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Simon Kuper

Life & Arts Columnist

Simon Kuper joined the Financial Times in 1994. He wrote the daily currencies column, before leaving the FT in 1998. He returned in 2002 as a sports columnist and has been there ever since. Nowadays he writes a general column for the Weekend FT on all manner of topics from politics to books, and on cities including London, Paris, Johannesburg and Miami.

Email Simon Kuper @KuperSimon  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Thursday, 17 April, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Americans, it’s time to move to Europe

    Europe outdoes the US on the key metrics of a good 21st-century life

    A silhouette of the Statue of Liberty at sunset, with an airplane flying across the vivid orange sky above a calm sea
  • Thursday, 10 April, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    A new who’s who of the global elites

    They dominate the countries that account for more than half of global GDP — but who are they?

    Cartoonish illustration of the feet of a man standing atop an ionic column, kicking away the ladder that he has presumably used to climb the pedestal
  • Thursday, 3 April, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Donald Trump vs the universities: how far will it go?

    Former Columbia president Lee Bollinger wants US institutions to unite and fight the assault in court

  • Thursday, 27 March, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Can France really lead ‘the little west’?

    As America retreats, Paris dreams of bringing the ‘grande nation’ out of retirement

  • Thursday, 20 March, 2025
    Life & Arts
    Why did businesspeople back Trump?

    Many imagined someone in their own hard-nosed image

    A black inkblot test image on a light beige background, symmetrical and abstract in form
  • Thursday, 13 March, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Doge’s ‘villain’ fantasy is wrong about public service

    Most choose to do it because the job matters

  • Wednesday, 12 March, 2025
    InterviewBooks
    Writer Didier Eribon: ‘My mother was unhappy her whole life’

    The French author took longer to come out as working-class than as gay. His newly translated memoir confronts poverty and racism in the milieu he fled

    An intellectual-looking man with grey hair and wearing glasses and a black top seated in a window, and partly in shadow
  • Thursday, 6 March, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Return of the two Europes

    Donald Trump’s turn to Moscow is restoring the geography of the cold war

  • Thursday, 27 February, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Is it the end for hanging out?

    Recent trends have combined to worsen public spaces. Happily, we can do better

  • Thursday, 20 February, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Goodbye to the good guy

    Donald Trump is the first US president to voice a pessimistic worldview

    Two people sit back to back, one holding a book with a sad rainy cloud bookcover, the other a book with a happy sunny image
  • Thursday, 13 February, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Can Europe get over its break-up with the US?

    Divorce sucks but could be a chance to restart from a better place

  • Thursday, 6 February, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    America the apex predator sharpens its teeth

    Who’s eating who in the new geopolitical food chain

    A cartoon-style illustration of a beaver wearing a red and black plaid winter hat, looking nervously over its shoulder as a large paw steps on its tail
  • Thursday, 30 January, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    The political cult of the entrepreneur

    Is what’s good for America’s richest men also good for America?

    Four black folding chairs with red velvet cushions and gold tassels, each labeled with a name: “MARK,” “JEFF,” “ELON,” and “SUNDAR,” set against a blue background
  • Thursday, 23 January, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    What is genocide?

    And what I learnt from my great-uncle Leo’s attempt to answer

  • Thursday, 9 January, 2025
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Thirty years after my first day at the FT, what’s changed?

    Looking at old newspapers, I realise there are no new stories, just new reporters

    An infinity-shaped loop made of printed text and images, resembling a continuous strip of newspaper
  • Thursday, 2 January, 2025
    FT MagazineClimate change
    Why goats are replacing cows in southern Africa

    A drought-hit province provides glimpses of the planet’s next phase 

    An hourglass against a blue background, with the top half containing a miniature savannah scene featuring elephants and trees, while sand flows into the bottom half
  • Thursday, 19 December, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    The writer who gave us the bigger picture

    Reciprocal gift-giving is the basis for all society . . . the ritual that allows us to live in harmony

  • Thursday, 12 December, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Trump is a test for the ‘Great Man theory’

    Modern historians are wary of ascribing change to individuals. Could that be about to change?

  • Thursday, 28 November, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Europe’s fear of the outsider

    Surrounded by an unfriendly Russia, China and Trump-led US, how should Europeans respond? 

  • Thursday, 28 November, 2024
    FT Globetrotter
    Bureau zone: how to navigate French workplace culture

    Contrary to our fantasy, it is not all 35-hour weeks, long holidays and leisurely lunches (well, maybe the latter)

  • Tuesday, 26 November, 2024
    FT SeriesThe best books of the year 2024
    Best books of 2024: from our own stable

    Books by FT journalists and editors

  • Thursday, 21 November, 2024
    FT MagazineEnergy sector
    Will China win the clean-energy era?

    Trump loves fossil fuels but his sidekick Musk wants a piece of the action

  • Tuesday, 19 November, 2024
    FT SeriesThe best books of the year 2024
    Best books of 2024: Sport, Health and Wellness

    Simon Kuper and Anjana Ahuja select their must-read titles

  • Thursday, 14 November, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Lamentations of a lost liberal

    Liberals have learnt pessimism since 2016. This time, we are neither baffled nor energised by Trump’s win

    Cartoon of a person staring out a window, appearing thoughtful or concerned, with an American flag and crowd seen outside in a dimly lit setting
  • Thursday, 7 November, 2024
    FT MagazineGenomics
    We are a bit Neanderthal

    What modern genetics has taught us about human history

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