David studied economics, politics and journalism before joining the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
In between his degree and masters he wandered into the real world of business where he learnt how to manipulate a spreadsheet and organise meetings where nothing gets decided.
He has spent time in France, learning French, and India, learning how to cross roads, and enjoys nothing less than writing about himself in the third person.
His hobbies include reaching things on top shelves, running long distances at slow speeds, growing beards and trying to live up to a rash claim he made as a twelve-year old that “he had read all of the books”.
If you wish to know more about David please do pick up the phone and call him for a chat in the first person. Be warned though: he tends to talk at pace and in an Irish accent.
That’s coming from CNBC who are suggesting Berkshire are going to hit them with a big bag full of $28bn.
Here’s the snaps from Reuters while we wait for something official waiting over, it’s official and the statement is below:
14-Feb-2013 12:47 – BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC BRKa.N TO BUY H.J. HEINZ CO HNZ.N FOR $28 BLN – CNBC CITING SOURCES
German and French economies contract as Euro area GDP disappoints || Japan’s recession continued in Q4 || The BoJ maintained asset purchase programme size and rates || AB InBev makes offer to seal Modelo deal || Rolls-Royce names next chairman || Fat-cat referendum in Switzerland || Rocky road lies ahead in trade pact talks || US Treasury, banks, businesses criticise EU Tobin tax plans || FSA warns banks not to leave Libor || Rio Tinto falls into $3bn full-year loss || AMR board approves US Airways deal || CITIC buys stake in Australia’s Alumina for A$452m || Google sues BT over patent || Time Warner in talks to spin off magazines || ‘Abe trade’ boosts macro hedge funds || SAC Capital probe widened || Monte Paschi former finance chief held || Markets summary || Valentine’s day GDP massacre || Isda committee decision on SNS Bank CDS weird or what? || Exorcising eurozone ELA as we know it Read more
The currency war meme rumbles on as the G7 does its very best to avoid a coherent message amid arguments about whether drawing a distinction between “domestic objectives” that weaken a currency and just plain weakening it actually matters. Ho hum. Read more
Little or none seems to be the answer…
I wrote on Monday about the ECB’s options for expanding its balance sheet but skimmed over the idea of direct FX intervention on the presumption it just wasn’t going to happen and the ECB would push via less obvious channels. As I was (justifiably) rebuked, the aim here is to make quick amends. Read more
First we had this rather bland statement from the G7 — “domestic objectives” etc — and now this:
12-Feb-2013 13:56 G7 OFFICIAL SAYS G7 IS CONCERNED ABOUT UNILATERAL GUIDANCE ON THE YEN, JAPAN WILL BE IN SPOTLIGHT AT G20 MEETING IN MOSCOW
12-Feb-2013 13:56 – G7 OFFICIAL SAYS G7 STATEMENT WAS MISINTERPRETED, STATEMENT SIGNALED CONCERN ABOUT EXCESS MOVES IN JAPANESE YEN
Mario Draghi talked, everyone was a little confused, a little wary… so the euro fell. He OMT’ed the FX market. Clever.
But what if talking isn’t enough? As Capital Economics argue, the power of talk is diminished when others are taking action: Read more
Bail-in proposed for Cyprus || Eurozone finance ministers meet today || Barclays is preparing to cut at least £2bn from its annual cost base of £20bn || Small UK banks complain of risk-weighting disadvantage || US/AMR merger could come this week || Non-EU companies won’t be exempted from data privacy rules || Transit systems in the US north-east are restarting || China has eclipsed the US as the biggest trading nation || The FBI is probing corruption allegations against a subsidiary of EADS || State of the Nation previews || Venezuelan devaluation sparks panic || City job numbers fall 18 per cent || Sweden’s Hakon Invest is acquiring the 60 per cent of shares it doesn’t own in Nordic food retailer ICA AB || Investors dive into euro-yen policy gap || Markets summary || Indonesia is a foreign country… Read more
“Oh, Hollande…” said Mario Draghi as the rest of us wondered if he had or hadn’t entered the supposed currency wars. Or if, in fact, the question was redundant.
The euro’s dive on Thursday was impressive and clearly the result of ECB president Draghi’s comments after the ECB’s rate setting meeting. But whether it was justified or not is very much contested. Read more
Here’s the transaction doc from the Irish ministry of finance. Click through the pic for the full pdf:
Reuters flashes hitting now (we note):
07-Feb-2013 14:56 IRISH PM SAYS 20 BLN EUROS REDUCTION IN NTMA MARKET BORROWING REQUIREMENT OVER THE NEXT DECADE
07-Feb-2013 14:53 – IRISH PM SAYS IRELAND HAS REACHED CONCLUSION WITH ECB TO PUT IN PLACE MORE SUSTAINABLE PROMISSORY NOTE AGREEMENT
Draghi follows Mark Carney onto the stage… Read more
It’s Carney live. We know George Osborne is frustrated excited. Mark Carney, the next Governor of the Bank of England and the man Osborne once called “quite simply the best, most experienced and most qualified person in the world to do the job”, is in front of the Treasury select committee.
Here’s the live feed:
Just how bad could the Rajoy slush fund scandal get? What we have so far is a little confusing. From El Pais on Monday:
Answering reporters’ questions for the first time since details emerged late last week about an alleged slush fund his Popular Party (PP) controlled, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Monday in Berlin that all the information that has been published by the media “is untrue — except for some things.”
Hmm. Rajoy reportedly didn’t clarify which things were true and which were not — although he had already denied allegations he took cash payments from a secret slush fund paid for by construction companies. Read more
Japan’s Masaaki Shirakawa gave notice on Tuesday that he would be leaving his post as governor of the Japanese central bank on March 19, three weeks earlier than slated.
Can we blame Shirakawa? His departure now coincides with that of two deputy BoJ governors who would be replaced by Abe-nominations (we resisted the urge to go for ‘Abominations’; it wasn’t easy.).
If Shirakawa had stuck around he presumably would have found himself the head of an increasingly mutinous court. Read more
FT Alphaville spent part of the weekend at a conference on shadow banking organised by the City Political Economy Research Centre. Though, as it turns out, much of the message was: be not afraid of shadow banking, some classifications are born, some are achieved and others have a name that sticks but is very much disliked thrust upon them. Read more
We have to admit we found a point made by Nomura’s Richard Koo last month a little confusing. He argued quite persuasively that deflation is simply not a serious problem for the Japanese today.
JP Morgan’s chief Japan economist Masaaki Kanno weighed in on the rather odd dichotomy in the FT on Monday, arguing that:
The key to understanding the success of Abenomics is the asymmetric response between the currency and the bond markets, which can be attributable to divergent inflation expectations. In the currency market, inflationary expectations rose among investors, mostly non-Japanese, while on the other hand the JGB market remains dominated by Japanese investors, whose inflation expectations appear more or less unchanged.
LTRO-porn continues… this time it’s semi-core.
As we noted before, the higher than expected repayments by banks of the Long Term Refinancing Operations to the ECB might also push up the amount of paper in circulation as collateral which was tied up in carry trades is returned to banks. That would put pressure on markets which benefitted from the LTRO cash.
What we didn’t think of was Belgium. Poor thing. Read more
You gotta roll with fashion:
That’s a very small €3.7bn take up by banks participating in the European Central Bank’s three-month Long Term Refinancing Operation on Wednesday. We’d expected more. Read more
The Bank of Italy has provided a robust defence of its regulation of Monte dei Paschi di Siena || Monte Paschi ignored warnings over risk, documents show || RBS is winding down its M&A business || Wider euro ‘Tobin tax’ will net €35bn || Chesapeake’s controversial CEO, Aubrey McClendon, is resigning || Individual investors helping drive US stockmarket surge || Swiss banks lose old taste for gold || Brussels soften line on bank ringfences || Euro zone economic sentiment rises more than expected || Euro carry reversal inflicts global pain || Amazon’s profits fell 45% in Q4 || India’s finance minister sees end to Vodafone dispute || Apple failed to get its $1.05bn damages award against Samsung increased || China anger at EU telecoms demands || Toyota to recall 752,000 Corollas in U.S. for airbag problems || European Cloud Over Ford || Markets roundup || Germany won’t stand in Cyprus’ way, apparently || Backloading the carbon markets || FOMC preview Read more
We don’t know his plans, but the Bank of Israel’s much lauded head, Stanley Fischer, may soon join the increasingly globally poachable mobile labour market for CB heads. He’s a free man from the end of June… and we hear there’s an opening in Canada. Read more
US Treasuries are kicking up with the 10 year threatening to push through 2 per cent for the first time in quite a while. It’s a little bit of economic optimism — better data means more chances of Fed tightening.
Capital Economics did the needful and put voice to the idea that the bull rally in Treasuries might have further to run for all sorts of not very contrarian reasons (our emphasis): Read more
Turning on a para-dime…
Draghi meets Italian ministers over MPS || Seymour Pierce is approaching rivals about injecting money || US bank stress test scenarios revealed || Boeing battery maker GS Yuasa cleared in probe || Moody’s has cut the credit ratings of six of Canada’s biggest banks || Anglo takes $4bn hit on Brazil iron ore || Trafigura chief doubts rally will return || India’s central bank cuts interest rates || Goldman Sachs raises $1bn selling stake in ICBC || A break for embattled ranchers || Markets round-up || The surprisingly long path to US monetary union || RBS in for another round of bonus awkwardness, with added Libor angle || The return of negative US repo rates Read more
For US dollar pairs at least…
In case anybody missed it, here’s Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn having some fun on CNBC. Seriously, seriously worth your time:
From the ECB on Friday:
As announced by the Governing Council on 8 December 2011, counterparties have the option to repay, after one year, any part of the amounts that they were allotted in the longer-term refinancing operations settled on 21 December 2011 and 1 March 2012, on any main refinancing operation settlement day. Accordingly, on 30 January 2013 EUR 137159.10 million will be repaid in the tender 20110149 by 278 counterparties.
From the Danish central bank:
Effective from 25 January 2013, Danmarks Nationalbank’s interest rate on certificates of deposit and the lending rate are increased by 0.10 percentage point. The discount rate and the current account rate are unchanged. Read more
