All extra FT content

Beyond business class

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:32:45 GMT

Rohit Jaggi, aircraft columnist, test-flies the Pilatus PC-12

Apr 30: Olympic torch returns to China

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:32:39 GMT

Flame arrives in Hong Kong after fractious world tour

Pink Picks

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:43:27 GMT

Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday's FT, Opinion: How Obama can energise the economy Glenn Hubbard, dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School and a former chairman of President George W Bush's Council of Economic Advisers writes: President-elect Barack Obama faces calls for a "stimulus"...

The threat of deflation

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:20:09 GMT

I attended the Cato Institute’s annual monetary conference. The Fed’s vice-chairman, Don Kohn, gave the keynote address, and used it to emphasise that the central bank would not let the economy fall into a deflationary spiral (speech; Krishna Guha’s report). The BLS released inflation figures for October, showing a seasonally adjusted drop in the CPI [...]

Re-lend it or lose it

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:13:16 GMT

I am in Slovenia today, talking to bankers, entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, government officials and academics.? The story is the same here as in every country I have visited since mid-September 2008: the banks aren’t lending.? They don’t lend to each other.? They don’t lend to non-financial businesses and they don’t lend to households. In Slovenia I [...]

The perils of a passionate helmsman

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:34:50 GMT

My FT column this week is about Jerry Yang and why founders can make bad CEOs. Switching jobs from Chief Yahoo to Yahoo Chief does not sound like a stretch. It was for Jerry Yang. This week, he signalled an end to his short and rocky tenure as chief executive of the company he founded. When a [...]

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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:41:07 GMT

Take a Bow ....... By Rihanna.
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A new architecture for global financial regulation

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:53:24 GMT

By Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods At the G20 summit in Washington this month, it was agreed that global growth will require sound new global regulation of financial markets. But what would it take to achieve such regulation?

Do not blame the UAW for Detroit?s ills

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:16:44 GMT

Further to Felix Salmon and Jim Surowiecki’s comments on the myth that Detroit auto workers cost $73 per hour to employ - that includes the healthcare and pension benefits of former employees - it seems unfair to me to blame the United Autoworkers union for Detroit’s plight. Of course a union tries to get high wages [...]

Would a generous PBR prevent further rate cuts?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:11:19 GMT

The Bank of England’s MPC - which sets interest rates - agreed two weeks ago to slash rates by 150 basis points to 3 per cent: their lowest level for half a century. The minutes of that meeting, out today, suggest that members believe more cuts are needed. Interesting to note however?they agreed?”it would make sense…to [...]

Pooglers and Groctoids

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:53:56 GMT

At first glance, the news that Procter & Gamble and Google?have been temporarily swapping staff sounds like the premise for a sitcom. P&G’s workers are stereotyped as robotic Proctoids. Googlers?are supposed to be?geeky-but-funky. But as?the Wall Street Journal account reveals, both companies share an underlying obsession with detail?that runs deeper than any superficial differences in jargon [...]

Sex, Cocoa Puffs and the Cincinnati search

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:29:08 GMT

Ted McConnell?s 30 years within Procter & Gamble include three as a company futurist, so when the company?s general manager for interactive marketing and innovation questions Facebook?s merits for marketers, it is hard to dismiss as Luddite carping, writes Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson. In a speech to a digital media conference in P&G?s home town of Cincinnati, McConnell [...]

Eurozone membership is still no answer for UK

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:14:55 GMT

? Is this the time for the British to swallow their pride, admit they made a mistake and beg to enter the eurozone? A growing number of people argue it is. They are wrong. The reason for having a floating exchange rate is that it should float. In an uncertain world, an economy needs mechanisms of adjustment. [...]

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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:41:07 GMT

I Kissed a Girl ....... By Katy Perry.
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Hillary Clinton as secretary of state

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:06:28 GMT

I think choosing Hillary would be a mistake. Not because of Bill. The new administration can choose to use him or not, regardless. The “two for the price of one” stuff is ridiculous: they are not exactly chained together. Equally, if Hillary were the best candidate for secretary of state, it would be absurd to [...]

Come in, come in, Ratko, wherever you are

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:24:01 GMT

The global?economic downturn is hitting Serbia hard, so you’d think quite a few Serbs would be interested in the ?1m reward?that the government is offering?to pay?for information leading to the arrest of Ratko Mladic. Curiously, however, the trail of?the fugitive Bosnian Serb war?crimes suspect never seems to get any warmer. Roughly two months ago, a western?government [...]

When did the UK?s national debt hit record levels?

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:34:50 GMT

Michael Blastland explains: 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and? 2008. This is what happens when we write about records while ignoring inflation and economic growth. The full piece is well worth a read.

Is Obama a Middle East ?splitter??

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:14:13 GMT

Historians are sometimes divided into lumpers and splitters. The splitters like to chop problems up into lots of small bits. The lumpers like to link them altogether. Would-be Middle East peacemakers can be categorised in the same way. The lumpers want a ?comprehensive peace settlement? that links together all the problems in the region ? Iraq, [...]

Blyk raises ?40m to expand ad-funded mobile model

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:59:05 GMT

These days, ?40m ($51m) is a big funding round for any company whose revenues are based entirely on advertising. Blyk provides free mobile calls to 200,000 British 16- to 24-year-olds in exchange for them receiving advertising messages, a membership it reached much faster than expected. Its response rates of 25 per cent have attracted 180 [...]

Deborah, the magic dragon

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:40:20 GMT

There?s the truth, and then there?s what appears in the media. The two are not always the same. Perhaps you knew that already. But I had a revelatory experience the other morning, while chairing the first day of the FT?s innovation conference, which brought the point home to me. We were lucky enough to have Deborah Meaden, [...]

Time to stop calling us, or them, Anglo-Saxons

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:21:11 GMT

According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy,?last weekend’s G20 summit was a big success. “Never before have Anglo-Saxons agreed to subject credit ratings agencies to oversight and regulation,” he declared. You know what, he’s right. Check out?the ‘Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum’,?the 8th century AD masterpiece by the Venerable Bede. This greatest of all Anglo-Saxon chroniclers had nothing [...]

Could the UK face a sterling crisis, or are we in one already?

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:43:28 GMT

In an earlier post to this blog, I raised the possibility that the UK might face a triple financial crisis: a combined banking crisis, sovereign debt crisis and sterling crisis.? Let me be clearer than I was before about what I mean by a financial crisis.? A financial crisis is a situation where quantity rationing [...]

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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:41:07 GMT

Listen .......(from Dreamgirls). By Beyonce.
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People have been complaining after I axed free coffee to cut cost

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:15:51 GMT

I have been instructed to slash costs in my department. Last week I put out a memo detailing cuts, among which was axing free biscuits and coffee at weekly bonding sessions. Since then I have had a succession of people marching into my office complaining that morale is being destroyed and that the tea and [...]

How can I meet my responsibilities for two companies without having to give up on one of them?

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:45:31 GMT

I run a large company facing recession in all our main markets; I am trying to reorganise our business and keep shareholders at bay. In addition I am a non-executive director of a company that is faring still worse and fighting for survival. To do my own job requires working every evening and every weekend, [...]

All extra FT content

Beyond business class

Apr 30: Olympic torch returns to China

Further Reading

Pink Picks

The threat of deflation

Re-lend it or lose it

The perils of a passionate helmsman

RSS Advertising

A new architecture for global financial regulation

Do not blame the UAW for Detroit?s ills

Would a generous PBR prevent further rate cuts?

Pooglers and Groctoids

Sex, Cocoa Puffs and the Cincinnati search

Eurozone membership is still no answer for UK

RSS Advertising

Hillary Clinton as secretary of state

Come in, come in, Ratko, wherever you are

When did the UK?s national debt hit record levels?

Is Obama a Middle East ?splitter??

Blyk raises ?40m to expand ad-funded mobile model

Deborah, the magic dragon

Time to stop calling us, or them, Anglo-Saxons

Could the UK face a sterling crisis, or are we in one already?

RSS Advertising

People have been complaining after I axed free coffee to cut cost

How can I meet my responsibilities for two companies without having to give up on one of them?