tv On the Move Bloomberg March 20, 2015 4:00am-5:01am EDT
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is running out. and a morning of dealmaking. the $40 billion merger is back on. holcim and lafarge salvage a deal. they are three things we will be watching this morning. i'm looking at futures markets a little bit higher. manus cranny is joining us for our friday market open. manus: you sound very excited. that is because we are 1% away from an all-time high on european equities. it is only march. goldman says they are not the only ones to be shy of this move. the best since 2009. denmark, portugal, and germany, all up more than 20%. go to bloomberg.com and go to the bart chart.
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great job done by mark barton today. that is on this index, the dax. you are looking at the best quarter since 2003, and equity index that has added 200 billion euros in value. you are looking at 25 out of 30 components of the dax over 10%. it really is a great synopsis of what has gone on in the dax this year. bank of america merrill, 63% of fund managers favor the european market. that is very much evident in terms of what is going on. dealmaking, banking, getting the deals done bartering as to who will run the company between the lafarge and holcim deal. buying 6 billion euros worth of assets. it will make crh the number one
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player in cement in the united kingdom. what has albert got to do with u.k. holdings? holcim and lafarge, will they get the savings? 77.25, 77.30 for wholesome. credit suisse, another day another scandal. what you've got there is, monte dei paschi is suing credit suisse for alleged unauthorized financial activity. i should say that banko leonardo is also included in this lawsuit. they are cooperating fully. brady dougan went down 9.7 million. that was his pay from the annual review. no major exposure to libor and fx.
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h&m down from 370. why, margins. this is the view that they are under pressure. dsd march 15th, there was a suggestion of a deal by sabadell. today, we have it. they are doing a deal. 332.50 john. lloyd's should be at the bottom of your screen. going up to 800. there we go. i speak, it happens. 800 million pounds in the coffer as a result of this deal. jonathan: manus cranny has that friday feeling. the ftse 100 a little bit higher. in germany, the dax higher by 70 points, approaching that 12,000 level once again.
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in brussels, maybe they haven't got that friday feeling. leaders urge greece to find a compromise. the clock ticks on how much longer greece can keep it self-funded. tsipras meant with leaders as well as mario draghi in brussels last night. let's get the latest from caroline connan in brussels. this ellis in athens, what exactly was agreed yesterday, if anything at all? >> good morning, jon. it feels like it is february 20 all over again. basically, we have to go back to the eurogroup meeting on february 20 and greece has to move forward a certain set of structural reforms that its
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creditors need to review, and agree on financial aid. prime minister tsipras said they will manage to put the limitations back on track. so far, there is one thing really different than before. that is that the cash liquidity problem in athens is much more serious than before. state coffers are running dry. more payments need to be dispersed today. the next couple of weeks are going to be very challenging. a group of people said, we have liquidity until april. that needs to be addressed very quickly. jonathan: just to follow up, you are a markets man. you analyze the markets. you see the greek three-year note. i asked the question maybe a little bit blase. does it even matter anymore when they don't borrow at these kind of levels? /vassilis: the market is distorted to say the least. this is a very liquid market. i think the market is a bit
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complacent on really pricing in the problems that greece faces at the moment. these are rights that are not sustainable by any country, even for one month. therefore, i think the problem lies elsewhere. the problem is not so much liquidity in athens as a political problem. jonathan: thank you for joining us this morning. that is our markets man in athens. let's get the perspective from brussels. caroline connan is standing by. what is the view from brussels? it is day two of the meeting of eu leaders. is it another day of achieving very little? caroline: it may be, jon. there is a lot of frustration from eu leaders. basically, one month after the eurogroup, they say all you need to do is implement these reforms
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that you agreed during the eurogroup exactly one month ago today. greece was not even on the official agenda of eu leaders last night but greek prime minister alexis tsipras requested a separate meeting with angela merkel and the french president, francois hollande. angela merkel said at this meeting which finished around 3:00 a.m. here in brussels that the greeks seem to be committed. now we have to trust them. we have to take the face value of what they are saying. we saw that trust between greece and eu partners. alexis tsipras said he was optimistic about the intention of the eu leaders to actually trust greece, which is the whole problem since the beginning. as you know, there's been a lot of tension, especially between germany and greece, blaming each other, accusing each other of a
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lack of action. now as the irish prime minister put it, the goal is in greece. jonathan: thank you very much. let's bring in julian chillingworth, chief investment officer at razz burns, where he oversees 20 million pounds in assets. great to have you with us. if you went to sleep in january and woke up now, you probably didn't miss much. is that fair to say in terms of greece? >> i think it is. my view all along was that we would go to the 23rd hour and 59th minute. it is interesting. i think the real problem list -- rests with the philosophical one. the greek coalition believe they have been elected to bring in change in greece. this is what has got to be got over. jonathan: there is a difference
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between now and 2012. the similarity is how european officials are dealing with this issue. some are saying, we can deal with an exit in the short term. there is an actual debate going on. we have to ask the same question we've explored over the last month. is that why they have even less leverage? julian: i think there is a considerable degree amongst eu officials, investors of, does it really matter if greece goes? will it affect portugal and spain? that was always the debate before. now, i think there is less turnaround on those issues. jonathan: i was talking about this in the bond market. the greeks three-year yield heading back to 24%. at any other time, this would be ridiculous. no contagions seen in the rest of the market. you are sitting at your desk looking at the terminal.
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do you really care? julian: unfortunately, very few people care about greek debt now. it is only the troika for the governments and the banks. it is more about the money for greece. that is continuing. a lot of money is leaving the country. jonathan: capital controls, is that something we may have to see? julian: it may well be the case. jonathan: julian chillingworth, stay with us. up next, the day for deals. we have all the details on that $40 billion concrete deal. those stocks right now trading higher the last time i looked. tsb finds a suitor in spain. sabadell will buy the u.k. lender for 1.7 billion pounds. more on those stories when "on the move" returns. ♪
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jonathan: good morning and welcome back. plenty of deals to talk about. resurrecting that $40 billion deal, lafarge and holcim reached an agreement to salvage the merger that will create the world's biggest cement company. the announcement comes after months of wrangling back and forth. that was over differences about management and financial terms. they've cleared that up. caroline hyde with the details. caroline: it has been 11 months that this deal has been in the making. april 2014 was when they first announced it.
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$40 billion to create the world's biggest cement maker. the biggest deal in europe since glencore. they've managed to get through those compromises. key among them is a compromise about the finances. basically holcim realize they were outperforming lafarge. profit, sales why should every holcim shareholder get one lafarge share? why should a lafarge share holder get one holcim? holcim is a little sweeter than that. they sweetened the deal for holcim shareholders. for every 0.9 holcim shares, you will get one lafarge. for every one lafarge, 0.9 holcim. a sweet deal for holcim. lafarge also there were problems about the chief executive taking the reins. it was bought that bruno lafont the man who smokes his cigars, choose gum, was taking the helm
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of the company. they didn't think perhaps he was the man for the job particularly to do with his cost-cutting record. now, they've brokered a different deal. bruno lafont will be a cochairman. he will be taking that role with the current chairman of holcim. they come to the floor. who will be ceo of the joint lafarge-holcim team? it will be a lafarge player. yet to be announced, but we understand a candidate has been agreed upon. now, that is still left to play out. we want to know who will be helming this juggernaut of a cement maker. it is the biggest since 2012. there has been a battle. this is why they've struggled to get through these hoops that they've had to jump through. it seems that all m&a really does come down to personalities. finally, they managed to iron
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out their problems. one problem seems to have been whether bruno lafont could push through the cost cuts. the deal makes sense because they could save $1.5 billion per year by joining forces. they also have to sell off assets. this is a key part of the deal. they have to sell off assets so that they can abide by competition laws. who picks up those assets? crh the irish building materials company. 6.5 billion euros of assets. yesterday, they agreed to buy those assets. they didn't even know if there was a deal done between lafarge and holcim. even though crh already raised money to do that they already got 1.6 billion euros in funds they had a plan b in check. this was a killer deal for crh expanding into new countries. brazil, canada, philippines. also upping their sales by 28%.
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breathing a sigh of relief across the board. jonathan: caroline hyde, thank you very much. bloomberg confirming what you were thinking. holcim-lafarge, the largest euro m&a deal. we will be speaking to the lafarge ceo. you do not want to miss that. another deal in focus this morning, it is from spain to hear in the u.k. sabadell agreeing to buy tsb banking group for 340 pence a share. let's get out the charles over in madrid. first question i guess, why does sabadell want a piece of tsb? what is in it for them? charles: good morning. what is in it for sabadell is the big issue for spanish banks going forward, diversification. if you are a local spanish bank in spain over the last six or seven years, it has been a tough ride.
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spanish economy has had a terrible time. the banks have struggled to make money. this is about that not happening again. they are seeking to diversify seeking to make this first big step outside the spanish market. jonathan: you say it is diversification. can we be optimistic to say that it is the first sign of recovery in the spanish banking sector? charles: yes, i think there is some truth in that. the spanish banks are recovering. especially in terms of asset quality. things are getting better. the economy is starting to grow quite vigorously. there are still big issues for spanish banks in terms of profitability, with a low interest rate environment. you can see it in that light. jonathan: we talk about the opportunities for seven dell to diverse a five. what are the dangers of buying tsb? charles: i think the dangers are
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making this big lea;pp for a bank which is the fifth biggest bank in spain. it is a big leap to a new market. it is a very competitive market. santander obviously very active in the u.k. it is a new step. it is a new departure for sabadell. it remains to be seen how they will pull it off. jonathan: another deal. thank you very much charles oppenty, . up next the uncertainty for markets. which sectors are most at risk? ♪ markets.
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jonathan: good morning and welcome back to "on the move be a co-it is time to talk about the u.k. does the u.k. place a disinflation or a boom or a bust? at in the fact that we are just weeks away from one of the most uncertain elections in a century. we asked where they used.k. stocks are most at risk. julian, you have got three different sectors. thanks, utilities, and housing. let's start with banks. you look at that tsp deal. do you want to be in u.s.k.
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banks right now given the election noises that both sides are making over the banking industry? julian: i think there's a huge amount of uncertainty. we remain very cautious around the whole sector. what i would say is that the deal is interesting on a medium-term basis. i think the retail banking sector in the u.k. could be interesting. you could get decent returns out of those areas of retail banking. but investment banking, i think, is going to be fraught with problems. i think regulators are going to be watching all the banks very closely throughout europe. jonathan: you talk about utility type returns. let's talk about utilities. we've got one side saying, we want to do something about affordable living costs. is that mr. miliband and labor getting to power? julian: we are nervous around
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the utility sector and have been looking to see whether we should continue to own some of these companies. what i would say is that i think both parties will be continuing to put pressure on the utilities sector to come up with a fair and balanced regime. i think the real problem is the companies themselves. they have reacted to politicians. they have taken out hedge positions. there is a slight irony there, trying to abide by the rules and not benefiting from the commodities pull back. jonathan: so much division as we had to election month. we expect that. a little bit of unity on one sector, the housing sector. have you added to any positions ahead of the election? julian: not ahead of the election.
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we were positioned for house builders. we think they've done a great job in rebuilding their balance sheets. they've come back from a very tricky position. they are now building more houses. they are getting good returns. margins 15%-20% on building a new house. great cash flow, so dividends coming for shareholders. jonathan: any names, julian? julian: taylor wimpey, they are all doing their bit to boost shareholder returns. jonathan: you can see the political tailwind for the house builders. people are saying, it is boom and bust time again. house prices yesterday slow down a little bit. rates are still at record lows. are we facing a 2007 type scenario? ceo's don't want the high price growth either. they want a stable market. julian: i think that's right.
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the house builders are aware of the sins of their fathers. they are being a lot more prudent with their distribution policy. i give you one watchword as well. when analysts transfer from talking about prices for house builders to talking about peas you are near the top. we haven't started talking about these yet. jonathan: julian chillingworth thank you for joining us. coming up, the bank of england chief economist said the bank should be ready to cut rates if needed. we will be speaking to adam posen. is this the beginning of the end for king dollar? high treason from hsbc. david bloom joins us after the break. as we head to the break, we leave you with the beginning of a solar eclipse, partial eclipse , that will cast a shadow over europe. it has a business angle. the moon will block about 80% of the sun's light. what does that mean for solar panels?
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jonathan: good morning and welcome back to "on the move." 30 minutes into the trading day. we are wrapping up the weakness this friday a little higher in london. the dax heading back to 12,000 points. 62 points higher. there are deals to talk about. let's get to our stock stories with caroline hyde. caroline: top of the leaderboards are those that are winning out by the labarge-holcim megadeal. lafarge up almost 3.5% this morning. it has been 11 months in the making. at last, they come to a compromise on management and the financial terms of the deal.
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lafarge not getting quite as sweet a deal as holcim shareholders, but everyone relieved. crh shareholders are pretty pleased as well. this stock up 3.5%. they had six point 5 billion euros of assets they wanted to get their hands on. they were waiting for the deal to go through so they could start taking canada, brazil philippines. this will help drive crh going forward. clearly a win-win when it comes to news shareholders. the biggest loser today is aerospace. soviet aerospace down almost 9.5%. the reason behind this earnings saw sales up two point 3 billion euros. the problem is with its seating. this is a company that makes equipment for aircraft. airbus and boeing have been laying on the pressure saying
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you are giving us persistent delays when it comes to seats. the deliveries are disrupting their aircraft assembly. this has been far more costly for zodiac than expected. sales doing pretty well. down go the shares. jonathan: caroline hyde, thank you very much. let's take you to the fx market. is it the beginning of the end for king dollar? that is what our next guest things. it is high treason. david bloom, hsbc global head of currency strategy, joins us right here. david: the picture should have been a bear. jonathan: it is able run and it is nearly over. are you complaining about the graphics? some are complaining about this call. david: on may 22, 2013, bernanke talks about tapering. we turn dollar bullish.
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eventually, the big bowl comes and charges. now, the fed saying, we are raising rates. it is done. i'm leaving something on the table. i've had a great party. i'm leaving a bit early. you want to stay until 2:00 in the morning and say, i did what? that is what will happen to you. we are at the beginning of the end. it is not the time to turn bullish. most of the meat of the dollar bull run is down. jonathan: i'm the first one to break the charts. the chart that stood out to me is that when the fed hikes, we don't always see the dollar rally. i will ask you, are we going to see the same movie again? 1986 19 94, 1999 2004. david: as soon as the fed raises rates, dollar doesn't perform well.
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the move into the tightening is brilliant for the dollar, as it has been historically. this is no exception. history tells us once the fed pulls the trigger, we are done. they are basically telling us they are going to raise rates. we are going to raise rates if we drop this word -- they are spoon feeding us. the last time i believed in forward guidance, it was called euro-swiss at 1.20. jonathan: the other side of this maybe the forecast is pathetic. you could see a 12.5 basis point rate hike. you may see no rate hike at all. is that another thing that plays into this story? david: yes. all we worry about is timing. now we are switching the debate about levels. as soon as we looked at the levels, we turned dovish. as soon as we looked at the timing, we were hawkish. once we look at the levels, they
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are not going up very much. therefore, the motivation behind the ball run is drying up. jonathan: how contrarian do you want to be? euro-dollar at 1.07. a lot of people slashing their forecasts for the euro parity. david: we are leaving something on the table, no doubt about that. you see these massive moves that shock people. they get the whole market into frenzy. the reality is, the u.s. economy is slowing. europe is picking up. everyone is ignoring the data. i think the fed rate hike -- we are talking about levels. the timing is basically done. the big motivation behind the dollar bull market has dried up. jonathan: we set the bar pretty low. when you look at the surprising data there was a clear divergence.
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are we expecting that to continue? david: i don't want to try and forecast currency and economics. that's impossible. what i am saying is, the u.s. data has disappointed. the market has ignored it. the european data has surprised to the upside. that is the yellow line. if you looked at euro-dollar, you wouldn't see that. the market is ignoring the cyclical data. that's the problem i have with this. the slowdown we are seeing in terms of the data is being totally ignored by the dollar. the narrative should change. i've been pushing this dollar bull story as much as everybody. the fact, i'm afraid, is getting in the way of a good story. jonathan: we had a warning, the middle of october, treasury yields dropped like there was no tomorrow and there was no liquidity either.
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we saw a similar story in your pro-swiss. a lack of liquidity in the market. the dollar move, after the fed, is a monster move. what was it all about, and what is the warning sign? david: positioning. if you look at the positioning on the data which is available to most people, you look at the positioning indicators where you had a machine that trades momentum. everyone is record long dollar. when everyone is one way, you get these extreme moves in the opposite direction. people are ignoring the data, the positioning, that the consensus is overwhelming. this is typical of the end of a bull market that sucks everyone into the story and you ignore the facts. i'm saying look, you want to have a little on the table, fine. but this is the end of the dollar bull run. that 25% rally is done.
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you want to get whipped around like you did the other night fine. i'm walking away. great party. jonathan: you had a great party, you take some money off the table, fine. a couple months ago, you said we could face the possibility of a destructive dollar rally. david: i think that people who are forecasting the continuing rally in the dollar don't realize the damage that is going to do. we've had a beautiful dollar. but the yang is coming in now the dark side of the dollar. that is when we see the dollar rallying. we are seeing emerging markets under pressure. that causes commodity prices to fall. as the dollar rises, u.s. equities come down. we've seen the u.k. talking about problems with the weak euro. we have seen sweden have to cut rates and go into qe. the negative side of a further rise in the dollar means
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different asset choices. i would say if you are dollar bullish, your asset allocation is completely different. jonathan: we talked about the dollar bull run. i want to get back to the discussion about risk. you have greece playing out in the background. you see silly headlines today with things from schaeuble saying he expects to exit the single currency. we've seen these kind of reports before. if you get these kind of negative shocks in 2015 that is a safe haven. i'm going to the swiss, the dollar. david: absolutely. i will be munching humble pie for a long time. the yield could shift aggressively. i will be wrong. there are risks out there. that is the central scenario. it is not that we are having a big steepening of the curve in the u.s.
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it is not that japan is losing control of monetary policy. these things are possible but they are not the central scenario. positioning is long dollar. you have to ask yourself, what kind of world do you believe in? do you think greece is leaving the euro? why is everyone buying european equities? there are contradictions in that. i don't think greece is leaving. it is a fascinating story but not the central scenario. the central scenario is, the bull run in the dollar is coming close to its end. jonathan: calling the death of king dollar. david bloom, you are going to stay with us. up next, i'll rate cut from the bank of england. last year, we were hiking rates. now, the chief economist says they cut may be needed. we need to make sense of this. we will do that with david bloom and adam posen. do not miss it. ♪
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jonathan: good morning and welcome back. this is "on the move." just about a mile that way, uncertainty. bank of england chief economist andy halliday says policymakers must be ready to cut interest rates even further if needed. he says the chances of a rate cut or rate rise are pretty balanced. joining us now is adam posen
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now president of the peterson institute. still with us is david bloom global head of currency strategy at hsbc. adam, you hear those comments from mr. halliday. adam: i'm not sure i would vote right now for a rate cut, but the analysis is the right one. there is no wage pressure. activity hasn't come back in a big way. employment has come back. all the domestic labor measures are under inflation pressure. you look at pounding euro -- at town-euro. jonathan: you look at that cross as well david. we look at the cable at 1.47. we hear mr. carney talking about a strong pound. david: different picture, the monetary conditions, the trade weighted currencies that policymakers look at. we don't train crosses directly. you look at cable, which adds a
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risk premium. if you look at interest rates cable should be trading at about 1.54 or so. the election is playing into it. the point is that the weak euro is starting to impact sweden. we saw it kill switzerland. it is now impacting the u.k. it has got to end. it is becoming destructive. adam: i wouldn't go quite there but i would pick up on what david is saying about the u.k. even 1.47 versus 1.54 is not that big a deviation. the swing in sterling-euro is huge. so if i'm a policy maker in the u.k., i'm much more concentrated on that. david: when we talk about cable it came from 1.72. jonathan: and you are upfront about going bearish on sterling
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and everyone thought you were crazy. david: they still think i'm crazy. i think the weakness of the euro just can't continue having impact across europe. adam: when you say -- bad things can go on for a very long time. you may not like it. mainly, euro weakness is the problem. as we had already been discussing, i think we are looking at the bottom being hit. for most people in euro area, the bottom has been hit. we are coming off the bottom. i don't see downward pressure continuing. jonathan: adam bring it back to london. this discussion about wages is something you spent a lot of time on at the peterson institute. magic wage growth not coming through. why should the bank of england be so concerned about adam: the labor market? -- about the labor market? adam: should we be concerned as
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they were three years ago? no. as i argue, it seems like they are working the case now, there is still a lot of slack there. you've got people that are underemployed. there's no competition for workers outside the city. it is not so much that the bank of england needs to be concerned. it has got to be concerned that the major items in any economy is wage market. the wage market is not showing signs of inflation. david: why is this? we are seeing this plunging unemployment rate, which the central banks said -- we slashed through those levels. no wage growth. adam: i think there's two answers. neither is satisfactory. one is, this is a long-term trend.
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even when times are good -- [indiscernible] that was true in the mid to thousands. the other thing is we've overestimated the markets. the unemployment numbers they overstate the labor market. you've got all these people in part-time jobs and underemployment. that is true in the u.k. as much as the u.s. jonathan: and record levels of self employed in the u.k. i want to take you back to the headline inflation number. we could see negative inflation this year in the u.k. almost unthinkable 12 months ago. do we face a disinflation or a boom or a deflationary bust? is that something we could seriously be looking at? adam: that is where i would be voting for a rate cut or further accommodation.
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that is the reason i'm a little bit hesitant. just as when i was on the committee and we agreed to look through the inflation, it was a temporary thing. i think it is ok for the u.k. to say even if it gets down to negative, it may be a temporary thing. part of the job is to look through the ups and downs. i don't think there's really a risk at the moment of deflation in the u.k. david: it seems to me that all central bankers around the world are capitulating on inflation. we have seen rate cut inflation. do you think that's an intellectual capitulation? adam: it is a fair question. it is not as much the oil price. in general, you are hoping to look through the oil price. the oil price matters, but it doesn't as early spiraled downward. as you were saying before the break, a better placement is
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this dynamic of weakness in europe spilling over into places like sweden, switzerland emerging markets. that is having huge capital flows around the world. that's where i think the other piece of this is. i wouldn't call it capitulation. it is just a recognition that you aren't controlling the long rate as much as you were. jonathan: bridgwater coming out with a note, saying that we could face 1937 type scenarios for the equity market and citing policy areas of the last couple years. i look at the ecb, the hikes in the first half of 2011. could we be contemplating the bank of england doing the same thing? a hike that is too soon? david: the point is we've been making -- sweden cut rates. japan raise rates. they are now doing qa.
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the ecb rose rates twice. the u.s. economy is slowing and they are determined to raise rates. these are the questions that i'm asking, which are slightly different. adam: i would make a slight distinction between u.k. and the other examples that david mentioned and the fed. u.s. economy is slowing but it is slowing from a pretty good nominal pace. it is bad recovery, but only by standards of the past. u.k. case, there's an issue where it looks like the ecb or sweden, there's some fragility. if you make a move, you make a mistake by raising too soon. you could set yourself backwards. in the uk's, i don't think they should be raising soon. i believe that the economy is robust enough. i don't think it is the end of the world. jonathan: here's the conversation i want to have with you guys.
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why not just go by 12.5 basis points. just move. is that something you would both agree with? adam: i would not agree with that because you don't want to just give in to the sort of thing. you've got people in the committee saying, i've never raise rates. that is not a way to set policy. i think in the fed's case, you could make an argument that if they just raised once, they are not going to be that far off. it could demonstrate to the rest of the world that the end of the world isn't nine. if you are the u.k., the ecb, you are still more fragile. jonathan: plays into what you said about the fed earlier. we have been obsessed with the timing of the first hike. david: the market can't chew gum and walk at the same time. we don't look at two things. we talked about tapering.
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whether they are going to do 15 or five. it is all timing. now that obsession with timing is gone. we are looking at levels. once you look at levels, it is not so bullish on the dollar. adam: i very strongly backed the idea that you've got to think of the fed's move not just in terms of the start date, but the end-date. the end state, they've been clear now, is a lower rate of interest than they used to be. that's important. the fed has come down now. there's going to be a slower pace of rate rises. david: for me the yield curve doesn't stephen because that would be very dangerous. the market would be crushed. i don't think they are going to. that would be very bad for emerging markets. our reports show that when you get these steepening's, markets get crashed.
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we are under pressure in terms of brazil, mexico, and turkey. once you don't get that steepening of the curve, as adam says, everything is under control. then you don't get any type of -- adam: i know we are out of time, but one thing. jonathan: only one? adam: the em worries, the first is, take the fact that when markets are worried about em to say this whole currency war is massively oversold most of these emerging markets are hurting worse with the strong dollar and declining commodities than they were with the weak dollar. i don't like lumping together brazil and mexico. i know you've researched this. there's a lot more differentiation. jonathan: in the two minutes -- david: one thing. i totally agree with you.
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it doesn't care about differentiation. that is what concerns me. if the curve shifts up, the market starts thinking that mexico and brazil are the same. they are not, but that is how markets work. adam: i give you guys a little bit more credit than that. for a month, they treated all em as the same, then they distinguished. jonathan: final question, the zero lower bound, doesn't even exist? is there a floor? david: -- adam: there is a floor in the sense that we wish we had a more dependable instrument. when you are buying and selling, it is not as dependable as when you are moving on interest rates. that is just a wish. you have to deal with the hand you are dealt. there isn't a floor in the sense that swiss national bank are demonstrating.
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you start at some point getting into diminishing returns. there's technical issues. jonathan: are we there already? adam: not yet. it is not just about -0.25. the main point is everybody you talk to about unconventional monetary policy has to eat their words. buying and selling of securities is going to the conventional monetary policy for the next several years. jonathan: that is the call. thank you, david bloom and adam posen. the real headlines apparently are in the skies this morning. if you look out your window, we leave you with the beginning of a solar eclipse that will cast a shadow over europe. the ftse 100 up by 12 points this friday. 12,000 points, almost there on the dax. the stoxx 600 almost at an all-time high. good luck for the rest of your day. have an awesome weekend.
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