November, 2018

• 6 November

  SoftBank the big stack bully went quiet last quarter

  

  Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund has been described as a “big stack bully” because of its ability to throw money around at the poker table of venture capital funding. The fund doesn’t appear to have done any net new deals in the September quarter. According to data in its fiscal first-half filing, the fund had investments totaling $28.1 billion on ...

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• 6 November

  Japan can slash stimulus without repeating mistakes

  If Haruhiko Kuroda is starting to lay the groundwork to trim Japan’s huge stimulus, he’ll be looking over his shoulder at two things: the world outside and a deceased predecessor. The first issue for the Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor to watch is the international scene, which is getting tougher for central banks eyeing steps away from ultra-accommodation. Kuroda’s speech ...

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• 6 November

  Some context for Canadians who love or hate new Nafta

  

  Americans are not the only ones still unpacking the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal that is due to replace Nafta. Two issues have received a great deal of attention in Canada — one which is misunderstood as a great concession by Canada and the other wrongly celebrated as an unequivocal victory. Both deserve a deeper look. Just recently, Canada’s ...

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• 6 November

  ‘Big Short’ Eisman has a Brexit point

  

  Money manager Steve Eisman famously predicted the 2007-2008 blowup of the mortgage debt bubble, one of the few to believe that such a “black swan” event was possible. A decade on, the “Big Short” star is back with a bearish bet against two unnamed British banks that he thinks would suffer from a no-deal Brexit. While this is hardly black ...

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• 6 November

  What history of gas stations means for electric cars

  On my way to a conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week, I took a little detour to Dearborn, to visit the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation. I wanted to see what a Model T’s gas tank looked like. The importance of the Model T, which the Ford Motor Co. began selling in 1908, is a familiar story. But there ...

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• 6 November

  Powell policy lost in translation as Fed blamed for market woes

  

  Bloomberg There’s what you think you said. There’s what you actually said. And perhaps most importantly for the steward of the world’s largest economy, there’s what people heard. That’s a lesson that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is learning the hard way as he seeks to steer the economy between the twin shoals of overheating and recession while being buffeted ...

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• 6 November

  Norway’s DNB seeks broader income mix to match competitors

  

  Bloomberg DNB ASA finally feels it’s getting some respect from investors, but it has some way to go in matching its Nordic rivals on its income mix. With Nordea Bank Abp moved to Finland and Danske Bank A/S mired in a money laundering scandal, Norway’s DNB is now Scandinavia’s biggest bank by market value. While calling itself the largest Scandinavian ...

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• 6 November

  Goldman tracks ahead of $5bn growth goal

  

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has achieved half of its revenue-growth goal, but it isn’t stopping there. On his first day as chief financial officer, Stephen Scherr told investors the firm is ahead of schedule on its objective of $5 billion in new revenue by 2020. Goldman Sachs has already increased revenue firmwide by $2.5 billion through a series of ...

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• 6 November

  BNP Paribas unit co-head steps down after slump

  Bloomberg The co-head of a key markets business at BNP Paribas is st-epping down after the French bank reported some of the worst fixed-income trading results for third quarter. Adrian Boehler, who was co-head of the foreign exchange, local markets and commodities unit, will seek “another career opportunity” within Paris-based BNP Paribas while his counterpart Francisco Oliveira will become sole ...

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• 6 November

  Australia’s Macquarie lures prop traders in London

  

  Bloomberg Macquarie Group Ltd., the Australian investment bank, is building up a European front in a risky business where few rivals have been able to tread since the financial crisis. The bank has hired Massimiliano Pignatelli and Pablo de Mattos in London to make market bets with shareholders’ money, known as proprietary trading, according to people familiar with the matter. ...

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