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John Gapper is associate editor and chief business commentator of the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column, appearing on Thursdays on the comment page, about business trends and strategy. He also contributes leaders and other articles.
He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. In 1991-92, he was a Harkness fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York, and studied US education and training at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.
NEW: Read John Gapper’s Business Blog
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Safe signals from Buffett’s train deal
Buying a railroad is a sound way to gain cash dividends, and broad exposure to companies that need coal and freight, but not to invest in innovation, writes John Gapper
Omaha’s sage makes ‘all-in’ bet on BNSF
Size aside, Berkshire Hathaway’s proposed acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad is about as typical a Warren Buffett deal as they come, writes John Gapper
Breaker of the curse
Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book on the financial crisis of 2008 is an extraordinary achievement that will be hard to surpass as the definitive account, writes John Gapper
A three-way split is the most logical
By insisting on the break-up of the ING Group into its banking and insurance divisions – and on it divesting its US direct savings arm – EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes set a welcome precedent this week. But will any country be brave enough to enact a Kroes-like split on financial institutions, asks John Gapper
Goldman should be allowed to fail
It might sap some resentment if taxpayers could see that Goldman’s bonuses were a form of equity partnership, and that the bank would be allowed to founder in any future crisis, writes John Gapper
A credibility problem for Goldman
Having taken government money to survive the crash, Goldman Sachs is in such rude health that it will be handing out billions in bonuses. There is much outrage that the US bank wants to carry on as its old self (but bigger) in a world that has changed, writes John Gapper
The death of the media mogul
There may be someone out there who will become the 21st-century equivalent of Bertelsmann’s Reinhard Mohn, a modest entrepreneur who crossed technological and social boundaries to create a media empire. But we shall not see his like again, writes John Gapper
Clearing up the future of futures
Banks have found corporate allies in their battle to stop the tough new rules proposed for derivatives, including demanding that standard contracts are traded on an exchange. But they must not be allowed to derail the regulations, writes John Gapper
Where there’s a will there’s a way
Banks should write their own living wills, making them safer in life and easier to dispose of in death. Enforcing wills could be both a sound discipline and help with the ‘too big to fail’ problem by reducing the advantages of being big, writes John Gapper
Squeeze the leviathans of finance
It is necessary to have tough restrictions on systemically important banks deemed ‘too big to fail’ and impose a much bigger regulatory ‘tax’ on large banks than small ones, through higher capital charges and stricter limits on leverage, writes John Gapper
