Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Gillian Tett: State is now dominant force in US capital markets
By the time you read this column today, a fascinating shift will almost certainly have occurred in the nature of US finance: for the first time the government will be the biggest source of outstanding home mortgage and consumer credit loans in the US, eclipsing private sector banks or investors, writes the FT’s Tett.
The A-list: Jeffrey Sachs – Greece can be saved – here’s how to do it
Greece avoided an imminent default by taking a brave vote for more fiscal austerity on Wednesday. Europe and the IMF will now release short-term financing to enable Greece to service its debts at least through the summer, writes the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Yet there can be no doubt that this second bail-out, which follows a similar short-term package in March 2010, must be the last of its kind. Either Greece with its eurozone partners will agree on a long-term solution, or the rioters in the streets of Athens will prevail the next time that the Greek political system is pushed to the financial brink.
Robert Shrimsley: Royals to royalties – the Firm is in business
The Duke of Edinburgh has long referred to the British royal family as “the Firm”, so perhaps we should not be surprised by moves to build an element of performance-related pay into the Civil List– the income the monarchy is paid by the taxpayer to fund its official duties. It is surely nothing more than good business practice, says the FT’s Shrimsley.
The Short View: RIP QE2
So RIP, QE2. The US Federal Reserve made its final purchase of $4.91bn of Treasury bonds under the $600bn programme on Thursday, leaving the bond market to fend for itself, writes the FT’s James Mackintosh.
Philip Stephens: Working out what China want
We know what the west wants from a resurgent China, notes the FT columnist. We have a pretty good sense of what China doesn’t want from the west. What’s missing from this story of global geopolitical upheaval is a clear idea of what China wants from its rise to great power status.
Clive Crook’s blog: The X Date – what happens after August 2nd?
The Bipartisan Policy Centre crunches the debt-ceiling numbers. It finds that the the date on which the Treasury will no longer be able to pay all its bills–the X Date–will be “no earlier than August 2nd and probably no later than August 9th.” What would happen next?, asks the FT’s Washington columnist.
Money Supply: The dangers of relying on the Fed’s swap lines
The Fed has extended its dollar swap lines to the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank for another year (though, as of last Wednesday, no-one was using them), writes the FT’s Claire Jones. Yet it is dangerous to rely on the Fed to continue to provide such support.
Women at the top: Why Warren Buffett invests ‘like a girl’ – and you should too
A new book by LouAnn Lofton, provocatively entitled Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl, argues that the strategies that have made the “Sage of Omaha” the most successful investor of our generation are typical of women’s approaches to investment, writes the FT’s Liz Bolshaw.