible response to genuine change?
Short View: Loose talk costs money
Governments once warned that loose talk cost lives. Now they are finding it costs money, writes the FT’s James Mackintosh. Hungary spent Monday trying to undo the damage from its new government’s warning that it might be the next Greece. France, meanwhile, is still suffering from its budget minister’s own unwise words.
Tech Blog: The iPhone 4, reviewed
Apple has come under pressure of late from superior features appearing in its smartphone rivals, but, with the iPhone 4, it seems likely to maintain its leadership and appeal to consumers, writes the FT’s Chris Nuttall, who was given a few minutes to play with the device after Steve Jobs’ grand unveiling on Monday.