Tony Tassell
@tonytassell.bsky.social
Financial Opinion Editor at the FT. I have views. A spotter of things in markets, companies, world affairs. Also interested in food and climbing.
FT Editorial on the BBC - The broadcaster has made errors, but its board has failed to defend it www.ft.com/content/406e...
November 11, 2025 at 7:46 AM
FT Editorial on the BBC - The broadcaster has made errors, but its board has failed to defend it www.ft.com/content/406e...
Important column here from Gita Gopinath - former chief economist at the IMF - questioning the frequency of the OBR assessments and the volatility that induces www.ft.com/content/a2ef...
November 11, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Important column here from Gita Gopinath - former chief economist at the IMF - questioning the frequency of the OBR assessments and the volatility that induces www.ft.com/content/a2ef...
There is a lot of concern about an AI bubble in markets - Mark McDonald of HSBC argues against that here citing some academic research on gains to companies from using the technology and this striking chart www.ft.com/content/0439...
November 10, 2025 at 7:11 AM
There is a lot of concern about an AI bubble in markets - Mark McDonald of HSBC argues against that here citing some academic research on gains to companies from using the technology and this striking chart www.ft.com/content/0439...
ECB to kick off race for top roles as Lagarde era enters final stretch - @olafstorbeck.ft.com and @paolatamma.bsky.social report on the contenders www.ft.com/content/45fc...
ECB to kick off race for top roles as Lagarde era enters final stretch
Four of six jobs on central bank’s executive board become vacant before end of 2027, including the presidency
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:08 AM
ECB to kick off race for top roles as Lagarde era enters final stretch - @olafstorbeck.ft.com and @paolatamma.bsky.social report on the contenders www.ft.com/content/45fc...
Martin Wolf argues there is a connection here between these two charts on UK employment/minimum wages www.ft.com/content/b88e...
November 10, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Martin Wolf argues there is a connection here between these two charts on UK employment/minimum wages www.ft.com/content/b88e...
Have had a quite a few non-Arsenal fans come up to recently and say we are going to win the league. Replied love the squad but who knows? Very long way to go. This result underlines that. Sunderland and Ballard were superb. Very strong teams in this league
November 8, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Have had a quite a few non-Arsenal fans come up to recently and say we are going to win the league. Replied love the squad but who knows? Very long way to go. This result underlines that. Sunderland and Ballard were superb. Very strong teams in this league
Non-bank lenders may be fair-weather friends - @haonanzhou.bsky.social column here on research here with @aldasoro.bsky.social and Sebastian Doerr of the BIS showing non-banks pull back more sharply after a crisis than banks www.ft.com/content/d4da...
Non-bank lenders may be fair-weather friends
Research shows they don’t just retreat in a crisis — they run for the exit
www.ft.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Non-bank lenders may be fair-weather friends - @haonanzhou.bsky.social column here on research here with @aldasoro.bsky.social and Sebastian Doerr of the BIS showing non-banks pull back more sharply after a crisis than banks www.ft.com/content/d4da...
Numbers vs more judgment: the US-Europe regulatory divide widens - @dsquareddigest.bsky.social column here www.ft.com/content/b12c...
Numbers vs more judgment: the US-Europe regulatory divide widens
Cuts to the Fed’s supervisory staff reflect a particularly American approach to financial oversight
www.ft.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Numbers vs more judgment: the US-Europe regulatory divide widens - @dsquareddigest.bsky.social column here www.ft.com/content/b12c...
Sequoia’s shake-up may be a VC turning point - column here from Richard Waters www.ft.com/content/1d8f...
Sequoia’s shake-up may be a VC turning point
Turnover of leaders shows how hard it can be to ride out the vicious financial and tech cycles
www.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Sequoia’s shake-up may be a VC turning point - column here from Richard Waters www.ft.com/content/1d8f...
Reposted by Tony Tassell
If anyone is interested in what Transport for London’s own in-house pay-per-mile scheme might have looked like, all the leaked details here. Have lifted this out of the paywall in case it helps anyone writing about today’s Treasury briefings/leaks… www.londoncentric.media/p/london-roa...
Exclusive: The secret plan to charge London's drivers by the mile
Sadiq Khan and Transport for London were on the cusp of transforming the capital's roads. London Centric has all the details.
www.londoncentric.media
November 6, 2025 at 7:16 AM
If anyone is interested in what Transport for London’s own in-house pay-per-mile scheme might have looked like, all the leaked details here. Have lifted this out of the paywall in case it helps anyone writing about today’s Treasury briefings/leaks… www.londoncentric.media/p/london-roa...
Reposted by Tony Tassell
"everyone knows the project won’t work; it is now just a matter of letting MBS down gently"
Deep dive on Neom focuses on The Line - a building planned at a scale that would run from London to the Norfolk coast but in the desert. Absolutely wild, absolutely doomed ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
Deep dive on Neom focuses on The Line - a building planned at a scale that would run from London to the Norfolk coast but in the desert. Absolutely wild, absolutely doomed ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:28 AM
"everyone knows the project won’t work; it is now just a matter of letting MBS down gently"
Deep dive on Neom focuses on The Line - a building planned at a scale that would run from London to the Norfolk coast but in the desert. Absolutely wild, absolutely doomed ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
Deep dive on Neom focuses on The Line - a building planned at a scale that would run from London to the Norfolk coast but in the desert. Absolutely wild, absolutely doomed ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
quite a chart from WashPost www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
November 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM
quite a chart from WashPost www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
A year of Donald Trump in charts www.ft.com/content/266a...
A year of Donald Trump in charts
The beginning of the president’s second term has been marked by trade wars, executive orders and falling approval ratings
www.ft.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:19 AM
A year of Donald Trump in charts www.ft.com/content/266a...
Machines haven’t taken over bond markets — they have just made more room for humans: column here from Zornitsa Todorova of Barclays. Voice broking still counts. Electronic trading volumes have been stuck at about 60% for Treasuries in recent years and less in corp bonds. www.ft.com/content/287f...
Why the bond market still relies on voice
The machines didn’t push the humans out of fixed income trading — they made more space for them
www.ft.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Machines haven’t taken over bond markets — they have just made more room for humans: column here from Zornitsa Todorova of Barclays. Voice broking still counts. Electronic trading volumes have been stuck at about 60% for Treasuries in recent years and less in corp bonds. www.ft.com/content/287f...
Thomas Piketty in the FT! - fascinating Q&A exchange here with @joelsuss.ft.com www.ft.com/content/860f...
Thomas Piketty: ‘The left has been a victim of its own success’
The economist on populism, fiscal debt and the long-term trend of economic equality
www.ft.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Thomas Piketty in the FT! - fascinating Q&A exchange here with @joelsuss.ft.com www.ft.com/content/860f...
Such ugly efforts to stop Mamdani winning - the level of anti-Muslim bigotry thrown around during the campaign should not be forgotten
November 5, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Such ugly efforts to stop Mamdani winning - the level of anti-Muslim bigotry thrown around during the campaign should not be forgotten
Reposted by Tony Tassell
BOTHA OUT
Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm - lasted just 3 years in role
Days after the FT revealed recent departure of Sequoia’s COO Sumaiya Balbale was precipitated by social media posts by colleague Shaun Maguire
on.ft.com/4nF3qpE
Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm - lasted just 3 years in role
Days after the FT revealed recent departure of Sequoia’s COO Sumaiya Balbale was precipitated by social media posts by colleague Shaun Maguire
on.ft.com/4nF3qpE
Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm
Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will take over as ‘senior stewards’ following a tumultuous period for the group
on.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:39 PM
BOTHA OUT
Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm - lasted just 3 years in role
Days after the FT revealed recent departure of Sequoia’s COO Sumaiya Balbale was precipitated by social media posts by colleague Shaun Maguire
on.ft.com/4nF3qpE
Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm - lasted just 3 years in role
Days after the FT revealed recent departure of Sequoia’s COO Sumaiya Balbale was precipitated by social media posts by colleague Shaun Maguire
on.ft.com/4nF3qpE
Reposted by Tony Tassell
35bps on the 10-year in a month is not trivial - and notable that the fiscal crisis talk has been meaningfully quietened
November 4, 2025 at 10:15 AM
35bps on the 10-year in a month is not trivial - and notable that the fiscal crisis talk has been meaningfully quietened
Reposted by Tony Tassell
Reeves bets on the long-term — will she be around to reap the benefits? on.ft.com/4nNyLqw
Reeves bets on the long-term — will she be around to reap the benefits?
UK chancellor lays groundwork for further tax rises in speech weeks ahead of Budget
on.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reeves bets on the long-term — will she be around to reap the benefits? on.ft.com/4nNyLqw
Banking veteran Colm Kelleher of UBS is warning that insurers are engaging in “ratings arbitrage” akin to what banks and other institutions did with subprime loans before the 2008 financial crisis - rpt by @arjunneilalim.ft.com www.ft.com/content/73ee...
UBS chair warns of ‘looming systemic risk’ from private credit ratings
Colm Kelleher says insurers are shopping for grades as banks did before 2008 financial crisis
www.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Banking veteran Colm Kelleher of UBS is warning that insurers are engaging in “ratings arbitrage” akin to what banks and other institutions did with subprime loans before the 2008 financial crisis - rpt by @arjunneilalim.ft.com www.ft.com/content/73ee...
The New York mayoral election is the big story - very good reporting here from @guychazan.bsky.social here on Mamdani and means for his party/US politics. One quote: “What he really teaches the Democrats is — find a charismatic candidate!” www.ft.com/content/92bf...
The meaning of Zohran Mamdani
Will the New York mayoral favourite be a boon to the Democratic Party, or a millstone around its neck?
www.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM
The New York mayoral election is the big story - very good reporting here from @guychazan.bsky.social here on Mamdani and means for his party/US politics. One quote: “What he really teaches the Democrats is — find a charismatic candidate!” www.ft.com/content/92bf...
The dark side of Japanese convenience stores - this is really fascinating from Harry Dempsey and @davidkeo.bsky.social. The business model of the konbinis that everyone loves is becoming exposed, with the system under strain from labour shortages as Japan ages. www.ft.com/content/7866...
The dark side of Japanese convenience stores
Rising wages and an ageing workforce put pressure on existing staff
www.ft.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:07 AM
The dark side of Japanese convenience stores - this is really fascinating from Harry Dempsey and @davidkeo.bsky.social. The business model of the konbinis that everyone loves is becoming exposed, with the system under strain from labour shortages as Japan ages. www.ft.com/content/7866...
First interview with Mike "Woody" Sherwood since since stepping down as co-head of Goldman Sachs Int 9 years ago, talking on Revolut, David Solomon and the Greenhouse Sports charity he founded. It is a fantastic charity and is launching a fund-raising this weekend www.ft.com/content/a23d...
City grandee Michael Sherwood says Revolut systems are now ‘Goldman quality’
Former Goldman executive is a longtime board member of the fintech, which has struggled to win a UK banking licence
www.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:44 AM
First interview with Mike "Woody" Sherwood since since stepping down as co-head of Goldman Sachs Int 9 years ago, talking on Revolut, David Solomon and the Greenhouse Sports charity he founded. It is a fantastic charity and is launching a fund-raising this weekend www.ft.com/content/a23d...
Reposted by Tony Tassell
Great to work with @aendra.com @amyborrett.ft.com @jonathanvincent.bsky.social on this important new dataset of deprivation in England
This is absolutely fascinating: you can put your postcode in and see relative levels of deprivation (and the opposite) where you live in detail. I live where I grew up, so I could spend days doing this as I know the town so well. www.ft.com/content/9a1c... Huge congrats to @amyborrett.ft.com et al.
Interactive: explore England’s new deprivation map
Data analysis reveals ‘cheek by jowl’ inequalities in first study of country’s disadvantaged areas since pandemic
www.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Great to work with @aendra.com @amyborrett.ft.com @jonathanvincent.bsky.social on this important new dataset of deprivation in England
In the AI boom, not all capex is created equal - Richard Waters here on the big differences in the level of risk and likely returns of Big Tech’s spending www.ft.com/content/5395...
In the AI boom, not all capex is created equal
There are big differences in the level of risk and likely returns of Big Tech’s spending
www.ft.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:01 PM
In the AI boom, not all capex is created equal - Richard Waters here on the big differences in the level of risk and likely returns of Big Tech’s spending www.ft.com/content/5395...