Will the center hold, or will struggling lenders hurtle into the “widening gyre,” obeying the cruel third law of thermodynamics, the one governing destruction?
A once-struggling bank, founded in the British Imperial Age, seems to be holding the center very nicely, thank you, offering a guide to erstwhile rivals now grappling with insolvency and bailouts. Standard Chartered Bank earned its stability the hard way, by avoiding easy-money, high-risk transactions and concentrating on a simple, disciplined approach in places it knows well: India, plus China and the rest of the Pacific Rim. Today, while other banks fear “anarchy loosed,” SCB projects confidence.
Speaking of centers holding, Institutional Investor is pleased to announce the broadening of its trademark intelligence on its Web site, iimagazine.com, now interlinked with this magazine. In addition to must-read stories from these pages, you will find fresh interviews, more in-depth data and useful updates. As part of our intelligence gathering, we invite your suggestions via comment links at the bottom of the stories on our Web site and on our new Twitter site, Institutional_I. All feedback will be thoughtfully addressed.
Last, it should be noted that II has added another honor to its panoply of editorial achievements, winning the 2009 Society of Professional Journalists’ award for best investigative reporting in U.S. magazines. Such recognition speaks not only to the talent of the winning team — International Editor Tom Buerkle and Bureau Chiefs Loch Adamson (London) and Allen T. Cheng (Asia) and Senior Editor Jo Wrighton (Paris) — but also to the tradition of excellence maintained scrupulously by my predecessor, Michael Carroll.
With your help we can only get better.
