John Kay

The lesson of EMI is not that media industries are unique, but that you can lose a lot of money if you overpay for a company with a broken business model, as you can in any other industry.

“Too big to fail” insurance is likely to leave the non-financial economy with the worst of all possible worlds – less public control of risk and greater potential calls on taxpayers.

John reviews Joseph Stiglitz’s book on the financial crisis: Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy

Like all business success, innovative success is based on matching capabilities to market.

The most effective control is other parties’ diligence in assessing the businesses with which they deal.

If you aim to create a dynamic, successful business, a state-owned utility is not the place to start.

Regulation as supervision can be simultaneously extensive and intrusive, yet ineffective and prone to regulatory capture. History suggests that supervision is rarely a success.

The assessment of the value of new products is best carried out, not by manufacturers nor regulators but by retailers in close touch with the needs of their customers.

If financial institutions are to survive, they must behave more like supermarkets

Government underwriting of deposits should be matched by assets of comparable quality. Otherwise the mismatch of risk provides an unjustifiable public subsidy to the banking sector.