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Clive Crook is the FT’s chief Washington commentator.
For ten years, before moving to the United States in 2005, he was deputy editor of The Economist, and before that the magazine’s economics editor, Washington correspondent and economics correspondent.
Previously he was an official in HM Treasury. He was born in Yorkshire, raised in Lancashire, and educated at Bolton School, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics.
In addition to writing for the FT he is a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly and a columnist with National Journal.
NEW: Read Clive Crook’s Washington Blog - -
Hillary Clinton would be the bigger gamble
Are wavering Democrats right to be moving to Hillary Clinton? Would she be a more effective opponent against John McCain? I think not. The unelected super-delegates backing Mr Obama are doing what is best for the Democrats, even if they do not realise it, writes Clive Crook
Self-destructive Democrats
There is one possible way out, one way to redeem this hash of an electoral system. At the party’s urging, Obama and Clinton could run on the same ticket. Could either agree to give way to the other? Unlikely, but it would be unwise to rule it out, says Clive Crook
Clinton’s last chance to stop Obama
The former first lady’s task in Pennsylvania of overturning her Democratic opponent’s lead looks impossible, writes Clive Crook.The striking thing is that her diminished prospects are not the consequence of a flawlessly conducted campaign by her rival. Far from it
The fiscal consequences of the Bush administration
Competition for “most damaging legacy of the Bush administration” is lively. Iraq is the front-runner, of course. All three presidential contenders criticise the administration on this, but none is offering much improvement, writes Clive Crook
Regulation needs more than tuning
Unless you argue that banks should face no capital adequacy regulation, the spread of securitisation demands new liquidity standards and higher capital ratios. Whether you call that ‘stricter regulation’ or ‘keeping regulation up to date’ is semantic, writes Clive Crook
Financial markets need more than a patch-up
In bad times, the risks that adventurous investors take burden the rest of us. Insisting that losing gamblers pay up is necessary, but not enough, writes Clive Crook
Campaign silence over Wall St woes
The separation of presidential politics from the troubles assailing the US economy is now verging on the surreal. With banks collapsing and the dollar reeling, the candidates are still on scripts they wrote a year ago, writes Clive Crook
Bill sets the trap of a Clinton-Obama ticket
Obama will have other chances to be president and in low moments he may feel there are worse things in the meantime than being vice-president, writes Clive Crook
In the grip of implacable subprime forces
US policymakers are unable to agree what they should do about the credit crisis. Adjusting bankruptcy laws to encourage writedowns and make repossession more difficult may do little to help right now, but at least it makes no new demands on taxpayers, says Clive Crook
Tenacity and hard work check Obama momentum
Thanks to Texas and especially Ohio, there is a gleam in Hillary Clinton’s teeth once more, writes Clive Crook
