Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer

Cookies on FT Sites

We use cookies and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.

Accept cookies
Manage cookies
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign InmyFT
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • Australia & NZ
    Most Read
    • Benjamin Netanyahu delays judicial reforms after day of turmoil
    • China grants billions in bailouts as Belt and Road Initiative falters
    • Generative AI set to affect 300mn jobs across major economies
    • Pay transparency laws in US stir worker discontent
    • Top Fed official blasts SVB collapse as ‘textbook case of mismanagement’
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • Companies
      Sections
      • Companies Home
      • Banks in turmoil
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
      Most Read
      • Saudi National Bank chair resigns following Credit Suisse comments
      • European ammunition maker says plant expansion hit by energy-guzzling TikTok site
      • First Citizens shares surge after Silicon Valley Bank deal
      • Tesla cars lose value faster than rival models after price cuts, data shows
      • Air India boss hails biggest turnround effort in airline’s history
    • Tech
    • Markets
      Sections
      • Markets Home
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
      Most Read
      • Live news updates from March 27: Netanyahu delays judicial overhaul, First Citizens buys much of SVB
      • Top Fed official blasts SVB collapse as ‘textbook case of mismanagement’
      • Money market funds swell by more than $286bn amid deposit flight
      • Live news: Alibaba to split into 6 independent units
      • Crypto exchange Binance accused by CFTC of illegally serving US clients
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      Sections
      • Opinion Home
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
      Most Read
      • A new technology boom is at hand
      • China, Japan and the Ukraine war
      • Final salary pensions have been uniquely horrible for UK plc
      • We are all secretaries now
      • Why five days in the office don’t add up
    • Work & Careers
      Sections
      • Work & Careers Home
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
      Most Read
      • Matthew Desmond: ‘America does so much more to subsidise affluence than alleviate poverty’
      • Culture clash: the challenge of uniting fierce rivals UBS and Credit Suisse
    • Life & Arts
      Sections
      • Life & Arts Home
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
      Most Read
      • Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong
      • My life with Ozempic – a weight-loss diary
      • The best black watches
      • Is France on the road to a Sixth Republic?
      • At LVMH, the legendary Gérald Genta brand is born again
    • HTSI
    MenuSearch
    • Home
    • World
    • US
    • Companies
    • Tech
    • Markets
    • Climate
    • Opinion
    • Work & Careers
    • Life & Arts
    • HTSI
    Financial Times
    SubscribeSign In

    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

    Add to myFT Digest

    Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox

    • Tuesday, 28 March, 2023
      Markets InsightMonetary policy
      Inflation targets have left central banks in a bind

      Monetary policy does not lean against booms but eases aggressively in busts while debt keeps rising inexorably

    • Tuesday, 21 February, 2023
      Markets InsightGlobal Economy
      A neglected tool of central banks shows its worth

      Money supply numbers have been sending important signals before and during the pandemic

    • Saturday, 24 December, 2022
      The Long ViewCentral banks
      The central bank horror story

      A liquidity crisis could inflict reputational damage after slow responses to surging inflation

    • Wednesday, 21 December, 2022
      The Big Read
      Lessons from the gilts crisis

      The meltdown was an early warning about radical changes in financial markets and suggests pension systems might not be fit for purpose

    • Monday, 19 December, 2022
      ObituaryBrian Reading
      Brian Reading, economist, 1936-2022

      An early ‘spad’, he became disillusioned with Labour’s interventionism and switched to the Tories

    • Wednesday, 16 November, 2022
      Markets InsightCentral banks
      Test for central bank credibility looms on likely bond losses

      Severe balance sheet weakness is symptomatic of how economies operate with minimal margins of safety

    • Tuesday, 8 November, 2022
      ReviewNon-Fiction
      Power Failure by William D Cohan — a gripping chronicle of General Electric

      One of the greatest dramas in business history is told with thoroughness and flair

    • Friday, 7 October, 2022
      FT Best ofBest of FT Money 2022
      Time for investors to learn a new game

      In inflationary times, buy property, consider green investments and delay retirement

    • Wednesday, 28 September, 2022
      Markets InsightCentral banks
      Central banks have prepared a recipe for monetary overkill and liquidity crises

      While bankers are keen not to repeat 1970s mistakes, the financial environment and debt burdens are different now

    • Friday, 23 September, 2022
      The Weekend Essay
      Why trade couldn’t buy peace

      We thought globalisation was immune from geopolitical risk. We were wrong

    • Thursday, 8 September, 2022
      Markets InsightGlobal inflation
      The Great Reversal into a higher inflation environment

      Toxic combination of high debt and the shrinkage of central bank balance sheets greatly increases the risk of financial crises

    • 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
      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

    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

    Useful links

    Support

    View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

    Legal & Privacy

    Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

    Services

    Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsGroup SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on TwitterFT ChannelsSecondary Schools

    Tools

    PortfolioToday's Newspaper (ePaper)Alerts HubBusiness School RankingsEnterprise ToolsNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

    Community & Events

    FT CommunityFT Live EventsFT ForumsFT Board DirectorBoard Director Programme

    More from the FT Group

    Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2023. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
    The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
    Financial Times

    International Edition

    Subscribe for full access
    • Switch to UK Edition

    Top sections

    • Home
    • World
      • Global Economy
      • UK
      • US
      • China
      • Africa
      • Asia Pacific
      • Emerging Markets
      • Europe
      • War in Ukraine
      • Americas
      • Middle East & North Africa
      • Australia & NZ
    • US
      • US Economy
      • US Companies
      • US Politics & Policy
    • Companies
      • Banks in turmoil
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
    • Tech
    • Markets
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
    • Work & Careers
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
    • Life & Arts
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
    • Personal Finance
      • Property & Mortgages
      • Investments
      • Pensions
      • Tax
      • Banking & Savings
      • Advice & Comment
      • Next Act
    • HTSI
    • Special Reports

    FT recommends

    • Lex
    • Alphaville
    • Lunch with the FT
    • FT Globetrotter
    • #techAsia
    • Moral Money
    • FTfm
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • News feed
    • FT Live Events
    • FT Forums
    • Board Director Programme
    • myFT
    • Portfolio
    • Today's Newspaper (ePaper)
    • Crossword
    • Our Apps
    • Help Centre
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In