Financial Times News - John Gapper Column

How Wall St family was torn apart by greed and jealousy

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:40:19 GMT

BOOK REVIEW

How to reinvent China's growth

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:20:28 GMT

Shooting down the multi-lane highway from Qingdao airport to the centre of the coastal city this week, I had the usual impressions of a visitor to China. The roads were immaculate, the drive into town took a long time because of the sprawl of what is only a medium-sized Chinese city - only 8m or so people in the metropolitan area - and buildings sprouted on all sides.

Murdoch will relish an online pay walls battle

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:35:27 GMT

As usual this week, Rupert Murdoch infuriated a lot of people by thinking out loud. He accused Google and Microsoft of "stealing" stories from News Corporation's papers such as the Wall Street Journal and The Times and threatened to withdraw them from Google's search engine.

How not to take care of a brand

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:35:19 GMT

Maclaren is a small private company with a big public problem, one that it has not handled well.

Safe signals from Buffett's train deal

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:05:22 GMT

In the annals of double-edged compliments, Warren Buffett's description of his planned $27bn acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe as an "all-in wager on the economic future of the US" ranks highly. If the best expression of the future of the US economy is a railway operator dating back to the mid-1800s, then growth investors might be advised to look instead to China, India or Brazil.

Omaha's sage makes 'all-in' bet on BNSF

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:00:56 GMT

Size aside, Berkshire Hathaway's proposed acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad is about as typical a Warren Buffett deal as they come.

Breaker of the Barbarians curse

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:40:24 GMT

BOOK REVIEWToo Big to FailThe Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System - and ThemselvesPenguin, $32.95

A three-way split is the most logical

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:40:21 GMT

When the history of the global financial crisis is written, it may record that Neelie Kroes, the European Union's competition commissioner was the only politician willing to respond in a logical manner.

Galleon's reach

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:40:31 GMT

Raj can mean king or princely in Sanskrit and, until last week, Raj Rajaratnam lived up to his name on Wall Street.

Goldman should be allowed to fail

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:10:25 GMT

A decade ago, when Goldman Sachs was a private partnership, it had $6.5bn in equity and its 220 partners, most of whose money was tied up in the firm until they retired, took good care of their pot of gold.

Banker who brought tactical savvy to M&A

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:30:39 GMT

Bruce Wasserstein, who has died aged 61, was the pre-eminent Wall Street dealmaker of the 1980s and a leading figure in transforming the business of advising companies on mergers and acquisitions.

A credibility problem for Goldman

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:35:33 GMT

It will be business as usual for Goldman Sachs this morning. The bank will annoy a lot of people.

The death of the media mogul

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:50:27 GMT

When Reinhard Mohn, the man who turned Bertelsmann from a printer of Protestant bibles in a small town in Germany to a global media company that employs 106,000 people, died on Saturday at the age of 88, it did not cause much of a stir.

The future of futures lies with clearing and transparency

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:55:20 GMT

"We must not let daylight in upon the magic," Walter Bagehot warned about the British monarchy. For the world of derivatives, however, more daylight is essential.

Where there's a will there's a way

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:25:28 GMT

Of all the suggestions since the financial crisis erupted to rein in banks and curb their incentives to become too big to be allowed to fail, the most cunning is the "living will".

Squeeze the leviathans of finance

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:45:15 GMT

If you have not been concentrating for the past few months, you may think that nothing much has changed in the world of finance.

A pugnacious pundit Wall Street can't ignore

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:55:10 GMT

Charlie Gasparino, chronicler of Wall Street and champion television reporter of its downfall, is in his element. He is sitting at a prime window-side table at San Pietro, his favourite lunch-time restaurant in Manhattan, ruminating on the financial crisis, when a familiar face appears.

A pugnacious pundit Wall Street can't ignore

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:10:30 GMT

Little laptops snap at the oligopoly

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:40:22 GMT

What is the most influential piece of personal technology of the past two years? Amazon's Kindle? Apple's iPhone? Research in Motion's BlackBerry? All of these North American devices are worthy but my prize goes to the Asus Eee PC made by Asustek of Taiwan.

Dirty Digger blags his way into the headlines

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:55:29 GMT

It is a long way from Sun Valley to the Street of Shame. That was the implausible excuse used by Rupert Murdoch when, on Thursday, in an interview at a media conference he was attending in Idaho, he was asked by his own Fox Business cable channel about the burgeoning scandal involving phone tapping and invasion of privacy by the News of the World in London.

Big banks look to rainmakers again

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:10:18 GMT

Investment bankers have delicate egos at the best of times and the past few years have not been the best of times.

Madoff's sentence is both necessary and rare

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:10:13 GMT

Victims have their moment but the suffering continues

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:00:23 GMT

It was, taken literally, an absurd jail sentence: one of more than life, one reaching well into the grave. Yet Judge Denny Chin on Monday ignored the plea of Bernard Madoff's lawyer to give him a shorter term on the grounds that, at 71, his life expectancy is about a dozen years and instead threw the sentencing book at him.

Apple avoids the pain of competition

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:00:19 GMT

The hidden cost of free vaccines

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:55:22 GMT

Giving products away free, from browsers to newspaper articles, is commonplace in the technology and media industries. The trend has now spread to vaccines.