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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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A Sex and the City guide to the entertainment industry
The world is larger than America; the small screen is larger than the big screen; paid-for entertainment is larger than free; and adults are larger than teenagers. The television series Sex and the City says a lot about the future of film and TV, says John Gapper
On the pot-holed highway to hell
Transport and communications infrastructure symbolises a nation’s economic development and the US is starting to look like the third world. In fact, many developing countries look and feel better. Does the US have the will to solve this challenge, asks John Gapper
The return of high-risk optimism
Only at the Milken Institute Global Conference would the one song played between financial debates be Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds, writes John Gapper. “Don’t worry ’bout a thing, ’cause every little thing gonna be alright”
A good name sliced, diced and traded
The fact that UBS lost $37bn in less than a year is an indictment of Marcel Ospel himself, not just of a bunch of deluded traders and ineffectual executives in the US, writes John Gapper. It took 13 years for the flaw to become painfully obvious, but it was there right from the start
The airlines merger that will not fly
The proposed merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines to form the largest airline in the US sounds impressive but few mergers have combined such lofty rhetoric with such meagre intent. It does not help to be big if you do not make money, writes John Gapper
It is time for reflection, not regulation on banking
Everyone insists that something ought to be done to stop this financial crisis recurring. Take a deep breath, everyone. The last time that right-thinking Americans agreed on the need for more regulation as rapidly as possible, we got Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, writes John Gapper
Why Bear’s bankers should do penance this Easter
It is both justice and good practice for the perpetrators of the Bear Stearns financial debacle to suffer, writes John Gapper
How Bear aided its own demise
Rampant card-playing was a symptom of a bigger disorder at Bear Stearns – the bank’s inward-looking and obstreperous culture. It grew up as a scrappy bond-trading firm that did not care about how others regarded it, writes John Gapper
How the fighter knocked himself out
Eliot Spitzer made his name by investigating abuses such as the misleading of investors by analysts. But self-styled populist crusaders are generally either playing to voters with no real intention of following through, or are destined to disappoint, writes John Gapper
Creative types must face the music
The digital revolution and the end of the DVD boom and CD era mean there is less money for studios to throw around. The age when A&R people and executives could insist on both creative and financial freedom, and big bonuses on top, is waning, writes John Gapper
