John West
@jwestjourno
M&A, macro and politics. Global Commentary Editor, Mergermarket. Any views expressed are regrettably my own. One half of @illexplainlater.bsky.social - a Doctor Who podcast.
Who’s going to explain to the ‘person briefed’ that this isn’t devolution, it’s an office move?
All this and more in my weekly Mergermarket column Continental Drift. You made it! END 🧵
This Mergermarket data shows the “China syndrome” impacting dealmaking in Europe.
Genuinely waiting for when a centre left - or centre right, come to think of it - premier of a major European nation looks at what comes of accommodating the far right on immigration and comes out swinging.
Oh, an even better one. Really, Morgan should just have picked up the phone.
What could finally clip the US stock market’s wings? Inflation is eroding corporate margins just as execs at the likes of Uber are weighing whether their AI use is more performative than profitable. Any focus on AI ROI will temper hyperscaler growth - just as consumers also feel the pinch.
As with Sunak’s BBC Political Thinking podcast where he said elderly care costs should not be socialised, the question for Blair is this: so healthcare costs will rise; social care costs will rise. “More involvement for the private sector” doesn’t tell us where the money’s coming from.
Streeting has performed a service here. Manchesterism was meant to be Burnham’s defining act in rooting down “market-friendly socialism”. Turns out he is as much of a weather vane as he was last time he was on the national stage.
I think there’s hope for a more mature politics à la Norway, where PMs frequently express a desire to fully join the EU, without the world collapsing for them expressing that opinion while acknowledging there would need to be democratic consent.
To resign but not stand is ironically the kind of “piss everyone off” stance Starmer excels in.
Funnily enough, I wrote this to a pal yday. Not far off your own household analogy.
@dsquareddigest.bsky.social in The Unaccountability Machine writes very persuasively about this.
“Heads I win, tails you lose.” European M&A is on a tearing run even as macro clouds darken. Yet IPOs can’t catch a break. I break this down with Mergermarket’s Global Head of ECM Sam Kerr in the latest episode of Dealcast. Listen now! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...
Honestly, I saw this in The Times last week and thought literally the same thing.
I had a terrible restaurant experience in Luxembourg this weekend. But at least penning the Google review was cheaper than therapy. REVIEW: Come à La Maison Italian Beautyfood share.google/CM9UuvFUmEcV...
One is a sinister, dark-helmeted monster feared by children…and the other…
I do basically think unless you’re watching Bond films on the same level as Alan Partridge, you’ve made a category error.