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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).

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  • 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
    Investments
    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
    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

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