♪ >> coming up on "bloomberg best", the stories that shaped the week and business around the world. heated rhetoric between the united states and north korea sending a chill through the markets. president trump 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 -- president surviving a political challenge, and china's tourism boom spurs a surprising partnership. >> the marriage of online to online, or online to off-line. >> sheryl sandberg saying that facebook is committed to use its power for good. >> we are not perfect.

with so many people posting to facebook, we make mistakes. >> the finance minister banks flocking to paris after brexit. >> we will win the race, of attractiveness. >> james bullard explains why he wants right to stay on hold. -- wants rates to stay on hold. >> i think we have a ways to go in inflation. >> and we sort the earnings reports. resultsid set of underpinned by strong strategy. >> we would like to move away from talking about just pricing, it is also about value. >> we obviously have the great brands to be able to reach in so -- reach consumers directly. it is a combination of trends, technology and consumer trends. >> it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best". ♪ rishaad: hello, welcome. i am rishaad salamat and this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of the most important business news, analysis and interviews on bloomberg television around the world.

geopolitical tensions dominated the news this week, starting with a pointed exchange of diplomatic signals on monday. >> china says that it is confident that the new u.n. 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? >> china came up with a pretty strong response in china, and that it is confident that the sanctions will put a stop to the nuclear weapons program in north korea, but it also cautions that this could take that tension a step further, 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.

>> there was a statement out from the north korean government today "we will under no circumstances put our nuclear program or rockets on the negotiation table and will continue to bolster our forces under ther forces nuclear threat of the u.s.." >> if you take north korea's statement on faith, it is 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 on his trip in southeast asia that it 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. >> the dow has hit 35 record

highs this year, but is it still too good to be true? many renowned investors believe so. >> now, joining the ranks is a ceo who says this is not the time where you can say you can buy anything and not worry about the risks, the time to do that was a 18 months ago. he's worried about junk bonds >> , that they are overvalued. >> jeffrey wants everyone to know, it is not that the market is about to crash, it is that things have 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 therefore policy remains subdued. as long as that is the case, the likelihood that we will see the end of the cycle, which is what they are predicting, i don't

think that is very likely. i think this will be the longest business 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. >> i am nervous about the markets are super complacent and the downshift in core inflation the last few months has facilitated that. but i do not think that story has any farther to run. i think that core inflation has hit bottom now. i am really nervous about what might happen over the fall or the winter when we finally start to see a re-acceleration in wages, which will raise some lessons about the stability of margins, and where our earnings go next year. ♪ >> u.s. stocks closing lower, turning negative in the last 30 minutes of trading following donald trump remarks on north korea. president trump: 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 willing to match them one for one. the worry is that we really do not understand how the north koreans interpret things like this. this could only probably escalate tensions between the two countries. >> the north korean news agency, kcma says that they would start -- strike the u.s. territory of guam. >> the question is how much closer are we to war? there are no signs on the ground that a military buildup is occurring or an attack is imminent. this kind of rhetoric is just that, for the moment, rhetoric. ♪ >> president trump's threats against north korea sent stocks lower for a second straight day and he continued his rhetoric this morning, with the president tweeting: "my first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal which is now much stronger and more powerful than it ever was before. hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will

never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world." >> rex tillerson seemed to dial back some of the president's comments. he did support the president, of course, as you would expect from a cabinet member, but he also said that the president spoke bluntly because in the past, kim jong-un has not responded to the niceties that diplomatic language has been used. the military option, secretary of defense mattis said today -- scenarios around wargames with north korea are grim , particularly for soul and the people of south korea. >> japan and south korea are warning the north that it would face a strong response if it carries out a threat to launch missiles towards the u.s. territory of guam. >> north korea was reacting to trump's "fire and fury" comment and they basically called it "nonsense." they reiterated their plans to launch missiles, four of them

specifically. they got into incredible detail as to where exactly they would launch them, what flight path they would take, and basically landing about 30 or 40 kilometers 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 southern parts of japan. and of course, 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. >> if north korea does anything in terms of thinking about attack, of anybody that we love or we represent, or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous, i'll tell you what.

they should be very nervous. because things will happen to them, like they never thought possible. >> it is a situation that is probably the most serious one we have had, the u.s., its the -- with another country since the cuban missile crisis back in the early 1960's. >> inflation has been the word of the week for the federal reserve, maybe for the month, maybe the word of the year and this morning, we got the latest read with u.s. inflation in july, coming in at the top of -- light expectations at least on , the nominal line. >> we had factors that people are pointing to that as the excuse that the federal will be looking at those. two of them, lodging away from, hotels are down 4.2%, a little bit unusual for this time of the year. used cars and trucks were down .5%, new cars were as well and are those one-off factors? yes. 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. >> would have to step back and not be too cute about figuring -- carving out means and just look at what is happening here. we're seeing an inflation slow down. ♪ rishaad: still ahead as we review the week on bloomberg best, we dive into a torrent of earning reports and hear from bob iger on disney's new streaming technology. -- streaming strategy. sheryl sandberg says that facebook recognizes its very serious responsibilities, and australia's trade minister insists that ttp can still work without the united states. up next, more of the weeks -- week's top business headlines. a controversial memo making waves in silicon valley. >> our lack of ideological diversity has actually hurt our product. rishaad: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ rishaad: this is "bloomberg best" i rishaad salamat. am let's continue our global tour of the week's top business stories with a double those of -- double dose 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. they are so much lower than we had expected. so what is going on here? >> quite a big miss compared to estimates, as you say. a 72% increase in exports in the month of july, compared to that forecast of an 11% increase. imports falling even more. increased below estimates 11% in

the month of july, below estimates of an 18% increase. the other point to point out is that the trade surplus came in at around $47 billion. >> that trade that we are trying -- and the trade surplus that china has with the u.s. has not budged all year, despite the rhetoric. it seems like the trade war and might be pushed back a little further because of the batt sanctions against north korea. with china supporting the sanctions, president trump might step back and see what takes place. but the back drop of the trade deficit means that the trade tensions have not gone away, it is more delaying the inevitable for now. so it is a risk that hasn't totally disappeared. >> china producing consumer prices in july, to just over --half an hour ago, a little bit below expect patients, ppi up in july, 5.5%.

the cpi, 1.4%, slightly below the consensus. >> let's do the cpi, telling us that inflation is not the consideration of the pboc right now, you have food inflation going backwards. down about 1.1% from a year earlier. >> the bloomberg one, is showing half a percentage estimate higher right? >> exactly. consumer goods coming off the boil as well. they are rising 2% from a year earlier, so that 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 to rein in 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.

the south african rand slumping as much as 1% against the dollar after the outcome was announced. rulinglawmakers from the african national congress rallied and closed ranks to outvote the opposition party, and a motion of no-confidence. the motion was defeated by 198 votes to 177, nine of the 384, lawmakers present in the national assembly on tuesday, opted to abstain from the ballot. markets not really reacting positively to the news that president jacob zuma 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 he may be asked to step down from status phase after a new leader is brought in in december. >> google has fired the male engineer who was at the center of an uproar in silicon valley.

this come after he authored a internal 10-page memo asserting that there are biological causes behind gender inequality in the tech industry. critics of the move 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 major camps of people who think that the memo was not arguably -- it was hurtful, offensive, and it did not belong at google and that he should have been fired. and then people who see that google firing him for speaking viewpointsservative are not well received and 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 -- you know, i think it was already a contentious matter over the weekend and their decision to fire him makes it only hotter. >> google is making products for the world. don't you need to have all kinds of people making those products? >> yes, i support diversity and inclusion.

i think that also, our lack of ideological diversity has actually hurt our product. >> marriott international became the biggest hotel group in the world after its merger. its ambitions do not end there, it is marrying its name and services with alibaba, to help the tourism boom exploding in china. describe to us, particularly as it relates to the asia business, how exactly this will work between marriott and alibaba? >> you have got the words right. it is a marriage, a marriage of offline to online. or online to off-line. that is the new acronym, o-to-o. you have two companies, the best and the brightest minds, you have 500 million people on alibaba's platform with 100 million of marriott customers.

you got 125 million trips 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. payments process abandoned the agreement to buy the uk's world paid group. $10.4 billion increasing consolidation in the payments industry. should investors be happy with the deal? >> if you come in at the ipo, it is being sold for around 62% -- 63% higher, but it is a stock deal. if you came in around this year and you are looking at a 22% premium, it is in line with some of the other deals that are happening in the sector right now. it is such a fascinating company though, because if you remember this is a company that rbf was supposed to sell as part of its bailout. it sold it to private equity in 2010, then they flipped it

market listed it on the two years later and now it is getting bought out. >> another day of potential megadeals in the u.s., cable providers acquired suddenly a few years ago now has its sights set on charter. with the weaker dollar, this is not completely out of the ?uestion >> there is a blueprint for altice. they just went public in the u.s., so they do have a currency. but this is a $22 billion market company, compared to charter bank -- but you don't have to look back to many years ago. charter bought time warner cable in a similar circumstance. the reason altice is looking at charter at this point is that softbank is also looking at charter. softbank has not decided whether

or not it will actually bid on charter, and the same goes for altice who have simply hired banks and lawyers to contemplate the idea of buying charter, rather than allowing it, theoretically to go to softbank. , >> tesla is making its debut in the primary corporate bond market. it is planning to sell $1.5 billion in bonds to support spending on its model 3 electric car. the sale will also bolster its balance sheet, even though tesla burned through a record $1.3 billion in cash in the second quarter. what are you hearing from investors, and are they into it? >> they are loving it. they say a company like this, basically raising a quarter's worth of cash, they are burning through cash so rapidly -- however, it is a brand that many people love and elon musk is selling the dream. he is calling out to the true believers and even in a week where we are seeing geopolitical risks flaring 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," i am rishaad salamat. this week bloomberg presented emily chang's exclusive interview with the chief operating officer of facebook, sheryl sandberg. they discussed the company's efforts to connect the world on it social network. emily: mark talked about concerns about isolation and nationalism that have risen despite facebook's efforts to connect the world. groups coalesce around like-minded views, and interests, do you think facebook is part of the solution, and also part of the problem? >> any technology that has ever been invented has been used for

good and sometimes used for bad. we worked really hard to make sure the bad is not on facebook. i think groups are helpful, i think they bring 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, bringing people together. other groups have the purpose of bringing people together who would never otherwise connect online. one of the uses of technology. a large part of our user base has a cross-border connection. i think about that in my own life, when i was 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] if i was on facebook now, i 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 in a newsfeed with all the people that have the same views 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 see broader views that -- then you otherwise would see. that doesn't mean everyone is being blasted by views on the other side all day, because they are not. i still think that we all can do more, to learn more about what other people think and what their experiences are. >> whatsapp is partially blocked in china. is mark's dream of connecting the world now highly unlikely? >> we have always said that the world includes china. and facebook is working on that. >> mark told david kirkpatrick that facebook is more like a government than a company. even more so now, at this scale. how does facebook manage the scope of its policy, media, and

all of these different responsibilities in this modern age? >> retry to do it by empowering local teams. we know that we will not get everything right from menlo park, 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 countries. we are not perfect. with so many people posting on facebook, we make mistakes. but we are trying to address those mistakes quickly and correct them. we are also working on opinion -- we are really investing in community operations and are hiring 3000 people more to work in our communities, hiring them from all around the world. that is a pretty serious investment for us. 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. ♪ rishaad: coming up on "bloomberg best," earnings season is going out with a bang, as disney announces a major new initiative. plus, more of the week's most compelling conversations. the fed's james bullard making his case for holding interest rates in place. >> we have already moved the policy rate in two times. -- rate three times.

why do you need to do that in this environment? rishaad: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> are you losing confidence in what is going on in washington, is that affecting your business? >> no, no, i am not losing confidence in washington. i think that these discussions will always end 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. but 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 like two business people talking, they eventually 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 dialogue is healthy, and a ratcheting up the tensions, of course, is not. there needs to be a balance. ♪ chairman and ceo john chen speaking with bloomberg's betty liu. tensions between the united states and north korea were 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. top government officials addressed these topics on bloomberg television. let's start with the exclusive conversation with the french economy and finance minister. ♪

>> we want to reduce taxes that are too high, and they are a burden on all companies, and we want to put some stabilization, more stable rules for everybody as far as taxes are concerned. these are the two decisions that we have taken with president macron. we will lower the corporate tax from 33% to 25% till 2022, then, the second step, we would like to have tax harmonization among the members of the eurozone. you have 19 members in the eurozone. you have one currency, the euro. and you have 19 levels of taxes. and you have 19 different economic policies. we cannot go this way anymore. that is why we are advocating for tax harmonization. the first step of the tax harmonization on the open level 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 which 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, apart from hsbc, no major international bank has chosen paris to relocate its staff. why 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 because we are standing firm. i think that the questions that arose during the last month, will they stand firm? we will stand firm. we will take the difficult decisions. we will lower the french taxes.

we will make our country more attractive. we will take the structural reforms and structural decisions that are needed. for instance, we will simplify the labor market. i think that many banks, many investors should be aware that france is changing. that this is not something fake, this is something true. things are changing deeply in france and that is why we will win the battle of attractiveness. ♪ >> australia and yourself are due to host the next round of the tpp negotiations. this has been dragging on for so long and was dealt such a blow with the u.s. withdrawal. what are you hoping to achieve from this? >> certainly, we would like to tpp to have come into effect with the united states and we

were disappointed but not surprised by the u.s. decision. president trump did flag for quite some time that he was withdrawing the united states. that has required the remaining 11 parties to come together. there are other jurisdictions now that have expressed interest in joining the tpp and we have to work through it methodically and fundamentally. there are still good gains to come from a tpp 11 and that is what i am trying to implement if we possibly can. >> i am curious whether the more 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? >> certainly with allies, we have had really constructive engagement since he became the united states trade representative. we have met on a number of occasions. i found him warm. i found his commitment to try to do good deals to be positive. from australia's perspective, we

of course are a very trade-exposed nation. china is our biggest partner. we have two-way trade around $155 billion. they are australia's fifth largest source of fdi, so we want to engage with china in the way, anday, -- mature we have had a very good trading relationship. i have to say on balance, from 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 cognizant of what those countries want to achieve because ultimately, like any good trade, it is a two-way street. these things are never one way. ♪ rishaad: in the area of monetary policy, bloomberg spoke with the st. louis federal reserve bank president james bullard. he believes that interest rates should remain on hold given that inflation is lagging well below the feds 2% target. he elaborated on that with our kathleen hays. ♪

kathleen: is one more rate hike this year a problem? james i think we have been : surprised by inflation coming into the downside during the spring here, and not by a tiny amounts. really by a large amount compared to the progress that we made in 2015 and 2016. so if you look at the chart, we were creeping up towards 2%, altering 2015-2016, then in 2017 most 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 policy is 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 on that. >> so are you saying let us wait for the data and then when it is stronger, i would be in favor of a rate hike? james of course, we are always : data dependent.

i am not too optimistic that we will have higher inflation measured on a year-over-year basis by the end of the year. if you look at the sep, we are still predicting a 1.6% for core inflation by the end of the year. we would still be well below target and 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, is it a good idea to even normalize and move the funds rate up? what is the harm? would it lead the economy into recession? james what you would be doing : his moving preemptively against future inflation by moving against the policy rate. we have already done so three times. why do you need to do that in this environment? you have got low inflation in the u.s., inflation expectations measured by markets below where you would like them to be, and you have got other countries with low inflation rates 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. ♪

♪ rishaad: you're watching "bloomberg best," i am rishaad salamat. it has been another week full of quarterly earnings reports, and our run-up begins with results from an entertainment giant. >> disney, a beat on the bottom line. a miss on the top line. the real announcement here is disney agreeing to acquire majority ownership of this company from 1.58 ilion dollars. 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, it is ending a distribution pact with netflix. >> we obviously have the brands to reach consumers directly because the brands are in demand and there is great passion for them. you need technology to do that as well, which is no easy task. it is not simple, particularly when it comes to streaming live sports. we have consumption at a very high level and it is all at once. so we bought a third of bantech a year ago, and we have a celebrated our controls and we are moving at a faster pace and -- accelerated our controls and we are moving at a faster pace than anticipated. because of the opportunity we see in the marketplace, it's that apple. it is a combination of brand, technology, and consumer trends. ♪ >> cbs reported second-quarter earnings after the close yesterday, and beat analyst estimates on revenue and earnings per share. helped in part by strong ad revenue for its ncaa basketball tournament. >> i think yesterday's earnings were quite remarkable in that

it demonstrated a shift from the company's ad relying revenues to non-ad revenue streams. retransmission consent content , licensing, ott, etc. i think the company has really made some remarkable strides over the last several years to a derisk the 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 delayed viewing or ott, over the top offerings or , direct-to-consumer, showtime and cbs all access, there are also making some remarkable gains with subscribers, and the are getting ready to launch some of those internationally. moonvesll, i think les and the team have been really executing and tracking ahead of plan. ♪ >> let's talk about softbank, profits beating estimates, thanks in part to the improving

performance at sprint. the results highlight softbank's move away from the here tech into investment and other deals. the chairman and ceo says that he is mulling various options to merge sprint with t-mobile. what does he want to do with softbank? what is his plan here? what is his grand plan here? >> he wants to be the planet's biggest, most ambitious tech investor, and he wants to be at the forefront of every disruption in innovation that will happen over the next several decades. >> therefore, he is an uber, he is trying to get into ride hailing, and ai. >> exactly. and so much further beyond that. he's talking about a world where every inch is covered in satellite and there'll be iot devices feeding data into the cloud that will be analyzed by ai and machine learning. so he is thinking, high in the sky, as well as the next five to 10 years of 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 danish-based drugmaker has cut its forecast for the next year. the currency effect in some big part. the only thing the market really wants to know about at the moment is what the pricing picture in the united states looks like. what can you tell us? >> we have mentioned that we see lower pricing in the u.s. for 2018. we've already guided that before hand. we would like to move away from just talking about pricing because it is a matter of volume. if you look at 2017, we also had price pressure there. in the first six months of 2017, we saw interim value growth of 7% in the u.s., so price is one component. it is really about the volumes, and the mix we achieve and they are doing well in a challenging environment in 2017. >> intercontinental hotels group has reported first-half revenue,

nest -- missed analyst estimates, but the company says that it remains confident in the outlook for the rest of 2017. >> i think we had solid results in the first half, revenue was up. our net systems are up 3.7%, and underlying earnings are up 7%, which is strong performance which enables us to increase our interim dividend by 10% year over year. the solid set up results underpinned by strong strategy. >> avis budget group plunged after slashing their profit forecast and missing earnings estimates as rental car companies struggling with bloated inventory and dust as their business model. >> whatever could go wrong did. you have seen a lot of cars out there in the market, all-around car rental companies have too many vehicles. to try the rent them out, they lower prices and you get the double whammy for rental car companies. they're all fighting for rental car customers, and dropping prices. they are hurt on the margin side, and used car prices are

falling, so trying to sell their high mileage cars in the market, they are taking a bigger hit on those. the cost for a this was up 10% in the quarter, the biggest cost they have. costs are going up revenue , pressure and we will see earnings for the rest of the year taking a hit according to the forecast, and investors run away. francine: the insurance and investment giant prudential has within the last few minutes released its latest earnings. operating profit came in that -- at pounds a year ago. 2.6 there was speculation that you would sell off your entire annuities back book. any truth to that? >> we are looking at both internal and external ways to derisk the business so we are considering selling some of it, certainly not any reason to do that. i think that the key to that is long-term shareholder return, not short-term cash. we are not in any hurry to do

any transactions in that space, we have exited that space on a retail basis. we would not do anything to affect the consumers products adversely or do anything that would diminish total shareholder return. it is a profitable back book, we are very efficient at running it. it is producing very good cash flow but it is very capital intensive and where we are going with the u.k. business more of a capital light model. matt: glencore misses the mark, according to estimates it missed the average analyst estimate. there is no change on the dividend policy yet, despite the ceo hinting that there may be extra payments for shareholders six months ago. and six months from now. >> what today's lack of a dividend shows is really they 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 is two, so they clearly have a lot of financial headroom.

the conclusion is they are beating up balance sheet to do deals. >> toshiba has revealed a 2016 net loss of $8.8 million after release after a daughter called a qualified earnings results. what is it? it seems a million miles away from it. of approval? -- a full stamp of approval? >> this is a step in the right direction for toshiba, they have been struggling to get their 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. of course, toshiba is struggling with this devastating foray into the nuclear business in the united states. they had to take a right down -- write down of about $6 billion because of troubles with their westinghouse nuclear business, so they are trying to sell off assets in order to restore their shareholder's equity deposits, that equity to positive including the chips business,

, which is their most valuable asset. ♪ >> snap shares are plummeting in late trading after reporting second-quarter earnings. the company's growth fell short of estimates again, feeding the fears that aggressive competition from facebook is blunting snap's potential, just months after its ipo. >> i think 100% of the problems we are seeing at snapchat are self-inflicted. they are not doubling down on at core areas of expertise that we thought they could capitalize on like the content side of the picture and they are not really educating the existing users as well as potential users on the new product iteration. when you look at the metrics, i thought the user number was 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 this big and growing platform and grow a lot of users and basically turn on the ad.

that is not happening and we can see that from the numbers. this company is showing that they are having some real issues just doing the basic blocking and tackling to make their business available for the revenues that might want to come to it. ♪ ♪ manus: this is the s&p, this is

your ea function, and you said it managed good numbers but were surprised by the lack of oomph in reaction. >> take a look at the bloomberg here. i have a look at the bloomberg intelligence tool at the international gain in rev par, this is historic, going back to the second quarter. that is is the white line. here in north america is the orange line. rishaad: there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you our favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you will find useful, quic which will lead you to our quick takes come over you can get important contact and info on timely topics. 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 electricity or medical supplies

in hospitals. it is a country staring down social upheaval political unrest , and bordering on economic collapse. multiple states of emergency have been declared. how did this happen to a country with the largest oil reserves in the world? for years, subsidized oil bought in his lives government influence abroad and popular support at home. collapsing oil revenue in an economy dependent on it has caused civil unrest and caused the ouster of the unpopular president nicolas maduro. maduro has responded by mostly successful attempt to consolidate his power and quash opposition, nudging the democracy towards dictatorship. here is a situation. venezuela's current crisis started long before maduro, with his predecessor, the late president hugo chavez who revolutionized venezuelan politics with the left-wing ideology called chavismo and fiery anti-u.s. rhetoric. while in power, chavez focused all of the country's resources on one thing, producing oil. this meant that almost

everything venezuela consumed besides oil needed to be imported. chavez borrowed a lot of money to fund at all. while oil prices were high, it works. then in 2013, the first domino fell. chavez died, and maduro took over for chavez and in 2014, the second domino fell. the price of oil started to crumble. revenue for oil accounts for a -- 95% of its country's wealth, and once that happened when his will of found itself steadily short on cash. the government responded by slashing imports like basic groceries and medical supplies to avoid defaulting on its debt. it also started printing money causing inflation which is surged into triple digits without an end in sight. the economic freefall has exacerbated problems. it has got so bad that food shortages have prompted major riots. a coalition opposed to maduro won a majority in the national assembly in 2017 but its attempt to remove the president from office have failed. maduro recently formed a task

group called la constituyente to rewrite the countries constitution. lesson a day later he had to opposition leaders to run back in jail, snatched from their homes in midnight raid at gunpoint. then there's the july 30 election. all opposition candidates boycotted. the only option was to vote for presumed maduro's allies. after the election, u.s. treasury imposed sanction on maduro's personal assets. >> all assets of maduro subject to u.s. jurisdiction are frozen. >> the u.s. is venezuela's largest oil consumer, so water sanctions would certainly be devastating. here is the argument. critics say he botched his presidency so badly that he should resign immediately. however, some say that the alternative would not be better. the opposition alliance is still made up of more than a dozen parties with no unified plans for the economy and no single leader to do it. venezuela owes almost $90

billion in foreign debt and oil prices are not likely to hit the previous highs that kept the nation afloat, raising chances that the country could default. for now, the citizens are stuck with the failing economy and a leader focused largely on paying that staying -- largely focused on staying in power. ♪ rishaad: that was just one of the many quick take that you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them on bloomberg.com, along with all of the latest business news and analysis, 24 hours a day. that will be offer "bloomberg best" this week, thank you for watching. i am rishaad salamat, this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ david: you are now both former presidents. mr. clinton: nobody plays a song when you walk into a room anymore. [laughter] mr. bush: i did not bring the coffee. david: what do you say to each other? mr. bush: generally, when does this program start and when is it going to end? [laughter] mr. clinton: he'll say to me give shorter answers. david: what was the biggest surprise the first day you are in the oval office? mr. clinton: it really surprised me how easily i could be turned into a two-dimensional cartoon. mr. bush: in walks my dad, i said, "welcome, mr. president." and he said, "thank you, mr. president." >> would you fix your tie, please? david: people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed. i will leave it this way. alright. ♪