Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: The Feds must cast their net widely 
The news of Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on US hedge funds in a sweeping investigation into alleged insider trading is welcome, the FT columnist says. The authorities are clearly alert to a financial blight, although the funds deny wrongdoing and no charges have been brought. Whatever the substance, Preet Bharara, US attorney for the New York southern district – the court close to Wall Street where Bernie Madoff was tried – is probably right when he argues that “illegal insider trading is rampant”. He is also correct that some of the miscreants are “among the most advantaged, privileged and wealthy insiders in modern finance”.
Brian Lenihan: Ireland’s plan will drive it out of the crisis
In Ireland we find ourselves in an unusual position; we are negotiating entry into a programme of financial support although the economy is beginning to recover. Because of our sustained efforts to stabilise our public finances over the last two years, our budget deficit will decline to just over 9 per cent next year, writes Lenihan, Ireland’s minister for finance. It is now expected that gross domestic product will record a small increase this year on the back of strong export growth. Indeed our exports have held remarkably well through out the down turn. They are expected to grow by 6 per cent in real terms this year thanks to a pick up in demand in our trading partners and also a significant improvement in our competitiveness over the last two years.
Analysis: Middle East – Fear of the fast lane
Tyres screeched; high-powered engines roared. Off the track, tycoons and celebrities flitted between corporate boxes and champagne bars, write the FT’s Andrew England, Roula Khalaf and Lionel Barber. When the world Formula One carnival pulled into Abu Dhabi this month – bringing with it names such as entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, actor Hugh Grant and footballer Patrick Vieira – the wealthy capital of the United Arab Emirates seized the opportunity to dazzle visitors with its showcase infrastructure. Latest additions include a Ferrari theme park boasting the world’s fastest rollercoaster and the futuristic Yas hotel, which loops over the grand prix track. Beyond the glitz, however, the mood in Abu Dhabi is more sober. The buzzwords these days are “discipline” and “priorities” as the city-state tries to heed the lessons of the debt crisis encountered by Dubai, the sister emirate an hour and a half’s drive away.
Patrick Diamond: A bold Miliband must show sharper elbows
Machiavelli noted that new leaders are disliked by those who did “well under the old conditions” but rarely defended by those who may “do well under the new”. It’s a feeling that must be familiar to Ed Miliband. The twitching corpses of ex-ministers combine with the callow anxieties of new MPs to create a feeling in the party of deep unease, less than 100 days into his leadership. You would think the next election was all but lost, writes Diamond, a senior research fellow at Policy Network and a former Downing street adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
David Pilling: The road ahead for Asia need not run west
As Asian countries become richer, will they inevitably become more like the west? Put another way, in order to become prosperous and “modern” must they take on the characteristics that have made western countries successful? asks the FT columnist. That question often prompts a fairly shallow discussion of present-day China, which has combined fast economic growth with a one-party system and confounded predictions that, as it grew wealthier, it would inevitably become more democratic. Two academics who have held this question up to a more rigorous light are Chalmers Johnson, an influential Asian scholar who died last weekend, and Patrick Smith, author of a recent book on Asia called Somebody Else’s Century.
Salman Shaikh: We cannot leave Mideast talks in the bazaar
It seems serious Israeli-Palestinian talks have not started after all. Even seven and a half hours of negotiation on November 11 between Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, could produce no breakthrough, especially on the thorny issue of Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. New housing tenders announced since then have only deepened the mistrust. But these weaknesses were apparent from the start. If the talks are to stand any chance of success, the US must now quickly refashion its approach writes Shaikh, who previously served as special assistant to the UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process and is now director of the Brookings Doha Center.
beyondbrics: The big question – Should the UK cut aid to India?
Sixty years after granting independence to India, the UK is weighing whether India is a worthy recipient of its aid programme, writes the FT’s James Lamont. Once the largest single recipient of British foreign aid, the country has developed so rapidly in recent years that some in prime minister David Cameron’s government think it could be time to cut off India and channel the money to poorer countries, mainly in Africa. Others argue for a reshaping of the activities of the Department for International Development to encourage greater private sector responses. They would rather swap the aid label for more egalitarian ‘partnership’.
Lex on SAP / Oracle
How valuable a few extra days of due diligence might have been, Lex notes. SAP has been ordered to pay $1.3bn in damages to arch-foe Oracle, for software stolen by a subsidiary the German software company acquired for $10m in 2005. It was a blockbuster end to a dramatic trial but SAP’s investors seem unruffled by the verdict, with the shares falling a mere 1 per cent or so in response. Why so relaxed?