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    John Plender

    Senior Editorial Columnist

    John Plender is a Financial Times columnist. He has written for the FT since 1981, before which he was financial editor of The Economist. He is a winner of the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in financial journalism.

    Until the late 1990s he combined his work for the FT with broadcasting roles at the BBC and Channel Four and has had a number of advisory positions including membership of the World Bank/OECD PrivateSector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance. He served on the steering group of the UK Company Law Review which provided the basis of the Companies Act 2006.

    Plender joined the board of Quintain plc as a non-executive director in 2002 and chaired the company from 2007 to 2009. He is currently a trustee of the £4bn Pearson pension fund. His latest book is Capitalism: Money, Morals and Markets (Biteback).

    Email John Plender
    Email John Plender

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    • Saturday, 11 June, 2022
      The Long ViewInvesting in funds
      Market mispricing of risk will continue

      The misallocation of capital is not just down to freakish monetary policy

    • Friday, 13 May, 2022
      Pensions
      Inflation: managing the threat to your pension

      The divide deepens between defined benefit and defined contribution schemes

    • Friday, 6 May, 2022
      The Long ViewMarkets
      Sanity appears to be returning to central bank policymaking

      Years of overblown asset prices and mispricing of risk may be giving way to more normal conditions

    • Monday, 18 April, 2022
      Markets InsightMarkets
      Investors seeking havens must weigh geopolitical risks of China versus US

      Reserve currency competition is all about what constitutes the least unsafe option

    • Friday, 1 April, 2022
      Personal Finance Advice & Comment
      Crypto vs gold: the search for an investment bolt hole

      The market in the yellow metal may be a bubble, but at least it’s a 6,000-year-old one. Meanwhile, bitcoin looks like a short-term fad

    • Monday, 28 February, 2022
      Inside BusinessPrivate equity
      Public markets might be set for a comeback

      A little of the gloss may finally be coming off private equity investments

    • Monday, 7 February, 2022
      ReviewNon-Fiction
      The virtues of public debt to protect citizens

      The authors explore the rise of the sovereign debt market and the challenges in reducing the latest surge caused by the pandemic

    • Friday, 21 January, 2022
      ObituaryPaul Myners
      Paul Myners, minister and City reformer, 1948-2022

      Former Labour peer and business troubleshooter who revolutionised institutional investment

    • Thursday, 6 January, 2022
      ExplainerInvestments
      Investment and the multiple risks of 2022

      From unwinding central bank policies and overvalued assets to geopolitical fears

    • Friday, 3 December, 2021
      The Long ViewChinese business & finance
      Investors can no longer ignore China-US decoupling threat

      Daunting geopolitical risks add to broader concerns to be priced into markets

    • Friday, 26 November, 2021
      The Long ViewFederal Reserve
      The poisoned chalice of the Fed chair job

      Powell has to secure normalisation of monetary policy as inflation surges and stimulus packages increase demand

    • Wednesday, 10 November, 2021
      Markets InsightESG investing
      Bonds are an ESG blind spot in investing

      The push by fund managers for decarbonisation and social responsibility is primarily an equity market phenomenon

    • Friday, 15 October, 2021
      The Long ViewSovereign bonds
      Rising inflation pierces investor complacency

      Something has to give in the unstable equilibrium of markets

    • Thursday, 7 October, 2021
      Coronavirus economic impact
      The post-pandemic recovery may prove more complicated than it looks

      A bad news pileup makes it hard to understand precisely where we are in a cycle hijacked by Covid-19

    • Sunday, 29 August, 2021
      ESG investing
      Corporate bonus culture impedes the push for net zero

      Global investment community’s commitment to sustainability is more ambiguous than meets the eye

    • Thursday, 19 August, 2021
      Markets InsightMonetary policy
      The case for continuing QE is hard to fathom

      Unconventional monetary policy is creating ever greater vulnerabilities

    • Sunday, 1 August, 2021
      US-China relations
      Market jitters only underscore China’s importance to global economy

      US threats, combined with Beijing’s drive for control, raise the very real risk of tensions escalating

    • Friday, 16 July, 2021
      ObituaryNicholas Goodison
      Sir Nicholas Goodison, City grandee and connoisseur, 1934-2021

      Cambridge-educated aesthete who steered the London Stock Exchange through the Big Bang

    • Monday, 12 July, 2021
      Inside BusinessPrivate equity
      A fetish of illiquidity is driving finance

      History repeating itself as banks and pension funds bet more on private assets

    • Friday, 2 July, 2021
      Best of FT Money 2021
      How to protect your portfolio against inflation

      Investors should take account of the 1970s wage-price spiral and consider taking action

    • Monday, 7 June, 2021
      Inside BusinessCentral banks
      Central banks’ action on climate change raises mission creep concerns

      A focus on the transition to net zero could distract them from their core objectives

    • Tuesday, 25 May, 2021
      The Big Read
      The demise of the dollar? Reserve currencies in the era of ‘going big’

      The extraordinary stimulus measures in the US could undermine confidence in the greenback if inflation takes off

    • Monday, 10 May, 2021
      ReviewBusiness books
      An exploration of the challenges facing today’s boards

      While Dambisa Moyo’s insider account spills few beans, it provides thoughtful analysis and reform proposals

    • Saturday, 17 April, 2021
      On Wall StreetFinancial & markets regulation
      The spread of the arbitrage economy

      Troubles rise as companies exploit the opaque gaps between regulations

    • Thursday, 15 April, 2021
      Capital markets
      Loose monetary policy is today’s biggest market risk

      Explosive growth in debt has severely curtailed central banks’ freedom of action

    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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    Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2022. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
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