When he makes a joke, he signals it with an emoticon.
He signalled it in an editorial following the publication of Lord Justice Leveson's report that recommended statutory underpinning for the new regulator.
But he signalled it was not the end of his ambitions for an overhaul of benefit laws in Europe as he described the judgment from the European court of justice as a "good step in the right direction".
Since he first signalled it last May, to when the "taper" was first announced last December, emerging economies have been braced for the inevitable.
The ball was duly retrieved for him -- he said he signaled to have it thrown into the dugout -- and when he returned to the dugout, the first-base coach Mick Kelleher asked him if he wanted to keep it.
At the same time he signalled that it would, in any event, consider taking the case to the court of appeal.
To Yisrael Beitenu, his mainly Russian and mainly secular partner, he signalled that it would.That second message is what most Israelis, Orthodox (though not ultra-Orthodox) as well as secular, want to hear.
"We have a motion-capture camera placed above the filter, and all you have to do is to signal it," he says, demonstrating by waving in the air, but only once, like a taciturn drowning man.
So when the local attorney general got his request from Morgenthau, he signaled to Valmet that it had to cooperate.
"These may look like small goodwill gestures, but they are an important part of the trust-building process which North Korea has signalled it values," he adds.
When Bernanke announced that the Fed would be investing in the mortgage market indefinitely, he signaled that he's had it with short-term fixes.
