ramy: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. markets brace for policy decisions from central banks. the surprises are not in what they do, but how they do it. >> it glossed over both of those readings. >> i was expecting a 7-1 vote, so this is clearly a hawkish surprise. >> another hearing raises hackles on capitol hill. ge and uber announces changes in c-suite, and china's economic exert may be getting cheerier. >> we see the chinese government providing some support through fiscal policy and the way the credit policy is being managed. ramy: exclusive insight into where he is steering the

company. >> we are focusing on autonomous systems, and clearly one purpose is self driving cars. ramy: and some of the world's most influential leaders weigh in on critical issues. >> brexit is a decision we have to accept. >> stronger gdp is good news. it is unqualified good news. >> i am very optimistic about what the president will do. ramy: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ramy: hello and welcome. i'm ramy inocencio, and this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of the most important business news, analysis, and interviews from bloomberg

television around the world. the week started on an anxious note for tech investors as a selloff that began friday continued into monday. >> everybody's favorite sector, tech sold off in a big way on friday, leaving the nasdaq to a biggest decline in four weeks. the selloff has spread globally with europe and asian markets tumbling as well. >> the nasdaq established a new intraday high friday morning at the beginning of the selloff into today as well. and even with yesterday's or friday's action and today's action, the nasdaq remains over 13% year to date. stocks go up and down and that's all we are being reminded of. >> 27% of the drop over the last couple days is due to apple alone. google, facebook, microsoft have also made up a big part of it. only 30% of other stocks in the nasdaq composite are interesting. >> you just stretched the rubber band too much. not in terms of valuation or negative connotations with

respect to future earnings, but when you have a sector such as tech that outperforms energy by 35% over a six-month period, and you look at the day-to-day correlations of those sectors, and they are almost uniformly inverse, that's the kind of imbalance in the markets that we did not see and we don't see as sustainable. which is why our view is the technology selloff has a bit further to run. >> you can see tech coming off 10% aggregate over the course of the summer. >> u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has emphatically rejected claims that he has colluded with russia, calling these allegations appalling. he denied speaking to any russian officials about alleged interference in last year's election campaign.

jeff sessions: i do not have any recollection of meeting or talking with the russian ambassador or any other russian officials. >> he was adamant that he had no place of collusion, communication with russian officials. he was pressed on this and to be frank, you will be hearing from this hearing strong criticism coming from democrats that say he did invoke executive privilege. that the president did, because he dodged repeated questions about his own communications with president trump. republicans are going to say it is pretty much a boring hearing. >> a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in virginia. congressman steve scalise was among those wounded. >> the shooter was armed with a rifle. many reports say some 50 to 100 shots were fired. >> the shooter came to the baseball field and began firing indiscriminately. representative scalise was on second base. the congressional republicans practicing for the baseball

game, they were practicing for the charity game. >> we have a name for the suspect, james hodgkinson. pres. trump: the assailant has died from his injuries. congressman steve scalise, a member of house leadership, was shot and badly wounded. and is now in stable condition at the hospital. >> this is as united and nonpartisan as you are ever going to see congress gets. we saw standing ovations for paul ryan and nancy pelosi. it is certainly dialed down the temperature on the hill today. we are not hearing lawmakers go after each other or not hearing a right versus left debate. members of congress realize on

their ability to debate think, they can intensely disagree on policy matters, but the people who matter will be united. >> it is not business as usual in washington today after a gunman fired at a baseball practice. they will conclude their meeting as scheduled. michael: as expected, they raised their benchmark rate range to a quarter percent. also, the dot plot that they take as a forecast still needs one more move this year between three or four more next your, which would put the fed's funds rate target at a median of 2.1% by the end of 2018. >> here are the three takeaways we want to highlight. the fed laying out its balance sheet rolloff planned for later in 2017, and the median stays, and inflation estimates revised down a little bit with the fed saying it is monitoring inflation developments closely.

>> our decision to make another gradual reduction in the amount of accommodation reflects the progress the economy has made and is expected to make. >> it's relatively hawkish on a day when earlier this morning in the united states, first they release the cpi report, which was very soft. then the commerce department released the retail sales, which was also soft. it is amazing that they glossed over both of those readings. there was no reference to the retail sales data. ♪ >> sterling spiking higher and reversing overnight losses as a hawkish boe vote surprised traders, 5-3. the bank kept the interest rate at 0.25%. corporate bond purchases at 10 billion. >> it looks a bit odd given the data news to my mind.

it's surprising to me, i was expecting a 7-1 vote, so this is a hawkish surprise. >> the key thing is the three dissents were a surprise, but all three of these are the external members of the mpc. they are not the core members of the group. my expectation is carney they will be inclined to work through this, but it does illustrate in real-time the convocations of stagflation for a central bank. >> the bank of japan has maintained its monetary stimulus program, saying improving consumption will improve the economy. the board voted 7-2. it's inflation target remains elusive. just like for many central things around the world. >> it is really no drama kuroda here in japan.

they just want to keep everything steady, that is because ultimately, economic conditions are good. they are improving modestly. there is neither a sign of a big boom coming, so no risk of any bubbles anywhere. at the same time, you do have a situation where price pressures are few and far in between. so for the bank of japan, it is very much steady as she goes. >> the boj did change one thing. that was its conception of consumption. how important was that reassessment on household consumption? >> >> the comments are very encouraging. what we are seeing in japan is interesting and we are seeing other countries in the moment,

the economy is doing well. we have had five quarters of growth. on our way to a sixth quarter. but we had this persistent problem with inflation. so, we need to see more happening there. there is a disconnect happening and what we are seeing is economic growth looking not too bad. executives making the wrong kind of headlines. the ge era ends and more tumult at the top four uber. >> we don't understand how the company is going to run when they have to invest on autonomous cars. ramy: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

ramy: this is "bloomberg best." i'm ramy inocencio. let's continue our global tour of the top business stories with an unexpected executive shakeup at ge. >> the change out of the top of general electric, they said tim finery will be taking over. explain the timing of this decision. >> the timing is a surprise. this was likely, or increasingly likely now that trion have stepped up pressure on ge. its original position when they bought the stock was, we like the plan and we are leaving them alone. however, after several years with a weak stock, they decided, they are going to step it up. jonathan: what does flannery bring to the table? he is a 30 year veteran. what is he going to add to this

party? >> there are ge investors that are disappointed. there was a feeling that ge needed an outside ceo, or an alumnus that worked on other companies and worked non-ge experience. but, you know, flannery is probably the best of the insider candidates, and he has a track record as a dealmaker. >> uber founder and ceo travis cais taking a leave of absence without disclosing a return date. in the interim, the company will be made by a management committee as it tries to navigate a wave of scandals. the board will diminish his role once he comes back by giving some of the responsibilities to a chief operating officer, a position in which uber has been actively recruiting, but has yet to fill. >> we have heard it will be three months, now it has been

described as indefinite. we do not understand how the management committee will run when they have to decide how much money to invest on autonomous cars. that is not clear. some of that will go to the board, but a lot of people are waiting on this chief operating officer. it who has become this mystical figure in the uber world. they need him to make key decisions. it's a holding pattern in truth, until they find that person. vonnie: amazon is agreeing to buy whole foods for $13.7 billion. >> this is the most challenging acquisition that amazon has ever done. it's an asset that is in decline, seven straight quarters of declining sales. a pioneer in organic foods in a world now where you can walk out of your office building and get organic foods everywhere. they're competing with everyone. so whole foods needs a makeover. amazon will have to remake its

supply chain. bring in the benefits of amazon prime into those stores, and turn those into supply chain it has work to do. it was a surprising deal to me. >> it's an enormous deal, but it does not come as a complete surprise. we are told that amazon was exploring this deal last fall and it did not quite go through, but then, after we saw a lot of trial and tribulations at whole foods, that is when it seems that amazon started renegotiating these talks with whole foods. mark: what are you thinking if you are a bricks and mortar retailer today? >> you are very worried because the physical locations has been your primary defense against amazon. amazon is basically going to keep gobbling and gobbling market share as it gets more and more of your spend. think of all the other things it can do if it is engaging customers on a weekly basis in physical stores? mark: deutsche bank's new proposal to help pay for misconduct has a german lender

paying former board members a portion of their suspended bonuses in exchange for a group of ex-board members to forfeit their claim. >> what they are saying, look, you can keep your unvested bonuses when they vest, but we will take way most of your suspended bonuses. and that will be what they call a voluntary financial contribution to the back, showing their willingness to contribute to the bank in difficulties. mark: how is this proposal being met then by former board members? >> it's not entirely clear. it's not clear how many oppose it and how many would accept it, but what is clear is given that they can keep your unvested bonus when they vest, but what is clear is that, even they have been offered their unvested bonuses when they best, suspended bonuses are not as happy as the other growth.

>> deutsche bank has announced a new structure for its investment taking inclusion. that's according to people familiar with the matter. >> i am struggling this morning to see how this makes deutsche bank an easier organization to understand or run. >> i absolutely agree with you. last year, john did what was sensible in bringing together the corporate financial business of this in the trading businesses. they have been woken up. they have been broken up why the previous business owner. it is not quite clear what they want to achieve. but what i like to understand if this is about cost saving or being more efficient with clients? it's not clear from what exactly they are hoping to achieve.

david: the trump administration would carefully review reports and report back to us. and yesterday, we got that report in a 150 page document. the administration wants to cut back on the consumer protection financial bureau and the volker rule, and ease up on those stress tests. >> i am seeing some of the results and people are enthusiastic. obviously, one of the things they could all caution is to pay most attention to the things regulators can do without congress because that is always a question mark. there are quite a few things in here that would lighten the regulatory load. the small banks had we, but the bigger banks, things like reducing the rules on leverage lending, which issues to make leverage buyouts. that is one of the proposals. and easing that it is enforced

and things that have not gone into effect, like limits on hedge funds. bank of america put out a report saying the changes around how capital could be measured would allow -- and those can be done by regulators, would allow regulators to free up $2 trillion on their balance sheet. >> chinese factories remain resilient in may, showing further signs of resilience in the economy. >> what is the key takeaway? >> "resilience" is the keyword they used repeatedly. 6.5% growth. we were expecting 6.4%. so, it is a very fractional beat on that number. retail sales steady as she goes, 10.7%. april was 10.7%. the survey was 10.7% urban investment taking a little bit of the dip, 8.6%, we were expecting 8.8%. it was 8.9% the previous month. >> they were cautioning deep

reforms were needed to takeaway from debt expense. >> what was behind that decision? >> we have been seeing the performance of the chinese economy, and there was fairly strong growth in the first quarter. we see strong growth in the rest of the world, which is also helping. we see the chinese government providing some support, both through fiscal policy and the way that credit policy was being managed, so we think this is the right forecast. now, we do expect the economy to slow a little during the course of the year, but we think the 6.7% forecast is the right one. ♪ ♪

ramy: you are watching "bloomberg best." i'm ramy inocencio. bloomberg's emily chang recently found down for an exclusive interview with apple's ceo tim cook, and their discussion created a lot of buzz this week. among the topics, apple's ambitions in china and for the first time, cook elaborated on the company's plans in the automotive market. tim cook: i think there is a major disruption looming there. not only for self-driving cars, but also the electrification piece. if you've driven an all electric car, it's actually a marvelous experience. and it is a marvelous experience not to stop at the filling station, or gas station, whatever you want to call it. plus, you have ridesharing on top of this, right? so, you have three vectors of change happening generally in

the same timeframe. and so, as we look at it, and what we are focusing on publicly is autonomous systems. and clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is self-driving cars. there are others. and we sort of see it as the mother of all ai projects. it is probably one of the most difficult ai projects to work on. and so, autonomy is something that is incredibly exciting for us, and we will see where it takes us. we are not saying from a product point of view what we will do. but we are being straightforward that it is a core technology that we view is very important. china for us -- we make our decisions for the long-term. we are not investing for next quarter or next year. we are thinking many, many years out.

as i stand back and look at china, i see mega-trends there that make china an incredible market. i don't just mean a market to sell in. i also mean a market for application developers. we have 1.5 million application developers in china now, closer to 2 million now. it is an incredible marketplace for talent and in terms of the size of the marketplace. and so, the short-term kinds of economic moves up and down, i do not get too excited about. emily: how realistic is it to expect that double digit growth for apple can continue in china? jim: i did say that we will do better this quarter than we had the last several. that does not mean we are growing double digits, or that

we will grow, it means it will be better than the previous ones. i feel pretty good about that. the iphone 7 is the most popular smartphone in china. last year, the size of our business was almost $50 billion in greater china. so, we are going to stick at it because i think china is a huge opportunity over time. ♪ ramy: still ahead on "bloomberg best," we will review some of the week's most important political developments, including the drama in the middle east and revelations about russian hacking. plus, more compelling conversations on global business, germany's finance minister says if britain decides not to go through brexit, there will no hard feelings. >> they would find open doors. ramy: this is bloomberg.

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>> one of the things i am doing is negotiating with the government a different deal for london, if we can. in the meantime, my message to the world as we are currently open to talent, innovation, and entrepreneurs. one of the reason london is the greatest city in the world is we have been open to people from all different backgrounds, different ideas. that is not going to change. >> what different deal would you like to see for london? >> the key thing for us is we want to make sure the government recognizes we need a flexible immigration deal. i appreciate and respect that people in other parts of the country voted to leave the eu. one of the reasons was concern over immigration. whether it is in their interests or not, parts of the country don't want immigration.

london voted to remain in the eu. we need immigration and talent. the government has to recognize and we wanted as well. that london contributes hugely to the country in terms of revenue, economic growth, and if we want to carry on being a success story that we are, we need to recognize that we need to attract talent. ramy: that was london mayor sadiq khan telling caroline hyde that he hopes to arrange a special brexit deal that will meet the business needs of his city. with brexit talks scheduled next week, many guests on bloomberg television focused on the uncertainty ahead for europe, including the u.k.'s future and the ecb's anticipated exit from qe. let's begin our roundup with matt miller's exclusive conversation with german finance minister wolfgang schaeuble. >> we agreed from the first that brexit is a decision we have to accept.

we will minimize the potential damage and maximize the mutual benefit. matt: do you think britain has the ability now to turn that around? is there a possibility brexit does not even happen? >> it would not be helpful if we started speculation the british government started brexit. the ticket as a matter of respect, if they wanted to change their decision, of course, they would find open doors, but i think it is not very likely. matt: what about if they want more time to negotiate? garnier has said said the eu is ready, but the u.k. needs to sort some things out before they come to the table. it has already been three months since article 50.

they still have not started. can they have some more time? >> i think the negotiations will now start, and i think they had agreed before the election that in the first round, they will negotiate the points of brexit, and as soon as that is done, we can do what will be in parallel in the sense of time a regulations, and what will be the further relations between the u.k. after brexit, the single market and european union and so on. therefore, let's start the negotiation. we will always come to reasonable decisions, but it is too early right now. matt: don't you have to move in the direction of shared debt responsibility, european bonds? your spanish counterpart was recently saying it has to happen that way. it seems to be the only way if you really want a deeper, closer europe. >> if you have seen the former

governor of the bank of england robin king, that perspective makes things a little bit more difficult. my answer has always been and remains we can only risk sharing if we have the instruments to implement common decisions. if you have common risks without common decisions, it is the wrong contraction and you will end in economic disaster. >> we are still not seeing inflation where we would like it

to be. we are still not seeing the criteria we have set for inflation to be sustainable. you need a sense of patience here. >> how much of a nightmare is stronger gdp on qe? >> stronger gdp is unqualified good news. this has been acknowledged. that is why we changed our communication to adapt to the changing reality. it also shows our monetary policy measures are working, also jobs that have been created in the eurozone over the last 3-4 years, a lot of them have been created thanks to the monetary policy stance. it is working very well. we have an inflation bonds date, so when it comes to the next steps, we will have to focus on inflation. >> why was tapering not discussed last week? >> it is too early to discuss it. we have to acknowledge the changing reality. we discussed a lot of the economic situation, the prospects of inflation. there was a sense of progress when it comes to inflation, where despite of the inflation being revised downwards, if you

look carefully at the forecast, you see inflation is less dependent on our monetary policy measures, which is one step in the right direction, but not yet quite enough to start discussing tapering. >> two and half years ago, i said france would be the next big thing. all my friends in the u.s. said, john, france, business, that does not make sense. a year and half ago i said france would become the startup nation in europe. people said, i don't think so. it actually is the startup nation in europe. they went from an average of 130 companies being funded by venture capital and high-tech per year to last year to 262, this year, 486. there is excitement going on here, which the new president is only amplifying further. he will make france an example

for europe and the world. he grasps how you take digitization and change the lives of all the citizens. does he have two areas he has got to address in terms of tax regulation and law, and also the social issues from a labor perspective? yes. am i optimistic he will bring the whole country with him? oh, yes. i just came off stage with three hot startups from europe. you would have thought not only were you in silicon valley, with the three startups, one from france, one israel, one germany, but you would realize how much faster europe is moving than the u.s. in terms of new startups and a generation of jobs from those. i am very optimistic about what president macron will do. i think he is a very strong leader. >> are you more hopeful for labor market reform in france or tax reform in the united states? >> i think both of them will happen by the end of the year. ramy: some topics in global business are not strictly about

the bottom line. bank of america ceo brian moynihan joined us this week to talk about diversity and inclusion, issues that are vital to this company and close to his heart. he sat down with erik schatzker. erik: we hear all kinds of arguments for why banks should hire and promote more women. better risk managers, generate higher returns, less greedy. is that true? [laughter] >> i don't think that is any good reason. half the population and half the talent base you are dealing with. those are interesting sideshows to the real reason, which is, are you going to draw talent from one half of the population? if you think you're going to get what you want -- put any analogies out there -- if you are an nba draft, you only get to choose from half the people, others get to choose from everyone, who will come out better? you are not going to fare as

well. all of those ideas get into -- believe me, we pay people very well that are male and very well that are female. it is on the job and what they do and how they perform. i think those are all sort of soundbite narratives. the real question is, are you going to draw from 100% of the population in an industry, in a company that is completely dependent upon talent? we only do two things -- we have talented people and big machines they operate, in terms of artificial intelligence, data, technology, physical machines like call centers. we don't make things. that talent base, if you don't get from 100% of the population, you are messed up, you're in trouble.

erik: have you figured out a way to isolate diversity's impact on the bottom line? >> another pet peeve. i don't think that is a relevant question. are you going to not serve half the customers in the united states? are you not going to serve females or people of color in various representations? there is no bottom line. when i became -- for years, people came and tried to justify this economically. why are you bothering to waste our time trying to justify this economically? i can do math with anybody, but i'm saying, you don't have to prove to me that half of the population should be excluded from our product services, thought processes, our u.s. trust executives serving women, our consumer design of products. you can exclude half the population thinking they're not going to be any good. i know some people take a completely different view. to me, it is the most irrelevant question in the world. ♪ ♪

ramy: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am ramy inocencio. let's take a look back at some of the major political stories that moved markets this week, starting with theresa may's efforts to shore up support and form a new government after last week's snap election. >> prime minister theresa may could be bracing for a civil war within her own party. this comes after last week's election. she is facing pressure from lawmakers who hold her responsible from the outcome of the snap election that cost the conservative party their majority in parliament. this comes on the heels of the first meeting with the cabinet since the election. >> i am keeping a close eye on this door, because this afternoon, theresa may has been holding her cabinet meeting. as you say, leading members of the cabinet have come out and held strong support of her, for example foreign secretary boris johnson and brexit secretary david davis, both sharing fairly unequivocal support for the prime minister.

>> u.k. prime minister theresa may coming under increasing pressure to abandon a hard brexit as she tries to put together a parliamentary deal to stabilize her minority government. how stable is the government of theresa may at this point? >> a lot more stable since the meeting on monday, where she spoke to lawmakers, said, i'm responsible for this mess and i'm going to clean it up. there does not seem to be a desire to hold another election anytime soon. maybe she gets challenged on the leadership front over the summer. that is obviously more likely than another election. for now, there is a bit more stability than there was in the wake of the election. talks begin next week. >> unease growing over the deadly blaze that devastated a tower block in london. it has highlighted divisions in british society, wealth inequality and frustrations with the political establishment. in the broader u.k. politics, we

still wait for the conversations that take place, or the results of conversations, between the conservative property and the dup. >> the sequencing of the negotiations between the u.k. and europe. talk to me about that. >> certain early concessions from the brits to the europeans. the europeans have argued they want to deal with the divorce first, the financial settlement, what you do with the island's border and the rights of citizens of the eu in britain and british citizens on the continent. they have long said they wanted to discuss that first and then turn to the trade deal that theresa may wants. theresa may and the conservative government have said they would prefer to talk trade at the same time as the divorce, discuss the future relationship and break up at the same time. bloomberg reporting now the u.k. has given way on that and are happy to follow the sequencing advocated by the eu. this buys them a bit of time,

actually. if they started the talks on monday and spent the first week discussing how to structure the talks, that would have eaten into the time available. >> this gulf crisis mediator says qatar is ready to understand the concerns of its neighbors and bolster stability in the region. the comments by the kuwaiti foreign minister are assigned the week-old dispute between qatar and four arab states led by saudi arabia may be easing. qatar's main benchmark plunging 7% last week, the worst performance since december 2014. that was in 2014. what is the latest? >> it is a statement. it is not the kind of statement that would presage a more wider resolution to the gulf crisis. it is an important step from the kuwaiti side. they have been peacemakers in this process throughout. we have not heard that much in terms of reaction from the qataris, the united arab emirates. one minister asking the question, is this the beginning and what reason and wisdom will prevail? they sure hope so. that quote the minister of state

from foreign affairs. what remains to be seen is the role of the united states. we understand rex tillerson is on the phone with the deputy crown prince of saudi arabia, but there is nothing tangible to reassure the markets and really be able to chart a path forward. this is about trust, mark. once trust is broken, it takes some time to rebuild. >> let's go to washington and a bloomberg exclusive. we have learned the russian hacking of the 2016 u.s. election went wider than previously reported. much wider. people with direct knowledge of the investigation say electoral systems of 39 states were hit in the cyber attack. >> everybody knew russian hackers compromised the dnc databases and hillary clinton's campaign emails, because they leaked all of those. what was a lot less clear was how far do these attackers go in trying to compromise actual voter registration systems and campaign finance systems?

those are critical to function elections. our story today reported that the federal government, department of homeland security flagged at least 39 states where systems were compromised. we consider electoral infrastructure, both voter registration databases, which are really key to elections going up without a hitch, and campaign finance databases. >> greece's creditors have reached an agreement on potential measures to ease the country's debt burden. it paved the way for an $8.5 billion euro trough of emergency aid, possibly granting the nation a return to international markets. >> greece did get the $8.5 billion euro disbursement, what it needs to make the debt obligations due in july, so that box has been ticked. in terms of debt relief, the eurozone finance ministers sought to offer more clarity on greece's future debt path. they outlined possible measures they could take to use its best ease in its burden in the

future. where they stopped short was providing definitive steps. they said those would, the end of the program in mid-2018. as you know as well, the big question over all this has been the imf's participation in this bailout. some think other creditors of the eurozone has been seeking, and the deal they got last night was not enough to ensure the imf's participation. ramy: from the big picture of politics to the laser focus of entrepreneurs. this week's edition of small to big focuses on brit + co, a digital media company with millennial women its target audience. the "co" does not stand for company, but for community. the ceo raised $45 million in venture capital and is finding success in a very competitive space. she describes her company's journey from small to big. >> brit + co is a new media company that largely reaches millennial women and is aimed to

inspire, inform, and empower them to be more creative. my path is largely out of tech companies. i worked at google and apple and i started realizing the world of digital media was a big trend. i left google at the age of 25, not married yet, and i had saved up enough money to bootstrap my own business for about six months. ultimately i made enough traction and the rest was history. we have a three-legged pool of revenue. the first is through advertising -- we do primarily media advertising, so branded content, experience, and events. we also sell classes online. we have almost 100 courses that women pay for. the last is our merchandising business. one big challenge has been the notion of whether or not to put our content natively on distributed platforms, from snapchat to pinterest, facebook and instagram.

a lot of platforms will give you more reach if you are putting content natively on them, but they initially had not built monetization tools. it was a question whether we wanted to sacrifice control. i believe these platforms would get nowhere if they do not have great, quality content, and that they would figure out a way to support people providing the content. that has been paying us. debt paying off. we have now reached 125 million uniques a month. we also have 350% growth in revenue year-over-year. some of our newer business segments, like online classes, have grown over 300% year-over-year. we are producing over 100 pieces of content every day and hundreds of videos every month. i think it is so important for a

digital brand to have an off-line counterpart, especially any brand trying to reach millennials. we started an event called remake four years ago, just a year into the business. fast-forward to today, it is a 15,000 person festival, doubling in size year-over-year, which is proof it is working and only going to go bigger and better. we know millennial women, and we want to create content for them no matter what they are, what they're listening to, reading, watching, or consuming. ♪

>> here is what we are looking at. wcdm . this is one of the many functions on bloomberg. what this helps you figure out is the debt maturity. what you want to do is pick u.s. you go into the debt column, debt distribution, and up is going to pop the maturity profile of a lot of this u.s. debt. ramy: there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. we always enjoy showing you our favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your favorites, too. here is another function. it is quic , it will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast insight into timely topics. here is a quick take from this week. >> the war in afghanistan was the longest in american history. it officially ended in 2014 when the u.s. and its allies concluded their combat mission, but 13,400 nato-led forces, the majority of them americans, are still in the country to support an afghan government under siege from the taliban and the newer islamic state. if the coalition troops leave, the afghan military could be defeated by its tenacious enemy.

here is the situation. since the afghan military took over security control in 2014, conflict in the country has escalated. the radical group islamic state established a presence in the country's east and has claimed credit for terrorist attacks in the capital kabul. but the larger threat is a resurgent taliban, which has gradually taken over more territory. u.s. officials are worried russia may be arming the group. russia has denied it. taliban has been helped by the fact that the afghan military lacks airpower and has suffered heavy combat losses and desertions. in 2016, civilian casualties rose to almost 11,500, and 660,000 people were forced to flee their home. here is the argument. some u.s. officials and lawmakers think it is time to completely withdraw u.s. troops. they fear getting dragged back into heavy fighting if the kabul government fails.

others say the u.s. has committed too much to leave and argue that with more help, the afghan government can contain the taliban, defeat the islamic state, and stop a resurgence of the terror group al qaeda, which are provoked the war in the first place by planning the september 11 attacks from afghanistan. both sides point to iraq. in 2011, the iraqi government forced the u.s. into a total withdrawal. but then the explosive rise of islamic state prompted a return of u.s. forces three years later. the iraq experience can stand either as a reminder of the danger of a complete pullout or at the argument for leaving before the bottom completely drops out. ramy: 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 the latest business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best" this week. i am ramy inocencio.

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