Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Wynn raises the stakes in Las Vegas
The Wynn-Okada tussle is an enthralling battle of wills between two hardened Vegas gamblers. It is also a sad reflection of the lack of investors’ rights in Nevada, which takes to deliberate extremes the US tendency to place the interests of corporate directors above those of their shareholders. The irony is that the 70-year-old Mr Wynn may yet be hoist by his own – and his adopted state’s – legal petard.
David Pilling: China cannot ignore the will of Hong Kongers
Rarely can an election with so few voters have provided so much fun to so many people. A committee of just 1,200 of Hong Kong’s great and (not so) good get to decide who will be the territory’s next chief executive, its de facto mayor. But that has not stopped the people of Hong Kong, who are pushing for universal suffrage by 2017, from treating the election like the real thing.
George Osborne and Jun Azumi: Beware the risks of the rush to regulateThis week’s meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies confronts pressing challenges: tackling indebtedness; supporting growth, strengthening international and financial institutions to promote global stability; and reforming financial regulation. However, all countries need to be alert to the unintended consequences of financial reforms. Both our governments have expressed concerns about the “Volcker rule”.
Chris Giles: Stop decrying the great British debtholders
Perhaps the most pernicious canard about the British economy is that growth is held back by heavily indebted consumers. Only when household debt comes down, the story goes, can consumption growth get back to normal. Nonsense. Worse is the moralising tone, which insults millions of creditworthy households. Take me for example. I am a UK consumer and aspire to become a more heavily indebted consumer. I hope to achieve my ambition to increase my debts sometime over the next few years when I buy a larger house with a larger mortgage.
Robert Pozen: How to tax US companies’ foreign profits
On Wednesday the Obama administration proposed a long-awaited cut in the top rate of US corporate tax from 35 per cent to 28 per cent. But the White House also disclosed something more contentious. The administration is suggesting US companies’ foreign earnings should be subject to a “minimum tax”. The current system for taxing earnings of foreign subsidiaries controlled by US companies is controversial and counterproductive. Such foreign earnings are theoretically taxed at a 35 per cent rate if brought back to the US, but not taxed at all by the US as long as these earnings are kept abroad.