♪ david: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week around the world. turmoil in washington. comings and goings shake up the white house. >> donald trump has obviously decided that skill set, notwithstanding, it is important to him to have people who agree with him. >> at the end of the day, he makes his own decisions. and if he decides that you are not going along with his program, you are fired. david: goldman sachs sets the stage for a ceo succession. china plans new financial regulations. broadcom's blockbuster bid for qualcomm gets blown up. >> you have to look at this as a chilling effect of m&a. >> this notion of broadcom as a chinese company is nonsense. david: trade is a trending

topic. distinguished guests share important insights. >> you need access between countries, it is called fair trade. >> i think all of this talk about trade wars, i think it is overdone. >> i don't think president trump will do anything ridiculous. david: and, canadian prime minister justin trudeau insists that his country will continue pushing back against protectionism. >> we will continue to push against it in a firm and polite way because we are canadians. david: this is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ david: hello, and welcome. i am david westin. this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of the most important business news and analysis and interviews on bloomberg television from around the world. on friday last week, it was reported in the wall street journal that lloyd blankfein would step down as ceo of goldman sachs by the end of

2018. he immediately brushed off reports via twitter, but on monday, a move that goldman brought the succession story back to the floor. >> more clarity on the line of succession at goldman sachs. david solomon is now the soul resident and coo at the firm, putting him in line to be the next ceo. harvey schwartz is stepping down. >> 15 months ago, goldman named two co-chief operating officers, and after 15 months, the board made a decision that david solomon will be the next ceo. our best estimate is that lloyd blankfein will step down in 2019, on the 150th anniversary of the creation of goldman sachs. clearly, david solomon's strength is on the investment banking side. he is head of the area with good growth in one of the best corporate rolodexes around. the relationships between the goldman sachs and corporations

and governments is as strong as it can get. the challenge and opportunity is for goldman sachs to better leverage those corporate relationships to build business across the firm, not just in investment banking, but also in the trading side. >> let's be clear, this is still lloyd blankfein's term. he will step down as ceo when he wants to on his timetable. we just know now who has clear number 2 is, and it will be up to the number two to grow goldman beyond what we know of it now. ♪ >> broadcom ceo meeting with treasury officials today. his goal was to address u.s. government concerns and that his bid for qualcomm threatens national security. >> it sounded like it went well, from a broadcom perspective. they were able to make their case to cifius. as to why they would not be a threat to national security. i think they talked about investments to have ready-made in the u.s., and that they will continue to make.

>> shockwaves through the technology industry yesterday -- donald trump sent shockwaves through the technology industry yesterday after issuing an executive order blocking broadcom from acquiring qualcomm. the presidential ruling saying impair the national security of the state. is this the end? >> there was no appeal process. once the president ways in and blocks the deal, that is generally it. >> the thing is, you find me a company these days that doesn't have any global footprint and doesn't have any chinese connections. this motion of broadcom is a chinese company, it is nonsense. they are not a chinese company. they are a company that has a legal address in singapore for tax reasons, but there are u.s. -- they are essentially u.s. company. most of their business is here. this concept of them being a chinese acquirer, and i know that that is what trump and a lot of people in washington are saying, but it is hogwash. >> president trump announcing his decision to fire secretary of state tillerson and replace him with cia director mike pompeo. the president spoke about this

major shift to his national security team early this morning. president trump: we disagreed on things. when you look at the iran deal, i think it is terrible. i guess, he thinks it was ok. >> it is amazing he lasted this long. he disagreed with president trump on almost everything important -- the iran deal, the paris climate accord, even the saudi blockade of qatar. so, there was issue after issue after issue. the president and rex tillerson did not see eye to eye and when that happens, the president usually wins. and now, rex is out the door. >> donald trump has obviously decided that skill set notwithstanding, it is important for him to have people who agree with him on foreign policy. mike pompeo has developed a very close personal relationship with president trump, so he is now going to be secretary of state, assuming that he will be come -- he will be confirmed by the senate, and he probably will be. >> broadcom officially dropping its bid for qualcomm after donald trump's order to block the takeover.

the company issued a statement saying -- "although we are disappointed in the outcome, we will comply with the order." broadcom will continue to move forward with their process. where does it leave all the individual semiconductors now? >> you have to look at this as sort of a chilling effect on m&a. what was so striking on the part of the president is we don't even have a deal and the problem the government raised with buying qualcomm has nothing to do it broadcom's nationality. they are worried that they will gut r&d spending and that would put it in a race for 5g technology and hand the competitive edge over. that raises questions on what will be able to get done going forward. >> prime minister theresa may announce that the united kingdom will expel 20 russian diplomat's

as of tradition to the poisonous gas attack on the ex-spy and his daughter. prime minister may: their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events. >> may is trying very hard to be firm. she has her party behind her, but at the same time though, from what we've heard from analysts in russia, these measures look a bit soft. >> a huge chunk of the diplomatic presence from both sides, each have about 60 diplomats, for each of them, and that is a substantial reduction. theresa may said it is the biggest such expulsion in more than 30 years. so far, analysts have said -- this will not really affect the markets. the result is to be an effect of -- an amount of relief. >> the president selecting a new top economic adviser, larry kudlow. he has gotten straight to work, pushing a tough stance on china and promising a new face of tax -- a new phase of tax cuts. wall street weighing in on gary gary cohn's replacement.

>> he is a confident guy. >> we are not looking at something simple. we are looking at something quite different. not anti-china and trade tariffs, that is not the larry kudlow. >> i think he is trying to be a force of moderation, but at this time, you just cannot go in there and say, we need free trade and forget about tariffs, given the administration's perspective on all of this. at the end of the day, the president makes his own decisions. if he decides that you are not going with his program, you are fired. >> he is an articulate advocate for free trade, but i think his job will be to refine the white house and the president's agenda, not set it. >> larry has talked in terms of not being totally against tariffs come about wanting to target them, so that they are more effective. i think that will be his job, to take this unmolded mass of substance and turn it into

something more substantive. more refined. >> the white house merry-go-round reaching a fever pitch. multiple sources reporting that the national security adviser could be next as a potential high-profile departure from the administration in just over a week. the denials came quick and fast from the white house. denying reports mcmaster is on the way out, press secretary secretary sanders tweeting -- just spoke to notice and general h.r. mcmaster, contrary to reports, they have a good working relationship and there will be no changes at the nsc. >> any moment, folks are operating under the assumption that at any moment, the announcement could come. >> there are only two departures that would be earth-shattering. one would we jeff sessions, a sign that trump is thinking about firing mueller. the other, i think would be the chief of staff, general kelly. those are the two big ones. otherwise, i just can't see it having that big of an impact. >> i think there are only two things that matter when it comes to washington.

trump is cutting regulations like no president has in american history, and the market is applauding that. anything that would upset that or maybe make you think that trump was going to change about or upset that, would probably be taken as a negative in the markets. mcmaster's firing, gary: living, -- gary cohn leaving. i don't think it is anything for markets to be concerned about. david: still ahead, as you review the week on bloomberg best, canada's prime minister, justin trudeau explains what he is optimistic that a nafta deal be done. plus, conversations with stephen schwartzman and others on the bigger picture on global trade. up next, more of the week's top business headlines. mario draghi promises not to shock investors as the ecb eases its way out of qe. >> he is more hammering home the point and prudence. david: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

david: this is "bloomberg best," i am david westin. let us continue our global tour of the week's top business stories, with important economic data coming out of the u.s. and china. jonathan: goldilocks continues. inflation in line with expectations, boosting futures and weighing on the dollar. how does this cpi report this morning play into the views of the key members of the fomc? >> it keeps them on track for at least three moves this year. it could add pressure for a fourth, even though we saw stable numbers, we are seeing a slow build in inflation. over the last three months, we are expanding out more than a 3% rate inflation rising, so we are starting to see it builds. it isn't out of control and no reason to panic, but there is reason to believe that they will reach the 2% target by the end

of the year. >> china's latest data goes somewhat against the narrative that the country is shifting away from old industrial drivers towards a consumption-led economy. put that in perspective for us, especially in light of a looming trade war, between the u.s. and china. guest: we are seeing surprisingly strong numbers out of china this morning. industrial outs, define expectations to accelerate in the first couple of months of the year. beneath the surface though, we see some signs of weakness in domestic demand. in particular, we saw land sales crumbling. of course, if domestic demand is weaker, it raises the stakes for china in any concerns because if domestic demand is not there, china needs to rely even more on buyers in the united states. >> china announcing plans to merge its banking and insurance regulators as part of its

wide-ranging overhaul across a lot of its major government agencies. take us through the spotlight proposals here. >> this is the biggest, major overhaul for the banking regulators since about 2003, about 15 years. overseas, about 4000 banks, so it gives it some indication of the scale and size of this. in terms of what it allows the government to do, is of course, have greater oversight over to -- two industries which have been responsible for a lot of shadow growth of banking. we have also been hearing about proposals to retool the pboc, some regulatory oversight given to them, and credential oversight, as well, pointing to a stronger role for china's central bank. ♪ >> regulation was in focus for the u.s. senate, taking its most concrete steps so far in rolling back bank regulations imposed in the wake of the global financial crisis. passing a bipartisan bill to ease the laws on smaller lenders and community banks.

>> lawmakers have said that they want to see additional changes, they want to see the rollback of dodd-frank go even further. however, you have moderate democrats, more than a dozen of them in the senate, who are crucial to seeing this well -- this will advance in the senate, who have said that they will walk if it comes back to them with any sort of major changes. so this is going to possibly stretch out for some time, but those differences are going to be ironed out and it could get a little sticky. >> japanese finance ministry admitting that the names of prime minister shinzo abe, his wife and the finance minister aso were deleted from documents related to this land scandal. aso apologized but refused to resign. his boss suggested that that may not be enough. >> it is a very complicated scandal. just to sum it up quickly, we

know that the sale of public land was made to the school at about 1/7 of the market value. so that looks a little bit strange. we also know that prime minister abe's wife has been affiliated with the school. we have seen no evidence directly suggesting that there was a political pressure from the abe camp to sell the land at a discounted price. so the big question is though, if the scandal continues and deepens, does it start to force resignations from the abe and does that then undermine abenomics? that is what we are waiting to see. ♪ >> mario draghi said inflation is still too low for the ecb to make any sudden changes to its stimulus plan. at a conference in frankfurt, the ecb president says he expects the euro area inflation to average 1.7% in 2020 and that investors should not expect any policy surprises.

>> adjustments to our policy will remain predictable and will proceed at a measured pace. >> any deviation from draghi today, from the message he delivered a week or so ago? >> i wouldn't call it a deviation. more like a hammering home of the point of prudence. and persistence and patience, the three p's. there were slightly tougher messages as well, he pointed out the concerns over the euro and any further strength. he did say, which is quite important, that the euro gained almost 17% over the past year against the dollar, but they are not entirely due to the areas of economic expansion. that is one concern as trade policy in the u.s. is another concern. the process has to be slow and steady for now, but no surprises. ♪ >> it is too close to call in the pennsylvania special election. some see it as a bellwether for the fall midterms.

the democrat conor lamb holding a razor thin lead over republican rick saccone with some absentee ballots still to be counted. what remains like to be counted and when will we actually get the outcome? >> julie, they are calculating absentee ballots. of course, this is too close to call, but for all intents and purposes, it looks like conor lamb will be able to pull this out. he of course, declared victory here last night. house speaker paul ryan addressing reporters in the nation's capitol, saying that he believes democrats will not be able to replicate the win of conor lamb, because he was running on a republican message. on the flipside, democrats totally disagree. they say, look, donald trump carried the district by 20%. the outside money which poured in here, more than $10 million in behalf of republicans, it indicates that progressive grassroots are fired up, and they are hoping that this will be the start of a blue wave, come november. ♪

>> the u.s. issuing financial sanctions against two major russian intelligence agencies and a st. petersburg-based farm and other businesses indicted by special counsel robert mueller and meddling would be 2016 presidential election. what are the penalties listed on the treasury department's website? >> this will essentially blacklist these organizations from the u.s. financial system, and these individuals. it will have some effect. i'm not sure the gru has an account at citibank in its own name, but it is an important symbolic impact, and it means that these individuals who were indicted by mueller not only will never be able to travel to the united states, but they will also base financial penalties around the world. ♪ >> south africa's ex-president

jacob zuma is to be charged with corruption. we are also hearing the south africa's chief prosecutor saying that he has seen the prospect of a successful prosecution. what can we expect now? >> 16 charges. that is of racketeering as you have said, corruption, money laundering, all reinstated against former president, jacob zuma. the case is likely to continue for quite some time. you can now move forward into the 2019 elections and then start saying that we have indeed started stamping out corruption and here's a clear example. ♪ ♪

david: welcome back to "bloomberg best." i am david westin.

this week, bloombergs michael mckee traveled to saskatchewan to sit down with canadian prime minister, justin trudeau and met in a steel mill where trudeau was speaking with workers on the impact of u.s. trade policies. he told michael canada is repaired to step up the pace for negotiations on nafta. >> canada does not have the same kinds of pressures that both the u.s. and mexico have. we are happy to move forward and make progress. we are diligent about doing our homework, showing up and making sure we are delivering creative ideas and forward movement at the table. i understand the time pressures you are under, and we are happy to accelerate so that we can accommodate them. canada is not the one creating the time pressures at the table, so we will continue to work with whatever speed the others want. >> if trade talks were suspended, would that affect as far as you understand, the the exemption? >> as long as there is a nafta, there will be no tariffs, we have a nafta now and we will

have one as soon as we improve it. that sounds to me like we are pretty good on not getting tariffs. >> you say that we will have nafta and you have been very up the about its possibilities. given all the conversations, all the talk from washington, why? >> nafta has been good for the united states, good for canada and for mexico. we have been good over the past 25 years. there are always opportunities to improve it, but the level of collaboration, coordination and integration of our economies has positioned north america better able to take on the world. i know that there are greater opportunities for that. canada has signed trade deals recently with the european union, 500 million people. with the tpp nation economies, close to 500 people as well. and canada knows how good trade can be for creating growth and we need to do a better job ensuring that everyone gets the benefits of that growth. that is why we are being

thoughtful and progressive with some of the ways that we are moving forward on labor standards, women's rights, to make sure that the fears people have around globalization are actually allayed by demonstrating that that growth can benefit everyone. >> another day, another duty. this time, what does donald trump have against canada? he campaigned against mexico, but he is governing it seems, against canada. >> i think one of the things is canada is so present in so many different areas in the american economy in positive ways. the u.s. sells more goods to canada every year than it does to china, japan, and the u.k., combined. we obviously have all sorts of links with the protectionist approach to the u.s. there are companies i think who have decided to see if they cannot make a profit off pushing back against their competitors. some of whom are in canada. we saw it with boeing.

unfortunately, what they did just drove the great canadian c series into the arms of your greatest competitor. so, some of it will backfire because now they have a great relationship with airbus. these cases will result in higher costs for american consumers. the same way that the lumber issue led to higher housing prices because canadian lumber is more expensive for homebuilders in the united states. we are trying to make these arguments. we will continue to make these arguments in a firm and polite way, because we are canadians. ♪ david: coming up, more of the week's big company news. deutsche bank moves forward with a turnaround plan and a megamerger rocks germany's energy sector. and, we will revisit some compelling conversations. blackstone's steve schwarzman cuts to the chase on the subject of free and fair trade. >> we needed a level playing field and the best products and services.

david: this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

david: this is "bloomberg best." i am david westin. in the days since president trump announced he would impose tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, investors and policy makers have been concerned about global retaliation and ultimately, trade wars. it was a topic of conversation throughout the week on bloomberg television. let's start with former franklin templeton mark mobius, who spoke with us on "bloomberg daybreak: americas." >> you believe the market may be overpricing risks for nafta or more specifically, for trade wars and make it artificially depressed? >> yes, i think so. i think all this talk about trade war is overdone. i do not see that happening in the u.s. the negotiations

are bilateral, they are beginning to have positive effects. you see positive news coming out. so we have to be aware of that. alix: i understand from a macro perspective it might not underscore, but it has real fx implications. particularly if we're talking about the mexican currency. how do you factor that into your investment thesis? >> what we do is we look at how much fear there is. i mean, if there is really a fear of a trade war, there might be opportunities. it will not be as bad as it appears. just look at the u.k., brexit in europe and so forth, there's no way they can have a real brexit because they are just too closely tied together. this is true of latin america and other parts of the world. david: putting aside whether there actually is a trade war or not, talk about the rumors of the volatility in fx. it is driving fx up and down. how do you handle that? do you hedge? >> what we do is we try to make

an assessment about whether a currency is over or undervalued based on price parity, then we invest accordingly. for example, if we think a currency is undervalued, export would be the place to go. so it depends on the individual company. that is the only way that you can really hedge. otherwise, it gets very expensive if you try to hedge the whole portfolio. >> i would much rather see our country sit-down with our allies, talk about how do we deal with overproduction that is generated primarily by china? yet, the united states only imports about 2% of its sales from china, but china is flooding the global market, so it needs a global solution. the oecd has a mechanism for dealing with overproduction. that's the road i would recommend. vonnie: ambassador hill, it is quite clear that republicans are not behind this, lawmakers on the democratic side are not behind this either.

so who is this for? >> i think that the president is talking to a group of workers that are concerned about their jobs. my heart goes out to those workers, but i do think that we should deal with improving the economy and helping them take the jobs that are generated. ♪ >> president trump has made a lot about the trade surplus that china has with the u.s. would cosco consider buying more u.s. agricultural, food or other products, as a way of addressing that imbalance? >> i think costco has been trying very hard to serve that progress. if you recall, in november last year, president xi and president trump, the signing ceremony of a

trade memorandum between cosco and adm, to buy u.s. soybeans. >> is that something you are counseling the chinese government against, using the soybean trade as one of these tensions? >> i don't think president trump will do anything ridiculous you know, to really make the homework very complicated. for china, right now, i think china government steel is very much encouraging the commercials to buy u.s. soybeans. i don't see anything that china would do to affect normal u.s. and china agricultural trade. david: blackstone group chairman and ceo steve schwarzman understands both sides of the u.s.-china relationship as the international investor, and, as an advisor to president trump. in an exclusive interview with betty liu, he put the debate

into perspective. >> there's no doubt that there is a serious imbalance between the u.s. and china in terms of market access and tariff levels and nontariff barriers. part of this happens in the natural course of things. when you are a less-developed country, you have higher tariff laws. but we did that in the united states in the 19th century, and it helped build the united states behind the protection of those restrictions. the issue now is that, with china having such a large economy, even though per capita, it is not as big as one would think, but in terms of aggregate size, it is the second biggest in the world and it is growing at double the rate of any

developed economy that it is sort of time to make that change, to make that transition. i think that the senior people in china well understand that, because it is in their interest as well as other countries. because, if you don't normalize this, then populism develops in the developed world and people in those populations demand some kind of action. >> and actually swings all the way back to the other side. >> it starts spinning around and everybody is a loser. host: so if i can infer from what you are saying, are you saying that there could be some justification for these tariffs here, to make it a more level playing field or no? >> i did not talk about tariffs. what i was saying is that you need a normalization of access between countries.

it is called fair trade. in other words, no one country should be keeping somebody else more or less out while they get to go in. it is not fair. so i think we need -- >> so we need a more level playing field? >> we need a level playing field, and the best products and services win. and i think that is all that is trying to be accomplished. this will take some period of time, but responsible, intelligent people know that this is something that is going to have to be done. it should be done in an orderly and thoughtful way and i am hopeful that that will be the case. >> not to belabor the point, but if not tariffs, steve, what other levers could be pulled to level the playing field? >> there are lots of levers to get somebody's intention. my sense is that attention has

been gotten, and we should be moving on to an execution phase, which would be good for everyone. ♪ ♪

david: you are watching "bloomberg best." i am david westin. let's return now to our round of of the week's top business stories. broadcom's bid for qualcomm met it's end this week, but there is a complicated deal on the table in germany that could reshape the country's energy industry. >> yesterday, eon agreed to acquire energy from rwe. if approved by regulators, the acquisition will transform the country's energy industry as utilities grapple with the accelerated shift to renewables. this creates a company that is focused on old-school utilities. is that right?

>> breaking this down, you have eon, essentially they will end up being the service and network provider here. rwe will take over the renewable assets of these two companies and the utility assets, and rwe will own a significant stake in eon, so there will be a close link between these companies, which by the way, historically have been huge rivals. it is difficult to see how this will actually play out. it is a real reversal from what these companies were saying a couple of years ago when they both were spending off assets. >> what will rve become? will it turn into a green asset holder at a bigger carol? -- scale? >> are operating business so far has focused on conventional power generation and now this combines to a natural, newer platform under the roof of strong renewables.

we are actually the number 2 in wind in europe and over all in -- and number two in renewables in europe. >> deutsche bank says it plans to raise as much as 1.8 billion euros in an ipo with its asset management unit. a successful offering would mark an important achievement for chief executive, john cryan. he proposed the sale year ago to help bolster the capital of the lender. a lot rides on this successful ipo for john cryan. >> correct. when he announced the plan, the funds raised from the ipo going to deutsche bank's coffers, i think that story has moved on now and people are not so concerned about that anymore, but it is important he gets this key part of the plan out of the way, which is to make their asset management business more independent. at a time when asset managers are facing a lot of competitive pressures and being more independent could enable it to potentially gain scale as well.

>> deutsche bank, germany's biggest lender, awarding its staff $2.7 billion in bonuses, four times higher than the previous year, despite the bank's third annual loss in a row. >> you might think what are they going to gain? it was a paper loss, due to not necessarily operating problems, but u.s. tax reforms. that is one part of the argument. it will not carry water but many -- for many people. on top of that, deutsche bank has to hang on to its people. that is the needle he has to thread in that he has to hang on to his key revenue generators and to do that, you have to pay. >> the largest insurer in the u.k. plans to focus on growth outside europe. prudential has divested $16.7 billion of british annuities to rossi life. they also plan to spin off its m

and g investment units. >> prudential already looking beyond the m&g's spinoff. is the u.s. the next one, maybe? >> there are no plans at the current time to look at spinning further. i think we've always said that we are an active manager of the business, in the shape of a group. but, if you look at where asia is going direction only, the ability to solve complex retirement issues will be a skill set we absolutely need, and the u.s. is the market leader in that. our jackson team. there's a lot of synergies, and we will display a few more of those in the upcoming months. we think it is an appropriate combination of market positions, capability, earnings, diversification, lots of good things. having the two together. >> adidas has reported a 19% jump in fourth-quarter revenue, led by sales in china and north america.

is china really what is behind this positive outlook? >> last year, we were at 16% topline and 32% bottom line, on outstanding year. the three main growths were u.s., china with almost 30% and online business at 57%. those three components are really what drove the company forward to a record year. we're very profitable in china, and it is helping our profitability, but i also wanted to say, most of our contracts are found in the u.s. and europe which makes the chinese look better than it is, because of course, they get the benefit. >> dropbox has set up a price range for its ipo. the filesharing company plans to sell 36 million shares between $16 to $18 each. at the high-end of the range, they would have a market value of about $7.1 billion.

>> this is about a 25% cut from their last private value, which was $10 billion, when they last sold shares privately in 2014. that is definitely going to be on people's minds. it is not necessarily an operational indicator of dropbox, but it continues to tell the story of the differences between the premiums that private investors willing to put on these private share sales of tech companies and what the public market is willing to pay. what i will be keeping a watch on for this dropbox deal as they hit their roadshow before they are scheduled to list next week is questions around user growth, specifically paid user growth. the other thing that i am sure investors will be asking management, is about churn. that could be something that the public market buy-side will want to have a little more information on. >> the end of an iconic retailer, toys "r" us saying they plan to close down u.s. operations after failed attempts

to find a buyer or reach a debt restructuring deal. you can easily burn private equity. >> a lot of people do. the debt of the company was never able to get out from underneath. covering the company for a number of years and executives would often say after they left the company, we had some big plans, we wanted to revamp parts of business, but the privately equity owners, they would not allow for that kind of a robust investment. it looks like private equity can largely be blamed for this. it is not just an amazon story, as some people are reporting. ♪ >> another company facing bankruptcy, iheart media, the owner of the most radio stations in the u.s., file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection wednesday, which would allow them to keep operating as it tries to reform. the company is more than $20 billion in debt. how did it end up with so much debt?

>> with iheart, their struggle is a two-part story. the company was taken private by private equity companies, back in 2008, unfortunate timing as the crisis got underway. they loaded up about $20 billion in debt on the balance sheet. meanwhile, simultaneously, we have seen a lot of technological development in the radio space. you have competitors coming online like sirius, spotify, pandora. iheart was struggling just to make those interest payments on their debt, let alone invest in the company to develop, grow, and keep up. >> vw announcing it's secured $25 billion worth of battery supplies to fuel the automaker's electric vehicle push. the vw chairman and chief executive spoke to our very own matt miller in berlin regarding the company's focus on raw materials. >> commodities have always been part of our sourcing and procurement. we're not just the buying from

tier one manufacturers, but we try to secure the provision of raw materials at reasonable prices. we've been very successful in the past with that and will continue that strategy. ♪ >> the sec doing theranos and its founder, elizabeth holmes, as well as it over president of the company, with authorities accusing her of elaborate fraud. they neither admit or deny the allegations. so this isn't that surprising. she has been dealing with the sec for a while. but we are finding out the size of the fine. can you put that into some scope for us? is it bigger or smaller then you would expect? guest: i would say it is a bit smaller than i expected. $500,000 fine for elizabeth holmes, and she has to give up control of the company and a portion of her equity stake. but compared to the size of the fraud, as you mentioned, the complaint alleges they raised $700 million through

this scheme, through basically lying to investors about a whole host of things. it does seem pretty small, especially when you consider that we just saw, martin shkreli, another in adjacent in a way, fraudster, get convicted for seven years in prison for a loss that amounted to $10 million. >> unilever is consolidating its headquarters in the netherlands, abandoning its british base that it has maintained for nearly a century area across the globe. this is as theresa may and the country prepares for brexit. >> they are basically moving a registration. they have the double entity at the moment in the u k and the netherlands and they are taking that and moving it to the netherlands. it doesn't necessarily mean that you are moving a lot of jobs, in fact, it could only be a handful of jobs. they have 7000 plus people in the u.k. they will stay here, and 3000 or so in the netherlands, they will stay there. the actual operating units like the health business and home business will stay in the u.k.,

food stays in the netherlands. none of that changes. it's headquarters jobs, the registration, but there is a lot of symbolic importance with the political backdrop. >> walmart shares plunged after a whistleblower claimed the retailer issued misleading e-commerce results and fired an executive who complained they were breaking the law. under chief executive officer doug mcmillion walmart has invested billions to catch up with amazon in e-commerce. what, matt, is this whistleblower claiming happened? >> this whistleblower, who was fired from amazon in 2014, his job was to basically grow this marketplace business. this is a business that amazon also runs, where they sell their -- where third-party vendors sell the goods and walmart gets a cut of the sales. this gentleman is claiming that their improprieties in the business, it was a growth at all costs mentality. internal controls were overlooked. when he brought these issues to

light, he was at first ignored and then eventually fired. >> hong kong's top business mogul has ended his career. he built skyscrapers, sold soap bars. the 89-year-old chairman of ck hutchinson holdings and ck asset holdings will stay as an advisor to the group after stepping down in may. how big a deal is it that he is now giving the reins to his son? >> it is a very big deal symbolically, because he has for decades, been the richest man in hong kong. he really personified a whole generation of tycoons who in the postwar years built fortunes in hong kong and spread around the region. he did announce back in 2012 that his son, victor, would be taking a bigger role in managing things. so it may not be that much of a change when it comes to the management of the companies. ♪ ♪

>> this is an historical spread function on bloomberg. what you are looking at is the russell 2000 futures, and you would be selling the s&p 500 futures. what you are going to do within a ratio of 3:2, about 240,000 long versus $280,000 short. so you have a small net short position but a fair trade. >> this is a function in the bloomberg, it's a valuation function. there are a few things to point out. first of all, these blue dots tell us netflix's valuation is your its historic highs, but what i want to focus on is that the fact that the forum pe is that 12 times, so a rich stock. david: 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 as well. here is another function, quicgo. it will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast insight into timely topics. here's a quick take from this week. ♪ ♪

david: that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. you can also find them at bloomberg.com, along with all the latest business news and analysis, 24 hours a day. that will be all for "bloomberg best" this week. thanks for watching. i'm david westin, and this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> we used as a awareness a local call but the internet changed our mind. >> you are skeptical. david: a pleasure being prime minister. >> investigation. >> the economy is going quite well. >> anything you're not investigating in? tie,ll you fix your please? david: people won't recognize