♪ rishaad: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. a shocking attack rocks london. the healthcare battle continues in washington. the u.k. and the european union set dates to deal with brexit, and the trump trade hits a speed bump. >> it is like someone flipped a switch this morning that said risk off. rishaad: explaining why he held out against a rate hike. >> the data is moving sideways. i am asking, what is the rush to raise rates? rishaad: finance ministers pushback against protectionism. >> i'm in discussion about a free trade agreement.

>> if what is on the table is not good for mexico, mexico will step away from nafta. rishaad: and tech leaders push forward with grand plans locally and globally. >> i called for a moonshot of 5 million apprenticeships. >> 12,000 startups a day in china. 12,000 a day. rishaad: it is all ahead on "bloomberg best." rishaad: hello, and welcome. i am rishaad salamat. this is "bloomberg best." this week was marked by intense political disputes and startling events from washington to westminster to seoul to points in between with significant impact on financial markets. on monday, attention was focused on capitol hill.

joe: fbi director james comey testified on the russian interference in the election, and alleged wiretapping. mr. comey: with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him from the prior administration, i have no information that supports those tweets. and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. joe: what is the number one thing we know right now that we did not know yesterday? >> well, a couple of things. director comey's admission that there has been an investigation ongoing since july is causing a lot of democrats to gnash their teeth in washington. the blanket denial that there is any evidence to support the assertions that president obama had trump tower wiretapped. those are things that people have been talking about.

when you have the director of the fbi and the head of the national security agency putting that on record in front of congress, it makes a big difference. matt miller: the top five contenders in the french presidential race took the stage for their first debate. they locked horns in a 3.5 hour face-off. >> the best way to send a signal is to cut off all the suction pumps of immigration. >> the track you are falling into with your provocations is to divide society. >> a poll taken after the debate has macron is the most convincing. talk to me about where the euro did well. trading 107, pushing 108. what does the move tell us about market positioning? >> it was steady and gradual. it was not a sudden spike after the debate, which implies investors were waiting to see

what the poll reaction is, what the reports are. that implies it has more legs today. euro-dollar has broken, so there is not immediate resistance. euro-yen is forming a bullish formation. that implies more upside as well. that is after a breakdown on friday, so kind of negates a previous bearish signal, which makes it even more positive. scarlet fu: stocks, the dollar, government bond yields all retreating this tuesday as investors pull back on the post-election trade. tranquility was shattered as the s&p 500 declined the most in five months. the dow losing 238 points on the day. the nasdaq off by 1.8%. we also see small caps declining. >> you ask what is causing it and you get 10 different reasons. there are obvious ones. the market has gone so long without a noticeable dip. i think 109 days without the s&p dropping 1% on a closing basis.

it is like someone flipped a switch this morning that said risk off. >> there have been months where there is nothing but improving sentiment and data. given that the stock market has added several trillion dollars in market capitalization on the back of that good news, anything that would raise the specter of slippage in the timetable towards a fiscal reform, fiscal package, might cause doubts to creep into the market. i think that is what we are seeing today. >> breaking news in london. shots have been fired outside parliament in westminster. at least two people are being treated according to a bloomberg reporter on the scene. police have said it was a terror attack. >> the attack started when a car was driven over westminster bridge, hitting and injuring members of the public, including three police officers. the car then crashed near

parliament, and at least one man armed with a knife, continued the attack and tried to enter parliament. >> lawmakers were kept in the building for hours. may was voting at the time. she was whisked away in a jaguar. we think to her residence is a secure location. >> the location of the attack was no accident. the terrorists chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions, and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy, and freedom of speech. >> london's worst terror attack in more than a decade left four people dead, including one police officer. at least 40 people have been injured in the attack. police have made seven arrests. >> we heard from the police commissioner saying the arrests and investigations are continuing. they believe the attacker was inspired by international terrorism, but that he acted alone.

they are asking the media not to disclose the name of the attacker while the investigation continues. >> what does this do to the brexit negotiations? >> i think most people do not see that part of the battleground, if i can use an unfortunate phrase at the moment. you look at the main arguments of the european union really to do with economy, trade, and so on. on the security side, the only issues around the corner is somewhere you begin to touch immigration. this guy was born in britain. there is not an obvious way into the argument, but there will be politicians without that many principles looking a little bit to see what there is. >> bloomberg has confirmed the house will not vote on the health care bill today. the anticipated news conference hosted by paul ryan has been postponed indefinitely. >> we just heard moments ago, i heard from a senior republican

well informed that there will be no vote tonight. this is a huge setback for speaker ryan and president donald trump. their first big initiative. they have been barreling toward this moment for seven years as the republicans have been promising to repeal and replace obamacare, and they don't have the votes. they are getting squeezed from both ends. conservatives want to move into the right and there are moderates who are unhappy with the level of cuts to medicaid. balancing those competing demands out was always going to be a monumental task. it is proving probably tougher than republican leaders expected. >> president trump has made that ultimatum to lawmakers telling them to pass the health care bill or forget about repealing obamacare. when is the vote? what is the count? >> later this morning. i spoke with a republican from ohio who said all indications are the vote will be held today. outside conservative groups, like americans for prosperity, are urging them to take their

time. to wait a couple of days through , the weekend, coming to continue working out their differences. it is a test for president trump, testing the house freedom caucus about where their loyalties lie. >> house gop leaders are not confident they have the votes to pass the health care law. we have paul ryan running back and forth. is this thing done or is there still hope left? >> if you look at the bloomberg, there are more than 30 house republicans that have expressed sentiment that they are not happy with the proposal endorsed by president trump and put forth by paul ryan. this has become a contentious issue. one that threatens all of president trump legislative agenda, including tax reform. >> republicans lacking support. they have canceled voting on the health care bill. >> i spoke to the president. i told him the best thing i think to do is to pull this bill. he agreed.

i will not sugarcoat it. this is a disappointing day for us. >> the leadership was very aware the feelings in the far conservative tea party movement, i think they miscalculated how tightly that group would lock behind this. there was an assumption by the president and gop leadership that they were in power and could steamroll people into following them. >> i have had a great relationship with the republican party. it seems both sides like trump, and that is good, and you see that more clearly than anybody. i am not going to speak badly about anyone in the party. i think paul really worked hard. i would say that we will probably start going very, very strongly for the big tax cuts and tax reforms that will be next.

rishaad: still ahead, as we review the week on "bloomberg best," timely talk about trade and tech. conversations about commodities with ceos with plenty of skin in the game. coming up, more top business headlines, uber tries to steer out of a skid, but one topics a gated will not be along for the ride. >> his role never measured up to what was advertised. rishaad: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ rishaad: this is "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat. in europe, where the timetable for the u.k.'s disengagement with the e.u. has become more clearly defined. >> the united kingdom would officially begin proceedings to exit the european union on march 29 according to prime minister may's spokesperson.

we have an official date next , wednesday, march 29. how does this rollout for potentially the next two years? >> i think one of the first question is going to be britain needs to pay up. please settle your bill before you leave the club, right? the estimates for the bill have been almost $70 billion. that is one thing britain will not want to do, to pay the bill before they start negotiating. the europeans may demand that. >> the u.k. prime minister theresa may seeing leverage slip away as she filed for divorce from the european union. leaders arranging a summit for brexit talk on april 29, canceling plans to hold it three weeks earlier. how does that day set the timetable for brexit? >> this is going to drag along and be difficult for prime minister may to deal with. the summit on april 29 will layout guidelines for how the commissioners want to deal with brexit.

it will go to the eu commission. it will take that framework and they will pull directives out of that. then it goes to the general affairs council where they will put those directives into law of sorts for the european union to negotiate on. that will take a while. it could be until june or later until the eu is ready to negotiate with the u.k. and that takes at least two months or more out of theresa may's timeline. rishaad: one of the most powerful families in south korean business facing court. this has the spotlight intensifies on the countries giant conglomerates. the lotte founder and his three eldest children accused of embezzlement and criminal charges. this trial is unconnected to the ousting of president park geun-hye, so what is it about? >> it is connected, but it is related to corporate corruption.

lotte owns the palace hotel, hotels, supermarkets, there has always been allegations of cozy business relationship in government, and while in this case it does not involve the president, it involves allegations that they embezzled money, tax evasion, a host of corruption allegations that have been widespread. >> uber has confirmed their number two, that is president jeff jones, is leaving. he grew tired of the number of controversies at the company, ranging from allegations of sexual harassment to the combative nature of the ceo. >> when they brought in jeff, he was a big hire. they were going to make the

ridesharing operation more marketing savvy. he was in charge of the whole global ridesharing operation. now we are talking about an adult in the room that was going to be coo, travis was calling him a peer. it was a demotion. his role never measured up to what it was advertised as when he was hired. >> let's turn our attention to the indian phone market. vodafone has agreed to merge with idea cellular to create the new mobile market leader. the enlarged group will be twice as big as at&t by subscribers. this deal has been talked about for a while. >> they will create an entity that is valued at $23 billion and have 395 million subscribers. what does this mean? it has been consistently losing

money. this deal is an opportunity to catapult to the big league. it is a position where they will hopefully start making money. this is a big one as far as consolidation of cell contractors is concerned. >> the u.k. has joined the u.s. and band electronic devices from certain middle eastern and north african cities. tablets, laptops, and dvd players must travel in checked baggage. >> interestingly, you would have thought the airlines would have come out more aggressive or played the protectionist card. i have not seen any of that. emirates airline came out with a tongue in cheek reaction on twitter saying we have 2500 channels you can watch, who needs laptops.

everyone is in their contingency planning rooms seeing how they will come to terms with this. >> fourth-quarter profits that missed estimates. while revenue jumped 40%, operating costs are surging. tencent is where they are strapping for cash. >> they just missed because the cost of revenue jumped 60% from the year before. investors are ok to take a hit on profit margins because you are seeing growth in other revenue streams. they're not only relying on their old growth engine of mobile gaming. they have in expanding into cloud computing, mobile payment, into a lot of new content in the video business as well. >> the shares of disney getting a boost after bob iger agreed to an extension that would keep him on top until july 2019, an extension of a year.

it wasn't entirely unexpected, that he would stay on at the helm of the company, especially since they are having a have time replacing him. -- having a tough time replacing him. >> clearly the succession plan the company spent 10 years crafting fell apart a couple of years ago when tom staggs left, so it kind of left the company in a lurch. they did not have a plan b. so what they have been doing is trying to entice bob iger to stay longer, to buy the company more time to identify a successor. >> i want to bring you an exclusive bloomberg story. credit suisse considering selling $3 billion worth of stock as an alternative to raising capital through listing part of its swiss units. they were going to ipo this was -- ipo there swiss unit. now they are thinking after deutsche bank raised money, we can do the same thing. >> that's right. conditions have certainly

changed. when they started out with this plan, it was a year and a half ago, and conditions were different. since then, the capital buildup, more recently, has been stronger than they anticipated. the shares have been holding up. the option is realistic. which it would not have been on the table 18 months ago. >> the swiss lender handing out $3.1 billion in bonuses at a time when its peers are downsizing. why has credit suisse been able to do something others have not been able to deliver on? >> part of that relates to the fact that the legal issues credit suisse has been facing, the settlement they reached with the u.s. authorities, were not as severe as the case with deutsche bank. their wealth management business, facing struggles last year, still consumes less capital. the bank's capital position is

not quite as worrying as some of the other european banks. ♪

♪ rishaad: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat. fed speak was very much in the air with janet yellen and other officials making comments on monetary policy. the lone dissenting voice as they raised rates earlier this month, he explained his stance with bloomberg daybreak: americas. >> we all say that we are data dependent. i want to remind people, let's be data dependent. we have the dual mandate on stable prices, inflation, and the job market maximum , employment. let's see what the data tells us. i am not opposed to raising

rates when the data tells us we are moving towards our dual mandate target. the data is basically moving sideways. i am asking, what is the rush to raise rates. >> are you alone on the fomc with this kind of thinking? or is it a different in degree rather than in kind? >> it is mostly a difference in degree. i tried to take a step back and say how has the federal reserve behaved over the last five to six years? every inflation or cast in terms -- inflation forecast in terms of the forecasts has been wrong. always expecting inflation around the corner. and always being surprised when it is not. i look at as repeating the same -- look at it as repeating the same mistakes all over again. we are behaving as if 2% is the ceiling rather than a target. so i am hoping to remind my colleagues let's take a step back. when the data calls for it, we should remove accommodation. >> what is the best way to react to that?

if you are acting like the inflation target is a ceiling, what should the fomc be doing instead? our core measure inflation is around 1.7%. it has been that way for several months. our target is 2%. if the target is really a target, 1.7% should not be more concerning than 2.3%. we should build a bounce around that 2%. if that is the truth, that is what we really believe, why are we so worried and raising rates now when the job market continues to be strong? the ecb has a 2% inflation ceiling. so that is not an irrational position to take, but we should decide as a committee, is that it target, a ceiling, and behave that way. we have it as a target, but we are not behaving as if it is a target. >> on the flipside, service inflation around 3%, the dallas

fed mean pce is up, almost 2%. do you need to raise the inflation target to 3%? >> i don't think so. i think we just need to be very disciplined. there are different measures of inflation. there is cpi, pce, all the adjustment measures. you can look at data quarterly or annually. you can jump around and tell whatever story you want. to me, that means you have to be disciplined, picking the data set that you think is the most informative and stick to it. not being blind, but not picking and choosing the story you want to tell. rishaad: coming up on "bloomberg best," we replay interviews with titans of tech. ibm's chief executive talks about a new initiative in china and how bidu is holding off hackers. next, the eu could be at risk of unraveling. a former italian prime minister tells us how it can be saved.

>> the leaders of the member states will have to really get their act together. rishaad: this is bloomberg. ♪ .

♪ rishaad: you are watching "bloomberg best." i am rishaad salamat. political volatility escalated this week in many parts of the world. the stage was set at the g-20 when the joint communique did not extensively reject protectionism, raising the level of tension on trade. interviews throughout the week on bloomberg television addressed these pressures. >> is 2017 the year where the eu and the eurozone could unravel? mario monti: there is a risk -- let's face it, there is a risk. this is an occasion in which the leaders of the member states

will have to get their act together, have a vision for the future, but to me, the fundamental factor which will decide whether the e.u. will one day unravel or not is whether national politics in member states will continue to drift toward short-term nationalism, populism, or whether we will go back to a sense of historical responsibility because the e.u. has been a historical construction, and has achieved a lot for europe, and cannot in depth as a side victim of irresponsible political behavior in most national countries. >> there is a lot of confusion about this chorus of different voices not really speaking in concert from the u.s.

administration about protectionism, about trade tariffs. is there a concern from australia's perspective of this whiplash messaging of who is driving policy and what the policy is? >> i don't want to overstate the impact it has, of course it has an impact in terms of global trade. u.s. policy will help shape globally where different economies go, but for the same token, as trade minister my focus is on making sure we continue to open up new opportunities. i am in discussions right now with the u.k. about a post-brexit australia-u.k. free trade agreement. we are nearing the final stages of the scoping study with the

european union for the e.u.-australia trade agreement. i have a high-priority on discussions with indonesia, and i was pleased most recently off the back of meetings in chile that we got a look at australia-pacific alliance, which is colombia, chile, mexico, peru, being able to do a trade deal with those countries as well, so all of these are options on the table that i will be pursuing. >> the united states policy will have huge impact, not only for the u.s., but for the rest of the world. having more emphasizing on a fair and inclusive trade is actually legitimate, because many countries are not able to compensate those losing from globalization and the global trade properly, and that creates resentment. and weakening support for the global trade. this is the policy meter from all over the world. >> were you disappointed the communique did not include a specific pledge to resist protectionism? >> well, we hope for much stronger. all the g-20 wanted it to be

much explicit stronger. this is not a new statement. the leader meetings had a much stronger and explicit commitment among the leaders of the g-20 economy to maintain this kind of cooperation and resisting, again, protectionism, because it is not only good for a particular country, it is good for the world. >> i am just back from china. there is no bigger strategic and economic gift we could give china than for the united states to move away from nafta. >> larry summers, former treasury secretary, told me right here in acapulco earlier today, or described, the future for america without nafta in dire terms. would you describe the future without nafta in similarly dire terms, either for america or for this country?

>> i think we have to prepare for all scenarios, and if what is on the table is something that is not good for mexico, mexico will step away from nafta. we are members of the wto, the world trade organization. trade between mexico and the u.s. would be ruled by wto, and we certainly -- there would be a future without that, but the question is why would we do that? why would the u.s., mexico, canada want to do that if we could have a trade deal that could be much improved in benefit of the three countries? so, yeah, you would have to plan for different scenarios, but it is so strong a case that for nafta, creating value for the three sides, well-paid jobs, that is the case. >> but to be clear, if common sense does not prevail, and it is not a win-win, it in other words the win part does not

recruit enough to mexico come you're willing to step back and say we are not part of this free trade deal any longer? >> absolutely. rishaad: commodities also struggled this week with the iron ore rally losing steam and oil prices rose. insight into what lies ahead for these turbulent markets. >> when we speak to the big oil majors, there is tension about how much global demand for oil will increase. where do you stand? >> when we look at the oil markets, we see two important trends. oil demand will continue to increase this year and for years to come. we do not see a peak of oil demand growth driven by china, and more and more by india. and it is driven by cars, trucks, jets, and the

petrochemical industry. this is very clear to us. the second trend that is also important to note is the u.s. shale oil is making a strong comeback, as we have foreseen a couple of quarters ago. we are going to see, we believe, a major boom of u.s. oil production, and more importantly in terms of the numbers, u.s. shale production. tom keene: how fragile is a price decline? how likely are we to see a price break in oil? >> if $50 price we have today, we see a significant chunk of the shale oil project making perfect sense. if it goes lower, we may see if the production growth might be weaker. but, there is also an upside to this story.

if the price goes to $70, $80, we might see shale oil production growth might be much stronger than we and others currently anticipate. >> does the bit of the oil industry you are in now have a future if the oil trade is to believe that we will be between $50 and $60 a barrel for a long time? >> absolutely. the whole industry has restructured for a lower for longer type of price, and we just finished a deal with bp where we are taking over assets in the north sea, and those, clearly, will also be run at lower prices and higher efficiencies. we have been going since the ipo, the company, about 70% annual growth per year. we will continue to grow. there is space for the companies and the oil business will be around for a long time. i think the industry is starting to see green shoots of investments all around. primarily coming out of the

u.s., an increase of about 5000 barrels a day. the supply side looks healthy. the iea has come out with additional, on the demand side, showing that the demand is also increasing. so hopefully, we will get some reduction of the additional supply that is on the market. >> we will pursue m&a only if it creates value for shareholders. so our strategy in terms of growth is primarily about business, and smart is very important. when i look at some of the recent projections, in chile, or even in the u.s., i think the price, the value realized -- we are good for the sellers. i am not quite sure for the buyers. so today, yes, is m&a on top of

list? the answer is no. >> we are here in china. you are talking to business leaders and lawmakers. what sense you get from them in terms of the demand of iron ore? >> it is absolutely clear that the chinese economy will change in relation to iron ore. there is a clear push to reduce pollution, restructure the steel business, but that is not a bad thing for us at rio tinto. the reason is that restructuring the industry does not mean the output will reduce. the high cost,wn highly polluting, and they will concentrate the production on larger. you will need to liquidate. absolutely music to my ears. >> how closely do you focus on the property sector in china when you were drawing up your projection? >> we look at construction. we look at infrastructure.

we look at railway usage. we look at energy usage. it is fair to say, as you have seen, we are moving in the right direction. >> so, we have plenty of access points in relation to the changing economy because we are supplying iron ore, copper, even supplying diamonds. are there issues placing my product? absolutely not. i am not concerned this year. ♪

♪ cory: news out of apple, the tech company introducing a special edition red iphone 7. the sales will help fund the fight against aids, and they will also revamp the ipad at the lowest price yet. >> the thing that is really quite interesting about it is the margins on the ipad are worse than on the laptop, so one

might imagine apple would prefer to be selling laptops, but the difference is you have apps, and that brings recurring revenue when you buy things through the app store. it is a way of driving more revenue over the course of the lifespan. cutting the price on the ipad is the way of getting the tool into customers' hands and hoping they will spend more money with it. rishaad: technology companies have been at the center of some of the most important debates in business recently, including trade policy, workforce development, and immigration. this week, bloomberg's caroline hyde caught up with prominent tech executives at ibm's cloud conference in las vegas and discussed how they are meeting complex challenges. >> the workforce will dramatically change over the next one or two decades and it will be driven a lot by artificial intelligence, these changes. that is why we need to start retraining and new types of job development before this

technology really hits, and i called for a moonshot, 5 million apprenticeships in the united states based on a lot of the things we have learned from countries, you were based in germany and switzerland, that we can bring to the united states to improve the quality of our work force. i hope our u.s. government listens and creates the moonshot. >> do you think everyone can be retrained at the end of the day? >> absolutely. i mean, there are so many vehicles to educate people. especially here in the united states. we have phenomenal opportunities at community colleges k-12 systems, but already you see a lot of workforce development programs already. there are so many people ready for these next-generation jobs. i look at the things we're doing with veterans -- bringing them into our company and retraining them using salesforce. on the bigger picture, salesforce will create 2 million jobs and add $400 billion to the gdp by 2020, so we are really focused on creating these new jobs, getting people ready for salesforce jobs, and creating

platforms for that is so important. i think apprenticeships are the key, and also automation and one-on-one. caroline: you are looking at hiring a lot, and growing. you have been an acquisitive company. does that remain? are the valuations right to remain an acquisitive company? >> last year i thought it was clear there was a window open for m&a activity, and we took advantage of the window. we bought a phenomenal company, demandware, the number one company in commerce, and we delivered commerce solutions to so many of our amazing company's around the world. adidas will do $1 billion to $2 billion in e-commerce on the salesforce platform this year, and amazing private companies as well, like quip, this incredible productivity tool. a lot has happened, as you know, this year, which is the markets are roaring, so the m&a windows have really narrowed, and because the m&a windows have narrowed, i just don't see us

doing a lot of m&a this year. >> we have got a very large business in china that we run all of ibm's it is ibm's business there. we were one of the first there. we have been almost 35 years in china. we are a very well respected brand. we are the partner to the banks. they are some of the most sophisticated operations and require volumes that are unbelievable to manage. in the cloud, we will partner. if you don't know much about wanda, wanda is one of the most successful private companies in china. a great attitude about agility and skill, and want to move. and as well they have a huge business that will be on this cloud. it will be both a customer of the cloud and a partner in the cloud, and it will be great footing, i believe, because they have a big ecosystem in addition to the clients that ibm has. so both our ibm clients in the large ecosystem around wanda

coming together. i look for to that being a successful partnership. it is our first partnership there. caroline: do you have a view on how dominant you want china to be in terms of revenue stream? ginni: it is a good part for cloud. about china, you see these very large state-owned enterprises, or just large enterprises, then it is really trying to build and power an entrepreneurial segment. 12,000 startups a day in china. 12,000 a day. you really do need to look at those markets differently, and support them both. that is what this cloud will do. rishaad: cybersecurity is another critical concern for the technology industry. chinese tech giant baidu is facing challenges. >> baidu's head of cybersecurity

knows he has a fight on his hands. he says hackers test defenses every minute of every day. in the most serious case, he says a gang get was put together to try to steal baidu's prized automated driving technology. >> it is difficultto know who but we know somebody tried to hire someone in the underground market to steal the things from us. >> cyberattacks could come from automated hacking bots, or from sophisticated international gangs. baidu has responded by boosting its cybersecurity team. it is also backing what might be called ethical hackers like the blue lotus team. >> you have the router, which means now you have taken control of my phone. >> they showed me how they could open up my phone.

>> i will test out one website, and we see hacked by blue lotus. >> supporting these guys is one way to keep the best minds onside, and one professor says there is a growing demand for ethical hackers. >> they probe for weaknesses that could be dangerous and then report to them to companies, including apple and google. >> baidu has teamed up with competitors, including tencent and alibaba. offensive.e >> the underground industries are getting bigger and stronger. so, we must help each other against the whole underground industry. we are not enemies. they are an enemy. >> threats are only expected to increase, and china's tech giants are gearing up for the long haul. tom mackenzie, bloomberg, beijing. ♪

♪ jonathan: we can bring up debt on the bloomberg, and you can see the holdings and how it will roll off in the coming years. these are big chunks of change that are going to roll off the balance sheet if this is an approach you want to take. rishaad: there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you our favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you will find useful. quic . it leads you to quick takes that give insight insight into timely topics. this explains why the u.s. supreme court has become so controversial. >> u.s. supreme court justices are supposed to be protected from the pressures of election cycles and political divisions, but in recent years some decisions by the highest court

in the land have become more polarized, and its approval rating is sliding. a year-long vacancy on the court highlighted this divide. so here is the situation. in the last year of his presidency, barack obama nominated federal appeals court judge merrick garland to replace justice antonin scalia. the republicans refuse to hold confirmation hearings. president obama: i nominated judge merrick garland more than three months ago. most republicans, so far, refused to even meet with him. >> in this bold move, the gop was betting that the republican president would win the white house, and their bet paid off. >> i donald trump do solemnly swear -- >> on january 31, donald trump nominated neil gorsuch. if the conservative gorsuch, 49 years old, if he was confirmed, the court could lean to the

right for an entire generation. there have been controversial 5-4 decisions that extended an individual's right to own guns, lifted restrictions on corporate campaign spending, and limited class-action lawsuits. the supreme court carries the power to shift the nation's political direction. with supreme court appointment, presidents can influence the nation long after their terms end. that is why in recent years presidents have selected judges whose convictions are not likely to shift. >> i am so thankful tonight for my family, my friends, and my faith. >> here is the argument. where once major rulings relied on unanimous vote, important decisions that rest on a 5-4 split has been rising. chief justice john roberts has claimed this could undermine the court's legitimacy as an institution that transcends

politics. then there is the diversity issue. the slow turnover means the court's makeup has lagged behind the nation's changing demographics. half of the justices are still white men. another big concern is there is no recourse when justices appear to violate ethical standards or hear cases in which they have conflicts of interest, and lifetime appointments mean they can still work after strokes or other mental impairments. some believe one solution is term limits for justices. in a 2015 poll, americans favored a 10-year term limit, but until there is more compromise, change seems unlikely, and the highest court in the land could continue to face divisions and challenges to its public approval. rishaad: that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them at bloomberg.com with all of the latest business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best" this week. thank you for watching. i am rishaad salamat.

this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: michael morell is here. he is one of our nation's leading national security professionals. he most recently served as the cia's deputy director and twice as acting director. i am pleased to have him back at this table. welcome, sir. michael: it is great to have you back. charlie: it is good to be back. let me start with this. house intelligence chair alleges spy agency abuse. wall street journal, g.o.p. la