>> coming up on "bloomberg best", the stories that shaped the week and business around the world. sending a chill through the markets. next they will be met with fire and fury. like the world has never seen. >> the rhetoric continues to ratchet up almost by the hour. south africa's president of what a political challenge, and china's tourism boom spurs a surprising result. >> online to online, or online to off-line. >> sheryl sandberg saying that facebook is committed to using his power for bed. >> we are not perfect. we make mistakes.

>> the finance minister banks flocking to paris after brexit. >> we will win the race, of attractiveness. >> he explains why he wants right to stay on hold. >> i think we have a ways to go in inflation. >> and come out we have the floor as we sort through the earnings report. >> the results are underpinned by strong strategy. >> we would like to move away from talking about just pricing, it is also about value. greatobviously have the brands to be able to reach in so many directions, a combination of trends, technology and consumer trends. >> all of that, straight ahead on "bloomberg best". ♪ rishaad: hello, welcome. i am rishaad salamat and this is number best, your weekly review of the most important business

news, analysis and interviews on bloomberg television around the world. physical tension -- geophysical tensions dominated this week, with this on monday. china says that it is confident that the new u.s. sanctions on north korea will bring the reclusive state back to the negotiating table. the issue was discussed front and center at the foreign ministers meeting in manila and the weekend. how realistic is it to expect that we will get new talks and this will draw pyongyang back to the table? prettya came up with a strong response in china, and get it is confident that the sanctions will put a stop to the nuclear weapons program in north korea, that it also cautions that this could take that tension a stepfather, taking it to a critical phase. it said that it is important to realize that the sanctions are not the end goal, that the denuclearization of the korean peninsula must come through

negotiations. talks are essential. >> that was a statement from the north korean government doing that we will not under no circumstances stop -- put the rockets on the negotiation table and will continue to bolster our forces to read -- our nuclear forces. korea'su take north statement on face, best on faith, it is important to get back to the negotiating table before they get to the point where they can deliver a nuclear warhead to the united states. secretary of state tillerson said that they would be helpful, if north korea reduced the pace, slowed down its nuclear test. it is hard to see that happening, given that this is really north korea's primary goal, to develop this missile system, then be able to force people to the table. headed 35 record highs this year, but, is it

still too good to be true? many investors believe so. >> now, joining the ranks is that this is not a time where you can say you can buy anything and not worry about the risks, the time to do that was a teammate months ago -- 18 months ago. know, itts everyone to is not that the market is about haveash, it is that things gone so far, so fast, that trees do not grow to the sky, it just cannot continue. he does not see a recession, but valuations are so rich, that something has to happen at some point. >> i think that the driver of the markets right now, is the synchronized global recovery, and the fact that inflation and policy remains subdued. as long as that is the case, the likelihood -- the likelihood

that we will see the end of the cycle, which is what we are predicting, i do not think it is likely. i think this will be the longest is the cycle, and therefore the longest credit cycle that any of us have ever experienced. and it will not end in 2017 and i don't think in 2018 either. thei am nervous about markets are super complacent and the downshift in core inflation has facilitated that. but i do not think that story will go any further,. i am really nervous about what might happen over the fall or the winter when we finally start to see the acceleration in wages, which will raise some lessons about the stability of margins, and where our earnings go next year. stocks closing. lower, negative in the last 30 minutes of trading following donald trump remarks on north korea. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states, they will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen. >> the north koreans are famous

for this sort of rhetoric, and president trump seems to be trying to match them, 141. the worry is that we really do not understand how the north koreans interpret things like this. this can only escalate tensions between the two countries. >> the north korean news agency, kcma says that they would start the territory of guam, -- >> the question is how much closer are we to war? there is no sign that military buildup is occurring. this kind of rhetoric is just that, for the moment, rhetoric. >> president trump threats against north korea sent talk slower for a second straight day and he continued his rhetoric this morning, with the president my first order as president was to renovate and reorganize our nuclear arsenal which is now much stronger and more powerful than it ever was before. hopefully we will never have to

use it, but there will never be a time that we are not the most our fault nation in the world. >> rex tillerson seemed to dialback some of the president's comments, he did support the president as a cabinet member, but he also said that the becauset will let me, in the past, kim jong-un has not responded to the niceties that diplomatic language has been used. the military option, secretary of defense james madison -- mattis said today, that don't scenarios around wargames with north korea are grim my particularly for the people of south korea. >> japan and south korea are warning the north that it would face a strong resist -- response if it carries out a threat to launch missiles towards the u.s. territory of lahm. was reacting to from fire and fury comment and they basically called it nonsense. they reiterated their plans to , andh missiles at guam

they got into incredible detail as to where exactly they would launch them, what flight path they would take, and basically lending about 30 or 40 .ilometers from guam of course, this is a very challenging thing for south korea, because they would literally fly right across the south korean sea, and across the certain parts of japan. japan responded by saying that when it does, they will have the legal means to shoot it down. so, the rhetoric, continues to ratchet up almost by the hour. not -- north korea does does anything in terms of thinking about attack of anybody that we love or represent, or are our allies, they can be very nervous. i will tell you what, they should be very nervous.

things will happen to them, like they never thought possible. >> the situation is that it is the process -- the most serious and we have had, no question about it. with another country, since the cuban missile crisis, akin the early 1960's -- back in the early 1960's. this morning, we got the latest read with u.s. inflation in july, coming in at the top of the line. >> we had factors that people are pointing to that as the excuse that the federal will be looking at those. hotels are down 4.2%, a little bit unusual for this time of the year. as cars were down as well used cars and trucks. the problem for the fed, is that it has been continuing a transitory one-off price, and it

appears that companies are still facing pricing pressure. >> we need to step up and not be too cute about figuring up out what ise happening here. we're seeing an inflation lowdown -- slow down. >> still ahead as we review the week on bloomberg best, we dive into a torrent of earning reports and hear from someone about disney's new streaming technology. sheryl sandberg says that facebook recognizes its berries areas responsibilities, and australia's trade minister insists that ttp can still work without the united states. up next, more of the weeks business headlines. a controversial memo making waves across the laquon valley. >> our lack of ideological diversity has actually hurt our product. >> this is bloomberg. ♪

rishaad: this is bloomberg best, am rishaad salamat. -- our tourue our of the week's top business stories with a double those of economic data from china. >> china's exports moderated in july with exports rising 7.2 percent in dollar terms, adding to the uncertainty that the possibility of trade row with the u.s., as president trump continues to talk tough. imports, exports, they all missed estimates on dollar terms. so much lower than we had expected. what is going on here? quite a big miss come up according to the estimates. a 72% increase in exports in the month of july, compared to that at -- the forecasts of an 11% increase. the imports increased below estimates 11% in the month of

july, below estimates of an 18% increase. the other thing to point out is trade47 billion, is that -- that trade that we are trying to have with the u.s. has not been up all year, despite the rhetoric. it was seem to be in a trade war, and it's use like the trade war might be pushed back a little bit further, because of the big development that we had over the weekend with the security council and the u.n. agreeing to sanctions on north korea. with china supporting the sanctions, president trump might step back and see how it goes. but it means that the trade tensions have not gone away, they are just delaying the inevitable for now. there was cousin totally disappeared. >> china producing consumer prices in july, to just over -- a little bit below expectations here in july, 5.5%. 1.4%, slightly below

the consensus estimate. >> the cpi is telling us that inflation is not the righteration of the pboc now, you have food inflation going backwards, -- >> the bloomberg one, is showing half a percentage estimate higher right? >> exactly. they are rising 2% from the euro, which is coming down as well. so, inflation is continuing to give the pboc room to prioritize other topics like de-leveraging and some of these drive-through reining in some of the financial risk out there. things are holding a far better than economists thought they would, at 5.5%. >> south african president jacob zuma, beat back a

no-confidence vote that was held in secret today. up 1%africa stocks went after the decision was announced. ancthe lawmakers from the rallied and closed ranks to outvote the opposition party, and a motion of no-confidence. the motion was disputed by 198 votes, 277, nine of the 384, lawmakers present in the national assembly on tuesday, opted to abstain from the ballot. the economy not really reacting positively to the news that xoma will still be president for the next short-term. we know that the african national congress will be going to elect a new leader in december, which may mean that you may be asked to step down from the leadership in december. fired the male engineer who was at the center

of an uproar in silicon valley. this come after he authored a memo asserting that there are biological causes behind gender inequality in the tech industry. critics say that it is censorship that encourages -- discourages employees from filing complaints. how do you describe the firestorm? >> i would say that there are two camps of people who think that the memo was not arguably -- it was hurtful, offensive and it did not belong in google. and that he should have been fired. and we have people who think that google firing him for speaking up, that it is proving his point, that he brought up these points that were not widely well received, and that he was fired for it. so, it was already a contentious miter -- matter over the weekend and their decision to fire him makes it only hotter. >> google is making products for the world. the you not need to have all kinds of people making those products? >> yes, of course, i support

diversity and inclusion. also, our lack of ideological diversity has actually hurt our product. >> marriott international became the biggest hotel group in the world after its merge. there,issions do not end it is nearing its names and services with alibaba, to help the tourism boom exploding in china. describe to us, particularly as it relates to the asia business, how i will work, between marriott and alibaba? >> you have the words right. it is a marriage, a marriage of offline to online. or online to off-line. o-to-o.the new acronym, you have two companies, the brightest minds, 500 million people on alibaba's platform

with 100 million of marriott customers. many trips last year by chinese travelers, and the largest percentage of those were to asia. so the biggest benefit of this, is of course, to asia but it will benefit companies around the world. >> u.s. payment process advantage has agreed to by the uk's world paid group. 10.4 billion dollars, increasing consolidation in the payments industry. should people be happy with the deal? ipo, itu come in at the is being sold for around 62% deal., but it is a stock if you come in around this year and you are looking at a 22% premium, it is in aligned with some of the other deals that are happening. a fascinating company though, because if you remember this is a company that rbf was supposed to sell, but it's told it to private equity in 2010,

then they flipped it around and put it on the market two years later and now it is getting bought out. potential day of megadeals in the u.s., cable -- nowrs,, one of them has its site set on chartered. so, this is not completely out of the question? >> if you look at a market cap for these companies, this is pure craziness. rt just went public in the u.s., so they do have currency. ice which has a pretty big market cup, and this market cap. and it you do not have to look too bad -- too much back, --rter and time warner also softbank is also looking at charter. softbank has not decided whether

or not it will also bid on charter, and the same goes for altice who have simply hired banks and lawyers to contemplate the idea of writing charter, rather than allowing it year radically to go to softbank. its debut inmaking the primary corporate bond market, it is planning to sell $1.5 billion in bonds to support pending on its model 3 electric car. this will also bolster its balance sheet, even though tesla posted a record $1.3 billion in cash in the second quarter. what are you hearing from investors, are they loving it? >> they are liking it. this company is raising a quarter's worth of cash, they are burning through it, however, it is a brand that many people love and elon musk is selling the dream. he is calling out to the true geopoliticald with risks piling up again, they have already sold 4 billion already. of orders.

so we still have all of today to go as well. ♪>

rishaad: welcome back to bloomberg best, am rishaad salamat. this week bloomberg presented emily chang's exclusive interview with the chief operating officer of faith, sheryl sandberg. they discussed the company's investment to connect the world on it social network. emily: mark talked about concerns about isolation and nationalism that have risen despite face efforts to connect the world. like-minded views, and interests, do you think facebook is part of the problem? >> any technology that has ever been invented has been used for

good and sometimes for a bad to react we work really hard to make sure that the bad is not on faith. look i think groups are helpful, and i think that they ring people together on different issues. we see a lot of groups that are pretty broad. one of the women that i met with is bringing women of muslim and jewish faiths together. so, very much on purpose, ringing people together. other groups have the purpose of bringing people together who would never otherwise connect online, and the chief part of our user base has a cross-border connection. i think about that in my own life, in high school or college, i did not know anyone outside of my country. i grew up in miami, and i barely knew anyone who wasn't from miami [laughter] now, is on facebook would probably have a cross-border friend, or at least one friend from another country. >> would you ever consider showing people news or information from the other side of the aisle, like people who think differently than you are thinking?

>> we do that. i think people worry that facebook puts you on feed with all people that are slow same as you, but that is not what happens. because of facebook, you can hear from other voices, and by extending to more voices, you actually access broader views that -- that you would not otherwise see. that does not -- on average, facebook broadens views. i still think that we all can do more, to learn more about what other people think and what they are experiences are -- what their experiences are. >> is marks dream of connecting the world now highly unlikely? said that theays world includes china. and facebook is working on that. >> mark told david kirkpatrick that mark -- that facebook is monica government been a company. even more so now, at this scale. how does facebook manage the scope of its policy, media and

it's different responsibilities in this modern age? >> we know that we will not get everything right, but with public policy, we've hired local teams on the ground and we have extraordinary leaders there. they make sure that we understand what is going on in other countries. we are not perfect. with so many people posting on facebook, we try to address those mistakes quickly and correct them. we are also working on opinion committee operations, and we are hiring 3000 people more to work in our communities, hiring them from all around the world. we want to get policy right, get there quickly, and make sure that we are staffed so that we can be as responsive as possible. best,ming up on bloomberg earnings season is going out with a bang, as disney announces a major new initiative. plus, more of the week's most compelling conversations. making hisling out case for holding interest rates in place. >> we have already moved the

policy rate in two times. what >> what you need to do that in this environment? >> this is bloomberg. ♪

rishaad: >> here we go. >> are you losing confidence in what is going on in washington, is that affecting your business? >> nojeim i am not losing confidence in washington, i think that these discussions up in levering a new platform, and as i said many times, as president trump got into the white house, he wants to reset some of the rules, and i am not quite sure whether those are good for both sides. the conversation about renegotiation of nafta, i'm a little bit more focused on that.

the u.s.-china, i think eventually they will get to a point where, like two's of people talking, they will get to a point eventually where they have an equilibrium. i'm hoping that it will be good. i do not think that -- i think that dialogue, is healthy, and a ratcheting up the tensions, of course, is not. there needs to be a balance. >> that was blackberry chairman and ceo john chen speaking with bloomberg's, betty liu. the unitedtween states and north korea are not the only political issues on the minds of investors this week. global trade policies are a matter of concern, and so is the economic future of europe. we spoke to a top government officials who addressed these topics of -- on bloomberg television. here is an exclusive conversation with the french economic minister. taxes, theyo reduce

are too high, and they are a burden on all companies, and we went to put some stabilization, and more stable rules for everybody as far as taxes are concerned. these are the two decisions that we have taken. we will lower the corporate tax 2022,3% to 25%, till then, the second step, we would like to have tax harmonization, among the members of the eurozone. in thee 19 members eurozone, one currency, the euro. and you have 19 levels of taxes. 19 different economic policies. we cannot go this way anymore. that is why we are advocating for tax harmonization. the first step of that, will be a tax harmonization between france and germany.

i am quite convinced that no later than 2018, we should be able, with germany, to have a common corporate tax, and it should be the basis for the harmonization of all corporate taxes at the level of the 19 member states of the euro. >> in the battle, post-brexit, no major international bank has chosen paris to relocate its staff. what do you think paris is losing the race to frankfurt? >> we will win the race. we will win the race of attractiveness, because we are taking the right decisions, and we are standing firm. i think that the questions, that , wee during the last month will stand firm. we will stand firm. we will take the difficult decisions, we will lower the

french taxes, and we will make our country more attractive. the structural reforms and decisions that are needed for instance, we will simplify the labor market. banks, many many investors, should be aware that france is changing. and that is not something sake, it is something true. things are changing, deeply, in france. and that is why we will win the battle of attractiveness. yourself, dueand to host the next round of the ttp negotiations. they have been dragging on for so long, dealt such a blow to the u.s. withdrawal. what are you hoping to achieve from this? >> certainly, we would like to

-- for the ttp to have come into effect with the u.s., and we were disappointed but not surprised by the u.s. decision. safe for trump it quite some time that he was going to withdraw the united. date that has required the remaining 11 parties to come together. actually in other jurisdictions -- there are other jurisdictions that have expressed interest in joining the tt week, and we're working -- that ttp. there are still good gains to come from this organization. the moreurious whether tense relations between the u.s. and china, how you are watching that in australia, and how big of an impact that will have on you? u.s. allies, with we had really constructive engagement with the united states trade representative. , it -- i found him warm

found his commitment to try to do good deals to be positive. from australia's perspective, we are a trade exposed nation, china is our biggest partner. our fifth largest source of fdi, so we want to engage with china in the mature way, and we have been having a pretty good trading relationship. australia's perspective, we will continue to show our national interest with china, japan, korea and the united states. in a way that serves the national interest but also complements what it is. that those countries wants to achieve. because ultimately, like any good trade, it is a two-way street. of monetaryea policy, bloomberg spoke with the federal reserve bank president from st. louis, alert. he believes that interest rates should remain on hold given that inflation is lacking well below the feds 2% target. he elaborated on that with our

kathleen hays? >> one more rate hike this year, is it probable? have been we surprised by inflation, coming in for the downside during the spring, and not by a tiny amount, but really by a large amount, compared to the progress that we made in 2015 and 2016. if you look at the chart, we were creeping up towards 2%, altering 2015 and 2016, then in 2017 was of that progress has been undone. i think that is, at least in my mind, leading to a reevaluation of our story about whether our leading inflation back towards target or not, so we will have to see how the data comes in for the second half of the year. >> so are you saying, let us wait for the data, before we do a rate hike? >> of course, we are always data

dependent, and i am not too optimistic that we will have year, yearation in a basis, but the end of the year. aere are still predicting 1.6% for core inflation by the end of the year. we would still be well below target, not too far from where we have been in the last couple of years. so i think we have a ways to go here on inflation. >> if inflation is not responding much at this point, and it could even normalize, move the fund rates up, what is the harm? did it lead the economy into recession? >> we should be moving preempt against future inflation, but moving the product -- moving the policy rate right now. we have already done so three times, why do you need to do that in this environment? you have low inflation in the u.s., inflation expectations measured by market below where you would like them to be, and other countries with low inflation rate in the developed

world. it just does not seem like inflationary environment where this is going to get away from us, so i don't think we need to be preemptive in this situation. ♪>

♪ >> you're watching bloomberg --t, i am are charred rishaad salamat. we had totally earnings reports, and our run of begins with results from an entertainment giant. the bottom line is a miss on the real announcement here is disney agreeing to acquire girardi ownership of this company for -- acquire majority ownership of this entertainment company. a big stake in a streaming technology company. in addition to that they will also unveil a disney branded

direct-to-consumer streaming service starting in 2019. as part of that, is it -- it is ending his relationship with netflix. >> we already have the brands to reach consumers in the us consumers directly to read we need technology to do that as well, which is no easy task. particularly when it comes to streaming live sports. we have consumption at a very high level, and it is all that one. ntech bought a third of ba are year ago, and give us a letter our purchasing controls that we can -- we have a celebrated our controls and we are moving at a faster pace than anticipated. it is a combination of brand, technology, and consumer trends. >> cbs reported second-quarter earnings after the close yesterday, and beat analyst estimates on both revenue push -- revenue and earnings per share. strong revenue from the ncaa

basketball tournament. >> i think the earnings were quite remarkable because they demonstrated a shift from the company on at reliant -- add relying revenues, to nontraditional revenue streams. i think the company has really made some remarkable strides over the last several years to a different business model. overall we still think cbs is an of the more better positioned media companies to take advantage of these trends. whether it is that monetization of late -- of delayed viewing, , orver the top direct-to-consumer, showtime and cbs all access, there are also making some remarkable gains with subscribers, and there are getting ready to launch some of those internationally. all in all, i think the team has been really executing and tracking ahead of plan. softbank,talk about

beating estimates, thanks in part to the improving performance at brent. .he results -- at sprint the highlights are showing an improvement, and the chairman and ceo says that he is mulling areas options to merge sprint with t-mobile. what does he want to do with softbank, what is his plan here? >> i think he wants to be the planets biggest most ambitious tech investor, and he wants to be at the forefront of every disruption and innovation that will happen over the next several decades. uber,, he islike also trying to get into ai and all of that? >> yes, and he is trying to get that she has talked about -- about a world where every inch is covered in satellite, and he is thinking, high in the sky in the next 10 to 12 years of disruption. >> stock is trading higher this

morning, here are the headlines direct the company has posted second-quarter sales and net income beating analyst estimates. at the same time, the british-based drugmaker has cut its forecast for the next year. >> the only thing the market really wants to know about at the moment, is what the pricing picture at the united states looks like, what can you tell us? >> we have mentioned that we see low pricing in the u.s. for 20 and we have guided that before hand. we would like to move away from just talking about pricing because it is also a matter of volume, and if you look at 2017, we had better prices there. and the first six months of 2017, we saw a value growth of evan percent in the united states, though prices one component. it is really about the volumes, that we achieve and they are doing pretty well, in 2017. intercontinental towers

group has reported first-half revenue, mixed analyst estimates, but the company says that it remains confident in the rest of 2017. >> i think we had solid results in the first half, our net systems are up 3.7%, and our underlying earnings are up 7%, on performance which enables us to increase our interim evidence by 10% over a year. the results are underpinned by strong strategy. avisudget group plunged -- plunged, missing earnings estimates of dust as the rental car company struggles with dwindling inventory. seen a lot of cars out there in the market, all-around car companies have two -- has too many vehicles. they're all fighting for rental car customers, and dropping prices, so they are hurt on them merge inside, and new car prices

are falling, so trying to sell their high mileage cars in the market, they are taking a big hit on those. avis has the biggest cost on rental car prices, so they have revenue pressure and we will see earnings for the rest of the year taking a hit, according to their forecast to read and investors are running away. >> the insurance and investment giant credential has released its latest earnings. upgrading profit -- operating profit went up, from 2.4 billion to 2.6 billion pounds a year ago. there was speculation that you may sell off your entire unit. is that true? as we are looking at both internal and external ways to be risk of thece the business to rip we are considering selling some of it, that think that the key to

is long-term shareholder return not shot a short-term cash. we are not in any hurry to do transactions in that space, but we would not do anything that would affect the consumers products adversely, or do anything that would diminish total shareholder return. it is a profitable back book and we are very efficient at running it. it is producing very good cash flow but it is very cash flow intensive. the united kingdom business bell is more of a capital intensive model. >> glencore mrs. remarks, according to estimates it missed the average analyst estimate. there is no change on the dividend policy yet, despite the company hinting that there may be extra payments for shareholders six months ago. six months from now as well. >> the lack of dividend shows that it is really, there are building a war chest. they definitely have the financial room to pay more dividends if they wanted to, the ratio of earnings to net debt has fallen back to one, and their target was two, so they

clearly have a financial room for that. >> toshiba revealed in 2016, a net loss of 8.8 ilion dollars, after releasing its audit. qualified earnings results. is what it was called, it seems a million miles away from all kind of approval? in the rightstep direction for toshiba, they have been struggling together auditors to sign off at all on their financial statements over the past couple of quarters. this is the auditors giving them a qualified stamp of approval to the latest financial figures. strugglingthere are with this devastating foray into the nuclear business in the united states. they lost about $6 billion because of troubles with their westinghouse nuclear business, so they are trying to sell off assets in order to restore their shareholders equity deposits, including the chips business,

which is their most valuable asset. >> shares are plummeting in late trading after reporting second-quarter earnings. the company's goals fell short of estimates again, feeding the fears that competition from facebook is blunting snaps potential, just months after its ipo. >> i think 100% of the problems in nafta are self-inflicted. they are not doubling down on at core areas of expertise that they could do -- they could profit on and they are not educating existing users as well as potential users on the new product iteration. ien you look at the metrics, thought the user numbers were fine, not too far off from what the street was looking for, the issue was the monetization side. you are seeing a much more flatter trajectory than what was expected from the company at this stage. i think that is why the red flags are starting to go up. >> the hope was that they would have a growing platform that

would grow a lot of users and basically turn on the ad. that is not what is happening and we can see that from the numbers. thatcompany is showing they are having some real issues, just doing the basic locking and tackling to make their business available for the revenues that might want to come to it. >>♪

>> this is the fnb, this is your ea function, and you said that we actually managed some good numbers, but we are surprised perhaps by the lack of oomph in the action. >> take a look, this is a bloomberg intelligence tool, the -- this isal gain in historic, going back to the second quarter which is the white line. here in north america, the orange line. >> there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you our favorites on number of tv. maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you whichind useful, quic go will lead you to our quick takes, get important contact and best context and info on important topics to read here is a quick take from this week. >> venezuela does not have enough food to feed its 30 million residents.

it also cannot guarantee them and electricity or medical supplies in hospitals. the country is steering down social upheaval put, local unrest and bordering on economic collapse. states of emergency have been declared. how did this happen to a country with the largest oil reserves in the world? for years, the government influence support at home, but collapsing oil revenue has caused civil unrest and caused the ouster of the unpopular president nicolas maduro. he has responded by successful attempt to consolidate his power and quash the unrest. here is a situation. longurrent crisis started before maduro, with his predecessor, the late president who go chavez who revolutionized venezuelan politics with an ismo and called chav fiery anti-u.s. rhetoric.

he focused all of the country's resources on one thing, producing oil. this meant that almost everything that an is will a consumed besides oil had to be imported. while oil prices were high, it works. in 2013, the first domino fell. chavez died, and maduro took over in 2014. the second domino fell then, when the price of oil started to crumble. revenue for oil accounts for a huge percentage of its country's wealth, and once that happened when his will of found itself steadily short on cash. groceries, medical supplies, were reduced to avoid defaulting on its debt. it also started printing money to reduce inflation which surged in doubled -- in triple digits. it has gotten so bad that food shortages have prompted major riots. the coalition opposed to maduro won the majority in 1970 -- in 2017 but its attempt to remove

maduro from office have failed. he recently formed a group ituyente toonst remove -- to rewrite the countries constitution. he snatched the opposition leaders at gunpoint and then there was an opposite -- an election. all of the open -- opposition candidates up and stained. after the election, u.s. treasuries put sanctions on maduro's personal assets. are subjectf maduro to u.s. jurisdiction, or frozen. grants u.s. is venezuela's largest oil consumer, so sanctions would almost certainly be devastating. here is the argument, maduro's critics say that his has the she has botched his presidency so badly that he should resign. however some say that the alternative would not be better. of opposition is made up more than 12 parties with no unified plans for the economy

and no single leader to do it. almost $90oes billion in foreign debt and oil prices are not likely to hit the previous highs that kept the nation's economy afloat, which means that the economy could default. so, the leader is focused largely on paying in power. >> that was just one of the many quick take that you can find on number that you can also find them on bloomberg.com along with all of the latest is this news and analysis, 24 hours a day. that will be all for bloomberg best this week, thank you for watching. -- i am rishaad salamat, this is bloomberg. ♪

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