Monthly Archives: November 2008

John Gapper The dangers of shopping at Wal-Mart

November 28, 2008 11:46 pm by John Gapper

Black Friday indeed. The annual Friday after Thanksgiving tradition of teaser sales in US shops claimed a victim today when a Wal-Mart employee at a suburban New York store was trampled to death by bargain-seekers.

Elsewhere, someone filmed a crowd fighting over the last Xbox 360 at another Wal-Mart store (via Drudge).

The US retail industry is watching nervously to see whether Black Friday sales match past years. But this sort of thing makes one wish for a little bit of sanity to return to American shoppers.

At least those who shop online cannot get injured in a mouse-click frenzy.

Posted in Retail |

John Gapper BlackBerry fails to get ahead of the Curve

November 28, 2008 11:27 pm by John Gapper

I agree with Fred Wilson about the challenge Research in Motion faces in improving on the BlackBerry Curve. I use a Curve and it feels like a near-perfect combination of size, weight and practicality, despite not being a 3G device.

That sounds dandy for RIM, but it brings with it a problem: its efforts to improve upon the Curve – and match the iPhone – feel vaguely doomed. I have a bad feeling about the BlackBerry Storm and the BlackBerry Bold is nice but not compelling.

My feeling about the Storm – the supposed iPhone rival that BlackBerry has just brought out in the US in combination with Verizon – is based on two things. One was holding the device for a couple of minutes and the other was David Pogue’s memorably dismissive review in the New York Times.

Mr Pogue went through all the problems with the device but simply playing around with one for a minute or two was enough for me. It felt too heavy to keep comfortably in my suit pocket and too complex and unintuitive to use.

Continue reading: “BlackBerry fails to get ahead of the Curve”

Posted in Telecoms |

John Gapper Regulating toxic derivatives like drugs

November 26, 2008 11:11 pm by John Gapper

Should some complex financial instruments be outlawed by regulators in the same way that the US Food and Drug Administration refuses approval for some drugs?

Bill Donaldson, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, thinks the idea should at least be considered as part of the reform of financial regulation in the US.

He mentioned this during a discussion on regulatory reform that I moderated yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The suggestion was not supported by the other panel members but it was certainly striking.

Continue reading: “Regulating toxic derivatives like drugs”

Posted in Finance |

John Gapper It is just another risk for Buffett

November 26, 2008 10:24 pm by John Gapper

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My FT column this week is on the Sage of Omaha:

Michael Kinsley once defined a political gaffe as the moment “when a politician tells the truth” and is embarrassed by it. By that standard, Warren Buffett’s deal to write $35bn of put options on equity markets was a financial gaffe.

On the face of it, Mr Buffett’s gambit looks both unwise and uncharacteristic. Shares in Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company, tumbled last week (they have since recovered) because it is nursing a mark-to-market loss of about $5bn on the derivatives contracts.

In fact, a casual observer might question what Mr Buffett, who once condemned derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”, was playing at when he bet that four equity indexes, including the Standard & Poor’s 500, would not be below their existing level in 2019 to 2027.

Continue reading: “It is just another risk for Buffett”

Posted in Finance, Manufacturing |

John Gapper Etcetera

November 25, 2008 5:15 pm by John Gapper

Trustworthy news is for the upper-middle class.

They hang pirates, don’t they?

Houghton Mifflin stops buying books.

Posted in Etcetera |

John Gapper The misguided careers of Harvard MBAs

November 25, 2008 4:55 pm by John Gapper

One group of people does not yet seem to have caught up with the crisis in financial services – Harvard MBA graduates.

Ray Soifer, the financial analyst, has just released his annual analysis of the career paths of Harvard MBAs, which shows that a record-breaking proportion of this elite became bankers or financiers when they graduated this summer.

According to Mr Soifer, newly-released HBA data show that 41 per cent of the Harvard MBA class of 2008 chose market-sensitive careers, just above the 40 per cent record set in 2007. He defines market-sensitive sectors as investment banking, fund management, sales and trading, venture capital and private equity.

Continue reading: “The misguided careers of Harvard MBAs”

Posted in Finance |

John Gapper Bill Ford’s longstanding green promise

November 24, 2008 5:10 pm by John Gapper

I do not find Bill Ford’s efforts to make us believe in a leaner, greener Detroit car industry very convincing. Ford’s executive chairman has talked this talk for a long time, and is now trying to do so with Barack Obama, but his company has not walked the walk.

When Mr Ford became chairman of Ford in 1999, he focussed on environmental initiatives and talked about pressuring executives inside Ford to take global warming more seriously. He even installed a green roof on a River Rouge truck plant.

But several of Mr Ford’s got delayed or fell by the wayside after he became chief executive in 2001. Although he has had some success in, for example, launching hybrid versions of Ford sports utility vehicles, the company has not changed its spots.

Now, Mr Ford is trying to take the lead in using US government subsidies to develop a new generation of environmentally-friendly cars. But, at the same time, Ford also wants US car sales to be propped up by the federal government.

In Mr Ford’s defence, one has to say that he has been admirably dogged in sticking with his  company despite it dragging down his personal wealth. His stake in Ford is now worth only $7.4m – less than many an apartment in Manhattan.

Posted in Autos |

John Gapper Etcetera

November 24, 2008 4:32 pm by John Gapper

Blu-Ray: “Everything is coming together. The only dark cloud is the economy.”

Reader’s Digest: “We’re completely uncool and we embrace that.”

David Carr is seduced by Google.

Posted in Etcetera |
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This blog is mainly about business and strategy and how and why people who run companies take the decisions that they do.

Most of the time, John Gapper is in New York and Andrew Hill is in London. We occasionally debate business issues between us, but your comments and criticism are welcome.




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About John and Andrew

John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT. He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.

Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.

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