All extra FT content

Why getting complicated increases the wealth of nations

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:02:13 GMT

One of the defining characteristics of the modern economy is that it?s awfully complicated. Even a fairly humble product such as a shirt might incorporate cotton from west Africa, oil from Indonesia to make the polyester in the button (manufactured in China), and designs sketched out by an Italian using American computer software. Then there [...]

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Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:14:21 GMT

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Forest Finns, extrovert Finns and the perils of being small

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:59:47 GMT

“What’s the difference between a Finnish extrovert and a Finnish introvert? The introvert looks at his shoes when he is talking to you. The extrovert looks at your shoes.” As politicians jokes go, that is not bad. I heard it from Alex Stubb, the Finnish foreign minister, who was speaking last night at the European Business [...]

Free is not a digital choice, it is an inevitablity

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:01 GMT

Here is Chris Anderson?s final contribution to our debate about his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. See my earlier post An interactive review of Free by Chris Anderson for details. Please put comments on the entire debate at the foot of this post - I have switched off comments on the other [...]

Freemium is another revenue shot in the dark

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:00:53 GMT

Here is my latest reply to Chris Anderson in our debate about his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. See my earlier post An interactive review of Free by Chris Anderson for details. Dear Chris, You are right: this debate has been far too civil, so let me get less friendly. I don’t believe you. [...]

The Weekender

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:00:31 GMT

?This week on FT Alphaville, - Fiscal patriotism, we NEED YOU! - Bubbles, the shampoo and Chinese kind. - A rogue trader in crude oil. - Introducing www.franktimis.co.uk. - Taleb vs Tavakoli goes postal. - Implied sovereign ratings. - The league of prime brokers. - China's MAD dollar strategy....

techfile 3.07.09

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:00:06 GMT

FriendFeed accelerated the move towards truly real-time search engines, with the introduction of real-time, constantly updating search results. As companies including Twitter, Facebook, Google and even Microsoft jockey to capture the audience for real-time search, FriendFeed remains a small player, but a technological innovator. The woman accused of cyberbullying a 13-year-old into committing suicide had her [...]

Building Britain?s Future: Another decade of Labour?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:56:16 GMT

There’s a section at the back of the Building Britain’s Future document where Labour spells out key “deliverables” for the next decade. Some of these are indeed likely. Others less so. Alex and I have picked out some of the more controversial ones. 2013: Budget deficit halved since 2009/10. 8/10: Yes, this is the plan - the annual [...]

How to profit from a heatwave

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:36:27 GMT

Go long sunscreen, perhaps? Barbecue sausages and patio furniture? What about going short old people? That idea comes via Brewin Dolphin analysts Sahill Shan and Chris Glasper in a note on Southern Cross Healthcare, Britain's largest provider of care homes for the elderly. Here's a taster: The current heatwave is reportedly leading to a dramatic increase in the number of 999 calls made and the DoH has issued special advice for the elderly and other vulnerable groups....

Much ado about central bankers

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:28:18 GMT

Will no one rid me of this turbulent central banker? Gordon Brown, the UK?s prime minister, may be asking just that when he learns of yet another critical comment from the governor of the Bank of England. For Henry II, king of England in the 12th century, the troublemaker was Thomas Becket, his own choice [...]

News round-up: Friday

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:15:54 GMT

A day after the ECB kept interest rates unchanged and figures released showed record unemployment in the Eurozone, the Wall Street Journal plots a course for post-crisis recovery.? “ Europe needs to focus on growing its way out of its fiscal mess. The first step would be to revisit tax policy,” say its leader writers. Elsewhere, [...]

Quantitative easing, credit easing and enhanced credit support aren?t working; here?s why.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:07:28 GMT

Quantitative easing - expanding base money in circulation (mainly bank reserves with the central bank by purchasing government securities) - isn’t working in the US, the UK or Japan.? Credit easing - outright purchases of private securities by the central bank, which can either be monetised or sterilised - is achieving little in the US [...]

Niche marketing takes it to another level

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:00:16 GMT

Our story in today’s paper that Mars has launched Fling, a chocolate bar targeted at women (”Naughty, but not that naughty”) is part of that contant trend among consumer goods companies to change what they produce and how they market it. Consumers are changing and the company’s selling them products are trying to keep pace [...]

Husband?s business trip risks missing first child?s birth

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:43:36 GMT

My wife is expecting our first child. Ten days before the expected delivery date, I am due to go on a business trip to Los Angeles with my boss. The trip is important to the company and it is an honour that I have been picked. If I say I can?t go, I expect my [...]

The DoJ breaks cover on Google?s book agreement

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:41:11 GMT

The Department of Justice just showed part of its hand in the investigation of Google’s class action settlement with book publishers and authors, and the Googlers in Mountain View should be getting concerned. In a letter to the judge who must decide whether to certify the landmark settlement, the trust-busters confirmed for the first time that [...]

Swedish and Italian Traffic Flows: A Comparison

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:18:42 GMT

It seems?light years ago now, but I once had a delightful Swedish friend whose father, reflecting on his distinguished career in public service, told her that the proudest moment of his life was when Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right and there were no serious traffic accidents. That [...]

A Free exchange of ideas

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:41:38 GMT

In what we reckon is the first interactive review of a book. John Gapper reviewed Free: The future of a radical price, the latest book by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired (US edition) in today’s paper. Over on John’s blog we have given Anderson the opportunity to reply and in more or less real time, [...]

Ethnic quotas and sodomy in Malaysia

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:27:08 GMT

The Malaysian government deserves congratulations for reforming its policy of quotas in favour of ethnic Malays. There is a pleasing symmetry in the fact that Najib Rajak, the current prime minister, is overhauling ethnically-based policies that were introduced almost forty years ago by his father, Abdul Razak. Now if Malaysia really wants to jump head first [...]

Harmful financial innovation

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:49:08 GMT

Like most authors, I tend to cringe when I read something I wrote more than a few years ago.? But when engaging in some authorial auto-archeology recently when preparing the index for a new paper (after all, if I don’t cite myself, who will?), I was pleasantly surprised with a few bits from a paper [...]

The cautious approach to fixing banks will not work

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:26:50 GMT

With one bound the banks are free, or so it seems. Already, the panic of the autumn of 2008 is fading. The period within which lessons can be learnt and changes made is closing. Yet without radical changes, another crisis is certain. It may not even be that long delayed. In a recent speech, governor Elizabeth [...]

Obama is choosing to be weak

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:14:06 GMT

As he promised last year, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation?s attention. As well as evangelising, he is pressing Congress to act. Last week the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions, a measure that, if enacted, would touch every part [...]

What do we know about Iran?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:08:06 GMT

How well do we understand what is going on in Iran? Not very well, according to a much-discussed article by Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation and Hillary Mann Leverett, formerly of the State Department and the NSC, published just after the Iranian election. Without any evidence, many U.S. politicians and “Iran experts” have dismissed Iranian [...]

My boss thinks I?ll waste my time at Harvard Business School

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:29:36 GMT

I?m an executive director in an industrial equipment distributor and, as our business is facing a downturn, it seems a good time to invest in my education and apply for a two-month advanced management programme at Harvard Business School. But my chairman has been extremely negative, refusing to pay for the course and making clear [...]