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Financial Times
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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).

Email John Plender
  • Saturday, 18 October, 2025
    On Wall StreetMarket bubbles
    Could AI help identify skill in fund managers?

    As the market bubble builds, research shows progress in spotting investors who produce fundamental value

    A person in a suit looks at a digital board displaying stock prices, with green and red numbers, at the London Stock Exchange.
  • Friday, 26 September, 2025
    The Long ViewCurrencies
    Double-Fomo driving US markets

    The allure of US exceptionalism and AI is still drawing investors despite concerns over Trump’s policies

    A woman walks on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, surrounded by trading stations and large digital American flags.
  • Thursday, 4 September, 2025
    The Big Read
    Making British homes affordable again

    Politicians have long blamed a housing shortage for soaring prices, but it is tax reform that can make the market less dysfunctional

    Montage of bank notes, flats, line graphs and charts
  • Saturday, 2 August, 2025
    The Long ViewFinancial & markets regulation
    The logic behind the deregulation push by Reeves is flawed

    The precedents for liberalising rules in finance do not augur well

    Chancellor Rachel Reeves
  • Friday, 25 July, 2025
    Personal Finance
    It’s fear, not greed, that drives the stock market

    ‘Fomo’ is powering today’s frothy asset prices — but the fear of loss may be about to take over

    Illustration of a woman running along a beach with an arrow under her arm like a surfboard, against a background of a choppy sea made of line chart zigzags
  • Friday, 27 June, 2025
    Investments
    The rollercoaster ride of Britain’s financial markets

    The FT30 celebrates its 90th birthday next week — and the UK’s oldest continuous stock index has quite a story to tell

    Illustration of a newspaper, old computer, a tablet device and a phone, each showing zigzag chart lines
  • Saturday, 14 June, 2025
    The Long ViewMarkets
    Fretting over IPO market share is just atavistic mercantilism

    The central role of equity raisings is to raise capital for companies that are already quoted

    A cube bearing the logo of the London Stock Exchange hangs in the atrium of the company’s building
  • Monday, 9 June, 2025
    Markets InsightPensions
    The high risk adventure playground that awaits pension investors

    Politicians are steering Main Street money into private assets but they may be better off fostering enterprise

    People walk by the New York Stock Exchange
  • Saturday, 17 May, 2025
    ObituaryRobert Monks
    Robert Monks, founding father of shareholder activism, 1933-2025

    Businessman who sought to move beyond short-term profits and act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner

    Robert Monks
  • Saturday, 15 March, 2025
    Personal Finance
    From Covid to today: five years that changed our money

    With the anniversary of the first lockdown approaching, inflation and market volatility are now facts of financial life

    Illustration of a magnifying glass over a line chart with viruses around it
  • Thursday, 6 February, 2025
    Geopolitics
    The world was going transactional long before Trump

    China’s rise has made the fracturing of the global order into competing power blocs inevitable

    Ann Kiernan illustration of Trump trading bombs for a pig
  • Saturday, 4 January, 2025
    The Long ViewInvestments
    Where the next financial crisis could emerge

    As the IMF has warned, the rise and rise of private credit brings systemic risks

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters
  • Friday, 29 November, 2024
    The Long ViewCentral banks
    Stand by for financial instability

    The combination of huge public debt issuance and Trump’s notorious unpredictability is a toxic mix for markets

    A trader wearing a Trump hat works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
  • Friday, 1 November, 2024
    The Long ViewCentral banks
    Central banks need escape route from cycle of boom and bust

    We should debate excessive policy easing and the neglect of credit and debt developments

    Montage of European Central Bank and Bank of Japan
  • Friday, 18 October, 2024
    Pensions
    Pension de-risking: the pitfalls for retirement savers

    Bonds, traditionally seen as safe assets for pension pots, have been subject to huge fluctuations in recent years

    Illustration of people increasing in age crossing a mountain range
  • Monday, 16 September, 2024
    Business InsightPensions industry
    The pension fund transfer business needs urgent scrutiny

    Insurers are receiving a very handsome reward for such a low-risk business

  • Wednesday, 14 August, 2024
    Global Economy
    The risks of radical accounting changes

    Policymakers, regulators and investors need to be acutely aware of unintended consequences

    Emissions from a power plant at sunset
  • Saturday, 10 August, 2024
    The Long ViewMarkets volatility
    The yen carry trade sell-off marks a step change in the business cycle

    Gyrations in global markets come at a time of a monetary policy shift between the US and Japan

    A woman walks in front of an electronic quotation board displaying the numbers of share price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
  • Monday, 15 July, 2024
    Private equity
    Private equity has become hazardous terrain for investors

    The tailwind of freakishly loose monetary policy is now over

    A group of men climbing a mountain
  • Sunday, 26 May, 2024
    UK property
    Rent controls will not fix Britain’s housing crisis

    Addressing property taxes that favour owner-occupation would be more productive

    A street in Islington
  • Tuesday, 16 April, 2024
    The Big Read
    The overlooked threats to the global financial system

    As western governments shy away from debt reduction and structural reform, investors must reassess their view of ‘safe’ assets

    A montage of the Federal Reserve building, trading data and charts
  • Monday, 18 March, 2024
    ObituaryIra Millstein
    Ira Millstein, lawyer, 1926-2024

    His work led to a landmark shift in the centre of corporate power, from company management to boards

    Close up of Ira Millstein, with white hair glasses and suit and tie, gesturing with both hands
  • Monday, 26 February, 2024
    Markets InsightSovereign bonds
    Spiralling US public debt risks action from bond vigilantes

    Policymakers should start making contingency plans now

    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
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