abigail: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. the u.s. and china call a trade truce, but it is not as simple as that sounds. >> there is something of a disconnect. >> what are the exact items? we do not have details yet. >> a lot of volatility and angst in washington, d.c. reverberating in the markets. >> more battling over brexit. a key vote approaches. opec and its allies gather for a critical meeting. >> 1.2 million barrels per day is the number. >> some of that is fairly insignificant for us. >> investigators debate over the yield curve. pore over november jobs report. >> we are very ahead of what we are calling for in the session.

>> if this trend continues, the fed may want to take a pause. >> a fed exclusive. the vice chair speaks his mind on policy. >> central banks need to be just as worried about inflation target as opposed to going on target. >> tension between the united states and china have affected all emerging markets. >> this is a new type of war, the hybrid war. abigail: the world mourns the loss of former u.s. president george h.w. bush. >> he believed in civility with everyone. he worked across the aisle to get things done. abigail: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ abigail: hello and welcome. i'm abigail doolittle. this is "bloomberg best," your

weekly review of the most important business news, analysis, and interviews from bloomberg television around the world. let's start with a day by day look at the top headlines. the week began on a note of optimism for investors amid reports from the g20 summit that the world's two largest economies had called a truce in their trade war. >> the u.s. and china have agreed to put their trade war on hold, at least into the new year. >> presidents trump and xi reaching this temporary truce after a highly anticipated dinner on the sidelines of the g20 summit. what led us to this agreement? >> neither president trump nor president xi has said since that agreement or that truce was struck on saturday night what motivated them to come to a deal or a would-be deal, but we should assume that both delegations and both countries recognize now that an escalated trade war is good for no one. it is hard to see it as anything

but a victory for the u.s. and certainly a concession by the chinese. the american delegation pushed all of the other g20 leaders to back off on issues like energy security, multilateralism, the mention of protectionism was taken out of the communique. there were a number of areas, the wto, recognition in the communique that the wto needed reform. these are all major issues for the trump administration, and in many ways you could say that they won on them all. francine: crude oil has jumped the most since june. saudi arabia and russia extended their pact to manage the market. canada's largest producing province has ordered unprecedented output curves. this comes as qatar says it will leave opec next month. what do i care about today? there is russia and saudi sticking to the deal, then there is canada. >> the politics are a lot more interesting than the oil side of it. qatar within the realm of oil is

not enormously important. it has 610,000 barrels per day. it is one of the smallest members. it is already producing maximum capacity. this gives it an opportunity to go to the white house and say we are out of the cartel. >> the news got the market on the hop. >> not many saw it coming. a lot of oil. more than 300,000 barrels per day, which is more than some of the smallest opec members produce in their entirety. it is likely that because they are using emergency powers to do this that producers in alberta will have to follow through. all of a sudden, that is quite a lot of oil not in the north american market. francine: a section of the u.s. treasury yield curve has inverted for the first time in more than a decade. the spread between three-year and five-year yields turned negative for the first time since 2007. the two to five year has followed suit. it could be the first time that

the market sees the end of the fed's tightening cycle approaching. >> we normally see the 2-10 curves invert about 18 months before recession. on average in the last two recessions, the 3-5 inversion has been even before that. i think we are very ahead of the point where we are calling for a recession. equity markets can continue rallying after that kind of inversion. david: markets rallied yesterday on news of an apparent cease-fire on trade between the united states and china, but then pulled back as it seems the two sides might have different views about what exactly was agreed upon. what is the deal? >> i think there is something of a disconnect. china's spin machine is not quite what we have seen from the u.s. side. we had one development today, china made a move on ip protection. we know it is essential to the u.s.-china trade war. the u.s. accused the chinese companies of stealing intellectual property. china are introducing 38 different punishments to target those companies who are found guilty of stealing ip.

they will block them from the bond market. it is not a game changer in the trade war, it is a micro measure that we have had while we wait for some more formal wording when president xi gets back to beijing. >> there you have the closing bell, the end of a very long trading day if you are long on u.s. equities. at one point, the dow losing more than 800 points at one point. we are not closing at our lows. near it. we are about the puking of the market. is there an agreed-upon definition? >> very technical term. [laughter] i'm not aware of one, but it is one that you know it when you see it. you see it today. it is so ugly. >> there is nothing new in terms of the news we got today. as a steady drip drip, you get a relatively hawkish williams. you get some unfavorable brexit headlines. we push below the 200 day moving average. then all heck breaks loose and we flow to the downside on pretty high volumes. if you want to take a theory,

that one works fairly well. >> china's minister of commerce says it will push forward with trade negotiations over the next 90 days after what it calls a very successful meeting with president trump. but investors still skeptical about the prospects of a meaningful breakthrough. not surprising that investors are a little bit skeptical. they say that they will implement specific items agreed upon at the meeting, but really they don't outline what they were. >> that is exactly it, that is the key question. what are these items? yes, there are lines dropped from the ministry of commerce in the last few minutes in beijing painting a pretty optimistic picture of what happened during those talks and saying they're going to implement some of these items asap, but as you rightly pointed to, what are these exact items? we don't have any details yet. two key areas we are looking for, auto tariffs. trump saying china would move -- would reduce or remove those. we want to get confirmation if indeed that is the case.

the other is the agricultural products, particularly given that trump tweeted that china was going to be immediately buying significant amounts of u.s. agriculture. looking to the chinese side to confirm or deny that. still more details needed, but we have had the first comments out of china's ministry of commerce in relation to the g20 meeting. >> president george herbert walker bush, 41st president of the united states, was laid to rest earlier today in washington. >> this is being described as a funeral service that has all of the staples of classic george h.w. bush. former president bush becoming only the 12th president to lay in state at the u.s. capitol. >> does it say anything about our times to you that so many people on different sides of the political aisle are remembering him so fondly this week?

>> it does. listen, he believed in civility with everyone. he worked across the aisle to get things done. he was always focused on getting things done. what is right for the country. if it was going to hurt him politically, so be it. some things he did did hurt him politically, but he was always trying to do what was right. >> huawei's cfo has been arrested in canada over potential violations of u.s. sanctions on iran. the move is sure to heighten tensions between washington and beijing days after a trade truce was agreed. this feels like a very big deal. what do we know so far? >> this is a huge deal. i want to point out that she is not just the cfo of hauwei, she is also the vice chairwoman, she has been at the company more than 20 years. she is also the daughter of the founder. she is royalty. she is very important in china's corporate scene and politically connected, being at the top of such a large company. the u.s. is alleging that

huawei, similar to the allegations against zte, sold equipment to iran, busting sanctions against iran that the u.s. has had in place for a while, basically accusing huawei of being sanction-busters. she being at the top of the company being a key executive as part of that process. >> reports from japan say the government plans to ban the use of equipment from chinese telco companies huawei and zte. this follows the arrest of huawei cfo meng wanzhou in canada. the white house says the trump administration knew about the arrest before trade talks with china, but that the president was not aware of her detention. how significant is it that the president did not know? >> if he knew and went ahead with those trade talks, that would have been significant. what is really significant now is what this means, what this arrest means, how it complicates this relationship, and there is concern that china could retaliate, not only in terms of

further trade repercussions, but perhaps other repercussions. >> after nearly two days of talks in vienna, we have a deal and a larger one than expected in terms of the cut delivered. opec has agreed with its allies to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day. it looked like it was a deal effectively done by saudi and the russians. when we look at the mechanics of how it happened and the reaction to it amongst some of the other delegates. >> it came down to saudi, russia, and iran. 1.2 million barrels per day is the number. the market took that as a welcome surprise. because everyone was talking about 1,000,000 barrels per day. opec will shoulder the brunt of this, cutting 800,000 barrels a day. but they could not act without russia on board. politically, iran was the winner. able to go back to tehran saying they are exempt from these cuts. >> who contributes all of that or some of that is fairly significant for us.

saudi arabia will contribute more, there is a bit of flexibility. >> jobs day in america, payrolls coming in below forecast. wage gains missing estimates. highlights. >> you know the number, 155,000 jobs, weaker than expected. you only need about 110,000 to absorb new entrants to the labor force. with average annual earnings of 3.1%, the fed is on track for december. what happens next year? if this trend continues, the fed may want to take a pause. >> today's jobs report suggests a solid u.s. economy, somewhat softer than expected but a 3.1% wage growth, 120,000 job creation for a three-month average, that is a pretty good report. it means the fed will hike in december, but i agree with mike, the fed is going to reconsider next year and it may well move down to where the market is.

>> what i'm looking at, i think they are signaling that maybe they will do something later this month, maybe, but that will be all for quite some time and i would just add to that that my boss, president trump, that is very much in line with his thinking. the fed is independent and he has never crashed that wall, but he has been suggesting for a while that the fed should not be too tight. it looks like the fed is on its own, making its own decisions based on their data read, it looks like they're coming to the same conclusion. abigail: still ahead as we review the week on "bloomberg best," an exclusive interview with the fed's richard clarida. and nobel laureate paul krugman shares views on the path of monetary policy. >> if i was fed chair, i would be pausing. abigail: plus, confusion in the auto industry over what president trump may plan to do with tariffs. up next, more of the week's top business headlines. protesters in yellow vests force french officials to waive the

white flag on gas taxes. >> the initial interviews with members of the yellow vests said that they were not impressed. it is too little, too late. abigail: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ abigail: this is "bloomberg best." i am abigail doolittle. let's continue our global tour of the week's top business stories. in europe, where political and economic volatility was the dominant theme of the week. francine: prime minister theresa may versus parliament in a battle that will determine how brexit turns out. the weakness of may's position was highlighted by losing three

votes in the house of commons over her agreement with the european union. parliament has to decide on a plan b if it rejects may's plan. if you are an international investor, you are trying to figure out whether it makes a vote less likely. >> it is all very confusing. what we saw yesterday was definitely parliament asserting itself into this process far more firmly and really just showing up mrs. may has a minority government. she was not able to win any of these three votes that came through yesterday. that does not bode well for obviously the big vote, which is still on track to happen next tuesday night. the other thing to note that happened yesterday, which was perhaps more significant, the european top court gave an opinion that actually britain is allowed unilaterally to stop the article 6 and that is a bit of a game changer. it means parliament could

potentially instruct the government to cancel article 50. that gives them time for another vote for another election. guy: the yellow vest protests have continued to rock france this weekend. saturday you saw protests in paris and around the country and they resulted in over 100 injured and more than 400 arrests. president macron is refusing to back down from his plans to raise the gasoline tax. does the government know which way to take this in order to diffuse the situation? >> it really doesn't. it does not know exactly what they could do to diffuse the situation. the demands from these yellow vests protesters have expanded way beyond the original protests about higher gasoline taxes. it is now just a general protest against the high cost of living. one thing they could probably do is delay or postpone a tax increase on gasoline and diesel that is due to take effect in january. two problems with that, it is

very much part of president macron's tax policy and use the money to provide incentives for cleaner cars and greener homes, and ecological projects, and he is not the type to back down. guy: emmanuel macron's government is backing off its plan to hike gasoline and diesel taxes. the prime minister announced in a televised address that the government will suspend the planned hikes for six months and will start a three-month debate on how to fight climate change. will this stop the protests? >> i don't think so. the initial interviews with members of the yellow vests said that they were not impressed. it is too little, too late. this movement is much more about just a few points on taxes, it is a general unhappiness on so many issues, many of which macron cannot do much about. there might be some moderates who are satisfied and won't protest anymore but for the bulk of the movement, i see it continuing. guy: the euro area showing no signs of a meaningful economic rebound with italy on the verge of recession after the populist

government's big fight with the european commissioner for spending plans. two things stood out to me over the data released. one was the situation with the italian numbers, but also the poor situation with the german numbers. the italian numbers are bad because of manufacturing. is the situation in italy similar to the one in germany? or can we draw a line between these poor numbers and the fight that has been picked between rome and brussels? >> i think we can draw a line between the two. the italians have their own problems. of course, let's remember that when things go bad in germany, that also has a big effect on italy. that is what people are worrying about is the slowdown in germany, but also other parts of the euro area, and the italians are worried the whole thing could have a bad impact on them. alix: in germany, angela merkel's exit from her party leadership is currently underway. cdu party meeting to determine

whether to select another candidate or appoint her chosen successor. guy: annegret kramp-karrenbauer has been elected to be the new leader of the cdu party in germany. >> she said, in her acceptance speech just now, that she wants to maintain the cdu as a large people's party in the middle, so that has been merkel's strategy, that is how she has won the last 13 years, keeping the center occupied in germany and then collecting some votes from the left of the cdu they previously have not gotten. the problem is they had lost a lot of votes to the right and the alternative deutscheland is present in every one of the 16 state governments, as well as the national government. this is something that friedrich was hoping to change. now it is up to akk and her team to try to do that while carrying

on angela merkel's policies. ♪

♪ abigail: you are watching "bloomberg best." i'm abigail doolittle. federal reserve chairman jerome powell's testimony before congress was canceled as washington paused to honor the late president george h.w. bush. but fed watchers were able to get exclusive insight from vice chair richard clarida who joined tom keene for a conversation on "bloomberg surveillance." tom asked how policymakers are factoring trade tensions into their economic projections. tom: if we diminish trade, what is the price? richard: in terms of the outlook for the u.s. economy, trade is an important part.

i don't think we are going there. trade is a very important part of the global economy right now. i think the u.s. economy is in good shape and we can talk about risky scenarios, but i think it is very solid. tom: within the trade is the idea of exports and imports of america. how does fed policy link into these debates or do you feel it will be in the future more removed, more sterile to monetary policy? richard: i'm not going to get into the politics. i think fed policy is important in terms of making sure the u.s. economy achieves maximum employment and stable inflation and that is really a dual mandate given to the fed by congress. we are focusing on what we need to do with our tools to achieve that mandate. tom: chairman powell focused in his speech on financial stability. should that be a mandate of your fed? richard: the way that i think

about financial stability is it is obviously very important, the fed has an important role in supervision and regulation, and also if we achieve price stability and full employment, that itself will contribute to financial stability. i think that is the appropriate balance. tom: let's move to the current dialogue. on friday, john williams of san francisco and also of the new york fed, with i thought a really sharp speech. here are some quotes from john williams -- "the problem we need to solve these days is the risk of inflation that is persistently too low rather than too high, price level targeting including its various offshoots, such as nominal gdp targeting promises to overshoot the target inflation rate in good times to make up for inflation under-shoot when policy is constrained." olivier blanchard talked about this. do we need a new regime at the fed that looks at the combination of real economic growth and price change? richard: tom, i think the fed

has a framework that has been in place since 2012 and i think it is serving the fed well. that said, a lot has changed since 2012. as my colleague and friend john williams emphasized, we are in a world of low equilibrium riskless rates. what that means, in a future downturn, there is less room for conventional monetary policy. what that means is that central banks need to be just as worried about keeping inflation at target as going above the target. abigail: we've got more discussion of the fed straight ahead from nobel prize-winning economist paul krugman. plus, the presidents of argentina and ukraine talk about the very urgent issues facing their countries in a pair of exclusive interviews. theresa may's brexit deal may be facing long odds in parliament. up next, the royal bank of scotland ceo explains why he is backing the plan. >> any deal when you have negotiated hard over a long period of time, you are not going to get everything you want.

abigail: this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ abigail: welcome back to "bloomberg best," i'm abigail doolittle. paul krugman brought economic insight to bloomberg television this week, joining "what you missed" monday for a wide ranging conversation. among the topics, whether the federal reserve should continue its policy of gradual hikes in 2019. >> i would be pausing until we have a sequence of clear, inflation numbers above 2% at the minimum. i think 2% is too low a target, but try to make that argument

and the fed goes crazy. >> what numbers? >> certainly, -- our estimates of they real neutral rate have been drifting down, 1.5% points, since that 2% target became orthodoxy. you should raise inflation rate by that amount. >> is it pce you are looking at? >> no, i am a core pce or something like that. it should not matter too much. you are overly sensitive to data if it depends on what you use. >> do you think the economy is rolling over? we see the yield curve flattening. we see housing data this year has been pretty mediocre in the u.s. how robust is stash forget the fed for a second. how robust is the economy? >> i am not especially good at this. we had the tax cut. the tax-cut gave you some fiscal stimulus. but it is no more after this. if anything, it fades out. there is probably the crowding out effects from high interest rates at times. you would expect the economy to slow down.

i would not -- i do not know about rolling over. i don't see it. abigail: let's turn to global politics. in the wake of the g20 meeting, g-7 nations issued a statement condemning russia's use of force in the ukraine. following the summit, the ukraine president petro poroshenko spoke exclusively with bloomberg. we will revisit that interview in a few moments. first, here is erik schatzker's exclusive conversation with the argentinian president macri who has to reassure investors that is reforms can stabilize the economy and control inflation. pres. macri: we are committed to keep working hard, to resist inflation because we know that affects the poor people first. eric: do you think it can be lower than 20% by the end of the year? pres. macri: no. i will not do any forecasting. you will not trap me into doing forecasting. eric: let me ask you, you have

articulated an economic strategy to markets clearly, with the help of the imf. investors aren't buying it. your bonds are still trading at a yield of more than 10%. why? pres. macri: no. less than 10%. >> i checked. pres. macri: today we improved. it depends, long-term bonds, short-term bonds. >> 10 year bonds. pres. macri: let me tell you. i understand what is going on. there is an extension between united states and china. -- there is this tension between united states and china. eric: you think that is affecting your bond yields? pres. macri: absolutely. it is affecting all emerging markets. in addition, the next election is coming. eric: yes. the investors whom i have spoken with tell me they need to know your political strategy. what is it? why? because, if you lose the election, your economic strategy will die a quick death in 12 months.

if the opposition wins, your strategy is not enforced. what is your strategy for winning the election? pres. macri: keep telling the truth. keep working together with my citizens, showing them that this is the only way. and this g20 helped. because every leader that visited us for the g20 and the bilateral meetings we had, they all agreed we are doing the right reforms. >> this is the new type of war. the hybrid war. hybrid war, the cyberattack, western democracy, disinformation campaign, this is the trying to attack the different countries during their elections, the embargo on buying

ukrainian goods, stop supplying natural gas, and the most important factor, using military force against independent country, including ukraine. >> you mentioned the election. does the fact that ports have opened and the kerch straight has opened partially, mean that you might be able to end martial law earlier? do you think it needs to be extended? what is the status? pres. poroshenko: definitely, ukraine is the object of unprovoked aggression from the russian federation. this is the first time russia do it under the tricolor flag, not covering any smokescreen about their presence. definitely to protect the sovereign entity, to stop the occupation of the sea, we have intelligence information.

we share it with our western partners, about the concentration of russian ground forces alongside the ukrainian-russian border. they increased it three times. number of tanks, the number of electronic warfare systems, the number of flights of intelligence planes, and number of the artillery. with this situation, definitely i introduced martial law, and i think parliament supports my proposal just to make a quicker reaction if putin makes a decision to attack my country. at the same time, we do not limit any rights of the ukrainian people. rights for freedom, democracy. because if we postpone the

presidential election, there is only one winner. the name of this winner is mr. putin. we do not give them this chance. abigail: now, for one more exclusive interview from this week. francine lacqua sat down with royal bank of scotland ceo ross mcewan in london. he says uncertainty over brexit is doing damage to the british economy, which is why he supports prime minister theresa may's deal with the eu. ross: i have been a backer of the deal because at the moment, i do not see another deal. from a business perspective, we need certainty. with any deal, we negotiate hard over a long time, you are not going to get everything you want. there will be parts of that that you have to give up some things to get something else. what is starting to happen is investment is not being made. this is the last 6-12 months, larger companies are not

investing for the long-term at the moment. they are wanting to see certainty. that is what is important for the u.k. economy is to build certainty. i think it is really in the hands of mp's. there is a deal on the table. make up your minds up. do you want it or not? francine: do you think sme's, if we have a hard brexit, are they ready for it? ross: i don't think they are. conversations we have had with business customers, we are the largest lender in the economy, the bank might be ready but there are many of our customers who are just not ready for hard brexit. they do not understand it. they do not understand the ramifications. we have been talking to customers over the last three months to six months saying, what are your contingency plans? what we have found there are very few with contingency plans. many have thought about it. for example, if you are in the construction industry, you are importing things from europe and you are saying, ok, where do i store them?

where are the storage areas? if i need a three-month supply chain extension, where do i store? these are issues that many businesses have looked at. i do not know how to work this through. francine: do you see a recession coming? ross: if we don't get a certain position, hard brexit, there is a chance this economy will go into recession. i know anybody that says that says europe, remain, this and that, i think the reality is, uncertainty will push this economy into a much slower growth than we have had in the last months. that's just reality. ♪

♪ abigail: this is "bloomberg best," i'm abigail doolittle. let's resume the roundup of the week's top business stories with more activity around trade. the auto industry found itself at the center of the storm that started with a presidential tweet. jonathan: stocks this morning rising after president trump tweeted that china has agreed to remove tariffs on cars into china on the u.s. by 40%. a spokesman for the white house declined to comment. tariffs cut for the rest of the world. do we go to the rest of the world tariff or something else? >> it is confusing at this point. the market is taking a clear take away that tariffs seem to be, there are sort of a pullback from using this threat of escalating levies, one escalation after another. this is a story of one where the top-selling cars built in u.s.

and shipped to china are actually german suvs. for the u.s. automakers, tesla is an all import brand in china. same for lincoln. gm has a lot of local production in china. this does not have an immediate effect, but perhaps it is the signal of this threat of import tariffs on autos being used to case-by-case by the trump administration going after what they see as bad actors, like china, eu. >> if you look at shares of u.s. automakers today, they are higher after the big three topped november sales estimate. the trump administration says china would remove tariffs on american-made vehicles. that comment on china reducing and removing tariffs came from a tweet from the president. how much of the rise in gm and ford today is due to that tweet? >> most of it is. because the shares of both companies were trading up in premarket action before sales numbers were out.

they did get a pop off the sales numbers as well. the market likes the companies today. one of the things that has held shares down is uncertainty over trade. this looks like there might be some tariffs coming down. instead of more going up. that is good news for auto stocks, any industrial, so that has helped quite a bit. >> executives of the three german automakers go to the white house today to discuss tariffs. volkswagen, bmw, and daimler has the most to lose. president trump goes ahead with levees on german cars shipped to the u.s. kevin: they said they had a constructive meeting. they tried to make the case to the president about the investments their companies are willing to make in the u.s. and how that would impact domestic jobs. case in point, volkswagen eyeing chattanooga, tennessee in particular about opening a plant. on the flip side of that, they do not want that 25% tariff. that is something they tried to make their case, not just to president trump, but other senior economic advisers they met at the white house, and they

said they were not able to get a concrete deal. a lot of volatility and angst in washington, d.c., reverberating in the markets heading into january and february next year. vonnie: qualcomm has ruled out any chance it would return for a bid against semiconductors. this after china opened the door following g20 talks to looking at qualcomm and nxp again. why would they not revisit the $44 billion deal? they waited a long time to see if it would happen. >> this is a case of this ship has sailed. qualcomm has commenced 21 billion buyback program, using cash previously earmarked for the nxp deal. the dynamics of the semiconductor industry have changed, where previously when qualcomm made this bid two years ago, the semiconductor cycle was on the upswing.

now you are not seeing that. there are concerns of slowing growth across the sector of semiconductor components. i think to make this big bet now, it does not add up for qualcomm. vonnie: apple trying to boost sales of iphone, offering promotions for the blockbuster. this is a shift in strategy. apple never was a discounter before. >> it is a very saturated market, the handset market, and it has been increasingly competitive. apples unit sales have slowed. we think. they stopped reporting unit sales. this just reflects we are going into the christmas season. the holiday season. and they recognize to grow unit sales they may need to be more promotional. it might be a short-term push to drive unit sales into the holiday season. the concern from investors clearly will be -- is this promotional pricing going to be something that is long-term for this product? if so, that goes into the pricing story, which had been a bull case for apple investors, even though unit sales are

slowing, the product still has pricing power. that may be getting challenged. >> a u.k. parliamentary committee published internal facebook details revealing deals that may have given third-party developers access to personal data. the documents including emails from the ceo mark zuckerberg, indicating facebook shut off access to data required by competing apps. they are not selling data. but they are certainly leveraging it. >> what is in these internal documents is astounding. they show that facebook gave special treatment to apps that would encourage spending more time on facebook or spent more time advertising on facebook. they gave other apps limited access if they would compete with facebook.

it is a very unusual view into the innerworkings of this company and how they were making decisions. >> the federal reserve publishes their book, the report on economic anecdotes from across the nation. in the beige book, most reports include moderate growth. four regions did say that growth had slowed or was slight. what i took away from this report is optimism seems to be waning. >> the optimism factor was the key point. and it was driven by three things. one is tariffs, higher rates, interest market constraints. if two go away, fed hikes are discounted. we are expecting two to three from now into -- until the end of next year. that is already priced in markets. if we get a melting of tensions, actual action and improvement on the trade relationship between u.s. and china, which i would contend we are seeing now, then i think optimism can certainly bounce back. i am not overly concerned.

>> lyft is hitting the gas and has filed to go public. the ride-hailing service competing with uber completed early stage documents for the ipo. lyft is working with credit suisse and jp morgan. the valuation ranging from $18 billion to $30 billion. of course, the filing is confidential. what do we know? >> very little. companies have been able to do these confidential filings. they give the data to the sec and they get early looks at the numbers. it can go back with feedback. we do not get to see anything and investors don't yet. what this does tell us is that lyft wants us to know that it has done this. it did not have to put up a statement saying it had filed confidentially. it kicks off that regulator -- regulatory process, filing the real numbers everyone will look

at, and it is saying it is getting ready to go. vonnie: big personnel announcements. in the trump administration today, we had the ex-bush attorney general william barr, and heather nauert moving to the united nations. >> it looks like the president is getting people into position at the department of justice and u.n., who he likes, and william barr will replace jeff sessions at the justice department. barr has written favorably, from trump's perspective, on a number of significant issues. this is a guy who looks like he is right in line with trump's thinking. he will be tested in the senate. they will demand to know that he will protect robert mueller from any move to remove him. ♪

♪ abigail: this is "bloomberg best," i'm abigail doolittle. this week, america mourned the passing of one of its leaders. president george herbert walker bush was a man whose life reflected and shaped the second half of the 20th century. family, friends, and political figures from around the world gathered to celebrate his legacy wednesday. david westin takes a look back at the life of george h.w. bush. >> i, george herbert walker bush, do solemnly swear -- >> that i will faithfully execute the office of the president of the united states. >> that i will faithfully execute the office of the president of the united states. david: with that, george herbert walker bush became the 41st president on friday, january 20, 1989. he was born in new england in 1924. his father was a banker and politician. the family lived in connecticut, where the younger bush attended private schools before being accepted to yale. he did not go to yale right away.

instead, enlisting in the u.s. navy on his 18th party. he flew 58 combat missions in the south pacific, including when his aircraft was hit. with his plane on fire, he dropped his bombs on target and flew out to sea, and floated on a raft for hours before being plucked to safety. lieutenant bush married barbara pierce. the couple started a family while he attended yale. there, he was captain of his fraternity and the baseball team. after graduation, they moved to west texas, where he started his own oil company, moved to houston, and began a career in politics. by the mid-1960's, he was serving as a u.s. congressman, the first republican to represent houston. later, president nixon would appoint him u.s. ambassador to the united nations. then he served as director of the cia, vice president and eventually as president. some, like his friend, james baker, called him the most

successful one term president in history. >> if you look at what happened in the world and the way he managed that, the way he managed the end of the cold war, it ended with a whimper, was really incredible. look at the other things along the way. the unification of germany, as a member of nato, the coalition he put together to reverse iraq's aggression in kuwait, ending the wars in central america, which had been the holy grail of the left and right. david: although he solved foreign relations, there was still an achilles heel. after pledging not to raise taxes, he reached across the aisle to reduce the deficit. when the economy turned down, he lost the presidency to baby boomer and arkansas governor bill clinton in a three-way race with fellow texan ross perot.

>> it was not easy. you are trying your hardest. my feeling was i had a great feeling of letting down a lot of people, a lot of people that worked for me and our administration. you have this ghastly feeling you let them down. then you get over it and go on with your life. david: moving on including more time devoted to his family in the service of others. in 2005, he and bill clinton partnered to raise funds for victims of the indian ocean tsunami and haiti. >> we have been given a lot of material things and been very blessed. you look around and compare my life to others, and you see how lucky have been. you must feel a responsibility to others. you must believe in serving others. that is a fundamental tenet of my life. david: his wife of 73 years, barbara bush, died earlier this year. after her funeral, he largely kept out of the public eye, spending time with friends and family.

five children, 14 grandchildren, and even more great grandchildren. when asked in 2012 how he viewed his life and what was to come, he simply said "he was not afraid." >> it is not a worry in the sense of feeling cheated out of something -- i don't know where i would be in life if i was not blessed with a lot of kids and grandkids, and family. ♪ ♪ abigail: you can find much more on the life and legacy of george h.w. bush at bloomberg.com, including analysis of his economic and foreign policy record, and his long career in public service, along with all the latest business news and analysis. that will be all for "bloomberg best," thanks for watching. i'm abigail doolittle. this is bloomberg. ♪

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♪ >> welcome to bloomberg business week. we're joining you from bloomberg headquarters in new york. we dive into the second annual bloomberg 50, the people second change thisiving year. >> first let's get to what was a