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tv   Bloomberg Business Week  Bloomberg  December 2, 2017 7:00am-8:00am EST

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♪ matt: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. really for retailers, opec extends production cuts, nuclear flashpoint flare again in north korea. president trump: this is a situation we will handle. matt: the senate grapples with the tax bill. the fed chair into the chair apparent speak on capitol hill. >> the case for raising interest rates at the next meeting is coming together. matt: a fed president shares insight in an exclusive conversation. >> the strategy of moving
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interest rates up given where the economy is and where it has been make sense to me. matt: as bitcoin surges, and flips, suddenly everybody is paying attention. >> it seems to me it should be outlawed. it does not serve any useful function. >> i think it is more likely these digital coins move into the mainstream. >> bitcoin is undoubtedly a bubble. >> it is not for me, but there are a lot of things that were not for me in the past it worked -- and that worked out very well. matt: that is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ matt: hello and welcome. i am matt miller. this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of the most important business news analysis and interviews from bloomberg television around the world. the week began in the midst of the year's most critical days for u.s. retail. the pivotal moment between black friday and cyber monday.
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>> we are past black friday, and the cyber monday and everybody wants to get a scorecard on how retailers are doing. that is for both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. is we looked at the last 10 days before the holiday that would be thanksgiving and , black friday. we saw an unbelievable surge of activity that did not take away from the holiday. we saw spending growing at about 9% in the nine days to 10 days previous to thanksgiving. over that weekend, thursday, friday and into the weekend very robust sales. >> the weather looked good across the u.s. foot traffic was strong. i think the consumer confidence is high right now. we are seeing it across the board, whether it is foot traffic in stores, e-commerce, mobile. it is just the consumer is ready to have a very positive season. emily: cyber monday will be the biggest online shopping day in u.s. history. hundreds will hit up the online
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retailers. $6.6 billion in sales after black friday spending tops $5 billion for the first time. >> 51 million americans shop exclusively in stores. 58 million exclusively online. but a greater number, 65 million, indicated they shop across channels. i think it is that channel agnostic customer or multichannel customer that is the most valuable and they actually spent more money. >> federal reserve chairman nominee jerome powell in the spotlight today for his confirmation hearings. there are no big surprises, although he did hint about next month's rate decision. >> i will say senator i think , the case for raising interest rates at the next meeting is coming together. >> that is what was expected. they call it a confirmation hearing for a reason and he confirmed for the markets were expecting. at least a rate hike in december. with growth figures and the same next year and is forecasted inflation would come back to the
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2% target eventually, you can pretty much read into that that he is on board with the general feeling that the fed will do several rate increases in 2018. breakthrough, the u.k. and european union have agreed on what britain will pay. the irish border is the last major obstacle in the negotiations. what have we learned in terms of the brexit bill? >> there has been an outline agreement on the divorce bill. it has not been presented to eu leaders yet, and it has not been presented on paper to the eu yet. so the people who need to sign off on this have not actually got their hands on it yet. that will probably happen on monday when theresa may has lunch with them in brussels. there has been an agreement on the wording of the commitment of the u.k. for the eu on what the irish border will look like after brexit. the irish are in a bit of a
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dilemma. they don't really want to hold things up. if the irish prime minister goes down in history as the one who allowed ireland to be divided again, that will not begin for -- will not be good for him. >> janet yellen will testify before the joint economic committee of u.s. congress. in what will likely be her final appearance as fed chair on capitol hill. >> i expect that with gradual adjustments in the stands of monetary policy, the economy will continue to expand and the job market will strengthen somewhat further. supporting faster growth in wages and incomes. >> it does seem that janet yellen is pretty pleased with what has happened over the 10 year, but there are questions remaining. >> it was one of the slowest growing recoveries we have seen. economists say that's what happens after a financial crisis. and she has brought growth up as a she leaves to 3% the , unemployment rate of 4.1%, maybe lower by the time she leaves office.
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it is historically low, almost as low as records in the late 1990's, early 2000's. and if so she has a lot to be , -- and as so she has a lot to be pleased about in terms of her , performance. there would have been no better appointment for the next term than her, but donald trump wanted to make a change so she goes out with her head held high. >> president trump has nominated economist marvin good friend to be fed governor. this is trump's third nomination to the fed board as he moves to fill up several vacancies. he has been sharply critical of the federal reserve under chair janet yellen, saying the impact of quantitative easing was questionable at best. >> you know, i think one thing that is particularly interesting about marvin goodfriend is he is really hard to put into a hawk or dove bucket. he is pragmatic about a 2% inflation target. he thinks the fed needs to spend -- defend its credibility there.
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that goes to the upside and the downside. he said in the past rates are too low. he has been critical of the yellen said, but he's an advocate of negative rates in the crisis era. which has suggested that he is interested in defending the 2% inflation target when inflation is undershooting. that is more of a dovish stance. that is something to pay attention to as we see his candidacy for the governorship go through. >> opec and non-opec producers agreed to maintain oil production cuts until the end of 2018. the decision was confirmed after talks in vienna. >> we elected to call it in in throughtarting january 2018 december 31. so it is going to be basically a one-year agreement. >> this is the performance that opec should have given in they were poised, concise, and may. knew exactly what the market was looking for. they had done their homework. they were able to give with the key metric was.
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something they did not do before. they went as far as -- they said it is targeting inventories. they went as far as saying 150 million barrels. >> these two heavyweights, side-by-side, russia and saudi arabia sharing what they thought of as a confident outlook for energy and 2018. some describe it as a bromance. that is how jovial mood was in the press conference at the end of a long day. what we got in terms of inclusion with libya and nigeria. remember, they were exempt in the past. what happens now is locking in a place not to produce beyond 2017 levels, which shows you how opec and non-opec is a group is willing to refine its field a little bit and push some of these expectations to the upside. >> a twist in the special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. formernt trump's national security adviser michael flynn expected to plead guilty to lying to federal agents about communicating with
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russia's ambassador. how does this change the narrative in washington d.c.? , >> this is a much bigger threat to the president than mueller's earlier actions four weeks ago. because there is one guilty plea already, but that was a low-level guy. this is michael flynn pleading guilty now. and cooperating. who is at the center of trump's campaign, the lead contact with russia in december of last year during the transition. so this is a very significant event. >> majority leader mitch mcconnell says he has the votes to pass the republican tax overhaul. with jeff flake of arizona getting to a yes, it brings the count to 50. in the last hour senator susan collins saying the senate tax bill will include myself -- my amendment to allow taxpayers to deduct up to $10,000 for state and local property taxes. she is likely moving in the direction of a yes at this point has senator mcconnell made clear. >> they are still trying to win
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over senator collins. they made some concessions to her, including a state and local tax deduction exemption of up to $10,000 in property taxes like the house bill. bob corker seems less likely at this point, but they have the votes. matt: still ahead as we review on bloomberg best, the ceo of credit suisse likes what he sees with the global economy. and a whole host of distinguished s tell us what they -- guests tell us what they see in bitcoin. and a conversation with the cleveland president. top business headlines. a couple of juicy mergers to chew on, including a deal of the -- in the dining industry. >> as far as we know can the three offers. small bumps each time. it looks like 157 was enough. matt: this is bloomberg. ♪
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this is "bloomberg best." i'm matt miller. let's continue our tour of the week's stories with the remarkable roller coaster ride of bitcoin. >> bitcoin has reached $10,000, taking the price surge to more than tenfold. the largest digital cryptocurrency has risen by more than 50% since october alone and the euphoria contingencies -- continues to drive it to new highs. >> are we seeing more liquidity, give me some sense of this market? >> one word or one phrase i have this fear of long missing out. it seems like it is really a cycle in bitcoin right now. the higher prices go, the more retail and institutional money
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is really rushing in. that is really behind the recent rally. there is a sense that bitcoin is getting increasingly accepted in the mainstream. >> hours of your surging past $11,000 in one day, we are talking about bitcoin, it tumbled almost 20% from a high. and it wiped away almost of its $2200 price in five hours. do we know why what happened today happened? >> several of the exchanges, coinbase and gemini seeing a massive surge in volume. this could be a sign that has not quite grown up yet. >> u.s. regulators allowing bitcoin futures to trade on the cboe. three exchange operators will offer bitcoin products. it also says the exchange has planned to monitor the bitcoin spot market. >> it is bitcoin moving into the mainstream of finance. futures can be purchased by lots of institutional investors who
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would not by bitcoin itself. bitcoinould not buy itself. banks who want to have clients that want to buy it through hedge. you can go and on the other side you can go short for the first time with relative ease. , they's look at softbank may offer to buy uber shares at a lower price than expected. they could be at a 30% discount from uber's recent $69 billion valuation. what do you make of this offer price? it is a much more discounted offer price. >> there is no doubt that this discount valuation reflects all the turmoil the ridesharing company has been going through. we have the recent news of a massive data breach. basically, the countless loss of clashes with regulators. even at a 30% discount, the $40 billion valuation is a considerable windfall for the early investors. but the deal is far from done.
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we do not know what the tender period is, but over the next month we are likely to see a cat and mouse game played out because if softbank is not reach a required threshold of shareholders agreeing to sell, andcompany might walk away , or might interest in lyft they might up the offer. we will not likely see the deal complete until the very end of the tender offer. >> the media world saw the end of an era when meredith agreed to buy time. sports illustrated, people, and of course time magazine itself. meredith will pay $18.50 per share in cash, bringing the total value of the deal to $2.8 billion. supported by a $650 million cash infusion from charles and david koch. we have meredith, a magazine publisher, buying another
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magazine publisher, is this a rebirth for magazines or are they on their way out? we hear conde nast is even struggling. >> i think the magazine business continues to be under a lot of pressure. when you look at print advertising, it continues to decline to double-digit rates. that's the forecast going forward. meredith has done a good job carving out a stable of properties they cater towards women. advertisers looking to reach young women can come to meredith and if they get a really broad solution. that is what meredith has built their magazine business on. they also own a lot of television stations. the cash flow from tv has supported their magazine business. so meredith is a stronger company because of that they diversification. i think i hope that diversification will help them buy properties. >> big deal news this morning. -- agreeing to buy buffalo wild wings for $2.4 billion. emerson withdrew its bid to buy rockwell automation.
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>> they had been wanting to get into this space for a while. they own rvs and a few other restaurant brands. they earlier made a push to buy popeyes chicken and they were being -- beaten to the punch by burger king. they have shown a willingness to expand in the fried chicken business. this was a great fit for them. buffalo is a company that had some problems going back quite some time now. they had an activist in the stocks, now on the board. they had an outgoing ceo and no replacement. so this was a good time for roarke. they have gotten it over the line, they have made it as far as three offers, small bumps each time and it looks like 157 was enough. >> carbon fiber manufacturer down in tokyo 4.3%. there we go 4.4% now. ,after the company admitting fake data on its products for more than eight years. earlier this month, we became aware of posts on social media, then we had inquiries from customers.
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we felt we needed to disclose the facts, rather than have rumors spread further. we delayed a public announcement until we had all the facts and had explained to our customers. >> made in japan, yet another blow. what is happening? >> they said there are over 130 cases of the falsification, but no safety issues have been raised as of yet. toray has not disclosed any details on why this came about, but the question is is a valid one. what is happening in corporate japan? >> a change at the top of the fed. boris collari to become a partner. >> i think the stock has had a very good run. perfection basically priced in. i think the communication from the company suggests that the resignation was abrupt and unexpected. had a succession plan
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that is not pacifying investors. >> the chief executive will step into his shoes for the moment. are they big shoes to fill? >> he knows a lot. he has led the strategy. there's just a sense of it. >> barclays is one of its warning its investment banking staff half of them they get their bonuses cut this year, even if some top performers make it raises. that is coming from people who've been briefed on the matter. they are looking at a cut in the overall size of the pool. >> that is right. it is not hugely surprising. we have seen consistently bad performance from the european investment banks. their revenue at barclays is down 7%. so that is not really a surprise. the new investment head, what he is trying to introduce is a bit more of a differentiation to use his word and what they are paying employees. they will take the top 25% and
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give them a lot more. they caution that the bottom or half bottom quarter should expect their compensation to shrink over time as they try to competitiveness in their investment banking division. >> months ago, they were asking credit suisse shareholders to pitch in billions of francs. now he is talking about returning cash. he spoke to bloomberg on tuesday about what shareholders have endured. >> they have been through a lot. i'm painfully aware, but i have to dilute my shareholders significantly. there is no way to solve this without massive dilution of shareholders. >> they have come out today, he has hailed the end of a restructuring program which he started just a couple of years ago. he has pointed to better shareholder return in the one or two years. he says all divisions are coming in on target. the stock is up more than 4% to date.
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i'm sure investors are going to be happy with that, and it certainly looks different from a couple of years ago or six month ago when he was asking the same , shareholders for cash. cvs is nearing an agreement to acquire aetna. more than $65 billion. this is according to a person familiar with negotiations. it is a deal that could reshape the pharmacy and health insurance industry. >> what this would do is take one of the biggest health insurers in the u.s., aetna, and combine it with this huge pharmacy drug distribution operation, retail pharmacy. really mash these companies together. it is a combination we have not seen before. there is going to be obviously some degree of antitrust if it willre over give aetna and cvs too much market share. it has not been announced yet and it certainly could still fall apart. ♪
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♪ matt: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am matt miller. heading into the final months of 2017, economists and business leaders see many encouraging signs of global growth. and the credit suisse ceo shares this confidence. he visited bloomberg's new european headquarters in the city of london for an interview with francine lacqua. >> we are very positive about the world economy, very positive about the u.s., every positive -- and very positive about emerging markets in china. noticeably positive about europe, which is new. because the election of mccrone and france we are keeping with , synchronicity.
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wherefore once we have the three major economy zones doing well at the same time. if you look at our focus, we think that expenditures are back into very strong. that is the major shift in the world economy. you can create a scenario where we have high growth and low inflation because of , productivity gain fills the gap. so if you invest in capital and productivity grows you can get , into a healthy growth scenario. i was concerned about qe. i think that has been well-managed. >> it is slow. >> it is slow and gradual, and communication around it is very good. when asset prices are as high as they are, it is important to take the investor by the hand and not surprise him or her.
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and i think so far the central banks have done a really good job of that. we think that emerging markets will be ok, qe, m&a, the strength of corporate earnings , and the cash sitting on the balance sheet, and credit. in the background of that you have our industry. the lack of availability of credit, it puts a damper on growth since the financial crisis. that is starting to shift. we can support our clients and their ambitions. matt: global growth continues to look strong, areas of volatility remained. a missile launch from north korea credit concerns in south , africa, in a cabinet shakeup in mexico. all ahead as we review the week. but next, more compelling conversations including opinions , on the future of bitcoin that truly run the gamut. >> as long as the music plays, we dance. so as long as the prices go up, people think it is fantastic.
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but somebody will get hurt. matt: this is bloomberg. ♪ retail.
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♪ >> i led a transformation that might be one of the biggest transformations in global business history, from a single company, an enormous company that was really facing a lot of challenges, to four nimble, agile companies with hewlett-packard enterprise, the one i still run really well positioned for the future. this has been in the works for some time. and just decided it is right for the next generation of leaders to take hewlett-packard forward. as you know, i'm a big believer in the right person in the right job at the right time. i think antonio neri will be a fantastic ceo. matt: that was meg whitman
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explaining her decision to step down from the company early next year. in an exclusive interview with bloomberg television. now back to the buzz surrounding bitcoin. throughout the week, guests share their opinions on how high or low this red-hot digital currency might go. let's start with nobel prize-winning economist joseph stiglitz. >> if bitcoin were to be regulated, could it be viable? >> look, one of the main functions of government is to create currency. and bitcoin is successful only because of the potential for circumvention lack of oversight. ,so it seems to me it ought to be outlawed. it does not serve a useful function. we ought to just go back to what we always have had, and this is
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just a bubble as several of your commentators have pointed out. it is a bubble of that is going to give a lot of people a lot of exciting times as it rides up and then goes down. >> should bitcoin be outlawed as the laureate from columbia suggests? >> if you think what is behind that, probably an attempt by some people to try to make payments or use currency with a view to evade taxes, in to evade legislation on money laundering antiterrorist , financing. so i have the impression that policy authorities at the global level have not focused on the dangers of the development of these scams. and when they will i think some , people will get hurt. i mean, all those who thought that this was a new invention will lose money.
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of what chuckink greene said, as long as the music plays, we dance. as long as the prices go up, people think it is fantastic. but somebody will get hurt. >> i know you don't think of bitcoin as a currency, but it is an asset a lot of people hold. and a burst of this bubble could be painful. is that a risk? >> i don't think so. as you said, it is an asset. basically that is in the portfolio of many people. but in view of the values and the crash of the price that has happened in the past and can happen again, the volatility will be meaningful. i don't see it. it is a speculative asset. people are buying and see the asset going up. but things do not go up forever.
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exuberance, the phrase comes to mind. is this a canary in the data mine? are we approaching one of those moments with irrational exuberance, and that took a while to get into reality, are we seeing that happening? >> bitcoin is a bubble. cryptocurrencies are here to stay, by the way. the concept is potentially got -- has potentially got considerable value, but big -- the bitcoin is undoubtedly a global. the problem with any bubble is you don't know how far before it halves, but it will go a long way back down. between now and then, who knows, it could hit $20,000 pretty quickly. and you can't short it. it is a bubble. actually, over all you have a sense in the marketplace that market valuations are high, but
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mean that the bull market cannot rule on a bit. the tops of bull markets are -- when they are some to my when everybody is bullish and assumes things can only go one way. we are not there quite yet. >> what is it? a security, commodity, currency? what? >> it is a commodity. if you look at security by definition it has a liability attached to it. take a dollar bill, it has liability to the u.s. government. commodities do not have liabilities. they are bear assets. you look at that point, is not much different than gold. i do not see why there is all this hostility toward it, because if it's the same mold as many other commodities. remember, it is even mined. the push back i would have against bitcoin really has to do with liquidity. i checked the numbers this morning. even at $10,000 or $11,000, is a $168 billion market cap.
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gold has a $8.3 trillion of gold above ground. that is real liquidity. the lack of liquidity is creating volatility that has everybody concerned about bitcoin. >> could bitcoin be a landmine? we have seen above 945% this year. vanguard saying avoid bitcoin like the plague. did i make myself clear? there is a lot of risk attached to this interesting asset. >> i actually think it is more likely that these digital coins move into the mainstream. i think there are issues around the edges of this. i personally have been more focused on blockchain. a couple of investments we have made our focused on the infrastructure -- >> you like the technology behind it. we hear that a lot. the technology is really good. distributedink ledger technology and what it promises for the future of not , only financial markets but any
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asset transfer between two people or forming a corporation ap table management it is , too obvious to me that all these things can so easily be digitized that it will not happen. i agree with paul. the bitcoin market is pretty speculative right now, but given the limited supply, i do not -- >> where do you think it is going? what is your target? >> i would have to say it is going higher. if i was looking out six to 12 months, i'd say they were talking about a higher price, not lower. $15,000?$10,000, >> for sure. >> you have not endorsed or rejected bitcoin. when does goldman sachs have to have a bitcoin strategy? >> have to have it, not today. >> when? >> i would say life has to be
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to be talkingr us about this. >> i was talking to jeff curry the other day. he said the only thing people are asking him are bitcoin and -- >> life must be really rosy. i said where i am is it is not for me. but there are a lot of things that were not for me in the past that worked out very well. if you told me that if was 20 years forward and it worked out, i could tell you why, but based on everything i know, i'm not guessing it will work out. not standsay, i will there and say it is a fraud. it might be. people confuse bitcoin with blockchain. there is a technology where you can have different accesses the different data. different people can control it. there are places where that is a useful thing. in fact, the bloomberg system is a blockchain. instead of having the users control it, we control it.
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it has all the attributes of that. bitcoin is something very different. bitcoin -- there was a bunch of cryptocurrencies that have been started. every day you have a new one. that is something very different. whether or not the governments of the world will lose control of monetary policy, i am skeptical. they are just not going to let that happen and they shouldn't. matt: it was an important week for the federal reserve. with senate confirmation hearings for jerome powell and outgoing chair janet yellen giving what may well be her last testimony to congress on the economy. on thursday, michael mckee discussed the future of the fed in an exclusive conversation with federal reserve bank of cleveland president, loretta mester. thebviously, the news for fed jay powell. the case for raising rates is coming together. do you agree? >> i do agree with that. i have been on that case for a while, we really need to be
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moving interest rates up gradually given where the economy is. growth is at a sustainable pace. labor markets continue to improve. inflation is below target, no doubt, but it is on a path to moving up gradually at 2%. we have been at interest rates that are very low for quite a while. it just makes sense to start bringing it up gradually. of course, we respond to data as it comes in and as the outlook changes we would change off of that. up,as interest rates move and where the economy is or where it has been or relative to our goals makes sense to me. monetary policy has to be preemptive. i don't have concerns about moving interest rates up given how low it is, even though we had not hit 2% inflation yet. >> in the last two days governor powell and chair yellen both said there is a possibility our inflation models are wrong and we will not see it rise to 2%. how much credence to you give that? >> we always have to be open to
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the fact that our models could be wrong, for sure. one of the reasons that it has been as gradual as it has been is we have been recalibrating things as we go along given the evidence. if you look at the summary of economic projections, which is what the fomc members put in, you will see that some of those structural aspects of the economy have moved in relation to the data. th iwn interest rate pa adjusted. inflation was going to remain lower than longer than i thought. i think we all are open to our models being wrong. that is why we take a prudent approach. we want to with the upside and downside risks. to my mind, weighing the risks, i think interest rates should remain on this gradual upward path. ♪
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♪ matt: you are watching
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"bloomberg best." i'm matt miller. let's return to the review of the week's top stories. in north korea, yet another nuclear test caused concern around the world. >> tensions once again on the rise in asia. and governments are holding emergency meetings after north korea fired its first ballistic missile since president trump labeled it a state sponsor of terrorism earlier in the month. south korea responding with a missile exercise. japan for its part protesting in the strongest terms. president trump said the u.s. will handle it. president trump: a missile was launched a little while ago from north korea. i will only tell you we will take care of it. >> i think the real significance of this particular missile is the fact japan said it went more than 2000 -- 4000 kilometers into the sky, which means it can easily reach the east coast of the united states. we are talking about new york and washington.
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now there is a bit of discussion about whether this missile i might have the capability to take a really heavy nuclear warhead on its tip. the united states is having to come to a state where it is going to have to accept north korea as a nuclear power. korea we know has done multiple nuclear tests. and now it is showing an increased technological capability with its missiles. >> a war of words after president trump retweeted far right group britain first. the u.k. prime minister theresa may responding, saying trump is wrong to promote the videos. trump fired back on twitter saying, "don't focus on me. focus on the destructive radical islamic terrorism that is taking place within the u.k. we are doing just fine." may responded today. >> the fact that we work
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together does not mean that we are afraid to say when we think the united states has got it wrong, and to be clear with them. i am very clear that retweeting from britain first was the wrong thing to do. >> does this damage the special relationship? >> theresa may has made it clear that the special relationship endures beyond the term of one president. it is damaging for her because she was quick to become quite chummy with trump. she went to the u.s. very quickly she invited him to the , u.k., to meet the queen which bestowed onnot everyone. at the same time, this time, unlike previous occasions, she is clear that this is wrong. she actually got applause in jordan where she said clearly this is the wrong thing to do. >> let's turn to mexico, where jose antonio meade through in hat in the ring.
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there have been a lot of changes in mexico. this is just the most recent one. the central bank governor will be leaving. and you have got a new change there. >> this decision by the finance minister to run for president then freezes a lot of things -- unfreezes a lot of things in mexico that kind of been stuck. it was announced he was going to the b.i.s. in switzerland. he delayed so the government could announce a successor. the thinking was, it would be meade, but for the fact he would run for president. so these two things kind of froze mexican monetary policy. it looks like they are now being resolved. >> it is a relief for south africa's currency traders today. moody retaining its investment-grade rating on the nation's global currency. it did issue a warning. >> living update and reputation for the currency, on friday
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night after the downgrade we had that kind of knee-jerk reaction. and moody's gave it a reprieve. and at the end of the day it is its best day in almost two years. the reason for that is that in order to maintain the world government bond index, south investments an reading -- rating from either moody's or the s&p. they concern is it could lose both ratings. the moody's reprieve means we will not see the forest reselling of government bonds and we were not see the outflows from the country's bond market. >> the bank of england said the uk's biggest banks have the strength to keep lending, even during a disorderly brexit. five of the seven thanks past -- banks passed the latest
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stress test. barclays and royal bank of scotland below their systemic reference point. they will not be forced to bolster their capital. >> this is the first time in the four years of the stress test all the u.k. banks actually passed. this kind of data jubilation was ruined by the fact the bank of england is asking banks to boost their capital buffers in anticipation of potentially disruptive, disorderly brexit as we move through negotiation periods. what really should of been a positive day for banks and their share prices looked quite negative in retrospect. >> shares of the big aussie banks are sliding today after prime minister malcolm turnbull called for an inquiry into the banking industry. rebuilding public trust in and political uncertainty they say they haven't depressing the sector. >> there has been a drumbeat of course for this inquiry into the banking sector. we are talking about well over a year now.
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just intensified, almost as soon as the banks thought they had put certain scandals behind them. the banks of the prime minister -- what the banks and the prime minister decided with the , pressure for the inquiry growing, it is better for him to be in control of it. if the government calls it, he gets to set the terms of reference. set the judge and the time on it. if it was the pushed or force d by an opposition he would have far less control. >> the numbers have surpassed expectations. performance coming in at 51.8. 51.4 andhe forecast of improving on the reading in october. people will say this is just the country maintaining its economic momentum, but does it move the narrative in any way in your view? >> it does suggest these global tailwinds remain very much in china's favor. if you break down the
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components, there was real strength in output, new orders and export orders. there is still plenty of demand for chinese made goods. it showed us that as we let into d into this report. the other side is the domestic picture, which clearly is not feeling the screws yet. of the property market and at some of the efforts to rein in the pace of infrastructure investment, that sort of thing. gauges,we saw both manufacturing and others, but accelerate. the domestic economy is probably a little better than people thought, and the external environment is pretty favorable. ♪
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♪ >> take a look at the bloomberg. basically these are the financials. over the past 20 days, we get have seen a dip and then they come up. over here we have what has happened with technology, which came up and is coming down. they had these opposite arcs. >> there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg. we always enjoy showing our favorites on bloomberg television. maybe they will become your
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favorites. here is another function, quic k . here is a quick take from this week. >> for over two decades, iran insisted to a skeptical world that it was not building nuclear weapons. but its history of hiding nuclear facilities, stockpiling enriched uranium raise alarms. after two years of negotiation, iran agreed in 2015 to limit his severe program and extensively -- in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. now president trump claims iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal. the international atomic energy agency is the party that conducts oversight. and they say iran has been on our disagreements. here is the situation. in 2013, world leaders sawn opportunity to negotiate a deal with the rise of a moderate leader to iran's president. under the agreement, iran may maintains the ability to enrich
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uranium for peaceful purposes. it retains about 5000 centrifuges capable of separating uranium 235 isotope from uranium ore. but only to the level needed for nuclear power plants. it pledged to limit its nuclear stockpile. u.s. officials estimated if they were to resume producing more highly enriched uranium, given it would need a year to make enough for a nuclear bomb. before the agreement it would've taken a few months. in october of 2016, iran slightly surpassed its limits of heavy water, which is used in medical imaging, but can also fuel reactors. they addressed that within weeks by shipping the surplus to oman. trump accused the iranian regime of spreading death, destruction and chaos all over the globe, and threatened to cancel u.s. participation in the agreement if congress did not create new restrictions on iran. here is the argument. includingt powers, israel and of saudi arabia, have criticized the agreement, saying
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it empowers iran's regime. skeptics are not satisfied with the verification and they believe that allowing iran to make any fissile material is unacceptable. but to iranians, it is a matter of national pride. they make the case that no country should be restricted in its pursuit of energy and modern medicine. supporters of the deal point out that decades worth of sanctions did not stop iran from pursuing nuclear ambitions. they believe the agreement offers the best hope of continuing those aims because it provides oversight by the world community. >> the deal is terrible. >> trump's goal is to use u.s. law to change the terms of the deal. one example would be for the sanctions thate lifted the deal unless iran , curbs its missile program the rest of the world committee involved in making this deal disagrees with that approach. trump thinks it is a pretty good
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deal america, not iran. to isolate america, not iran. iran has threatened to withdraw for the u.s. reimpose his the sanctions. the collapse of this agreement could be a watershed moment for both american and iranian diplomacy. ♪ matt: that was just one of the many quick takes you will find on the bloomberg. you can also find that on bloomberg.com, along with all the latest business news and analysis 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best." thanks for watching. i am matt miller. this is bloomberg. ♪ retail.
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under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store
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near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. carol: welcome to bloomberg businessweek. i'm carol massar. julia: and i'm julia chatterley. businessfocuses on the these are the men and women 50. whose accomplishments defined 2017. the entrepreneurs who may make waves next year. carol: the bloomberg businessweek 50 starts right now. ♪ carol: we are here with the

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