Paul Abberley The crisis that engulfed financial markets and the real economy is showing signs of easing. Official figures suggest that the U.S., Germany and France have all come out of recession in the last few months. We have arrived at a promontory from which to survey the events leading up to the crisis and see how the financial system can be made more robust and capable of sustaining growth and returns on a long-term basis.

One of the underlying causes of the financial crisis was that too many market participants focused on short term profits and incentives. They looked only as far as the next quarterly earnings instead of paying attention to the longer-term fault lines that were emerging.

A key reason for this was that much of the information available to investors – on executive pay, the environmental and social impact of a company, financial structuring and business practices – was inadequate and focused ....



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