 I cannot tell you how to get rich but I can tell you how
to stay poor. Do not become involved in the global marketplace.
FT, 28.4.04  |
Darwin’s wife and war in Iraq: a missing link (Financial Times 14 May 2008) The modern world of business and politics is plagued by spurious rationality and bogus quantification. The desire to do what is right is overtaken by the necessity to do what is easy to defend. Buy as bankers move from denial to depression (Financial Times 07 May 2008) Although the progress of grief is predictable, it is also slow. Sell on denial, buy on depression, was my advice to investors last year and it looks still valid today. A ban on touts will not fix a rigged game (Financial Times 30 April 2008) The present systems of ticket allocation have much more to do with the maintenance of networks of patronage than the carefully targeted allocation of seats to “genuine fans”. An innumerate mistake haunting the government (Financial Times 23 April 2008) Do not tinker with the tax system for short-term political advantage. Tax is always more complicated than you think and the results come back to haunt you. Lennon was right about music and the man (Financial Times 16 April 2008) The notion that extending intellectual property rights in the music industry would provide pensions for ageing and impoverished crooners is an engaging fantasy. In times of complexity, common sense must prevail (Financial Times 09 April 2008) Confidence in the models used for risk management in financial institutions is a casualty of the credit crunch. Only information from outside the model – what we call general knowledge and common sense – enable us to judge the validity of the model itself. How I blew my money on the wrong video discs (Financial Times 02 April 2008) There are historic lessons to be learnt from the recent high definition format war: the importance of the installed base and the unpredictability of consumer markets. More regulation will not prevent next crisis (Financial Times 26 March 2008) Regulation in a market economy is targeted at specific market failures and should not be a charter for the general scrutiny of business strategies of private business. No need to own the road: buy the tollbooth (Financial Times 19 March 2008) Mr Buffett’s success demonstrates the weakness of one economic theory, the efficient market hypothesis, and the strength of another – the central role that the pursuit and defence of economic rents plays in modern corporate life. Just think, the fees you could charge Buffett (Financial Times 12 March 2008) Warren Buffett's emergence as the world's richest man illustrates the power of compound interest. Warren neither pays nor makes management charges. The effect is larger than you would believe possible. Sloppy talk means executives are lost in space (Financial Times 05 March 2008) The corporation’s unique identity is defined by its distinctive capabilities. The matching of distinctive capability to market and industry is the process that defines “our space”. Sovereign wealth is a force for stability (Financial Times 27 February 2008) The political consequences of international trade are different from the political consequences of international investment. Yet the willingness of business to transcend political divisions in pursuit of commercial advantage is basically a force for peace. Not the time to emphasise Scotland’s fealty (Financial Times 20 February 2008) Scottish banknotes are not legal tender in England – or in Scotland. What matters is not what is legal tender, but what others will accept. Bankers, like gangs, just get carried away (Financial Times 13 February 2008) The analytic mind argues that those promoting incomprehensible financial products or military invasions must either be liars or fools. But neither need be. Beliefs and values that matter are local, not global; subjective, not objective; and to question the prevailing culture is to exclude yourself from the group. A fall in prices can often be good news (Financial Times 06 February 2008) Asset prices are a measure less of our wealth than of our propensity for self-congratulation. The net effect is only a transfer between the existing owners and the prospective owners. Business lessons from chess grand masters (Financial Times 30 January 2008) People who hold to a single idea, or a fixed design, generally lose in chess, as they lose in battle, in business and in economics. Christmas shopping and the chowkidar (Financial Times 23 January 2008) There are many ways of interpreting the complexities of published economic statistics, with the result that commentators can find snippets of data to support any story they want to tell. Beware the personality cult in democracies (Financial Times 16 January 2008) European companies are increasingly imitating US ones in the cult and remuneration of chief executives. Political organisation may evolve similarly as party membership declines and ideology fades. India cannot take economic growth for granted (Financial Times 09 January 2008) The capacity of politics to get in the way of economic growth has dominated most of the economic history of most of the world. No one remembers a cautious captain of industry (Financial Times 02 January 2008) In politics, business and finance, as on the seas, the hero is the person who tackles a problem, rather than the person whose actions prevent the problem arising. How private equity revamped a London high street (Financial Times 19 December 2007) Christmas shopping in Marylebone High Street provides insight into the internalisation of externalities and the relationship between corporate governance and business strategy. How to safeguard savers in a banking crisis (Financial Times 12 December 2007) The Northern Rock debacle could, and should, have been avoided through the deposit protection and special administration mechanisms that are found in most other countries. Rock’s fate should not be a game of chicken (Financial Times 05 December 2007) The chicken game, which frequently ends in tragedy or folly, is a game for movie-going teenagers, not grown-ups. Climate change: the (Groucho) Marxist approach (Financial Times 28 November 2007) The balance between present and future will be determined not by moral philosophy or economic models but by the decisions of ordinary savers, investors and voters. Emerging economies have not become ‘decoupled’ (Financial Times 21 November 2007) Your country of residence is where you buy your clothes, eat your meals, draw up your accounts and write your board minutes. But the volume and value of all these domestic operations depends on the role the country’s producers play in the global economy. ^ back to top |
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