Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Three years and new fault lines threaten
It is nearly three years since the world became aware of the coming financial tremors. Since then we have experienced a financial sector earthquake, a collapse in economic activity and an unprecedented monetary and fiscal response. The world economy has now recovered. But this crisis is far from over, says the FT columnist.
John Kay: Mr Market should sometimes get his way
Markets are more and more anonymous. While computers trade with each other many times a second, most transactions still occur because a human being makes a decision to trade. But there are many such people, and they need not disclose who they are, writes the FT columnist.
Max Hastings: The war on greed begins at the dinner table
I suspect that many members of the British Bankers’ Association, which met in London on Tuesday, nurse a resentment that we – the rest of the nation – still dislike them so much. What else should they expect, asks the FT contributing editor.
Masayuki Oku: A cure that could do more harm than good
I have been a banker for more than 40 years and have experienced financial crises in many forms. During these four decades, government policies towards my industry have swung like a pendulum, alternating between regulation and deregulation. The pendulum is about to swing again, notes the chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association and CEO of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
Westminster: Cutting budgets – not so easy
Those close to the centre of power are briefing that they want to target departments which are not “public-facing” such as DCMS (culture) and DCLG (communities) in October’s spending round. When you get into the minutiae of how budgets are spent, however, you end up with some tricky decisions very fast. Take DCLG: most of its funding ends up with local authorities, says Jim Pickard.
Energy Source: Peaked – oil demand growth rates
Even a growing world economy isn’t enough to keep oil demand rising at ever-increasing rates, notes Kate Mackenzie. The International Energy Agency, in its latest oil market report, predicts that the increase in oil demand will slow next year to a 1.3m barrel/day increase, from a 1.8m b/d rise in 2010. And that trend is set to continue until at least 2015.
Beyond Brics: Santander seeks customers in Rio favela
There’s cash in chaos. Or that’s what Banco Santander thinks. The Spanish banking empire recently opened its first branch in a Rio de Janeiro favela. Attracted by a general rise in living standards and the realisation that more and more Brazilians are joining the formal economy, it has expanded into the Complexo de Alemão, one of Rio’s most violent communities, writes Andrew Downie.
Investors’ notebook: Analysis of risk appetite is a fad, not a framework
The “risk-on/risk-off” mantra that dominates markets is a fad rather than a framework for analysis and could disappear as quickly as it arrived, according to David Bloom, head of FX research at HSBC.
Market Insight: Jamil Baz – Leverage crises nature’s way of saying slow down
Leverage crises are nature’s way of telling us to slow down, says Bazil, chief investment strategist for GLG Partners. Policymakers can ignore this message at their own peril. In their anxiousness to avoid past mistakes, they run the risk of an even bigger mistake: fighting leverage with still more leverage, a strategy that might suitably be dubbed “gambling for resurrection”.
Analysis: Dubai – closing the back door
As the emirate becomes a front in the fight to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme, global sanctions are exacting a heavy price from legitimate Iranian businesses, write FT reporters Simeon Kerr and Roula Khalaf.