Financial Times - Comment 6/21

Financial Times - Comment

Political union cannot fix the euro

The single currency’s problem is not institutional. There is just not a strong common political identity to support it, says Gideon Rachman http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/S3RF36/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

Why Steve Hilton is Thatcher’s heir in No 10 rows

The special adviser may well be the most extraordinary character ever to have worked in Number 10. He is certainly the scruffiest, writes Bruce Anderson http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/V13P1O/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

Savour the sweet scent of Germany’s success

Angela Merkel has cleverly triangulated between the antagonism to bail-outs and the importance of preserving the euro, writes Steven Rattner http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/UUN3UV/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

It is time to fine-tune sanctions on Burma

Britain argues that relaxation in sanctions would signal weakness. Yet European influence is already melting away as our small share of Burma’s trade shrivels, writes Markus Loening http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/3OG8OY/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

President’s speech is poor echo of Shakespeare

Whether or not Assad is personally inclined to resolve the crisis by violence, he is beginning to appear like Macbeth: his regime has locked itself into a cycle of bloodshed http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/S3RF3C/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

Sifi badge no easy solution to turning back the clocks

‘Systemically important financial institutions’ will encourage more takeovers as smaller banks struggle – hardly the outcome desired from the ‘too big to fail’ debate http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/LQYIQU/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

Will these cities be waving or drowning?

Many on the Centre for Cities’ vulnerable list are making heroic efforts faced with a tricky industrial legacy. Brian Groom says something nice about them http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/3OG8OD/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21

Beware the perils of a Libya after Gaddafi has gone

As the world learnt in Iraq and Afghanistan, a gap between military operations and political planning heralds disaster, writes Daniel Byman http://link.ft.com/r/DHGUVV/08BFJE/QFRUDM/WLNZQ0/C5Z75S/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=6&a3=21