Financial Times FT.com

Getting back to ‘normal’

An investor who went into hibernation before Lehman collapsed might, on waking now, feel that not much had changed

• Overview: Fed caution and Baltic woe sap confidence

Ecuador’s dangerous precedent

Engineering a security’s price collapse then buying it cheaply would land a fund manager in prison but has left the president smelling like a rose

• Ecuador leader pledges radical agenda

Battle for Data Domain

With the prize being software and hardware designed to reduce duplication, the fireworks are flying as EMC and NetApp fight a bidding war

• EMC makes all-cash offer for Data Domain

Novartis/Alcon

Step one of the acquisition of Alcon went smoothly, but following the market crash, the drugmaker is questioning whether to proceed with step two

• Cancer drug push at Novartis

BBVA’s cost-cutting ploy

Why would an already efficient bank keep jobs open for years, not just months or weeks?

• BBVA offers staff five years’ leave

African equity indices

With 1.5 per cent growth expected this year and 4 per cent in 2010, why is Africa the continent the rally has left behind?

Australian GDP

The country has yet to fall out of love with credit and may be storing up trouble for a bigger eventual crash

• Australia GDP rises 0.4% in first quarter

Chimerica

Tim Geithner returns to Washington with enough loot to give Customs officials pause for thought. What he cannot claim is a free lunch

• Geithner says China backs US stimulus