♪ david: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. marine le pen reached a runoff in france, so it is risk on for investors. >> dare i say it, the political risk has been overstated around the election. david: boj and ecb keeping rates on hold. wells fargo board gets an earful from shareholders. the u.s. and canada tangle over timber tariffs. and president trump rolls out a tax plan. >> this is the beginning stage of what is expected to be a long and brutal slog. david with all the action, we : have high profile reaction. >> you have to think of the world as rich, fair, cheap.

we are in rich territory. >> unless you do something bold, we are running into real serious problems. david: plus companies report , earnings and the leaders take us behind the numbers. >> we have been demonstrating the quality and power of this platform. >> not yet firing on all cylinders >> we're comfortable with how we came out. david it is straight ahead on : "bloomberg best." ♪ david: hello and welcome, i am david gura. this is "bloomberg best." your weekly review of the most important interviews and analysis from around the world. let's start with a day by day look at the top headlines. even before the trading week started, all eyes on the first round of the presidential election in france. ♪

francine now we know it is : definitely macron versus le pen. they would be about 22%-24%. there were contrasts drawn between the two of them, but certainly the gladness of how each candidate thought they performed is coming across dramatically. >> francois fillon said, the defeat is mine, only mine. there is only one choice to make for the runoff is to vote against marine le pen. even the republican candidate acknowledging his defeat and calling to vote for macron. >> i think this is a strong result for europe. there is a lot of skepticism still in europe, especially from investors across the u.k. and the u.s.. we are learning three things. democracy is alive in france and first, europe. second, europe is winning, and macron is pro-populism -- pro

europe. populism is losing. there is little chance that marine le pen can become the president. it is a probability that is in the low single digits according to our models. >> both establishment parties were eliminated in the first round. macron and le pen will face each other on may 7. both offer radically different visions for the future of france. >> so we have had this relief rally in the euro-dollar, higher -- up 2%, higher up by 3%. the question for markets, two weeks to run. will the french do as they have been told, to get behind macron? go to the center. >> yes, they will. it would be nice at this point if we can stop saying that we cannot trust the polls. clearly, we can trust the polls. this is the fourth, if not fifth time in the row -- in a row where they have called it exactly right. viewve rather taken the that there i say, the political risk has been overstated over this election. >> it is a banner day for for

u.s. stocks, for all really, after the first round of the french election is said and done, macron and marine le pen prevailing. which is kind of what people expected. >> that is the crazy thing. huge moves despite the results coming exactly as polls anticipated. are you surprised at the degree to which risk assets surged around the world on a result that was pretty much in line with what the polls suggested? >> it was a strong day. my rate of the day is investors took this sort of relief as a -- over the french election as a chance to buy opportunities that emerged last week with the earnings season. if you look at the leaders, it is financials and industrials. this is the two sectors that led reporting last week, they are beating expectations and guiding higher. politics is definitely having short-term impact on the market, but the longer-term trends are still intact.

alyx: trade wars could be back. you have the president putting a tariff on canadian soft lumber. why go after canada when you have worse offenders in the market? >> it is their turn. he is moving ahead with things that have been in process for a long time. the softwood lumber debate has been going on since 1981. basically, canadian lumber producers harvest timber from government land. it is largely private land in the u.s. and the u.s. has long charged that they charge less than they should for the lumber that is harvested and it is an unfair subsidy. the two sides are at a point now where the u.s. lumber producers are asking for tariffs. they are getting it. >> what is the message for those -- for government officials in capitals like beijing or mexico city? how should they interpret what happened today with canada? we have been saying and proving that this administration is much more enforcement oriented than the prior ones. we have been bringing lots and lots of cases.

this is our second billion plus dollar fine just so far this year and i doubt that there has year where there is ever one in a whole year, let alone two, in a couple months. enforcement is very much on the forefront in this administration. >> we are going to take it to court and we are confident that as has been the case everything we are going to win. vonnie: [applause] vonnie: the trump administration wants to put forth the biggest tax cuts in reforms in u.s. history. >> we will lower the business rate to 15%. we are going to repeal the alternative minimum tax. we will have a one-time tax on overseas profit. >> with the

implementation of the new tax the debt tax would disappear. >> the white house essentially released what is in many ways a mirror image of what donald trump released as a candidate on taxes. there are tweaks from the campaign. he talks about repealing the estate tax, the amt, and the corporate tax rate of 15%, which he proposed in the campaign. a lot of these goals are shared by republicans in congress, the big sticking point is how it is paid for. kevin: the key moment is when gary cohen said there would be attacks from the left and from the right. the question becomes, politically speaking whether or , not they will be able to unify the republican party in order to advance goals. >> if you are trading on this tax plan, you have to think if -- not what is just in the plan, but if it can actually pass it. they can. the way it is outlined right now you cannot increase the , deficit after the 10 year window by cutting tax rates if you're going to use the reconciliation process they plan to use to get it through. this is not even possible is

part of the problem. >> it is the beginning stage of what is expected to be a long and brutal slog. tax reform is like an airplane that just about hit the runway, it has not taken off, it does not have a destination. the plane has not even been built but we do have design ideas from the white house. >> bank of japan is the focus as well. they kept stimulus the same. the inflation forecast is a sign of exit monetary easing remains far off. no change >> no change in policy no change in the negative , rates. it is -0.1%. no change in yield control. keeping the 10-year yield anchored to zero. no change in the amount of bonds it will buy. what did it change? fiscal year two dozen 17, they had been forecasting 1.5% and they reduced it to 1.4%. mark it was decision day at the : ecb. the central bank kept their stimulus program and rates unchanged. we are talking about degrees of

dovishness. was this slightly less dovish? >> slightly less than last month. they said the risk had diminished further. >> the other dovish elements in my mind said, if financial conditions prove inconsistent with the view or balance the risk for inflation, we are ready act again with increasing buying, what does that mean? you are rising too much or bonds yield rising too much, so they are immediately putting out this element of dovishness down the road. jonathan: it comes across the bloomberg terminal, gdp analyzed coming in annualized with a significant downside surprise, 0.7% is the read. 1% was the estimate. 2.1% would be the previous number. quarter on quarter comes in at

2%. in line with economists estimates. the employment cost index comes in at 0.8%. the survey, the medium estimate was 0.6%. the headline number softer than anticipated. 0.7%. the median estimate was a full percentage point. it is weaker than thought, but not the worst case scenario. if we just look back over the past five years, first quarter of the gdp averaged 0.9%. there is 2.4% for the remaining three quarters. there is something wrong with the first quarter gdp. quote stan fischer, he said there is something going on with the data we do not quite understand and i think that is true. it is a negative surprise, i am not worried. >> here is the good news. going into the second quarter, the headwinds of consumption and also inventory is supposed to reverse. you are supposed to have business investing, particularly in gas and oil, and you put it

with a backdrop of decent global growth, you could get a second quarter gdp at 3.8% and that is what morgan stanley is forecasting. david: still ahead as we review the week on "bloomberg best" investment insight from howard marks, and exclusive conversations with two leading entrepreneurs in china. earnings from amazon and alphabet and europe's biggest banks. up next more of the top , headlines, wells fargo shareholders make themselves heard at a raucous annual meeting. >> standing up and saying, i am not going to sit down and i want -- would like to hear from these board members. david: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

david: this is "bloomberg best." i am david gura. let's continue our global tour of the top business stories. wells fargo executives dealing with repercussions of an account

scandal at the account -- at the annual's meeting the board of , directors felt the pressure. >> after a shareholders meeting in florida, all board members narrowly survived a vote to remain in position. support ranged anywhere from 53% to 99% in the wake of the phony account scandal. give us a sense of just how raucous it was. this is not your typical shareholder meeting. >> not at all. a some point it was quite contentious. it was a must three hours long in the first -- almost three hours long. the first interruption we have was by a man named bruce marks who works for an organization that works with homeowners. he is standing up and saying i am not going to sit down and i would like to hear from these board members on what they knew about the scandal and when. from there we had four different individuals who again interrupted the meeting along those same lines. >> are the questions you had going into the event answered? >> not really.

we are still wondering, what can the board do. some of these board members got such low votes of confidence. four of them didn't even make it out of the 60% threshold and for the remaining of them, only three got above 90%. that is really low. vonnie: submitting a revised takeover bid for a dutch maker -- now at $29 billion. how much of an improvement is the offer? >> is a decent bump over there previous offer. this is the third time they have come back. this is about 8% above the last offer. as you say, almost $29 million, so it is a big deal. mark: give us a sense of a kind of pressure the chief executive is under to negotiate with ppg. >> i think a huge amount is the easiest way to describe that. they have been extremely resistant, dare i say entrenched in terms of

the way they have responded to this. that is to say, we are not interested, go away leave us , alone. the argument to the shareholders is, if you hold on and let us to the separation of the business, we will create more value for you. overall do not take the ppg offer. it looks good up front, but over time, we will give you something better. vonnie: the big deal in the luxury space. a french billionaire moving to consolidate control over christian dior for about $3.2 one of the biggest billion. transactions ever. buy christian dior, it is a big paycheck. >> they make the fashion accessories and handbags and clothing under the dior brand, it has actually been separated from the perfume and beauty business since the 1960's. with this deal, they are bringing those together under the umbrella of one company.

by doing this, he is hoping they can find synergy and have a greater impact and seek financing more easily. >> marine le pen stepping down as head of the front party. she says she wants to campaign for president as an "free candidate to represent all " to represent all the french people. what do you make of the fact she is stepping down? she is trying to broaden her appeal, but will it work? >> i would not be reading too much into it. as you say it is an attempt to , broaden appeal. she wants to present herself as a unity candidate for all french people. obviously, given the history of the national front that is going to be difficult for her, but this is a symbolic effort by her to recognize the fact that there is baggage that goes with the party. >> china saying it will maintain what it calls prudent policies after the economy saw a unexpected pick up in the first quarter. this is according to the

agencies reporting on the president xi jinping. what do you make of it? >> it is a strong signal that they will not be stepping back. there is a view that the growth was so good in the first quarter that it may have peaked. when you look at the congress at the end of the year, authorities are saying they are going to ensure fiscal and monetary to keep growth on track. we heard similar amounts lately that the economy is on track to to meet the 6.5% target. the message is they are letting economy softened from here. >> there is a major showdown brewing in washington. cracking open the net neutrality debate. federal communications commission chairman unveiled his game plan for rolling back the neutrality rules in the nation's capital. >> this is going to be a political debate that will engage millions of people. we are going to stay focused on the facts in the law.

the facts are that americans by and large believe in a free and open internet but they also , want to have next-generation networks to be built out. i think what the fcc does not need is heavy-handed regulations that saddle businesses with a lot of rules that this incentivize them -- disi ncentivize them from building networks and that will be the course we are charting. >> it is a dramatic reversal from a few years ago when there was this fight over net neutrality, the tech companies won that time. there were strong supporters of net neutrality and you had come -- companies like comcast at&t and so on , who lost. this time we have a new administration and they are getting their way. mark: the e.u. warning the u.k. that the remaining 27 countries are its chief concern as it seeks to limit the negative consequences of britain's departure. european ministers signing off on the guidelines that will form the basis of talks.

is this the e.u. toughening their stance toward the u.k.? >> that is a way that some people are interpreting it, because the negotiating guidelines that european affairs ministers signed off on today here in luxembourg do make some explicit demands in relation to financial services, in relation to the rights of e.u. citizens in the u.k. and british citizens living in the e.u., and also with regards to the bill that the u.k. what have to pay on leaving the e.u. the , brexit bill. what the leaders are going to sign off on on saturday, are general principles for the e.u. going forward. detailedl then be more negotiating mandates and the real negotiation will not begin until after the u.k. election on june 8. ♪ alix: president set to sign a memo ordering wilbur ross to determine the impact of rising aluminum imports, which could

lead to curbs on imports. it is the second such investigation the president has initiated this month. why is this happening? why is the investigation happening? >> it is a lightning rod point for the former trump campaign and now trump they made it clear administration. that steel was in their sites during the campaign and then they talked -- started talking about aluminum and wilbur ross made it clear last night that they were looking at trade issues that seemed to have a lot of focus or maybe a bit of uncertainty and aluminum is very much one of those topics. >> speaking to analysts and traders in the market, they are uncertain there might be much to come out of this. people are quick to point out that these 32 investigations, nothing really happens on the other end. ♪ ♪

david: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am david gura. markets around the world enjoyed a rally after the first -- a relief rally after the first round of french elections, but what is the outlook for the long-term? erik schatzker sat down with henry mcveigh to get some -- and howard marks to get some expert insight. >> let's talk about european growth. based on what you have seen, why is it surprisingly positive? >> the biggest single factor we , do a lot of quantitative models and on the ground research is just the monetary policy. when you look at the ecb with zero interest rates, that has a huge stimulus effect on the economy. we saw a similar picture in the u.s. a couple of years ago where monetary policy was moving forward but there is no cyclical , ignition to drive the growth until housing picked up. that happened in the u.s. and in europe right now, we are seeing

house prices go up, not a lot of consumer lending activity. the transition investors should look for is for monetary policy to the cyclical parts of the economy including housing. , right now, monetary policy is dominating, our base view is if the cyclical components will pick up. >> what about fiscal policy and structural change? we lived through gridlock in america at a time of monetary stimulus. are the europeans doing a better job of governing? >> i am glad you asked. another thing i think is missed by most people is that in 2012, the fiscal austerity was 150 basis points -- drag on european growth. european growth is not ever going to be 3%, 4%, 5%. that is a big number. today, we are estimating it is a 20 basis point addition to growth. in the near term, it is quite a tail wind. i think as europe starts to further mature and some of the political rhetoric settles down,

they are going to go back and address the huge debt load that part of the world faces, but i do not think that is today's business. inmost asset classes are very high valuation territory. >> to me, that sounds a bit like 2007. >> as well as you say a bit. you know, you have to think of the world as rich, fair, cheap. we are in rich territory. we are not ultra rich. i don't think we are in bubble territory, but it is not black and white. we do not draw a line down the here, and say everything here, here, here we sell and every thing here, here we buy. there is a middle ground which is fair and we happened to be, in my opinion, largely above it. >> but would it take for us -- where would we have to be for you to feel like we were in the warning sign territory?

>> if the high-yield bond to spread was 240 rather than 230 -- rather than 340 or 370, like we are today. that would be one example. i think we are not in a bubble because one of the characteristics of a bubble is having people say, no matter what price you pay you will make money. we saw it in the tech bubble, in the bubble 50 years ago. >> you are not saying that. >> >> they are saying it is difficult to find things to buy. >> but that is good, because it exercising -- the awareness. ♪ david: still to come, more of the week's most compelling interviews, including a conversation with alan greenspan. the prime minister of turkey top internet entrepreneur in china says the capital is pouring into the tech sector, maybe even too much money.

>> it is like hundreds of companies being traded. david: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

>> this is good news for france, europe, and the global economy. france is set to embrace european targets and renew the european agenda. >> do you think this could mean a reforming european union? if you imagine you have macron, could it be a more integrated eurozone than we have seen before? >> more europe is needed, and not just for the monetary union. it is a pillar of integration, but also to reassure european citizens that europe is about growth and jobs. something europe has not been delivering well recently, on. >> you've got the british

negotiating with macron. how would you imagine he is different? you worked with him for a long time. >> i imagine the negotiation will be on clear terms. europe will more easily reach a common position vis-a-vis brexit. david: that was italian finance minister pier carlo padoan one discussing the impact of the french election with bloomberg editor in chief john. -- john micklethwait. all results and france were mostly seen as positive for the future of the european union, the attitude of turkey towards brussels appears to be growing more negative. in an exclusive interview, the turkish prime minister accused that you of treating his country student," dampening his interest in joining the block. >> are you interested in continuing to push for membership or are you changing your mind? do you want to go a different path? what is your ideal solution? >> we invite the european union to honesty on the issue of membership, first of all.

they shall determine their vision for the future will they first. continue to walk with turkey or not? they need to put this forth clearly. we shall see their decision and then we can determine our own path. there are elections in some members of the e.u. right now and therefore the rhetoric is very different. we will see the different types of rhetoric will continue after the elections or not. it is clear what some members of the e.u. did before the referendum. therefore, the e.u. should determine the future vision for itself before things can proceed on a healthy path. it should put forward the kind of path that wants to walk on with turkey or won't. this nation needs to find out

what goes on in their head. do they see europe as a union of religion? they need to put it forth honestly and earnestly if they are the bashar of the idea that a non-christian country has no place in its union. otherwise, there is no point in either side wasting time. david: turning to asia now, the chinese entrepreneurs club held its annual summit this week. tom mackenzie spoke exclusively with several ceos at the event. starting with the head of investment giant, civic capital. >> european elections underway. we've got brexit of course the , u.k. elections, the french election german elections. , how much of that is factored into your strategy? how much of that is impacting the choices of chinese investors? >> we have not really seen huge backlash against foreign investment. for example, even brexit has not

made much of a dent in terms of foreign investment. the british government still welcomes foreign investment as well. and in some ways, i do not see that will happen in france or germany. so, we are looking at those opportunities. i think what is of concern to us is in the u.s. in the last month or so, that concern has been eased somewhat. the potential of a trade war, obviously, is deeply concerning. >> what do you see as the key risks this year for the chinese economy? >> the pace of the leveraging. the last two or three years, i feel financial risk is the main risk in the system. that partially explains the rationale of why china is opening the capital market as quickly as the international investor would like to see fundamentally, the

system is not ready. there is the overall leverage ratio which is very high. over know, talking about 250% gdp. china at this point, has -- given the huge amount of savings china can clearly deal , with that in the short term. the leverage ratio should not be increasing anymore. ♪ >> you said you think there is too much money flooding into the tech sector. are you sit just and there are bubbles in china's tech sector? if so, where? >> it is everywhere. i was talking about internet in general. especially, in the last five or six years. you see a tremendous amount of money pouring into the market whether it is from foreign firms or local firms. it is too much money. that is where we like to see new

concepts emerge, for example live streaming. ,a news app for example like the so-called shared economy like in the uber model. there are not like dozens of companies being created, hundreds of companies being created and in theory these , companies would never be successful. everybody, whenever they have a new concept, they think it will work, they don't want to miss it so there is a lot of company pouring into creating new companies. the result is that there is huge competition in terms of market cash and to get bigger. a lot of competition is irrational. ♪ david: in a week chock-full of important events and policy decisions around the world, few observers can offer more perspective than alan greenspan.

he joined bloomberg daybreak america for a conversation on friday. >> you share it least one thing with president trump and that is an emphasis on growth. he has a prescription for how to return the united states, to more robust growth. it starts first and foremost with a fairly dramatic tax plan, at least the outlines of a plan. is that a way to re-stimulate substantial growth in the u.s.? alan: it could be if you were willing to make cuts in social benefits, which would be required to fund the type of program he has put forward. remember, it is not only a tax thing, but it's also a expansion thing. period going through a in the last decade where the share of gdp going into our military was at the lowest level since 1940. we cannot maintain the presence

that we are trying to maintain militarily unless we comeback a significant amount. the budget outlook is not only a tax question, but it is also a military question. he, of course, has said both. that is a problem. >> there is some hope that if they could have significant tax cuts, reducing the rates and not increase the deficit, through cutting back on tax expenditures, there is some hope that could restore some degree of growth back into the economy. alan: the tax expenditures are not what they were. i mean, we have all sorts of things. one thing that has been left off in this particular thing was forving the exemption mortgage interest. that is a big deal.

it would have been a big issue. why was it not done? because it is part of the third rail and if you are going to do something bold, you are going to get criticism. unless you do something bold, we are running into real, serious problems. ♪ ♪

david: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am david gura. first to announce was credit suisse. >> credit suisse's first-quarter income has beaten its highest estimates. the bank now aims to raise $4 billion and has abandoned earlier plans to launch an ipo

of its swiss business. >> talk to me about the capital raising. why did you decide to go to the markets $4 billion and not go for the ipo? >> we raised $27 billion last year. again another $12 billion this quarter. we have been demonstrating the quality and the power of the platform in terms of wealth management and beating the competition. it was a proposition of raising capital to rise to the growth. and when we were thinking in october 2015, we had two big things ahead of us. including the doj could of had a broad range of outcomes. it was bad for the company. removing that in december or january, completely reset the dials so now, we can look at our capital planning.

>> deutsche bank, and its growth. trading its peers in the first quarter. more than a month after an underwhelming quarter reignite it again about the ceos ability to recover lost ground. >> your u.s. peers saw a 24% gain in fixed income and currency trading. you had an 11% gain. are you firing on all cylinders in this quarter? are you going to get back question mark are you going to match your peers now? >> two messages. we are definitely not yet firing on all cylinders. we have seen the turning point in every space.

we are very strong when it comes to more complex solutions. that tends to not happen overnight. it takes more time. there are many things we're working on so i am optimistic about the future. mark: barclays becoming the latest european bank to post disappointing numbers. the firm announcing is surprised drop in fixed income revenue. the other main trading business also fell more than expected. >> we had a very strong first quarter last year. on a quarter to quarter comparison, we did not have the uptick that a number of the u.s. banks did. in part, that was because we had a strong quarter in the first quarter of 2016. we always want to do better in the markets business, but we are comfortable with how we came out and the overall profitability of the corporate investment bank is making good improvements and i think we feel pretty good about the quarter. >> ubs saw climbs from the first -- return from the sidelines in the first quarter, boosting earnings in the wealth

management business, helping income jump beating analyst , estimates. >> the strength is something you have been seeing for the last three or four years. the superior return happened on capital. we had a 24% return on capital. without compromising on quality and excellence of what we do. you look, we are a leader in many areas of the business, but we are the one that we choose to compete. francine shares in mobile ericsson company falling after they reported loss. in a bid to revive the economy the company plans to intensify efforts to cut costs. they will get rid of $1 billion in them profitable -- inpro fitable contracts. >> we had a top first quarter, clearly, highlighting the need for a more focused strategy. in the first quarter, we saw it was still a mixed picture. our networks which have been three quarters of our business doing fine and having stable

develop an, i.t. clobber -- i.t., cloud, and media have accelerated. we have said that we need to take focused, structured actions which we do with our new strategy in order to get the costs to be competitive. ♪ >> let us talk about samsung. it may be on track for its best year ever. billionme rose to 6.7 -- last quarter beating $6.7 billion estimates by 10%. >> mixed signals coming out of there are the earnings. the net income is very strong. revenue was a little bit light. the headline is that samsung has decided not to convert into a holding company, which had been one of the point pushed by activist paul singer elliott as he was trying to get the company to move in that direction and be a little bit more accountable to shareholders. partly, they are able to say that because the business has been doing so well. >> amazon shares popping.

the e-commerce giant reported a 23% increase in profit. a profit of 702 $4 million. the company cloud services reported 43% increase in sales. founder and ceo jeff bezos highlighted the company's success as it pushes into international expansion, particularly in india. we got a significantly in earnings per share revenue per much in line, but growing at quite a clip. >> aws, prime, and fda. they are executing well on all cylinders. the whole investment cycle that amazon embarks on, we can -- they are saying we can deliver top line growth and we will be ok if we increase spending to bolster our growth story. from a profit perspective, the aws is the biggest contributor. north american margins are steady, but the international losses continue because they are expanding aggressively there. they have a lot of opportunities to expand prime internationally.

i think there is this growth runway continues. mourn partly, they are showing they can execute against these numbers. >> let's continue on the tech earnings bonanza. out for that. revenue jumped 22% from a year ago, at just over $20 million. pay clips were up beating , industry expectations. while revenue from its other that's unit, like waymo and net showed improvement , generating $244 million. >> alphabet is kind of really benefiting from not only their traditional search business as they migrate to mobile, but also ube you tube -- yout business. there has been concerned about the youtube business and its health given some of the issues with advertisers but that is a huge business for google and continues to put up strong topline growth. combine that with tighter cost management and there is a lot here for the bulls to be happy with, with google. >> q1, paid clicks, 44%.

this is one of those areas where people were read, is it going to all go to facebook? are they going to be able to succeed on mobile? all kinds of concerns but it seemed like a total juggernaut. >> along with facebook, they -- google continues to manage that market share. they are fighting back. they realize facebook is right there and they are try not to secede any of that. david: also this week, bloomberg television profiles a startup finding success in the growing area of retail, online personal shopping. the three-year-old company recently raised -- in a funding round. the cofounder described the journey from small to big. ♪ >> it is a personalized, online shopping service for women who wear size 14 and above. plus sized women in the u.s. make up about 67% of the population in the u.s. and

pretty shockingly, make up only 17% of the apparel segment in the u.s.. one of the things that was clear for our customer was that she retailerrepresented in as she was in the media. discovery channels were quite challenging. the one group of people who had meaningful sway and truly, in a way, the gatekeepers of the community were the bloggers. bloggers became our earliest advocates. from there, we benefited from word of mouth and the power of a positive experience. we have grown from there. we very quickly realized that we had this growing and avid , and excited customer base. where we was having the biggest finding really great supplies. we were based in new york city and we would literally scour manhattan to find

best -- the best merchandise in our customer's sizes to send. eventually, we were able to work with a group of designers that i -- that agreed to partner with us and expand what they were offering. we worked with some of the best design and product development teams in the industry to develop 8 brands and they, in a lot of ways, make up the backbone of the service. we recently elevated the brands -- the call we were making to brands by taking out a full-page ad in the new york times during fashion week. to step up the conversation around inclusivity. what we haven't seen yet is an actual move from speaking about inclusivity to actually producing garments that women can wear. that is a role that we play and we feel a responsibility to play and that we are very excited to play for our customers. the core of our product is understanding our customer as well as it is comfortable. we serve women who are well -- who are early in their style journey. the goal of the service is to

meet her where she is and it becomes an iterative relationship where we are showing her products and she is doing us feedback and we shall better products and she gives her feedback and we get to know her incredibly well. the idea is to be the beloved brand of plus size women. ♪

♪ francine: let's get into my terminal because as tom said there is a spread. , in the last three days. gap lower on friday and this massive gap on sunday as soon as trading started. now we are back down to 49 basis points. >> swedish manufacturer confidence going back years. in april, you can see the yellow circle. confidence surged to the highest ever since the survey began in

1996. david: there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. we always enjoy showing you our favorites. maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you will find useful quic . it will take you to our takes where you can get fast insight into timely topics. here is a quick take from this week. >> hackers today are not like what they were from the movies in the 1980's and 1990's. >> they want me to pack the planet. -- hack the planet. >> now, cyber criminals can be state-sponsored, breaking into servers and disrupting national elections. >> one lesson they may draw is that they were successful because they introduced chaos and division. >> they can be a nefarious blackmailing a corporation by threatening to release piles of sensitive data. or they can be agents looking to expose the cia's own hacking ability. luckily, as hackers get more

-- they are always looking to gain access into industrial networks. luckily, as hackers get more sophisticated, so are the safeguards protecting sensitive data. here is the situation. since 2005, more than 5500 databases in the u.s. have been closed. the biggest was the adobe hack in 2015. individuals are not the only ones at risk. the u.s. has been battling an escalating cyber war with countries like china and russia for years. in 2016, multiple u.s. agencies concluded russia was behind the hack of 20,000 democratic national committee emails posted online hoping to influence the election in donald trump's favor. a conclusion that russian president vladimir putin denies. if proper precautions are taken, not all hack attacks have unhappy ending. in may card , 2010, 100 10 million payments were stolen from target but they were useless because the pin codes were encrypted and the banks immediately canceled

all of the compromised accounts. here is the argument. cybersecurity is both worse and better than it has ever been. andsheer size, scope, frequency of attacks from hackers have skyrocketed, but the safeguards protecting individuals and corporations are always being improved. the massive 2014 hack of jp morgan did result a financial losses for the customers who were covered by consumer protection laws but it did allow jp morgan to build a vast cybersecurity operation staffed with former military members and the u.s. eventually identified and indicted the hacker. however, keeping data secure requires constantly updating technologies and expensive human monitors watching for any signs of trouble. high security comes with a high price tag. ♪ david: that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them at bloomberg.com along with all of the latest business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best."

thanks for watching. i am david gura. this is bloomberg. ♪ david: there were almost two

incidents where you lost your life. general petraeus: an m-16 round went through my chest. david and to get out of the : hospital, they didn't want you to leave that soon, so you showed them you could do push-ups. general petraeus: is the only time i stopped at 50. david you had never once had : people working under you directly were killed in combat. president obama calls you into the office. general petraeus: when the president asks you to do something, you do it. david: would you fix your tie, please? fixed. people wouldn't reco