The sixth edition The first edition of The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages was pub- lished back in 1993, which to some readers will feel like a very long time ago but to the author seems only yesterday. Yet since that time, coming up for two dec- ades ago, there have been vast changes in financial markets, in the economy and in the wider world of business and daily life. Back in the early 1990s, for example, Europe's single currency was still a twinkle in the eye of enthusiasts for greater continental integration ­ indeed, its pros- pects seemed to have been derailed by European currency crises in 1992 and 1993. Now, although we are unquestionably back in a time of crisis, the euro is an accepted part of the global economic landscape, standing shoulder to shoul- der with the US dollar. Then too, the internet was a technology in its infancy and the World Wide Web an idea that was only just leaving Tim Berners-Lee's drawing board. There