John Plender



Profile:


Full name: John Plender

Area of interest: Economics and business

Journals: Financial Times

Email: [mailto:john.plender@ft.com john.plender@ft.com]

Website: FT.Com / John Plender

Blog:

Representation:

Network:



Biography:
Education: Oxford University

Career: Joined the City auditors Deloitte Plender Griffiths, 1967, qualified as a chartered accountant, 1970. Moved to journalism, became financial editor at The Economist in 1974. Foreign Office policy planning staff appointment, 1980. Editorial writer and columnist at the FT since 1981

Current position/role:


 * also writes/has written for: Prospect magazine (archive)

Other roles:

Other activities:
 * Chairman of Quintain plc: John Plender (appointed July 2002)
 * Former positions at: London Stock Exchange's quality of markets advisory committee; chairman of Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC); UK Company Law Review steering group; consultant on corporate governance for the International Finance Corporation (the private sector investing and lending arm of the World Bank).

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: Ethical Corporation, Strategy & Management: Trust and integrity - Is business ethics a lost cause?

TV/Radio:

Video: Current affairs programmes for BBC and Channel Four

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: Won the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism, 1994

Other:
 * Member of the Private Sector Advisory Group created by the World Bank and OECD to assist developing countries improve corporate governance practices; chairman of the advisory council of the Centre For The Study Of Financial Innovation; member of the advisory board of the Association of Corporate Treasurers



Books & Debate:

 * That’s The Way The Money Goes OCLC 8771812, 1982
 * The Square Mile: a guide to the new City of London OCLC 60014980, 1985 (with Paul Wallace)
 * A Stake In The Future OCLC 36548835, 1997
 * Bigger companies, smaller governments: power and responsibility in the global economy OCLC 48598780, 2002
 * Going Off The Rails - Global Capital And The Crisis Of Legitimacy OCLC 51460801, 2003 - (see also amazon.co: search inside this book)

Latest work: All you need to know about ethics and finance OCLC 81015584, 2007 (with Avinash D Persaud)

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: to comment on a column click here



Financial Times: John Plender
Column name:

Remit/Info: Economics and business

Section: Companies

Role: Senior editorial writer / commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:john.plender@ft.com john.plender@ft.com]

Website: FT.Com / John Plender

Commissioning editor:

Day published: most often Wednesday (in print)

Regularity: usually weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * the markets were quite right to panic'' - The industry grasps that policymakers are merely muddling through - 11th August
 * all worked better in the early days of capital investment'' - Investment was more of a joy in a world without quantative easing, indices and three-monthly performance figures - 27th July
 * policymakers must grasp the nettle'' - There is no way round the fact that the markets believe there is a solvency gap in southern Europe that can only be met by debt relief - 13th July
 * time for Germany to go soft on banking reform'' - European Banking Authority has made a promising start by incurring the wrath of BaFin, but tougher stress tests look like good news for financial stability in Europe - 15th June
 * muddles along towards default'' - 1st June
 * will rue our failure to govern the social networks'' - LinkedIn’s weaknesses pale into insignificance when compared with Renren, China’s largest social networking site - 16th May
 * to rethink fashionable finance ideas'' - A shift to a higher interest-rate environment will pose a micro-level challenge to the business sector on which debt-encumbered economies are relying to offset weakness in the household sector - 6th May
 * risks out of touch with reward'' - While fund managers are complaining that limits on leverage and demands for increased capital will damage returns, academic research points to the contrary - 27th April
 * but game’s far from up'' - The Vickers commission has made a reasonable stab at what, in reality, is an almost impossible task - 13th April
 * banking climate makes the US look attractive'' - The loss of business to the UK would be offset by the reduction in the cost of the implicit public subsidy Barclays enjoys and its liabilities - 6th April
 * fund managers remain reticent'' - Britain’s new Stewardship Code is up and running, yet it is too early to tell how far it has actually changed institutional investors’ behaviour - 29th March
 * to suffer switch from buy-backs to investment'' - Business is reluctant to invest because capacity utilisation is low and demand for its products is weak - 23rd March
 * affair is likely to result in mutual pain'' - China is, in effect, a neurotic trillionaire, stuck on a treadmill seeking to resist the structural tendency of emerging market currencies to appreciate - 9th March
 * system in shock spins back from greed to fear'' - Maintaining loose policy while inflation rises to disturbing levels poses difficult dilemmas - 26th February
 * habits of credit bubble make comeback'' - The rhetoric of the bubble is back too, with bankers referring joyfully to renewed levels of creativity in the market - 24th February
 * efforts have stalled too soon'' - Given that the big creditors, China, Japan and Germany are now tightening policy after loosening in the recession, the imbalance story is back with a vengeance - 10th February
 * Property - Overarching problems'' - As the prospect of a rash of defaults grows, the latest in a line of real estate crises highlights the sector as the Achilles heel of the global finance - 27th January
 * insight: Passive bond investing'' - A much greater proportion of bond market money is indexed or closet-indexed than in the equity market - 13th January
 * need a Latin lesson in tax farming'' - Tax collection has to be more efficient - 5th January



Articles: 2010

 * spirits, guesswork and business futurology'' - As economic forecasters crank up for 2011, they face an awkward dilemma. Their flawed craft relies heavily on extrapolating the recent past. Yet so much next year hinges on whether the corporate sector steps into the breach to compensate for public sector retrenchment - 30th December
 * the least bad investments in 2011'' - At the start of this year I argued that it was not the time for investors to take money off the table and that policy would hold the key to any big change of direction in the markets - 28th December
 * debt yields show investors are unconvinced'' - It is beginning to look as though defaults, whether in the form of stretching maturities, restructuring or other means, will stage a comeback in advanced countries - 1st December
 * lifeboat strains under pressure of bail-outs'' - The European Central Bank has taken a disproportionate share of the firefighting burden while politicians have struggled to reach agreement on propping up monetary union - 17th November
 * lessons for a world out of balance'' - G20 leaders can learn from the 1930s on global payments imbalances - 12th November
 * III is priming big banks to work the system'' - Basel III means that the world cannot afford to have another large-scale banking crisis for nine years. Can we rely on the bankers to do the decent thing? - 26th September
 * dangers attend the rise and fall of great powers'' - China’s rise is fraught with dangers - 21st August
 * puzzle behind blue chip valuations'' - Dwindling numbers of investors whose strategy involves buying low and selling high are part of a structural bias against equities, and especially quality stocks - 10th August
 * antisocial financial behaviour'' - Despite reservations, the world remains remarkably tolerant of anti-social behaviour in the markets and in the wider business environment - 12th July
 * fragility means recovery remains precarious'' - Like the fabled plane in the second world war, the global economy is limping along on a wing and a prayer - 30th June
 * is at wrong end of a historic long-term shift'' - Forget the hedge fund “wolves”, the real reason behind the euro’s weakness is the lack of political will over monetary union - 29th June
 * and populism will not fix the US deficit'' - The reason for strong dolar is that there is no realistic alternative for the world’s excess savers in northern Europe and Asia - 16th June
 * created the blueprint for AIA opposition'' - If Prudential’s bid to acquire the Asian arm of AIG fails as a result of institutional hostility, the outcome will be supremely ironic - 1st June
 * public pension liabilties'' - QE has cut gilt yields by a full percentage point, pulling all fixed-interest yields down and casuing pension liabilities to expand - 5th May
 * will decide the New York vs London battle'' - How is the financial crisis affecting the race for global pre-eminence between New York and London? - 7th April
 * of judgment and not enough homework on risk'' - One of the factors behind the number and increasing size of financial crises is moral hazard – the notion that providing a safety net for the banking system in a crisis simply encourages more risk taking. The workings of moral hazard in financial markets are more complex than often assumed - 5th April
 * avoid a backlash, executives must act on pay'' - If industry does not address the issue, the danger is that government will - 3rd April
 * is time to stop punishing prudence'' - Discouraging equity undermines stability - 25th March
 * pointed finger'' - Banking: If investors are to stand up more to cavalier captains of finance, they need not only greater powers but clearer goals – with an ability to set aside their own short-term interests - 18th January
 * to risk differences and imbalances'' - Investors have to recognise one inescapable reality: as long as exceptional monetary measures remain, the penalty for holding cash will be harsh - 4th January



Articles: 2009

 * Edge: Yakuza solutions for errant bankers'' - John Plender on bankerly deprivation - 12th December
 * Currencies have their uses'' - Since central banks turned on the monetary tap, policy has inflated everything - 9th December
 * Decline but no fall'' - China may be chief beneficiary of the financial crisis and the latest challenger to US hegemony but a dependence on exports limits Beijing’s room for manoeuvre - 12th November
 * to tame the animal spirits'' - Regulatory reform: Now policymakers know the financial system can no longer be an off-balance-sheet liability of the public sector – one that leaves the taxpayer to bear the cost of any catastrophe – the question centres on which curbs best protect investors. But few methods are easy - 30th September
 * and China must guard against their fatal embrace'' - Interdependence hurts. That is one of several uncomfortable messages arising from the trade spat between the US and China over tyres, poultry and car parts - 16th September
 * dash for trash may yet become a flight to quality'' - Thanks to the recent bounce, the stock market entertains hopes of a strong sustained recovery that will probably not be fulfilled - 29th August
 * gene has disappeared from financial system'' - The recent results of the big banks have shown once again that bank profits are increasingly driven by proprietary trading. And ethical niceties rarely rank high on the traders’ agenda - 17th August
 * away the punchbowl'' - there are, by now, a thousand and one ideas in circulation on how to change the regulatory architecture of finance. But what about changing the central bankers – or at the very least their mindset, since their notions about how to deal with bubbles have proved extraordinarily costly for the rest of us - 5th August
 * winner’s curse that haunts the banking behemoths'' - As governments across the world roll out their plans to re-regulate the financial system, one aspect of the financial debacle receives far too little attention. This is the speed with which great institutions of national importance can be destroyed by ill-judged takeovers - 13th July
 * political will has let banks off the hook'' - There must be a possibility that with bankers once again at play, the financial system will return to chaos in the not too distant future - 27th June
 * the web'' - Financial reform: Consensus is emerging on how to catch potential bubbles before they threaten the whole system – but the underlying model is controversial and hard to implement - 22nd June
 * head back to their home markets'' - Deglobalisation: Even as appetite for risk recovers, the implosion in cross-border lending as banks return to their domestic markets will depress world finance for years to come - 30th April
 * Insight: Regulators mustn’t over-regulate - Policymakers in the world’s more financially orientated economies face a stark problem - 17th March
 * A world where transactions rule - A very European critique of a process of ‘financialisation’ of the economy that has sown distrust, generated supervision costs and made co-operation, creativity and long-term commitment almost impossible - 8th March
 * Insight: The perils of public ownership - Muddled objectives, conflicts of interest and naked populism: the problems of public ownership are back - 3rd March
 * and the crisis: an error-laden machine'' - an inbuilt inability to allow adequately for disaster was compounded by a herd mentality - 3rd March
 * holds key to downturn response'' - The reality is none of the big economies will emerge from this trauma without a badly weakened fiscal position, with the possible exception of China - 18th February
 * It may sound indelicate, but many banks are bust'' - More public ownership is both inevitable and potentially helpful - 4th February
 * sin: the future of banking'' - The chaos will lead to curbs on financial innovation, then to smart new ways of circumventing them - 5th January



Articles: 2008

 * Insight: Opportunities for cheer in this time of adversity - In the world of investment, opportunities abound while pessimism rules, writes John Plender - 23rd December 2008
 * in the tale told by history’s big swindlers'' - After the biggest credit bubble of all time, we now may have the biggest swindle of all time - 20th December 2008
 * Calling on plunge protection'' - It may not be necessary, but contingency planning to support markets should be taking place - 10th December 2008
 * Insight: Calling on plunge protection - It may not be necessary, but contingency planning to support markets should be taking place - 9th December 2008
 * Insight: Reality for emerging markets - The echoes of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 are growing louder - 11th November 2008
 * Insight: Cool heads will spot the foe - The yen turnround is a boon as it reduces international imbalances at the root of the present malaise - 28th October 2008
 * Insight: Don’t despair even if case for optimism rests on political will - Given Europe’s unco-ordinated efforts at crisis management, the world is now dependent on US leadership - 7th October 2008
 * How quickly we forget the flaws of state ownership - The wisdom of hindsight will be brought to bear with a vengeance this week on the pros and cons of demutualisation - 28th September 2008
 * Insight: Reserve judgment on the dollar - Things look bad for the dollar but it is unlikely to be toppled as leading reserve currency - 23rd September 2008
 * Capitalism in convulsion: Toxic assets head towards the public balance sheet - Heavy costs will be inflicted on the American taxpayer, who is now subsidising Wall Street in a bail-out of unprecedented size - 19th September 2008
 * Insight: Dragon of moral hazard is going to take some impaling - Part of what makes this upheaval so dangerous is the much larger role investment banks have played than in the 1980s - 16th September 2008
 * Insight: Sweeping risk under the carpet - Recent tidying up efforts by banks raise questions as to how far balance sheets are really being de-risked - 12th August 2008
 * Learning from the banks - The history lessons for those coming to the rescue of banks today are far from reassuring, writes John Plender, but should we compare them with telecoms? - 1st July 2008
 * In Depth: Politicians circle independent central banks - There are few things on which economists are in total agreement. But practitioners of the dismal science come pretty close to it on the issue of independent central banking - 17th June 2008
 * Capital reserves as the financial cure-all - No respectable financial pundit can resist the opportunity to redesign the global financial architecture - 3rd June 2008
 * Regulators now need to think globally - By some happy stroke of luck the crises at Bear Stearns, Northern Rock and IKB - the most spectacular casualties of the credit market debacle so far - were all capable of being managed primarily at national level - 26th May 2008
 * Insight: East and west must resist calls for protectionism - Since mid-March equity markets have been driven by cheery folk who can see their way through the murk of today’s financial trauma to the sunlit uplands beyond - 20th May 2008
 * How China’s citizens could provide a prop for US equities - Beijing should allow individuals to export capital. The US could absorb the resulting flow via equity rather than debt markets - 6th May 2008
 * Insight: Can the inflationary tide be stemmed? - Why worry about inflation? Energy prices may soar and the world’s poor may riot over the rising cost of food, but little of this cost pressure is feeding through to developed world wages - 22nd April 2008
 * Insight: Radical reform will be flawed by compromise - History tells us that the scope for regulatory reform is directly proportionate to the severity of the crisis - 8th April 2008
 * Mind the gap - Income inequality in the US is at its highest since that most doom-laden of years: 1929. Throughout the main English-speaking economies, earnings disparities have reached extremes not seen since the age of The Great Gatsby - (comment & analysis) 7th April 2008
 * Insight: Bear Stearns rescue was easy part of crisis management - So Bear Stearns is back in business under new ownership after decisive intervention by the Federal Reserve. Existing home sales in the US are suddenly picking up. Banks’ shares are, mirabile dictu, upwardly mobile in Europe. In one bound we appear to be free. But not for long... - (Investor's notebook) 25th March 2008
 * In Depth: There is little here to help to unfreeze mortgages - From the unforgiving perspective of the markets, Alistair Darling's first Budget was bound to look like a sideshow in a week where central banks were pumping gigantic sums into traumatised global credit markets - (UK Budget 2008) 13th March 2008
 * Insight: Central bankers face a perplexing paradox - Markets are nothing if not paradoxical and the paradox of the moment concerns the conflicting signals emerging from bond and commodity markets about inflation - 11th March 2008
 * Insight: Shareholder activism raises questions of responsibility - For decades, institutional investors have been criticised for failing to hold managers to account. Yet suddenly we have come full circle - 26th February 2008
 * Is fair value accounting a blessing or a curse? - On the face of it, an approach whereby assets and liabilities are marked to market looks logical when the emphasis of the banking system has shifted from deposit taking and lending to providing credit via securities markets - 12th February 2008
 * Insight: Advantages in fostering ethical culture - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is miffed that a rogue trader at Société Générale has done reputational damage to French high finance. He has long made it clear that he would like to “moralise” a capitalism that is out of control in its financial dimension. That noble aspiration will, alas, almost certainly founder on the trading floors of the international banks where various jungle beasts roam free - 29th January 2008
 * Greatest danger lies in consumer recession - No doubt the timing of the Federal Reserve’s dramatic move to ease policy was prompted by the dizzy slide in equities. Yet the initial market response to this and any further rate cuts that may follow matters less than the more fundamental question of whether a monetary remedy is capable of addressing the intractability of the economic problem - 22nd January 2008
 * Insight: China’s investment traffic needs liberalising - There is an exceptionally busy traffic at present between the developed and the developing world in equity investment - 15th January 2008
 * Insight: Post credit bubble wealth transfer will beggar belief - When financial market bubbles burst, a transfer of assets from the weak and undercapitalised to the strong and liquid invariably follows. The unprecedented scale of the credit bubble that burst last August suggests that the extent of the resulting wealth transfer will beggar belief - 2nd January 2008

