The Morning FT Round-up

The Financial Times is easily one of the best English-language newspapers out there. I used to consider the pink paper the symbol of snotty, umbrella-toting bankers in the Square Mile, but it's a reliable source of quality material on all things international political economy. Here's a selection from today:

Asia's Revenge - Martin Wolf points to the depressing similarities between this crisis and the various other financial crises of the past three decades. Wolf moves away from the specific day-to-day details to provide a broader historical perspective on the trends that led to our current situation. He then draws conclusions about the relationship between liberal capital markets and the global economy. This is a must-read.

Banks Face a Regulatory Revolution - although talking specifically about banks in the UK, this applies to both sides of the Atlantic and the English Channel. The article does a better job of arguing what I was getting at below: namely, that more regulation is required, but "cowing the financial sector utterly and turning its members into mere regulated utilities... would extinguish one future motor of national economic growth at a stroke."

India Cannot Afford To Delay Banking Reform - In the reverse of the situation in the UK and US, reform in India has come to a screeching halt as the anti-reform members of the ruling coalition have been strengthened by the apparent implosion of Anglo-Saxon capitalism (the Anglo-Saxon model forms the basis of many of the banking sectors' "best practices.")

The broader Indian population is right to be more cautious about opening up its banking sector to global markets before it is strong enough - East Asia learned that lesson already. But if the author is correct, and large areas of India are starved of capital, then the further growth of the Indian economy is being held back. And although the debate over how to properly sequence banking reforms is ongoing, this is not likely a step in the right direction.