Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: News Corp is all about the family
Rupert Murdoch is not strictly the founder of News Corp – it started life as News Limited, the owner of an Adelaide newspaper, under his father – but he has embodied it for the past 59 years, writes the FT columnist. The media empire is built around his gambles and opinions, with little regard to what others think. Mr Murdoch is thus – although they might not want to acknowledge it now – a role model for the younger generation of internet entrepreneurs who are bringing their businesses to the stock market through initial public offerings. They too want to keep control while raising capital from others.
Conrad Black: Murdoch, like Napoleon, is a great bad man
Rupert Murdoch is probably the most successful media proprietor and operator in history, writes the former chairman of the Telegraph Newspapers. There is no possible argument about his boldness, vision and skill of execution in conquering the British tabloid market, leading vertical media integration by uniting film studios and television stations, cracking the US television triopoly, being one of the great pioneers of satellite television and founding a conservative-populist American news network. (It was to reduce News Corp’s dependence on Roger Ailes’ Tea Party Fox News Network that he was so eager to spend £8.3bn ($13.3bn) buying all the shares in BSkyB and laying hands on all its income.) It must also be admitted that the Wall St Journal is the only quality product Mr Murdoch has ever bought and actually improved. It is as wrong to dispute his greatness as his badness.
Mario Monti: To escape crisis, Italy needs a shake-up
The eurozone crisis has finally knocked on Italy’s door – and rather brutally at that, writes Monti, president of Bocconi University and former European commissioner. At one level this is surprising. Unlike Greece, Italy has gradually brought its deficit under control in recent years. Unlike Ireland, Italian banks have been only moderately affected by the crisis. Unlike Spain, Italy had not been characterised by an over expansion in either construction or private sector indebtedness.
Chris Giles: Dream on George, the pain has to continue
Things are pretty bleak for the coalition, writes the FT’s economics editor. Public support for spending cuts has fallen precipitously only a year into this parliament. The government, like the rest of us, cannot escape the alarm bells ringing from the eurozone. It is also led by a prime minister up to his waist in the phone hacking scandal. And yet, for all these woes, ministers still cling to the belief that, by the spring of 2015, the pain will be past. They dream of fighting the next election on a platform of growth and prosperity, with the toil and tears of fiscal consolidation little more than a painful but distant memory. Dream on.
Gavyn Davies: Bernanke and the Fed
The financial markets seem determined to interpret today’s statement by the Fed chairman in a dovish light, but a careful reading of his words does not support that point of view, says the economist and FT blogger. True, Mr Bernanke outlined the possible ways in which monetary policy might be eased further if recent economic weakness should prove more persistent than expected. But he gave equal weight to the possibility that “the economy could evolve in a way that would warrant less-accommodative policy”.
Larry Tabb: Playing ostrich over high-speed trading not an option
The world has become amazed and horrified by trading technology, writes the founder and chief executive of Tabb Group. As fragmentation of markets drives automated trading, topics such as high-frequency trading (HFT) and microsecond latencies have captivated the media and stirred controversy, especially in relation to the 2010 “flash crash”. But with new rules, come new loopholes and new exploitation methodologies.
Editorial comment: Murdoch bends to Parliament’s will
Dropping the offer is not just the right course; it is the only sensible one open to Mr Murdoch, says the FT. Thanks to the escalating phone-hacking scandal surrounding News Corp’s UK operations, the very idea of the deal proceeding has become odious to public opinion. To press on would have invited only backlash.
Lex: BSkyB
Rupert Murdoch is in all-out retreat, says Lex. News Corp’s decision to abandon its bid for British Sky Broadcasting reflects News’ realisation that the proposal – rightly or wrongly – had become so politicised that it could not possibly proceed. With the scandal beginning to reverberate in the US, however, the company needs to do more to calm the political firestorm engulfing his company.
Paul Betts: Brazil falls victim to a battle of French wills
There is little more unpleasant and unseemly than a battle over personal interests, writes the FT senior correspondent. This is exactly what has been happening in Brazil, where the long-term interests of the country’s biggest mass retailer are being undermined by the war of wills between two French retailing giants, the Brazilian state and the local tycoon who founded the Brazilian chain in the first place.