Left in the cold: Foreign bidders find themselves out of favour
Rich countries are increasingly prepared to forbid overseas investors from buying into assets deemed to be strategic – a category that is expanding
State Capitalism
Resources
Is the era of free markets fading away? We explore the notion of rising state capitalism and its implications for business and democracy
A new force in global finance
Across Asia, Russia and the Middle East, governments are using their rising economic power in new ways.
Sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf, Asia and elsewhere are buying stakes in ailing Wall Street investment banks; natural resources are falling under the control of the state; and in Russia and China there is an emphasis on economic nationalism.
To some, these developments are a sign that the era of free markets, privatisation and deregulation unleashed in the 1980s is giving way to a world in which governments use their economic strength to buy strategic assets or exert global influence.
Here we explore the forces behind the rise of ‘state capitalism’ – and how it might change the world economy
The Global Reach I: France reforms its Anglo-Saxon attitudes
This is the first in a series on how the repercussions of the global bank crisis are rippling round the world
Beijing uses forex reserves to target Taiwan
The secretive government agency that supervises China’s foreign exchange reserves used its funds to help convince Costa Rica to switch ties from Taiwan to Beijing last year, according to files obtained by the FT
Beijing’s shadowy fund for buying assets
A Costa Rican court has exposed to the public the workings of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China’s secretive agency for building offshore equity
Mubadala to name US acquisitions
Abu Dhabi’s active state investment vehicle is set to announce new deals as it looks to take advantage of the continuing financial turmoil in global markets
Related content and features
Sovereign wealth funds
Sovereign stealth
Private equity giants are still deciding whether to love or fear the flow of cash from sovereign wealth funds into developed economies
Silence not golden for sovereign funds
The Arab and Asian state investment arms that have bought into Wall Street could turn out to be too passive for the banks’ good, and might need to speak out
We need rules for sovereign funds
The challenge posed by sovereign wealth funds to the global financial system can no longer be ignored, says Jeffrey Garten
Race for resources
Challenging the myths of energy security
The way to deal with medium-term shortages is through higher taxes, fuel economy standards and alternative technologies, says Pierre Noël
A complex rationale for China’s raid on Rio
Chinalco’s tilt and the state bodies involved represent a diversity of players with potentially diverging interests, writes Richard McGregor
Government-directed investment
Think globally on financial regulation
The US should jettison its habit of making financial policy as if it were cocksure of what it is doing, says Jeffrey Garten
Nationalisation: a blast from the past
Few bankers or policymakers under 50 have any experience of nationalisation. So they are hastily turning to the history books for guidance, writes John Willman
New best friends
News that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is acquiring 20 per cent of Standard Bank Group of South Africa may for once live up to the hype that surrounds such deals
EU wary as Russia puts velvet glove on iron fist
A decade or so ago, Russian companies – Gazprom excepted – were almost invisible abroad. Since then, they have been growing fast, with the pace of foreign expansion accelerating
Politics
The political threats to globalisation
Hunger – that most traditional threat to ruling elites – is returning to many countries that have embraced globalisation, writes Gideon Rachman. Along with other mounting pressures, it could come to undermine the free-trade consensus built up over the past 30 years
China traps online dissent
The government is using technology to censor the internet, overturning past assumptions that the web will inevitably undermine party rule
Beware the personality cult in democracies
Western Europe has so far avoided the appropriation of organisations by personalities, but the trend may be creeping in, writes John Kay
The paradox of Russia’s retreat from democracy
The irony is that Vladimir Putin’s sky-high popularity means United Russia could almost certainly win free elections subjected to full scrutiny, says Neil Buckley
Regulation
Why financial regulation is both difficult and essential
A voluntary banking code is almost certainly not worth the paper it is written on. If regulation is to be effective, it must cover all relevant institutions and the entire balance sheet and, not least, it must make finance less pro-cyclical, writes Martin Wolf
Heavy financial regulation has created danger
A fundamental question begs to be asked, writes Paul Amery. What is the point of all these organisations and their rulebooks?
State media meddling is bad for all
Ofcom must remember its principles and return to its deregulatory best, say Martin Le Jeune and Russ Taylor
Risk, like regulation, is fact of life in a democracy
All parties should promise to reduce new legislation and concentrate on making existing legislation work, writes Christopher Haskins
