♪ shery: coming up on, "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped a week in business around the world. the u.k. and the e.u. begin talks on brexit and cannot takes a landmark step in global financial markets. saudi arabia announces a succession shakeup. and oil stumbles into bear markets. >> the sentiment is relatively negative. >> too much oil in the market. shery: pulling the person strings of economies across the globe, talking about their target and challenges. >> at the end of year, we will be ready to go into market. >> we are just not going to be

satisfied with 2% growth. shery: and some of wall street's most respected voices offer perspective on investing pretty -- on investing. >> it makes no sense to buy and etf. plus, a facebook -- opens up in an exclusive interview. >> technology is replacing jobs and can also be used to grow jobs. shery: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ shery: hello, and welcome. i am shery ahn. this is "bloomberg best." your weekly review of the most important business news and analysis from bloomberg around the world. this week marks the one-year anniversary of the brexit referendum. on monday, the u.k. and the e.u. finally began talks to emerald

-- began talks to hammer out their divorce. vonnie: brexit talks have finally begun in brussels, amid confusion. the negotiations start against a backdrop of mounting domestic crisis in the united kingdom. and a public mood shaken by several deadly tragedies. >> the clock is ticking, the window is narrowing. they have decided to go ahead, even of the u.k. position hasn't been re-solidifies, if you will. >> today marks the start of a journey of the united kingdom and for the european union. there is a long way to go, but we are off to a promising start. >> the key negotiator on behalf of the e.u., he said in a statement after the press conference that he was not in the mood for making any sort of concession. interestingly, the consequences of the decision are substantial. it does seem that they would try to talk about the positives being the tracking of this. early deal is what both of them is seen to be uttering.

there were 4.5 million people who do not know what their rights are at the moment either in the u.k. or e.u. they need to know their employment looks like and what their residency looks like. >> bank of england, governor now carney said that it is the time for a rate hike. >> fragmentation is of financial services will result important productshigher price for everyone concerned. >> the pound sliding for a second today. you can see it on cable. the variousugh factors causing this selloff in sterling, but also pushing the gilt yield lower. >> mark carney was a big factor today. dovished back quite late.

in the long-term, there is brexit. outcomes of those are really quite unknown at this point. investors do not like and certainly, don't like betting on unknown outcomes. oil is really the big market mover today. it went below $43 a barrel at one point with the drop today. if you look at where oil has come back on february 23, it looks like we are now in a bear market for oil. it is down by nearly 21%. >> i do not understand the move today. >> none of us do. [laughter] it started early this morning in london. i would argue it is more technically-driven. but it represents a broader movement in the price in the sense that the sentiment is relatively negative right now. we look at prices it retraced all the gains that they achieved

after that opec reduction cut announcement back in november of last year. we think about opec production, when we think about shale, in the context of that, the shale not worrisome by themselves. what is worrisome is how does opec regain market share in 2018 2018?o the weakness in the time spread -- most people's concern is the negative sentiment. >> it allows us of the fed, that you will raise in the short term. >> the analogy is perfect. >> chinese stocks have gained direct entry to msci's benchmark indexes for the first time marking a milestone, a defining moment here in beijing. efforts to draw international funds to the world's second-largest market. >> we're talking about a small waiting, about 0.7% is what the

eight shares will make up. a shares will letter make up. it's part of emerging markets index. in terms of the process, inclusion will start the process in may of 2018. the second stage will be in august of next year. that is a hope included over time. this is something of a carrot and stick approach. >> we end up talking to over 100 institutional investors from all reaches of the world. and there was strong support with the proposal that we put in place. we were able to get even stronger support to revise its it to a larger number. >> msci also added saudi arabia to its watchlist, meaning it could get a potential to emerging market status in 2018. give us the real timeline. how quickly could this actually happened? >> in the past four or five

years, msci reclassified only emerging markets. two we generally say the averages between three to four years. the most recent inclusion of pakistan was done in a year. the quickest it would be would be a year. >> saudi arabia has announced a major change. the king has named his 31-year-old son as crown prince. he is also defense minister and is the chairman of counsel for economic and development affairs, is spearheading the vision fiscal reform program. 2030 he replaces his cousin as next in line to the throne. >> what does this mean for saudi arabia's reform efforts? presumably, the new crown prince comes in with leverage on that front. >> it makes clear that these reforms are here to stay, but there's no danger of it in your

-- there is no danger of being reversed or changed anytime soon. know, he is in charge and in control and has no more authority and power. >> senate republican leaders finally unveiled a closely held plan to replace obamacare this morning. senator mcconnell speaking on the floor having had a conference with republican members, many of whom were seeing the text of this bill for the first time. what did we end up with? in -- similar in many respects to the house-past obamacare replacement bill. it's similar in its structure and cuts medicaid steeply. it ratchets back a lot of the obamacare tax subsidies and makes them more generous, text cuts. there are differences in terms of the regulations states are able to opt out of. these 10 essential health benefits that the affordable care act requires.

the senate version does not allow insurers to charge people different amounts based on their health status. another key difference, length of the medicare drug down. -- medicare draw down the senate -- medicare draw down. the senate bill does it over three years in 2020, slower than the house bill. starting in 2025, it cap's medicaid and moves to a slower rate of growth, which in the health care experts will not be nearly enough to pay for health care inflation. mcconnell has to get 50 out of 52 members in the senate on board. not going to be easy. >> if you look at the different sectors in a performance today, it is, that there is one outstanding moving here, and i will be health care stocks. the health care group, that sub index, is at a record high, gaining more than 1% as the senate unveiled its version of the health care overall. -- overhaul bill. >> what was in the bill that investors reacted positively to? >> the bill is out of half for health care stability over the next few years. we have a bunch of subsidies being funded.

things that you keep people in their insurance over the next two years. longer-term, we see some cuts coming in longer-term. >> prime minister theresa may told e.u. leaders at a summit in brussels that almost all 3 million e.u. citizens living in the u.k. will be able to continue living here after brexit. >> my first impression is -- lower our expectations. >> that was a good beginning. i'm trying to word this very carefully. it was not a breakthrough. it >> talk was pretty aggressive , slapping down theresa may's proposal. most other leaders said it was not satisfactory and did not go far enough, but i want to stress that this summit isn't about brexit negotiations. this summit is about doing a whole lot of other things, addressing proposals, russian sanctions, where regulator should be located.

although they are discussing brexit a lot, especially through the press, they are not talking about it really directly to each other. u.k. 27 as far as the negotiation would normally go. shery: still to come as we review the week "bloomberg best," on -- on "bloomberg best," the push for tax reform from steven mnuchin. plus conversations with economy , ministers from south korea and greece, portugal, and mexico. and caroline hyde goes one on one with facebook's cheryl sandberg. but up next, more of the weeks top business headlines. investigators deal barclays another blow. any ofo another with misconduct in the nine years since the financial crisis. shery: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ shery: this is "bloomberg best". i'm shery ahn. let's continue our global tour of the week's top business stories with legislative elections in france. voters gave a boost to the new party led by president emmanuel macron. >> in france, macron's republic on the move, and its allies have won 350 seats in the national assembly. the biggest majority in 15 years. >> it to large majority. 350 seats. out of 577, he will be able to pass reforms in the parliament. however, it is not as big as expected. there were very tight races in some of the constituencies, especially against the republicans. seats in 137 parliament, so they will be able to make their voices heard. and you have the leader of the national -- method for the third

time after failing four times to get a seat at the national assembly. she managed to get one last night. and another leader elected for the first time ever in marseille. >> tesla is said to be close to an agreement to produce vehicles in china. it would allow the electric taxaker to avoid an import on the price of vehicles competitively in the world's largest auto market. how significant is this deal? >> this would be huge. tesla has one auto plant in fremont, california. if they want to become a global automaker and sulfide hundred thousand cars a year by 2018, they will need additional facilities. it is their first -- if their first facility outside of the u.s. is china, that would be significant. >> ford is doubling down on china. the focus there for export to the u.s. >> it is a potential timebomb.

the global president for ford is saying, hey americans by , iphones, they are all made in china. americans are used to buy things made in china. but ford is an iconic american brand. ford is taking a bit of a gamble, but they say they can fit up to $1 billion moving the production to china and exporting starting in 2019. >> barclays and for executive have been charged with committing fraud from qatar. andhey say the former ceo charges along with the bank itself. >> this is a, nation of a five-year probe that the fbi has been looking into. the context being that the apocalyptic time and's bailout.

they will avoid that, do fundraising. these charges relate to questions around the arrangements that they made with ,atari investments at that time funds they agreed to pay to receive money. >> that's in the misconduct that has come to light in the nine years of financial crisis. comes a bad time personally for the ceos as well, under investigation. so, closing in on a decade after the financial crisis. these issues have still not been sought for this bank yet. >> uber ceo travis kalanick steps down from the company. investors pressured travis kalanick to step aside. he is still a member of the board and have a lot of voting shares. >> this is interesting. this is something that seemed quite unlikely because of the controlled voting share. we see a lot of startups,

whether it is losing the or groupon -- whether it is zynga or groupon. all the way up to google, with a different class of voting shares. we expect that that is probably what is going on for over. travis kalanick wasn't going to leave this company until he was ready. surely, his investors are ready to have him go. is somethingings started in 2010, a $5 billion valuation. that is amazing. they have broadened -- they have brought in a professional class of investors. it's not just people like benchmark capital that made money for the beginning, but you have investors who came in late who do not want to risk screwing up what has been an amazing thing. fallingning, brent below $35 a barrel. all concerns on rising supplies. it seems that the opec compliance is 100%. but is it too much on the

market? the key factors the u.s.. the growth of the u.s. pipe oil is not 100% on what opec expected. you are looking at 800,000 barrels per day growth, higher production from libya, nigeria, pakistan. it is too much on the market. they've seen a 700,000 barrels per day cut in opec to bring the prices down. >> american airlines saying qatar airways is interested in buying a 10% stake in the company valued at more than $800 , million. america says it didn't solicit the proposed investment. it won't change the airlines' board composition are management. >> the curious thing is, these two airlines have been at odds . the u.s. airlines accuse qatar as well as other big middle

eastern airlines of flooding the market with u.s. flights with generous subsidies from the middle eastern governments. one would wonder if perhaps qatar is trying to quell some of the controversy between the u.s. and the middle eastern airlines? >> what are the chances that they say no thanks, we don't want you to stay? >> we don't know, but based on previous statements, you would think that it's pretty good. american has been one of the leaders in the charge against the middle eastern carriers. >> billionaire warren buffett rode to the rescue from home capital trying to disrupt property markets. 38.4% stake and about a $1.5 billion u.s. credit line was given. why would warren buffett taking a stake in this mortgage lender? such a large one? >> the simple answer, you get a price he was interested in.

this is out of warren buffett's playbook. he said a couple of years ago that berkshire hathaway has become his firm, the one 800 number in a market crisis. what we are seeing is an example of that strategy. you have seen it time and again. a wayare structured in that burger happily not only earns a high yield on the debt part of the transaction, but often get some sort of equity in the mix as well, which serves as a kicker. you know, if buffett is right and these embattled firms return greases, they make a lot of money in the process. largest: 34 of the banks cleared the first round of federal reserve stress tests examining their ability for , economic shock. t-tests come next week when the fed will release findings from its competence of capital analysis and review. those test will be watched by

investors as they determine when lenders can increase in turn back stocks. >> the numbers look good. calculation and looking at the 34 banks covered. they have according to the fed, 500 of access capital above stress levels. keepare required to severely adverse scenarios. the big bank side, jpmorgan's and regional banks, have about 360 billion of that. a lot of buffers there. obviously that's positive. the means them we see next week, we see how much of that capital is going the fed will allow them to give back to shareholders over the next 12 months. i think it will be a big number. ♪

♪ shery: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i'm shery ahn. this week, caroline hyde spoke exclusively with facebook's chief operating officer, sheryl sandberg. their conversation covers a range of topics, including the social networks' responsibility to help businesses create new jobs. is morewe are seeing adoption of the mobile platforms. there are 70 million small businesses that are using facebook on a monthly basis. that is our free product and finally advertisers bid on histogram, we have 8 million profiles. the largest of the smallest company, they are investing in mobile because that is where people are spending their time. caroline: he's optimistic about what these undercurrent show you about the global economy in

general? are we seeing jobs being created? can you give us a gauge as to what you see out there? >> our goal is to make sure that businesses spend money and get a return what matters for marketers is when they spent on marketing, it rings a cash register online and off. that is something we are really working on. we also see small businesses play an important role in the global economy through the majority of job creation around the world is small businesses. and even the most off-line small business can use the power of technology. when i was last in europe, i went to berlin and got to visit a company, a furniture manufacturer in berlin. that's a very traditional business. the son came into the family business, and did not change anything about manufacturing, but started marketing on facebook and through mobile. they grew their business, now they have opened five more

locations, including outside of germany creating jobs and , growing their business. and so, technology can power innovation both in the core of the business, but can support any business out there. caroline: when people worry about eroding jobs, are you seen the other point of view? >> technology is changing the economy. technology is terms of placing jobs, and technology can also be used to create -- can also be used to grow jobs. it is our responsibility to help small and large businesses all over the world to use technology to grow their businesses so they can grow jobs. you can see much more that exquisite interview at bloomberg.com. and coming up, more conversations with leaders in politics, policy, and the markets. it berkowitz has advice for investors who feel that they have to buy today's hottest stocks. >> a couple of problems and it is want to be difficult for

investments to recover over a period of time. shery: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> the world is not these four countries. we have a lot of new destinations we are launching, and we will we will expedite those lunches, continue to grow. we do not get intimidated. we will find new markets and as many markets that are longing for qatar airways to fly into their reports. >> just in the near-term, having -- what effects are you having operationally in terms of running the business? >> disruptive influence on our network. but, we have successfully been mitigating this disruption. we have seen already that there is an upward trend in passengers

that are starting to now book on qatar airways. think it-- when they is a little but of people, they think that it's a war zone. it's not a war zone, this is an intimidation game by our neighbors. >> that was qatar airways ceo speaking with guy johnson at the paris air show. a veritable parade of war leaders, fiscal and monetary policy, joined bloomberg television for interviews this week. let's start with south korea's finance minister, who sat down exclusively with us at the annual conference in chad you -- >> are you concerned the trump is considering renegotiating the free trade agreement between korea and the u.s.? >> there has been no official request coming from the u.s. government yet. i understand the nafta negotiations are currently underway. as you know, korea is a strong advocate of free trade.

we are concerned with that type of protectionism. there have been evidence that there are mutual benefits enjoyed out of fta. those have been reciprocal so far. >> cannot be raised from the current 2.6%? -- >> if the economy continues as it is today, and if the supplementary budget is fully implemented, there's a possibility that the gdp estimates could be higher than we currently expect. but given that there are also uncertainties such as the u.s. rate hike and international, economic, and financial situations, we still need to be careful about revising of the gdp estimates. >> all in all, i think we are on the road to recovery. the growth rate has been assumed by the ecb, which is around 2%. most likely, given to my contacts here in the u.s..

there were investors, other people very much interested in greece. it looks like it's achievable. >> when do you think greece might be able to go back to the capital markets with a bond issuance? >> i think the expectation is by the end of the year. even the end of this year or the beginning of the next. as you see, the spreads are dropping dramatically. we have a -- we see that in the two-year bond as well as the 10 year bond, so it would depend on where we are after the program begins. the second-quarter growth rates are out, and the third quarter will be substantial in tourism.g the cause of i believe that at the end of the year, we will be ready to go into markets. >> we look at the ecb every month. we listened to mario draghi

about whether they may start tapering or tightening monetary policies. how much would that affect the portuguese economy when and if they start tapering? >> i think it would effect the portuguese economy as it would affect all other european economies. what we are not seeing is signs of increased inflation justifies -- to justify the tightening of monetary policy -- what we are seeing is that unemployment in europe is still quite high in several countries. i do not think it is time to tighten the monetary policy, and it is not the time in portugal to do a strong expansion of fiscal policy, but in order to unleash austerity which is what is happening, it's a good sign that there's more confidence in investors. also, to pursue it, as you were saying, which is important and good place to create a better place for recovery. we have seen some signs of that in europe, some very positive signs of that already happening

in portugal, so we are weaving this recovery out of growth, but i think we will see recovery all over europe which is going to be , also positive for portugal. >> last year candidate trump and then president elect trump said about the largest free market trading zone in the world, it is trending around $20 trillion, trade has quadrupled since 1994 north american free trade agreement was signed, and he said he would rip it up. he said it was a disaster. is the worst over now? >> right now, we are officially in the process of modernizing it. we needed some renegotiations, they put some other objectives to it -- if one looks at the , the airport, highways electricity, oil and gas , pipelines, the north american

region -- to which when you look at the infrastructure, it's difficult to identify the borders. one can argue whether that came about because of nafta or rather nafta came about because there was a dynamic for north american regions something special in and of itself. mexico has a lot of free trade agreements. ine of them have resulted the level of integration that north america has seen, so so there's nothing that complements our economies will. nafta brought it to life. nafta pull little long, that pulled it along, and it's difficult to argue that was just nafta. there are core dynamics between our economies that make it reasonable for us to integrate, have markets. to participate in the global economy -- a block. the largest block of the globe looking you -- in the global

economy for the foreseeable future is the north american economy. we think this is the modernize nafta us so we can do better. many things are happening today that would be natural to include in that integration program. whether we have the economic ability to put this on the table, we do not have it in 1994 but now we do. >> we had a rocky year last year. i think that a lot of the correction that is taking place has been the result of reactions that have been taken in the monetary side, the foreign-exchange side, the fiscal side. basically, we are going to look at dynamics, keep it consistent with the one off week inflation shock. we are expressing some confidence of what we have done

being sufficient, and it will be sufficient for from now on until the end next year. it is hard to say. >> right now the volatility in the treasury market and the volatility for the peso by historical standards is right now very low. >> yes. >> is the market optimistic or realistic? >> you would have to ask the market. [laughter] >> i think in general, markets have been a knowledge in that -- acknowledging what we have been doing. in a way, i think that we coincided many aspects. sometimes markets are too pessimistic sometimes markets , are exuberant. what we need to do is keep a

cool head. that is what we are trying to say. >> you are not unsettled at the moment by what the markets are doing right now, is that correct? >> yes, i would not agree. i'm not optimistic. >> u.s. treasury secretary steve mnuchin also sat down with bloomberg television this week at the investment summit outside of washington dc. we asked him how he is making progress on some key policy initiatives. >> is the white house saying there is a date by which we will have a tax reform proposal? are you speaking with one voice on that issue? >> we've been pretty consistent in saying, we are working every week very closely with the house and the senate to have a joint plan when we come out. the idea is to get us all on the same page so when we release the combined plan, it will get past that it will get past, get passed by the house and the

senate and the president will sign it. it's our focus to get that done this year. it's critical to the economy and we are working every day to get that done. >> what's your relationship like with lawmakers on capitol hill? how have you found that, being new to washington in this job? >> i think we have a good relationship. i think it's a team effort. i think the good news is, we understand what we want to do and we want to get growth in this country, we want to have tax reform that hasn't been done in 30 years. it's critical -- we want to simplify personal taxes, create a middle income tax cut, make business taxes competitive. we have one of the highest tax rates in the world, with worldwide taxes and deferrals, which leads to trillions of dollars left offshore. >> you bring up growth. i'll have to say that is the theme of this conference. i talked to half dozen economists every day. they disagree with projections all of themthey disagree with projections you have, saying that it is 3%. what are you saying that they are not? >> i want to put this in perspective. when obama came into office he

was projecting over 4% economic growth. we have obviously not have that. we have one of the lowest growth rates in modern history. we just not going to be satisfied with 2% growth. we will work every day in the administration to do everything we possibly can to unlock the economic capital, to create jobs, better wages command get -- better wages, and get growth above 3%. >> people in your position have been advised -- federal reserve. has the president solicited your advice on who the next fed share that chair -- share should be? >> on financial regulatory positions, gary cohn and i are working closely together in making recommendations to the president. he and i have interviewed all all the people and have joint , recommendations to the president. >> what do you think constitutes a good fed chair? what you think you and the president should be looking for in a fed chair this next term? >> we haven't made decisions on the fed chair, whether we will

have a new one or not. we will be working closely together with the president as we consider all the issues. ♪

♪ >> you are watching bloomberg best. morningstar wants to have bruce berkowitz as its fund manager of the decade three while it's fund has underperformed in recent years, the investor known for his contrary and approach has a lot to say about the current market environment. he spoke exclusively with erik schatzker about the flood of money going into etf. >> etf investing, to an extent, is a good idea. -- know, the idea of being you benefit by the growth in the u.s. economy, the u.s. economy improves, the markets improve,

etf's go up in value, and there is a direct correlation. but an etf is only as good as the constituents within the etf. and it doesn't take into account the illogical extremes. there is a point where it makes no -- no sense to buy etf, and general markets are overvalued. they are highly capitalized and part of etf's are overvalued. so it does bother me that a lot of sort of blind decisions have been made, and thinking as being delegated to a mathematical equation, that everything should average out ok over the long the last time people got caught up in this, they were and itmoney for 13 -- took 13, 14, 15 years to recover, and that's not thinking about the valuation of that bottom line.

>> are we at that point now, where it doesn't make sense to buy an etf because the underlying valuations are two rich?o >> it doesn't make sense to me. i'm not a growth investor. i am not a visionary. i am the guy looking to buy a dollar for $.50. if i'm wrong, i get my $.50 back. if i'm right i do a lot better than the dollar over time. >> when you look at the must own stocks facebook, amazon, apple, some ofx, google, or the other highfliers like tesla or nvidia, what do you see? >> i see companies that are priced for a very, very rosy future. if it's a great rosy future, people will do well. but a couple of problems, and it's going to be difficult for investors to recover over time.

>> for more insights into the investment landscape, we traveled to to the second annual goldman sachs leveraged finance conference in southern california. a roundup of interviews begins with goldman chief economist. -- a goldman chief economist. >> you have five and 30, and this spread is under 100 basis points, the lowest we have seen since 2007. when you look at that spread how , do you interpret that? >> the main one is the term premium continues to be very low. i think part of that is a policy -- is fed policy the holdings of , long-term bonds by the federal reserve. obviously overtime probably starting in september, october, that is going to be genetically run down, and that is an important factor. that theactor is inflation risk premium, which accounted for most of the

steep curve and high term premium situations of the 1980's, 1990's, that is extremely low at this that is an point. important factor, and a final factor, foreign monetary policy the fact that the doj are still doj are still running very easy policy, and some are pushing investors in those markets into longer securities that even in the u.s.. >> talking about low rates, it was said earlier that low inflation targets contribute to low rates. we have heard from janet yellen, not really mentioning inflation targets, but last week didn't rule it off the table in terms of discussing raising it. what is your thought on that? >> i think if you started from scratch and had to decide between a 2% inflation target and a 3% inflation target, you can make a good case that a free -- 3% inflation target would be better. you could say, it doesn't really add that much to the potential

price setting inefficiencies in the economy. it is not lead to a deterioration in the price signals to a significant degree, but at the same time, it gives you a little bit more leeway to cut rates in the economic downturn situation. so i think you could make that case from scratch -- whether you would want to go from a 2% target to a 3% target at this point in time, i think it is harder to say. i would be nervous about trying to let the economy overshoot long-term full employment by a lot in order to get inflation up to 3% at this point in time. so i'm not sure it's a great idea now. clearly it's a question for , academic research. i think that was janet yellen's point. >> buyers and sellers. who has the power right now? markets a very robust

out there, so most everything coming into the market is getting priced very tightly spread tight. , coming into the year, people would have expected a rising yield environment, a rising rate environment given the fed's behavior, and i we have seen better situations in the credit market, so it has been a better environment to issue paper and the debt rockets broadly, the leverage finance base -- the market is wide open. i'd say the issue is that we are having a very attractive moment here. >> in particular sectors that have robust demand , and issuance versus some that are more close? >> consumer and retail spaces an area where people are more cautious, worried given disruptions going on, probably cross retail, apparel, foods, so that is an area i would highly that has more caution around new issuance. but broadly speaking, most of

the other areas across the economy are pretty robust. >> i mentioned amazon because goldman was one of the two big banks that supplied the bridge loan for the deal. do you think amazon will offer bonds? >> i don't want to speculate on what they will do. we lent a bridge loan for them to finance the transaction come as you can assume there will be a takeout of that bridge loan coming to the marketplace at some point in the near future. great transaction for them and us. we are really privileged to be part of it. deal you feel like big deals are back with amazon or is this a one-off? >> we have seen actually volumes flat year-over-year, country that your to date in 2017, the volume is about $1,000,000,000,005, and we are running 15% below the pace of 2015, which was an extra ordinary year in the 2015 was merger business. marked by much more large scale consolidation, whether it was pharma, telecom technology, etc.. we haven't really seen as much big deal activity since 2015. if you look at the underlying

trends in the merger market, most of it is being driven by $1 billion-$5 billion transactions. volume and $1 billion-$5 billion transactions are up to 5%, and transactions greater than $20 billion are down 40%. not saying big deals happening near any other rate we saw in 2015. ♪

♪ >> this is our the -- rrg on bloomberg, our relative rotation graph. this is the sectors doing the best. not surprisingly on a day where the nasdaq is outperforming the other index. there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. we always enjoy showing your desk showing you our favorites

on bloomberg television maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you will find it useful. -- you will find useful, q uic go, it will take you over quick takes, where you get insight into timely topics. here is a quick take from this week. pres. trump: everyone is listening to you now. you came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. >> u.s. president donald trump's victory is part of a new wave of populism sweeping through democracies of the world. what differentiates a populist from mainstream politicians is a claim that they alone are of the will of the people of the whole. that allows them to dismiss opposition to themselves or policy as an attack on the popular will. modern populists often take this approach as they tap into backlash against immigration in a globalized economy that many voters feel has left them behind. here is the situation.

unlike most isms populism does , not lean left to right or the center. to the late for a nationalist hugo chavez to marine le pen in france, this is how they connect politics. according to one author, their -- there are three requirements for an politician to be considered populace. one, they make an appeal to the people. the systemreak down against the despised elite. pres. trump: she will keep a rigged system in place. i alone can fix it. >> populist also use manufacturing to justify the calls for the votes, and lastly, inflammatory language is used to shock the establishment and prove politician's credentials as one of the people. >> this scum who make the streets unsafe. >> here's the argument. because populists make big promises to shakeup should coyote -- society they tend to

, bump up against democratic checks and balances, and particularly because of the media, designed to limit what governments can do, then the temptation is to become to declare these institutions part of a conspiracy to bought the people's will. pres. trump: i have a running war with the media, and among the most dishonest human beings. >> there is a reason why populists emerge. they promise a correction to democracies that seem to have lost their representative power and offer a fresh start. the challenge remains for mainstream politicians to address widespread economic and cultural fields. otherwise, the draw of populism is not going away anytime soon. >> anything is possible if enough decent people are prepared to stand up against the establishment. thank you very much. >> that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them on themberg.com along with

latest business news and analysis, 24 hours a day. that's all for bloomberg best this week. thanks for watching. i'm shery ahn this is bloomberg. , ♪

♪ david: what propelled you to want to join this company? brian: i always wanted to work for my dad. david: did he say you could start at the bottom and work your way up, or did he say you could start at number two? brian: that is what i wanted to happen. david: did everyone wonders you are ready to be president yet? brian: everybody, including myself. david: have you ever had problems with your cable? brian: sure. david: is it intimidating for the cable repairman to come to your house? >> would you fix your tie, please? david: well, people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed, but ok. just leave it this way. alright. ♪ david: i don't consider myself a journalist.