♪ >> coming up on bloomberg, conversations from the bloomberg global business forum. >> you can't change the world if you are ignoring the world. >> leaders, insights on the world's most pressing problems. >> china is learning a lot of things. making progress. >> from issues of that speak directly to the bottom line. >> at some point i will be right. we will have a recession. i don't know when it will recur. >> you're going to see this market take a big hit. >> challenges facing all of society. >> the misuse could be horrible.

>> reality, 50% of household wealth is managed by women. >> debate, reflection, resolve. >> we need to cooperate. between ngos and governments and the big corporations. >> how are we going to get consensus on that is tricky. >> it is all ahead on bloomberg best. ♪ >> hello. welcome to a special edition of featuring best" highlights from the 2017 bloomberg global business forum. convening in new york city to address the most pressing economic issues facing the world today and begin the work of solving challenges and charting a path forward. it was an unprecedented and memorable gathering. our review starts on stage with

the ceo of the most valuable company, apple. tim cook joined michael bloomberg for a conversation about business and civic leadership. >> all companies should have values. as a ceo one of your primary responsibilities is to decide what the values of your company is. and lead accordingly. the thing that president kennedy used to say, originally from the bible, to whom much is given much is expected. apple has had some success. we feel a responsibility to give back, to help in some of society's greatest problems. and so for us, we tried to look

deeply at what issues is government working on, are key in society. we think about the skills we have. there are some issues we have no skills on. we are not going to be able to help realistically. but there are some we can , amplify government efforts or we can do ourselves. apple has always been at the core of changing the world. you can't change the world if you are ignoring the world. so that is the way we look at it. as a ceo, not only today but in the past as well, i think silence is the ultimate consent. if you see something going on that is not right, the most powerful form of consent is to say nothing.

i think that is not acceptable to your company, to the team that worked so hard for your company. for your customers or your country. for each country that you happen to be operating in. that is the way i see it. i have to say, i am more optimistic today than i have ever been. i mean that sincerely despite sometimes not feeling like that. overall i think we have an incredible opportunity. never before have i seen the ability, all across the world to work together on these common issues. >> i agree with tim. companies are a collection of people. you have a responsibility to do something for the world. our employees care what the

company values are. when i support a cause or don't. i hear from our customers. i hear it from my family. we don't live in a vacuum. what i have always respected about tim, he has his values, and he doesn't sit around and say profit is the only thing. i happen to think it is also very good for business, if you do the right thing it will help the bottom line. the first thing is to do the right thing because it is the right thing and because you have to look in the mirror, the last thing you see before you go to bed is yourself. you have got to be proud of that. >> the global business forum brought together heads of state. and heads of companies. remarks from bill clinton opened the event. president clinton: the most important thing, whether you

believe social strength, economic performance, and political power, flow from division or multiplication. from subtraction or addition. you are all here because you intuitively know this. >> guests and viewers heard from political leaders around the world beginning with emmanuel macron. >> i am a strong believer in europe. during my election campaign, a lot of people told me, you are crazy. you are pro-european and you think you can win in france? i did believe it was feasible. it is feasible because people do understand we need europe in this current environment. we have european values. now the challenge is how europe can go forward with the united states and china.

the main weakness of europe is a lack of ambition. we had a pessimistic approach during the last decade trying to fix crises at the last minute without any perspective or any prospects. europe is the relevant scale to deal with energy. i do promote a european single energy market. it is critical. we have french leaders and european leaders, and europe has to be stronger. in this sector. it is the same for digital, security, defense. investment in economy. what does it mean? we have to fix the tenure 10 yeare -- the

objective for europe. we have to reach the subjective. we need these new ambitions because for my generation there was just one alternative. do we want the dismantling of europe? which is an ongoing process. we discussed for years about brexit and now it is all about brexit and now we have tensions overflowing in europe. in a few months or years you will have older countries raising and saying there is just a lot of constraints. without any vision. vision, less bureaucracy 10 year objectives. and a national process. i will refer to that next week. i want to launch an initiative

to launch this era. we need new missions. that is the best way to address the brexit issue. >> also, editor-in-chief with president erdogan of turkey will have that interview later in the program. plus, lively panels with financial leaders including lloyd blankfein, and bill gates. next, conversations with illustrious investors on the markets and more. >> maybe what the president does is not as important to the markets as many of us once thought. >> this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> this is "bloomberg best." recapping the bloomberg global business forum, many of wall

street's most respected investors took part in shared insights with my busy colleague erik schatzker. >> what are you seeing in the economy? >> the economy is in reasonably good shape. i have been saying for a number of years, a recession is due at some point. we have one every seven years on average. at some point, i will be right and we will have a recession. i don't know when it will occur. right now the economy is doing 2.5% perll, growing at annum. i would say i don't see any signs of a slowdown. >> some people are talking about synchronize global growth. do you perceive that? >> there is more synchronization than before. the developed markets are doing quite well but the emerging markets are doing better. i don't see any recession anywhere in the world. >> does that surprise you? >> it does.

historically, some parts of the world didn't do well when other parts did. right now, things are in good shape. the deepest recession has been in brazil. brazil is coming back slowly. >> you have described a private equity paradox. high prices, declining returns, accelerating inflows. it is an axiom that paradoxes can't continue indefinitely, or can they? >> sometimes they can for longer than people think. what i was trying to say is that private equity is attracting in amounts of money. why is that? over the last 20 years private , equity has outperformed every other asset class and that is likely to continue. right now money is coming into private equity firms like mine because people think we can't continue to get these attractive rates of return. >> have you ever seen this level of interest? in the assets you manage? >> i have not ever seen it at this level of interest.

everything will probably slow down at some point. as herb stein once said, " if something can't keep going on forever it eventually won't." right now the interest is high. >> people get elected promising to preserve your social security benefits, but nothing happens. people have been talking about this problem for many years. and nothing happens. not only do decisions not get made and action taken, you don't even hear any discussion. >> one step american states might consider is following with the canadians and australians create professional investors. , the funds,chers for example. do you think that would fix the problem?

>> i think it would contribute. quality decisions would be one of the important ingredients in a solution. i believe it is fair to say that , and one thing you left out, when they hire staff for these investment organizations they pay them salaries that are competitive with the business world. in our political system that cannot be done today. for some reason people want to do not see people who work for the government making a lot of money. then you have to say how can those jobs attract people smart enough to solve problems we have? i wrote a memo called economic reality and i think there is an example. if you pay people more you would

get some better decisions which would contribute to the solution. >> i do believe candidate trump and president trump interacts with his constituents and with the population in a way using twitter that should add volatility to the marketplace. it hasn't. the only conclusion i can come up with is maybe, what the president does is not as critically important to the markets as many of us once thought. maybe much of the noise around certain aspects of the presidency aren't as relevant to the marketplace as many of us once thought. does that realization surprise you? >> it does. as a great prognosticator i think i wouldn't get high marks.

i thought volatility would be higher. i thought interest rates would be higher. we have generally been wrong on both. the good news about being wrong is that it forces you and us at our firm to buy higher-quality assets and better companies that can withstand higher levels of volatility. or higher interest rates. in a strange way we have been wrong and it has helped our investment focus. >> would you not say it is hard to find anything under price today? >> absolutely. if you look at our stockmarket. most people tell you it is overpriced. yet it still keeps going up. the reason for all of that is, everybody believes you're going to have $2 trillion coming in from offshore. that's going to bring more jobs.

and you will get tax reform done. if none of that happens you're going to see this market take a big hit. >> ok. we have to wait how long to find that out? >> six months. this has got to get done in the next three to six months, otherwise the market is going to start saying we don't think any of this is going to get done. >> between now and then, you have already said brazil is a place you have gone shopping. i presume you have a short position on south korean cds. >> we think that right now is not fairly priced. that is correct. >> what else is not fairly priced? you have been over the past several years as valuations have gone up in developed markets. you have been prospecting in european nonperforming loans. we talked about that. where else does it pay to do the work? >> you could still be in europe.

10%he npl's, you can make to 15%. in asia today because of the slowdown in china and what is happening out there you can do direct lending deals in asia for around high teens, to 20%. >> given the state of the world and where you think it might be headed, where do you see best opportunities? >> our business is raising large sums of money. having operating people in many countries of the world. waiting for the opportunity to deploy money in property and infrastructure where capital is not available and we have put a lot of money in south america, specifically brazil. we are putting money into india today. we move our capital and we never know where it is going to be. it is going to be one of the countries where we can make actionable opportunities into

reality. we take the time to do that. we will move it where it is most important. you say you are being cautious. does that mean you are deploying capital at a slower pace than you might otherwise? >> -- >> everywhere, all the time somewhere there is an opportunity to put money to work. we are cautious in the united states, and have been for a while. we have $20 billion at work in other parts of the world. that is not to say we are not buying in the united states, it is a big market. there is lots of add-on opportunities but we bought general growth in 2009. >> where else do you feel it is time to sell or it might be soon time? >> developed markets where there's lots of money, leverage lending markets are strong. >> outside the u.s.?

>> the u.s. in particular. but canada is good. australia is good. amazingly, even though commodities have been tough. the u.k. and europe, there is opportunity to sell things. ♪

♪ >> you are watching "bloomberg best." let's continue our look act at -- our look back at the 2017 bloomberg global business forum. with one of the most interesting discussions. >> lloyd blankfein and the head of the saudi investment fund talk about the transition and the future of energy in the middle east.

>> you are considering saudi arabia as a focus. what are the metrics you want to see? >> realistically today, for financial institutions, it is still a net exporter of capital. it is becoming clear to us. if i were influential in that country and had those concerns i would want to make sure the people doing this for us were doing things for us that would increase job creation and bring new industry and help diversify the economy which is a necessity. facts, there are two major themes causing changes, which is, restructuring of the

energy market. petroleum. that is a price thing. the demand side and the supply side. apart from that, a compulsion of the demographic situation. a lot of it has been portfolio investing and i think the region needs the commitment and the help in getting investment done and creating jobs in the region. real investment in the country. >> what are your priorities? in five years time if we come back and say this guy made it happen, how different this saudi does saudierent arabia look? >> it is really different than before. the vision 2030, it is a good start. now we have targets.

targets for the middle, medium-term and the long-term. medium-term, we have the national transportation plan. this is 2020. and we have the vision 2030. in the vision we have 543 , different initiatives with 376 key performance indicators. it is not only about the vision which is very complicated, but also the execution of these initiatives. to monitor these initiatives. we have everybody in the government from different ministries, looking at their own initiatives. we have the council for economic development, shared by the crown prince. -- chaired by the crown prince.

they meet on a weekly basis looking at these initiatives and the key performance indicators. going back to the pif, public investment fund, managed by me and cared by the crown prince, we have another seven ministers. it is a main enabler for the vision 2030. we have a lot of these initiatives. they will be part of the pif program. >> much more still ahead from the bloomberg business forum. ceo's share thoughts on the future of business. bill gates and others have plenty more to say about technology. and the discussion on trade turns to an entertaining debate. >> the business community, they are looking for a level playing field.

>> they are looking for an advantage but they will take a level playing field. >> this is bloomberg. ♪

so new touch screens... and biometrics. in 574 branches. all done by... yesterday. ♪ ♪ banks aren't just undergoing a face lift. they're undergoing a transformation. a data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. hello, mr. deets. every branch running like headquarters. that's how you outmaneuver.

♪ shery: welcome back to "bloomberg best," i am shery ahn. we are at the 2017 bloomberg global business forum held in new york. in a conference dedicated to solving economic challenges and charting new paths forward, ceos provided input. let's hear from some of the top leaders who spoke, starting with the alibaba founder and executive chairman. >> i think the world is shifting from big to small companies, and a small companies makes entrepreneurship's, so i am passionate about budget and you should and small business.

-- about entrepreneurship and small business. i think that is the solution for this century. if you are not created in small business, if you are not innovative, you don't have a chance. this is my passion and i believe this is the future of the century. >> you heard president trump speak at the united nations, what is your relationship with him? >> he is a unique president and we had an interesting discussion talking about china's trade and relationship. i think the china-u.s. relationship is very, very critical in this century, especially the business side. i think we're making progress. emily: really? because trump's top trade negotiator called china and unprecedented threat.

the president blocked the takeover of the u.s. chip company by a private chinese equity firm. what do you make of those? jack: that happens here and there, now and when, and this is a way that if you see that optimistically, or positively, they should understand each other better, so i think the next two years, there is a lot of conference all the time, but whether it will be a fatal disaster, whether it will be a line on the wisdom of the leadership. emily: how about when it comes to your business in china? president xi has taken more steps to put restrictions on the internet. this is your business. what do you make of that? jack: really? emily: shutting down of the vpn's is one way. jack: we probably see a different view because this is the weight i see business. -- is the way i see business. in the past 18 years, i have

been questioned by censorship, this and that all the time, but i am the first internet guy in china since 1995. the american has been enjoying democracy for 250 years and china has just had it in the past 30 years. china is learning a lot of things that they can progress. if there is controlling here and there, it is like 5% of the issues. what we should do is focus on the 95% of the positive things. when the government, when the governing or regulatory of the internet is new to the government, i have talked to thousands of businesses every year because i think it is my responsibility to tell them, do not worry about it.

this is the way to do it and how to do it, so i never complain. i try my best to educate them. emily: you think they will ultimately be on the right side of history, the chinese government? jack: i am 100 percent sure because nobody can stop this technology revolution. everybody is learning how to govern and regulate. >> they need to be aware of the issues out there and integrated in corporate strategy. that is what i call earn a seat at the table, which might mean moving to green energy, making sure your material is sustainably supplied and you treat people fairly. and then you work in your value chain. that is easy because these are your suppliers and you have relations with them. extend your influence in the value chain. you cannot outsource your value chain and responsibilities. the consumer are not accepting of that anymore. the third step is you work with associations on transfer much of initiatives -- on transformative initiatives.

there is not the transportation initiative limited to the combustion engine and initiatives on human rights, and there are many industry initiatives happening now you can attach yourselves too. and the final point is to be proud of helping the risk the political process. it is difficult to blame the politicians if you are not actively trying to find a solution. >> you are one of the early spear headers of this, hasegawa more quickly than you thought or slower? >> it was seven years ago, and it was seen as revolutionary. it was a little scary what we were doing. we had bold targets to increase their overall social impact, and doing that across the total value chain. it was a big, audacious

objective that we set. unfortunately, what we were trying to do was probably not ambitious enough with the way the world was going. we were on trend, but it is ever-changing. >> one of the experiments we are very, very interested in and optimistic about is in the city in india, where we are supplying the cars, the drivers have signed onto a ridesharing company, and the government is providing the charging stations initially for this to begin. it is working well, and if it works, we will replicate it. that is an example of the government actively produce a painting and stepping in, so you need a public-profit partnership to work -- public-private relationship to work and it can happen. i do not believe in subsidies at all because i believe these businesses are all profitable. you need the leader of the country to give a direction. let me give you an example, when

the prime minister modi laid out his vision for solar power and wanted to make india the leader in solar power, he stated a very clear goal of 175 gigawatts of 2020 -- ofrgy by renewable energy by 2020. he stated clear the plan in which we invested. they look for direction. you do not need that much more if you are living with opportunity. in three years, we built a company that is the second largest builder of solar plants. we say, tell us if that is attractive. if you will do that, there will be money made and return. >> how would you consider the growth of africa and nigeria at the moment? >> i think the growth has been slow but we are moving. everything is in a cycle. when we reached the bottom, if you look at, for example, the business we have, there are businesses today making more

money than last year when we had the recession. we have actually bounced back because we actually have very good fundamentals. believe in what we are doing. when we rolled out two years ago about refineries, chemicals, that is not one single project that was stopped. we still continue with the devaluation and everything. francine: are you looking at acquisitions in cement? >> we're looking at acquisition and that will be taken in south africa. i hope we will be able to agree with them because they really need consolidation and i think that is the right thing for us going in there. it is not really a rumor. francine: there are other bidders, right? >> that is what makes a good.

there are other bidders, but we will be sensible. the other bidders -- there are other bidders, it does not mean there are other bidders, but we we are going to be very high -- to bid very high. we are not going to bid in a crazy manner. we will do is sensibly where it makes sense for our shareholders, and we also do not want to do something that will affect our valuation. we have to be very careful. ♪

shery: i am shery ahn, and this is a special edition of "bloomberg best," focusing on the 2017 bloomberg global business for them the main objective was to foster partnerships. an example of that mission was to find common ground. it featured a pair prime minister's and the head of two of the investor -- of the world's largest investment firms. >> they're looking for a level playing field. it is all you want. you do not want to be advantaged. you just do not want to be disadvantaged in certain countries or historical reasons and have barriers were you have a superior product and you cannot sell it there. that is the kind of thing that has to be, the best player is supposed to win. one team is not supposed to that per nine innings and the other for three. it is hard to win if you can only do it one third of the

time. >> full disclosure, prime ministers, when you received the visits of the likes of steve and larry, who do not charge you anything for their advice, views, access to information, do you take that with a pinch of salt or for granted that the are right? >> government is about partnerships. you listen to citizens, you listen to interest groups, you include the business community. you hear a range of perspectives and when steve says, we are looking for a plane level field -- a leveled playing field, no, you looking for an advantage but they will take a leveled playing field. [laughter] you listen to it they are doing, but i have had great meetings. steve came up to talk to the canadian government cabinet two days after the inauguration of the administration to give us a sense of where their priorities are going to be. i have been working with larry for two years now to talk about

global investment and drying it to canada and what kind of framework -- and drawing it to canada and what kind of framework we could give to people so they notice canada is a great place to invest. they have been great on thoughts, but you always know there is interest there in growing the economy for them. we are interested in growing the economy for everyone. there is larger overlap's and you have to be cynical about it that you have to be conscious of who you are talking to. >> i agree. we should not be naive about it. they are not nongovernmental organizations. they are companies and what to make a profit. at the same time, they have a wealth of knowledge on what is happening over the world. i would take the position that the big issues in terms of climate change, in terms of fighting instability, we need to cooperate between ngo's, governments, and big

corporations, companies like show, many companies -- like shell, many companies in the states and they play a positive role in trying to get ngos and governments to change the course of events. we cannot do this on our own. what i like about the u.n. is the are revising more and more that -- they are realizing more and more that organizations need to work with the business community. and it is doing that. and this is a change over the last five years which i find extremely positive. >> you are investors and you have quite a few of them and they are looking to you to help navigate all these courses, trades, economic integration, financial flows, technological changes. how do you think large financial firms like yours are driving, shaping trade, shaping economy integration?

how do you benefit that to the company and their benefit? >> how we are navigating this rise of protectionism, it means, obviously, one, more than ever before, we have to be the mirror of our clients. one of the main reasons we have to have at least gender equality , but the reality is in the world, more than 50% of households wealth are managed by women. if i will be a mirror of my clients, we are going to need more women at our firm, so this is what we are doing. more importantly, if i am going to be that great pension manager in netherlands or canada, we have to be dutch and canadian. we cannot be an american firm

trying to put american values into those places. that is our biggest transformation. in my mind, companies navigate about the problems of protectionism. >> one thing that governments can do is change the game gary was talking about because often it is governments that insist on certain mixes of assets, which end up being not in the best interest of the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries and the government that ultimately gets left with the bill. make no mistake who will end up underwriting the underperformance. it will be the governments because they cannot default on their people. and so this is a big problem. typically, the governments allow what we would think, from experience, odd outcomes, and governments have to encourage certain types of asset

allocation mixes or they will be stuck with the same underperformance that is a danger for the solvency of the government's long-term. shery: another perspective on the world political and rolled order came from turkey. the president sat down with john mickelthwait from bloomberg. >> for 54 years, turkey waited at the gate of the eu. i wonder if juncker can tell me this -- can he say whether there are those who came later? who is being done to turkey's political embargo and the disrespect to turkey's character and personality? it is an approach that is eu.rary to the no country has been shown this approach. they are lying to us. they did not speak the truth with us. they told us a lie on pieces.

as i was talking earlier on the subject of refugees, in 2016, they told us they would give us 3 billion euros. they are not giving to us. who are they going to give it to? to the refugees. you are going to give it to organizations they decide on themselves. they said at the end of the year, we are going to give another 3 billion euros. the figure as of now is 820 million euros, so where is the honesty? there is none. look, it is really interesting. sarkozy became in charge of france. merkel became in charge of germany. before they took the reins, i used to join the leaders summit. at the time, there was jacque chirac in france. in germany, there was schroeder, and the three of us had many meetings. they were basically preparing us, but then sarkozy came and

merkel came, and they banned leaders from countries and meetingson from these -- in negotiation from these meetings. they stopped them. chapters were being opened and closed at that time. ok, so what happened with this? they stopped the opening and closing. there is just opening, no closing. how many chapters? there were 15, but then they made it 35. who was this done against? these are measures taken only against turkey. let juncker express that to me. i know juncker well. >> why not give up? it strikes me if there are many business people in this audience

and when somebody else talks about you pulling up the drawing -- drawbridge, that does not normally imply a great deal of partnership, white is in turkey seek the future outside the european union? -- why doesn't turkey seek a future outside of the european union? >> this question is an arrogant question is, of course, a very good question. i say those who are in the position to make the decision are then. let them close the door to us and we will make our decision easily. we are not all that interested, let me say that, too, but what they want is for turkey to run away. no, we never ran away. let it be them to run away. let them make that decision our decision. ♪

shery: i am cheryl on -- i shery ahn. let's complete this special edition of "bloomberg best," with highlights from another high profile session. bill gates and pepsico and nigerian commodity sat on a panel to discuss the many possibilities created by disruptive technologies.

quirks malaria is only killed by isype of music -- >> malaria only killed by a type of mosquito, which is, like, one out of 1000. the main idea is it is precedent-setting. if you think humans can get this species, what is your criteria for anything that might be a nuisance and you might make a mistake. if you got rid of all mosquitoes, there are some bats that feed on those mosquitoes, and you would have to look at the ecological effects. there is no other species that is dependent on that. this new genetic approach called gene drive that is still in the lab and not totally proven, but it has a good chance of being able to knock down populations

by about 99% over a five-year period. that probably, for the toughest part will include nigeria, so that the center, where malaria is a huge problem. we probably need that tool, so how are we going to get consensus on that is tricky because some people worry. i suppose there must be worries on mosquitoes. some people worry on the precedents of how the decisions are made. >> we hear about great technology leaders or great innovators. they often are men. is that because of a sexist thing women do not tend to let women get the opportunity, or is it some other reason, and do you think it will change some time soon? >> i'm not an expert on women in technology but i was at no -- and m.i.t. event, and the

president of m.i.t. was telling me that 50% of the engineering graduates from m.i.t. are women, but if you go to companies, 50% of the engineering staff are not women, and if you read stories in the press about what happens in the silicon valley area, 50% of the people getting the funding are not women. obviously, there is something causing that breakage between m.i.t., which is a premier institution, and in practice. if we want to utilize all of these resources that we are spending money on, we have to do something different. >> final question, is artificial intelligence a good thing for humans or not a good thing and a robots going to take over humanity? >> i think the misuse of artificial intelligence could be horrible, but there are thousands of good reasons to use it that are good for humanity. it has solved diseases, unsolvable disasters, and many

other things, so i think it is really good. you can find even more interviews, presentations, and panel discussions from the globalal bloomberg business forum at bloomberg.com, and as always all the latest , business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best" this week. thanks for watching. i am shery ahn. this is bloomberg. ♪ what did we do before phones?

they save us from getting lost, getting hungry, and getting tired of places like this. phones changed everything - shouldn't the way pay for them change too? introducing xfinity mobile. where you can pay for data by the gig, and share it across all of your lines. no one else lets you do that. see how much you can save when you pay by the gig. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com.

david: you started out, you wanted to be an actor. leslie: i was a mediocre actor and attending bar more than acting those years. david: what was your skill set? leslie: we have the hottest comedy and drama in the world on television on nbc. david: netflix, apple, amazon are in the streaming business. leslie: money alone does not lead to good programs. it is tough. we are competing with david: companies that could eat us alive. david:when survivor came, that was unusual. leslie: i said that is the stupidest thing i have ever heard. >> would you fix your tie, please? david: well, people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed, but ok.