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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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  • Monday, 26 February, 2024
    Markets InsightSovereign bonds
    Spiralling US public debt risks action from bond vigilantes

    Policymakers should start making contingency plans now

    new
    Pedestrians walk past the US Department of the Treasury
  • Friday, 9 February, 2024
    Corporate governance
    Sunak take note: diluting corporate governance has consequences

    Proposed reforms to the UK listings regime may backfire

    Th offices of the London Stock Exchange. UK authorities risk undermining a corporate governance regime regarded as the gold standard in their pursuit of global competitiveness
  • Friday, 26 January, 2024
    Personal Finance
    Lessons from a lifetime in investment

    Eternal verities in investment and finance are often counterintuitive

    A city banker, in bowler hat, walking through the City of London in 1963
  • Friday, 5 January, 2024
    The Long ViewMarkets
    Great reversals in markets are now under way

    Investors at risk of overlooking a shift in longstanding trends in 2024

    US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell
  • Saturday, 11 November, 2023
    The Long ViewPrivate equity
    Private equity faces a reckoning

    The change in circumstances is dramatic after decades of triumphalist money making

    George Roberts and Henry Kravis, of KKR, pictured at the closing of the RJR Nabisco deal in the late 1980s
  • Friday, 11 August, 2023
    The Long ViewSovereign bonds
    Bonds are no longer the safe option

    In 2023, US equities have wiped the floor relative to the government IOUs

  • Friday, 7 July, 2023
    Gilts
    Bond bull markets: lessons from the past

    The reality is that nothing in fixed-income markets is ever risk-free

  • Thursday, 29 June, 2023
    Financial services
    Shed no tears over the travails of London’s equity market

    Rishi Sunak’s promotion of financial services misses the point that an oversized sector can harm the rest of the economy

    Skyline of the Canary Wharf business district in London
  • Monday, 5 June, 2023
    Markets InsightArtificial intelligence
    Why the AI boom is not a dotcom redux

    The simulation of human intelligence in machines has dramatic potential to change the way the economy works

  • Friday, 28 April, 2023
    The Long ViewGlobal inflation
    Companies may now be more resilient to inflation shocks

    While financial accounts may be distorted by rising prices, the squeeze on corporate cash flow is more bearable

    Economist Milton Friedman, pictured in 1980
  • Thursday, 20 April, 2023
    Capitalism
    Eye-popping executive pay rewards luck, not managerial wizardry

    In a sane world CEO pay would be primarily in cash with equity used only for exceptional performance

    Darren Woods in suit and tie gesturing with his right hand
  • Friday, 14 April, 2023
    Banking & Savings
    After the easy money: a giant stress test for the financial system

    Central banks are caught between tackling rising prices and ensuring stability but their actions hold risks for investors and borrowers

    Two businesspeople strain on a rope to prevent the Bank of England edifice toppling into a chasm while others are helped out of the hole
  • Tuesday, 28 March, 2023
    Markets InsightMonetary policy
    Inflation targets have left central banks in a bind

    Monetary policy does not lean against booms but eases aggressively in busts while debt keeps rising inexorably

    A Silicon Valley Bank branch in Wellesley, Massachusetts, US
  • Tuesday, 21 February, 2023
    Markets InsightGlobal Economy
    A neglected tool of central banks shows its worth

    Money supply numbers have been sending important signals before and during the pandemic

    The Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland
  • Saturday, 24 December, 2022
    The Long ViewCentral banks
    The central bank horror story

    A liquidity crisis could inflict reputational damage after slow responses to surging inflation

    Logos of the Bank of England, Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan
  • Wednesday, 21 December, 2022
    The Big Read
    Lessons from the gilts crisis

    The meltdown was an early warning about radical changes in financial markets and suggests pension systems might not be fit for purpose

    Montage image showing a close up of the corner of a £20 note, where the Bank of England is written. Red semi-circles surround it
  • Monday, 19 December, 2022
    ObituaryBrian Reading
    Brian Reading, economist, 1936-2022

    An early ‘spad’, he became disillusioned with Labour’s interventionism and switched to the Tories

    Brian Reading in 2015
  • 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

    Two men in suits shake hands with a GE logo in the background
  • Friday, 7 October, 2022
    FT Best ofBest of FT Money 2022
    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

    Jay Powell
  • 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

    Postal workers during strike action outside Mount Pleasant Royal Mail sorting office in London, England on August 26 2022
  • 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

    Illustration of a chart with arrows pointing up and down
  • Friday, 13 May, 2022
    Pensions
    Inflation: managing the threat to your pension

    The divide deepens between defined benefit and defined contribution schemes

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