moncler's mega debut, shares maker.r the ski wear alive with the chairman, a newly minted billionaire. -- we are live with the chairman. >> lady in waiting as angela merkel appointed germany's first female defense minister. >> big brother goes shopping. gearing up to use face recognition to pitch products, and walmart will also be helping to write the code that protects the very same shoppers.

morning to our viewers in europe, good evening to those in asia and a warm welcome to those just waking up the -- in the united states. i'm guy johnson. >> i'm francine lacqua. this is "the pulse." live from european headquarters in london. >> moncler shares surging in the public debut, large is offering for an italian company since 2010. european business correspondent caroline hite joins us with the latest. it seems investors rushed to get hands -- their hands on the stocks. surged over 40% in the open. demand.ng they raised about three quarters of a billion dollars but orders were put in in excess of $20 billion -- 20 billion euros, and that was just institutional. retailers also want a chunk of the company. up goes the market valuation. it now worth 3.5 billion euros. shares priced at the top of the range. it made a new billionaire out of

chairman remo ruffini who keeps a 27.5% stake. this time it was the private equity holders cashing in. the likes of carlyle group. it looks like they could have catch -- cashed in that much more considering they are up almost 42% once again. a bit of a running theme for these sheryl -- shares. like twitter. are they being underpriced, priced to sell well? but optimism the economy is improving and many will buy into this luxury brand. >> most people by india a puffer. i guess that is the problem. how do you expand the business beyond a puffer? >> they are very expensive. they don't have to sell to many to make it profitable. $3000, would it cost since beware, but they also have the sunglasses range and they have been expanding. they have been looking at m&a this year. the chairman says they may be

company.knitwear not just wholly dependent on ski wear. but things were slightly warmer climates as well. but it is a company just expanding and sales growth shows it. we saw sales up 35% last year, far better than some of the italian luxury rivals like janel he -- cuccinelli. also the story of expanding the amount of units. 33% of the sales are in italy but you are now looking at emerging markets, expansion and the likes of russia, a user, america. that is where they would like to see investment. addicting 20 new stores a year, which is quite an expansion. europe --ales in >> more than doubled, for europe, middle east, africa.

we see the region turning the corner. not only luxury names but other companies as well. clearly, a lot more optimism buying into investment in the region. ipo's have double this year. >> caroline hite, thank you very much, indeed. moving on to germany. the nation has a government now. gave its overwhelming support for the grand coalition, joining chancellor angela merkel's party in government. last night, the ministers were divided up. david tweed has more from berlin. merkel comes out in a nice position but in some ways the spd does as well. run is through what post they got. comes ony merkel strong. uble, it was my

guaranteed he would get the post but he certainly gets it. he is, after all, the seco- most popular politician in germany after angela merkel. the other one to watch is sigmund gabrielle, the chairman of the spd. he has reinforced his position as leader of the spd party. he becomes the vice chancellor but he also gets a very interesting ministry because they will be felt the economy ministry and also give him the portfolio for the whole transition from nuclear power to renewable energy. that is some of the key policy initiatives of this government. that is a very strong position for him. the other interesting to look member whoa cdu moves from labor ministry and takes over defense ministry. a very tricky ministry. things can go wrong. but she is being dubbed as the crown princess of german politics.

if angela merkel were to step down, say, halfway through her third term, which has been speculated, potentially von der leyen might be groomed to take her place. >> she is pretty feisty. it will be interesting to see what she would do with the job. about -- he has always had a political element to his career and is taken a job back in berlin, fairly junior, leaving a fairly senior position at the ecb. why and what are the implications? >> very interesting what he has done. he cited the reason coming back to berlin. he has two toddlers, so he wants to spend time with his family, so he is also a spd man, politically if he wants a future as a german politician, he will have to go out and run because he is not elected, but he will take over the job as the vice labor minister. in the fpd's most

cherished ministry, labor. -- spd's favorite ministry. that would be responsible for rolling out the national minimum wage in germany and also changes to the pension. so we actually put himself in a key spd ministry. one will wonder where -- whether it is used to build up a spd base so he could go on and get himself elected. indeed.s very much, our europe editor david tweed joining us from berlin. protests continued in the ukraine over the weekend ahead of p the presidents's weekend with russian presidentutin tomorrow -- president putin tomorrow. ryan, what is going on in the streets? >> what is striking over the weekend is not the numbers. the numbers are amazing. more than 200,000 people on the streets of the ukrainian capital. but we had for the first time competing groups of demonstrators. these are people who do not disagree on the finer points of the trade pact that the europe

-- ukraine makes with the european union and russia but they have different views on the national identities and values. the first time we saw 30,000 people come out in support of the government, and support of a ukraine that in the future would be more aligned with russia and the european union. while they were only their for a few hours, and there were talks was thee bussed in, it first visual manifestation we have had of this silent, perhaps majority, certainly minority of people in the country who think that russian, -- russia, because orthodoxslavs and christians are more like them and going out and expressing that. and then like we have seen for the last several weeks, 200,000 people on independence square voicing opposition to their government and their support for joining the european union. mccain senator john addressing them, flying union, saying the united states is with ukraine and russia stay out. again, going back

to the issue of values. the ukrainian prime minister had their own demonstration saying -- wantsean union wans us to legalize gay marriage. are we ready for that? i don't think so. it is not just about trade but values. >> the latest on that court -- ukraine protest. talk about facial recognition software. it may be the next big thing. among a and walmart are number of companies planning to use this technology for security or probably more likely, tailored sales pitches. and they are helping u.s. regulators write the rules on how this may be used. hans nichols joins us now from berlin with more. the technology is advancing. it needs rules. and the ways the rules are going to be set -- the technology companies are going to be involved. be offeringgoing to their helpful guidance. what will happen is in washington, at the commerce

department, companies like facebook, countries like walmart will be trying to draft the initial stages of this rule. the final version of it will not be out until june. a lot of people will be one union. what they want and what retailers are saying is they don't want to strangle technology in its infancy. they want to see where it can go before there are really strict regulations. remember, all the roles we are talking about right now would be voluntary, rolls on the road, guidance. es of the road, guidance. there is talk here in germany about tighter privacy restrictions because when you look at facial recognition, it doesn't seem to sort of" and take a little bit of you and put it in places you might not want it to be. essentially, we are talking about algorithms. they scan everything out there and take a look and each phase has a mathematical signature. and then from the signature they try to extract the face. then they have the face print. and imagine the phase print with

a database of other known faces. -- then they match the face print. at what point of a certain it is you? there is not a lot of certainty. they do have certainty on gender, whether man or woman, and they can to age. the question of whether it is you or someone else, they are not quite there yet. that i suspect, technology being what it is, we will be there. >> we will leave it there. thanks very much, indeed. our international correspondent hans nichols. what else are we watching? today google will attempt to dismiss a u.k. court case. a group of british internet users allege the company collected personal data against their will. they save the search giant tracks the habits of iphone, web rousers and even when they have opted out. google has also been fined tens of millions of dollars by u.s. regulators over the issue. softbank shares fell today. it comes after "the wall street reported the sprint

unit is considering a bid for t- mobile. they must study antitrust concerns before pushing ahead with the bid. the chairman of italy's market broketor said blackrock rules. that it failed to disclose its stake in a carry out was worth half of 10%. blackrock says it has eight percent voting shares. minted billionaire remo ruffini, moncler's chairman is next. and still ahead, a new report talks -- says the housing market will cool in the new year. we will talk about why. ♪

>> good morning. welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." we are live from bloomberg's european headquarters in london. ski wear of luxury maker moncler are searching. this is the first-day trading. joining me from élan is chairman remo ruffini. the stock price is gaining 41%. when we speak to analysts, they want to know about your strategy for the future, expansion plans. how many more shops will be open? what is the one thing you want to focus on in the next two years? >> yes, well, as you know, my strategy -- i mean, the company,

we have a very long story. i bought the company in 2003. 2003, really starting basically from scratch. the production, distribution. now i think we have a strategy. we made a lot of things in the last 10 years. we have to improve on the strategy day by day. i think we can sell what we call the filter between us and our customers. distributor, franchising. now we are really in contact with the customer. we have feedback daily from our stores. it is to stay tuned with my client. and expansion, we have a lot of places where the perception of the brand is very high but we

don't have a store yet. think of all eastern europe. feedback from our store in milan, paris, and london, that the russian customers are very strong. we don't have a store yet in moscow. so, was going to ask you -- are you focusing first on store expansion and then maybe accessories and everything else to build on the strength of the brand you have now? again, you know, i was really concentrating the last 10 years talking about the jacket. the quality, to build up a really special product. a couple of categories for us that are very moncler. thinking about netware or shoes -- knitware or shoes. really care about making

because weroduct, want to compete with the special people. we don't want to put a label on any product. we want to really make something special for our customer. this process takes time. that is why i say to everyone -- four moncler come i have a long- term vision. moncler, i have a long- term vision. with something strong, and with the strategy we have other cities and other products to build up. companymeone in your miss priced an item, a jacket, by 41%, would you be annoyed with them --if somebody mispriced an item by 41%, would you be annoyed with them? >> i never pushed the bottom or top line, i really cared to build a strong company.

we have a fantastic team that quality,rks on iraq -- product, distribution. how to communicate with the client, the market. numbers -- i'm really not familiar, but today is the first day. i think 41% is a very good number. i don't want to watch the share every day. step is fivext years. i really want to build up a strong company and strong roots and not wanting to share every day and see what is going on. >> interesting you say that. do you think as a public company you will have a different relationship with your customer? customer, ink my company, private equity owned 60% of the share. i always say to the people the work of my company, the major shareholder is our customer.

i think it is very important not to betray them. stay very close to my customer. i am going to talk with my investors exactly as i talk with private equity the last 7, 8, 9 years. very transparent. show our strategy, show the wonder -- numbers. as i was clear in the roadshow, we have a long-term vision. we really care about our customer. >> is it going to be difficult opening new shops and places that are hot? i think you either have a shopping sao paole or look to open one, -- in são paulo or play to open one, the people associated with ski wear. is it difficult and emerging- market? >> it is the beginning. we have to stay tuned. it is tough to launch in summer when we are ready to make something. i think when you go into our store in april and may, you feel

you are in a monthly store. having said that, emerging- market for us is quite good. numbers, top left, is hong kong. in hong kong, the weather is very hot. but it is very, very successful. we have another store in los --eles am aware the climate in los angeles, whether climate is hot again, and we are very successful. i think the world has changed. you have to follow your customer. they travel. our product is travel. think about our jacket in summer, 150 grams,, you can put in your bag in hong kong and then you travel to japan and you take the jacket out the back. hong kong is one of our first markets. number two out of our 130 stores. something. miami, we have good feedback. >> one quick question.

do you think now that you have a currency to spend, your shares, that mergers and acquisition in an air -- is an area you would be advised to pursue? are you interested in buying another company to accelerate a different part of your business? >> i don't think i want to buy another company or another brand. but maybe thinking aboutknitwear -- thinking about wear, maybe i will buy a manufacturer. building up a company is not easy. culture is very long. knit could be an opportunity to buy a manufacturer. we have in italy a very good knit manufacturers. this could be an opportunity to speed and little bit this process. but anyway, very concentrated on moncler. >> remo ruffini there, chairman of moncler.

we have to see you in the studio very soon. coming up -- >> the feud between adidas and sports direct, why they are clashing over chelsea football club. coming up next on "the pulse." ♪

sports directeen and adidas is escalating, clashing over chelsea football

club's kids. manus, tell us what is going on. >> a volume discounts are both sports direct will be denied kit.s to the chelsea and adidas says you are undercutting us, we sell them for $75 and you aren't selling them $15 cheaper. you are not going to get this kits. from sports direct -- a rather err ceo, a billionaire simply put "i don't quite like the fact adidas is suggesting my stores are scruffy." buildssibility is he made a steak in adidas. he did it before in 2007. once bitten, twice shy. rather piqued, a

mike ashley coming after you. street"wolf of wall film starring leonardo dicaprio comes out christmas and we will talk to the party boy the character is based on. ♪

>> welcome back to "the pulse." live from bloomberg european headquarters in london, i'm francine lacqua. >> i'm guy johnson. these are top handle -- headlines. angela merkel will be sworn in tomorrow for her third term as german chancellor. schaeuble asang finance minister and also she points the first female defense minister. talk to russia on a customs union. thousands of demonstrators

rallied in kiev ahead of the meeting. many want the ukraine to sign the eu trade pact. eu ministers meet today in brussels. a chinese manufacturing gauge unexpectedly fell to a three- month low. the limit every reading of 50.5 came in below estimates. the number above 50 indicates expansion. stocks extend losses after a report the final reading will be released next month. i's out from p europe. market editor manus cranny at the touchscreen with more. >> a rather spirited turnaround. if you take an overall complexion of what is going on, manufacturing is expanding across the region. not doing so well here in france but whatever happens up germany in theory should be good for the rest of europe because a growth in the heartland of europe which permeates across

the rest of the european nation begins to rebalance. that would be the upside, the optimistic view of what is going on here. we started off on the downside in terms of the equity market. chinese manufacturing data at a three-month low. taper thepaper -- date as we run to the fomc this week. debate. march is a very long time away before using movement from the federal reserve. u.s. futures higher. s&p 500 indicating a third of a percent up. capacity utilization, which is actually a very important number. boring butbit capacity utilization in the united states of america tells you how much slack areas. how much capacity the economy has in terms of what the fed needs to do next. u.s. futures indicating a little bit higher. in terms of the reaction in the

currency market, you can't keep a good thing down, can you? 1.3771, is how the euro trades on the back of the german data as well as the french beta. an overnight, we will see what the -- has to say. they are targeting 85 as a currency level. >> let's talk about another market. we have had more insight. propertybiggest website. ryan is here to digest the details force. shock and horror. london is going to go up but not quite as fast. >> the london property market, the headline is, is set to cool, according to writemove -- rightmove. askingrecast six percent prices as opposed to 10.5%, what we saw in 2013.

if you said, still above inflation and wage growth. not too shabby. but it does detract a little from the whole argument that we are in a bubble that is about to burst because there is this trickle-down effect from central london to the rest of the country. >> let's talk a little bit why the upper end of the market is expected to slow. it has a disproportional weig hting. one less 30 million pound house, it has quite an impact on the numbers and why would -- will we be selling fewer those -- fewer of those types of houses? >> in central london -- that is a lot of the properties in central london, bought by ateign orders -- foreigners the moment. right now if you are a non- resident you can buy a second home in london and sell it and not pay capital gains on that. in 2013, that will change. you will have to pay between 18% and 28%, like the u.k. resident

to sell their second properties. in most cases it would be 28% because we are talking about higher income earners. so the exemption is going away. the argument is that would be less of an incentive for farmers to come in and buy property in the central london market. -- for foreigners to come in and buy property. you can avoid the tax by not selling property, by living in it or renting it out. article hedges -- >> you kind of wonder whether or not it will be the price worth paying. >> the treasury estimates over the course of a couple of years they could make 100 million pounds in tax savings off of this. that is not a huge amount of money when you talk about the size of the market. >> ryan chilcote, the latest details of the london property market. fran, back over to you. shares on italia the rise after blackrock reports on voting shares. we have been talking a lot about the story.

what is blackrock's game here? >> a good question. one thing we don't know is whether blackrock holds the state, which is says it is about 70% -- 7.8%, on its own or on behalf of an unseen mystery client who is trying to influence this very consequential general meeting of shareholders we expect on friday, which will contain, among other things, a proposal to oust the board of telecom italia overinvested complaints on how it is operating in brazil. into a lot of factors come a head all at once within telecom italian. it is really unclear where it will land. >> a difficult company to get to grips with because it has had a spat of bad news. >> market capitalization is about 12 billion euros, which is sort of ridiculous for a large european telecommunications operator, especially one with big operation in brazil like telecom italia has. but it is unrelenting bad news.

there is bad regulatory news. an effort to spin off the fixed line network, the copper line that had to be shelved, which was going to potentially fix up telecom italia's balance sheet. and of course, broader worries about the italian economy which has been a very difficult place to be over the last few years. this is a troubled company but clearly there is some value in it. people have phones. people have home internet subscriptions. italy, for all of his troubles, is a wealthy country. so blackrock and others are making a bet that in the long run there is a future in telecom italia. >> what can you tell me about the brazilian operation? the vote is this friday. who ownse an investor about five percent who is trying to prevent what he sees is a 'sre sale of telecom italia brazilian unit. what is going on here is there is an expectation in the you -- in the new year it may get sold or broken up among other players

in the brazilian market. where it gets tricky, particularly for regulators, is telefonica control telecom italia. it is the largest shareholder, indirectly. also operates in brazil. you can see how the regulator looks at this, even one that is not too conspiratorially minded and say this is a bit funny. there is a question of how this relationship, come -- can possibly be resolved in a way that can satisfy both shareholders and regulators in brazil and italy. on theave a shareholder program this week, and that was his point. it seems a little unfair to have both guys on the board. so much.nk you just 20 minutes from now, "surveillance" with tom keene. what are we looking at today? >> good morning. it is a monday morning. roger altman will stop by and we will look at the linkage of politics. former deputy treasury secretary. and wall street, the

way forward in 2014 for roger altman's wall street. he is with evercore partners. he what time to touch him he volcker rule -- touch on the volcker rule. and kevin roberts will join us, saatchi andondon's saatchi. the controversial theme, the death of marketing. surprisedr beyoncé the world with the release of her album friday and over the a huge, it has been success for her, almost anti- marketing. >> you market yourself, right? social media. she believes that her self. the marketing becomes the power --it used to be the person market. deal.uge she sold well over 300,000 units -- albums and not singles.

beyoncé really taking over the direction of the columbia records effort. be about, my hero, peter o'toole, dip it cannot convey what it was like hearing my parents argue whether i could go see "lawrence of arabia" a few years ago. >> i wish i could have heard that debate. [laughter] who won. >> my mother won. my father was right. it was gory, hugely controversial at the time, the blood and the gore. to break, speaking of beyoncé's surprise album, it could be third-largest debut. one of the tracks she recorded with hubby jay-z. "drunken love "the pulse." love."nken >> ♪

♪

41% is a very good number. theally don't want to watch share every day. i think my next step is five years. i really want to build up a strong company with strong roots and not watching the share every day and seeing what is going on. >> we were certainly watching the share price today. that was moncler chairman remo

ruffini became to us earlier. the italian luxury ski wear maker started trading today and opened 41% higher than the ipo price. the share sale has made ruffini a billionaire. let's talk about some of the other company news. "the hobbit" sequel brought in more than $74 million in its opening weekend. the film led u.s. and canadian ticket sales. but it still lags behind the predecessor would open with nearly $85 million. sia planning to sign a major airbus plane order in paris this week. --will expand fleets commit amidst rising -- it said its order of 24 airbuses was not enough. facebook and walmart among companies planning to use facial recognition or security or for tailored sales pitches.

a voluntaryl draft code of conduct on how images and -- can be used. in the u.k., tesco employing face scanning technology at gasoline stations to taylor advertisements. for more, francine. partner withg in a -- ventures and also our correspondent hans nichols. what are the privacy people saying? they are not too happy. >> privacy people are outraged, especially over the most recent news, and that is companies like walmart and facebook will be working with u.s. regulators. be meetingin fact, today in washington to try and figure out some guidelines, some rules of the road. though far this is just voluntary. the schools of the road would be just voluntary but it is the beginning of a process of how facial recognition technology and the actual data points, face prints, how would will be gathered and how it will be stored -- these rules of the road will be voluntary.

interested to see what hussein has to say. >> facial recognition, we are just at the beginning. we don't know the full potential and how it can be used to market. >> very early days. i look at this as facebook -- to extend the platform. they allow you to log into the website -- and now the same thing in physical storage. >> it will go beyond facebook, right? we are hearing that some people stations try to recognize you so they can have catered ads. history so purchase retailers can make informed decisions. amazon can do it reasonably well based on your tracking history online but retailers don't have the same kind of information and they can't merge it with what they are doing -- you are doing online. a way to fuse off-line and off -- online. it is minority report -- "minority report" in 2013. >> how far away are we from this

technology providing more than gender and age? we played around with facebook -- it thinks george washington was my grandfather and my grandfather and george washington did not look anything alike. how close are we to having good technology? >> i think we are early days. has beencognition around around 7-10 years and there have been other people doing it that it has not get into any time the scale because you cannot train it on a data set that was big enough. it only happened in recent years with services like google and more importantly, facebook. keep aggregating the data and run real statistical analysis. i think it will run leaps and bounds over the next 2, 3, 4, 5 years but it will be a little time before it becomes really accurate. >> do we have to be careful about how to use it? this is amazing technology. if it is too widespread, is there a danger? >> a double-edged sword. it can be used for good and bad. it is a question of how it is

lamented around. the question is what the retailer is going to be using the technology for. enter informed decisions? in some case, the markets as you give up your privacy if you get something back. we all give up privacy in gmail because it stores so much e-mail for us and gives us such a good interface. the same thing with google. there is always a sliding scale and the scale on one side is value and on the other, privacy. if somebody does a good job you are usually willing to give up your privacy. >> facebook is really at the forefront. we have to give away a lot of the privacy because, great, it will tag me easier. >> if any of the services get out of hand and they use of the things they did not tell you about, there is usually a right. as long as they stay in the bounds and don't try to push the envelope you are usually ok with it. it is when things get spooky, like when the ad starts following you around the internet you get a little

creeped out, asking, what exactly do they have? and there is a publicly traded company where that is their business, it is to generate ads and follow you around the internet to get you to come back and finish your purchase. >> a little the creepy. iremember the first time realize this, i had a kid and all of a sudden i was getting ads for pampers. hussein, and we had hans nichols as well. >> let's talk about today's number. 430,000, how many copies of beyoncé's surprise new album being sold just a day after it was released. it is a digital story. you don't have to print these things out. though board but it's missing a pricey self title album will sell more than 600,000 by tuesday, on track to be the biggest debut album by a female artist since taylor swift's "r

ed" what wasn't too long ago. we will talk to the real wolf of wall street him and he tells us what you think of the new film, and more importantly, the state of wall street. ♪

>> good morning, everybody. welcome back. you are watching "the pulse." we will turns what our attention to. data out from the eurozone. aggregate number better-than- expected. break it down, though, and you have seen a big red the between germany and france. -- a big spread between germany and france. it will continue to have a political dimension. later on.aks particularly as -- going from brussels to berlin. >> one of the most anticipated movies of the year stars leonardo dicaprio. the one-time financial alpha dog whose drug fueled rise and fall became the stuff of legend -- bloomberg sat down with belfort himself. >> my name is jordan belford.

the year i turned 26, i made $49 million -- three shy of a million dollars a week. went, i brought my sanity with me. in the movie, hopefully they will get this cautionary tale, almost a blueprint of what to do and what not to do. when i was at the bottom and everyone was writing about what a terrible person i was, i was probably not as bad as people were saying and when i was on top, i probably was not as good as people were saying. >> greed, for lack of a better word, is good. a fictional character, gordon gekko, sexy as hell and you stood up and said greed is good and a lot of people brought in -- bought into the notion of it is noble making as much as you can as fast as he can and not focusing on who gets hurt. it is not true.

i was taken enough drugs to supply an elephant each day. i am not making any money on the books or the movie beauty the only way i will is if everyone got paid back, i would be happy to make money. but until then, i don't want to make the money. as a broker or trader, you really are not creating anything. you are trading off of the ingenuity of other people. it is very easy to feel like there is nothing tangible attached to your profit. then you have something emptiness to the money you make and you try to attach value to life by spending. someone was going in that direction i would make sure i counsel him, creating value of focusing on the long-term instead of instant gratification. >> it has the feel of "catch me at leonardolooking dicaprio. i am wondering if that will be as good as "wall street." speaks so fast and is

so focused that a little bit scary. hans nichols is back what -- with what you need to know. "the willful wall street" comes out christmas day. >> my question on wall street is what is the most over quoted movie on trading floors -- "greed is good" or something shack"?ddy guy, i don't know one -- what your favorite lines are. >> a theme that probably runs through the whole thing as well. >> trading places is good, never thought of that one. moncler, gaining 42% at the open. >> it obviously popped. good numbers for them. i think to watch for the trading day, later on in the u.s., the

house of representatives and senate will be voting on a budget deal. does nothing on the debt ceiling. there will be a lot of backpacking in washington but don't take it too seriously. >> thank you. we are back in two. ♪

house will become a divided senate in 2014. gridlock ships on capitol hill. will the fed meeting be ben bernanke's last as chairman?

lackberry, nokia, scarlet bottom all. good morning, everyone, we are "bloomberg surveillance" live, it is monday, december 16. scarlet fu and michael mckee is joining us. you are going to brief us on this strange monday. there is economic news of two sorts print euro area manufacturing is growing at a faster pace than anticipated led by germany. the french economy collapsed overnight. their manufacturing numbers are bad. chinese manufacturing are not particularly good, falling to a three-month low, indicating the country is vulnerable to a slowdown. we