"all sites are green." all of which helps you do more than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyond fast. ♪ june: coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that shaped the week in business around the world. instead of voting on a brexit deal, parliament votes on a prime minister. >> this no-confidence vote has been threatened for so long. it is actually happening. >> the parliamentary party does have confidence. june: theresa may survives another challenge, but can she get her brexit plan across the finish line? >> she will still have a deal she cannot get through the house of commons. >> she is a dead woman walking. june: not much clarity on the trade front either as the u.s. and china send mixed signals. kevin: we are hearing they separated the issue of huawei

and they are continuing to focus on areas of common ground. june: the ecb ends qe. uber steers towards a 2019 ipo. president trump threatens a government shutdown of congress rejects his border wall. >> i will take the mantle of shutting down. >> i guess it is a little bit discouraging if you are an investor. june: as political uncertainty ratchets up, distinguished guests discuss whether growth is about to slow down. >> history tells us there will be another downturn. >> we are seeing policies that make it more difficult for growth to continue. >> i don't know if we are going to have a huge amount of trends. it could just be an enormous volatile period with a lot of back and forth. june: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." hello and welcome. i am juliette saly. 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. investors began the week bracing for a tuesday vote on a brexit agreement. the deal negotiated by theresa may and approved last month by the european union, but as with just about everything else in the brexit process so far, it did not go as planned. >> brexit break. facing the prospect of defeat, u.k. prime minister theresa may has announced the parliamentary brexit deal vote scheduled for tomorrow has been delayed. >> it is clear that while there is broad support for many of the key aspects of the deal -- on one issue, the northern ireland backstop, there remains widespread and deep concern. we will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow. >> theresa may was basically

defending her deal and saying this is as good as it gets, there is not a negotiated deal better than it is. all she is asking for from brussels is reassurance, assurances. she is not talking about reopening the deal or a wholesale overhaul of her deal. she has refused to put a date of when the vote would come back to parliament. when she was asked a few times, all she said was the january 21, the deadline which is ensconced in legislation, it is a date by which the government has to tell parliament what it is up to. president standing bullish on trade, tweeting moments ago the following, "very productive conversations going on with china, what for some important announcements." talk to me about the possibility of important announcements. kevin: they president to clearing -- the president declaring premature victory as it relates to auto tariffs. now they're getting new

reporting that suggests that the president was right about that, that china is said to move on u.s. car tariffs. the proposals submitted to the chinese cabinet would reduce tariffs to 15% that are currently at 40%, but no decision has been finalized. talks with steve mnuchin and bob lighthizer, the u.s. trade representative, have been meeting with the chinese vice premier. off of those trade talks last night on the phone, we are hearing they have separated the issue of huawei and they are continuing to focus on areas of common ground, particularly in the agricultural sector. that is good news for farmers, agricultural sector, and that is what treasury secretary mnuchin says will be the biggest positive impact of this in the short-term. : president trump has just held a contentious meeting with the democratic leaders in congress, chuck schumer and the likely next speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. >> i will take the mantle, i will be the one to shut it down.

i'm not going to blame you for it. the last time you shut it down, it did not work. i will take the mantle of shutting it down. i'm going to shut it down for border security. david: if this is a view into how this will go forward in the new congress, i did not find it very encouraging. >> i guess it is a little bit discouraging if you are an investor. it does look like we are headed toward a government shutdown next week. the president proclaimed that if the government shuts down, it will be donald trump who makes it happen. you could almost say that pelosi and schumer sort of baited him a little bit in taking ownership of a government shutdown should it happen on next friday. >> huawei cfo has been granted bail by a canadian court that allows the executive to stay in her vancouver home as she awaits possible extradition to the u.s. over fraud charges. >> the canadian judge in what was a very tense and dramatic bail proceeding did agree to release her, saying that the

defense had proposed a number of restrictions that offset the flight risk. it is quite a long list. the topline figure is the bail that was set at $10 million canadian. heid: president trump says would now intervene in the case of that arrested huawei executive if it would help the trade deal with china. the president said -- "if i think it is good for what will be the largest trade deal ever made, which is a very important thing, what is good for national security, i would certainly intervene if i thought it was necessary." >> it has left a few people scratching their heads wondering how donald trump might intervene in the huawei case. it would send an interesting message to the chinese about the rule of law in the united states and the independence of the judiciary looking at the way donald trump tries to get involved in transactional relationships, better in fact than what he thinks he can do. whether he can actually do it or not, that is a different question.

>> graham brady, who heads the back benches in the conservative party has announced there will be a vote of confidence in theresa may. that vote of confidence will take place tonight. only he knew whether he had 48 names locked away in the safe, 48 letters of no confidence in her. it seems he has that number in her. that triggered the vote. >> we are finding here this no-confidence vote in her leadership has been threatened for so long and it is actually happening. the question all along, there have been enough people to trigger this. they have waited for their moment to do so. the expectation all along has been that they don't have enough support to actually topple her. >> i will contest that vote with everything i've got. >> assuming that she wins this, she was still have a deal that she cannot get through the house of commons. the only thing that changes this she will not have to worry about a leadership challenge again. will this increase her authority? not desperately. will this solve any of the problems? no.

>> the result of the ballot held this evening is that the parliamentary party does have confidence -- [loud cheering] >> now that we have dealt with the fact that theresa may's leadership is secure for another year, we now have to get back to getting this deal over the line. >> all this shows is that the brexit deal that she has put on the table is unacceptable to about two thirds of the house of commons. she is a dead woman walking. >> sources say beijing may push back its plans for high-tech domination by about 10 years as it tries to ease tension with washington. >> the ambitious made in china 2025 program has been one of the main targets in president trump's trade war. what do we know about these plans to amend the program? >> the industrial policy, the made in china 2025 program, has many as a redline

for china when it came to negotiations with the u.s., which is why it is interesting that maybe they are looking at amending it. it will come down to the details exactly what changes they are looking to implement. we are hearing from our sources they may delay this program from 2025 to 2035. we also heard from "the wall street journal" that it may open up this project to greater participation from foreign firms. that is certainly something we have heard -- a desire of european and u.s. executives who operate in china, something they have been pushing for. >> they have made some moves to help protect intellectual property rights. they have announced that they are going to do away with the 25% retaliatory tariff on u.s. exports of cars to china. they are making a number of steps. in addition, a large purchase of soybeans and a very large potential purchase of lng. they are starting to make some

very early stage, very preliminary, but very welcome moves that are specific, tangible, and measurable. >> a landmark decision from the ecb, the central bank saying it will halt quantitative easing this month. mario draghi still expressed some concerns about future economic growth. >> the balance of risk is moving to the downside. guy: how should we perceive draghi today? was he dovish? dovish enough? >> it was a classic dovish tightening that draghi has become a master of. europe is the region in the world with the sharpest deceleration. in all its leading economic indicators. there is no sign of a bottom. he is highlighting a lot of uncertainty around q1 and q2 next year, around china's fiscal stimulus. trade tensions, brexit, italy,

better political situation. italy post-up was a recessionary growth numbers. these are risks that tilt to the downside. >> european leaders have toughened their stance on brexit, removing some of the brexit, removing some of the helpful parts of the communique that diplomats had drafted in advance. at the same time, the eu is stepping up plans for a no deal departure. is theresa may further away from getting her deal through parliament? it seems that she might be thrown some assistance by eu leaders, the e.u. 27, and then it seemed to change overnight. >> at one point of the night, european leaders think, maybe we can give her some concessions. what has become really clear is that the irish backstop, if we don't get this cleared the deal is not going to go through the u.k. parliament. i think everyone agrees. the problem is that european leaders were taken aback by the

presentation. she did not give enough detail in the eyes of european leaders. they thought she was too vague. if you want legally binding language, you have to very specifically and clearly explain what you want. now what i'm hearing is that december is going to be a no go for brexit. european leaders are thinking we will have to go all the way to january, and the real deadline is now seen as january 21 here. vonnie: china is taking steps to bring down the trade tensions with the u.s. for three months, beijing will remove the punitive 25% tariffs on american cars. how far will this go to appease any potential negotiator from the trump administration? >> i think this is a good day for donald trump. he had said that this was the chinese were going to do. for a while, it looked like they were not saying they are going to do it.

they are doing it. that has to be a notch in his belt, a success. another piece of news is it is good for american companies. ford, tesla, also good for german automakers. they are leading exporters of cars from the u.s., bmw and daimler. i would call it a red letter day. juliette: still ahead as we review the week on bloomberg best, a conversation with the credit suisse ceo tijane thiam. the bank announced billions and buybacks and he says the rebound is working. and coming up, more of the week's top business headlines. france's president promises more spending, a pledge that could cause another headache for the eu. >> it really does call into question how rules are applied when it comes to different member states. juliette: this is bloomberg.

juliette: this is "bloomberg best." i am juliette saly. let's continue our global tour of the week's most important business stories. in india, where the head of the central bank unexpectedly stepped down. >> a shakeup in india's central bank, the head of the central bank unexpectedly resigned in the midst of repeated clashes. -- clashes with the finance ministry over interest rates. >> these concerns were definitely scripted for quite some time with rbi clashing with the government. there was a lot of uncertainty

because of the meeting coming up, but also the statewide elections, which could signal how much strength modi has going into next year's national election in next may. the r.b.i. has been under a lot of pressure since patel took over in 2014, to use its capital reserves to help the governor boost economic growth and that eventually led to patel's resignation. >> india appointed a new head of the reserve bank less than 24 hours after his predecessor stepped down. >> he was the economic affairs secretary, part of the ministry of finance, and he then oversaw one of the moving forces behind modi's demonetization of a program that is still controversial to this day. was it really needed? what did it do to the economy? he has been a member of the finance commission and he was one of the sherpas at the last g20 meeting for india. >> over the weekend revealing

china's trade surplus with the u.s. hit a record despite overall exports slowing on waning global demand and uncertainty over this trade war. factory gate prices slowed further. consumer inflation saw moderation. does this give you a sense of the trade war or is it a structural slowdown that was already hitting china and that continues to play out? >> i would say that we have traded toward weak demand and effect of the u.s. china trade tensions. in the meantime, china's trade surplus jumped in november to $45 billion u.s. dollars. that is on track to shift china's current account balance to a moderate annual surplus from a deficit in the first three quarters. >> italy's populace has been helped by an unlikely source, emmanuel macron. in an attempt to stop the

ongoing crisis, the french president has announced new spending measures that could help italy's challenge to the eu budget rules. does france's announcement of increased spreading cause a headache for the e.u. in its spat with italy? inia: it is a big story here brussels and could potentially turn into a much bigger headache because it really does call into question how rules are applied when it comes to member states. the italian government and the european commission have been in talks to bring down the deficit. the italian government wants to spend more money to fuel more growth. that is their argument. they were told you have to stick to the rules. the problem is that emmanuel macron has decided to go on a spending spree to tame tensions in france. the italian premier met jean-claude juncker and said if

the french are spending, why should we not do the same? the rules of got to be applied for everyone. it looks like this will be a big fiscal headache for the european union. jason: the italian prime minister has proposed to reduce the deficit target to just over 2% for 2019. this represents a significant concession to the european commission, which had rejected an initial target of 2.4% as a breach of rules. a spokesman for jean-claude juncker said good progress has been made, but the risk of eu sanctions could still remain. is everything settled now that italy has made this important concession on the deficit? or is there still some strife? >> the details still need to be worked out. you could say that the shouting is over, but the game goes on. finance minister tria is in brussels to work out those details. the commission will want to see lots more in writing before it makes a final decision. >> chinese industrial production

retail sales growth well below estimates in november, although we did have a pickup in investment and that could indicate stimulus is beginning to reach the real economy. >> summarize for us the key takeaways. >> the estimates had been for broad stability. that is not what we got. retail sales numbers are disappointing. well below the forecast of 8.8%. that is the lowest number since may, 2003. it does come off from a high, but there have been some expectations that you get this alibaba singles' day bump because that was a big event on the 11th of november. beat all estimates, $30 billion worth of retail. we had that industrial production number coming in below the estimates, well below all the estimates, 5.4%. we have the fixed asset investment number that was the one silver lining in this data

set, coming in above that estimate, suggesting some of the stimulus is starting to play out. we heard from the pboc saying there is increased downward pressure and that the central bank is ready to provide support. ♪

juliette: you are watching "bloomberg best." i'm juliette saly. credit suisse held its investor day this week and confirmed it will buy back as much as $3

billion in stock. it marks the completion of the bank's three-year revamp under ceo tijane thiam who supervised a pivot from more volatile trading to wealth management. he spoke exclusively to francine lacqua about the buyback and credit suisse's turnaround. tijane: we always said that if shareholders supported us, we would come to a position where we can return capital and we are pleased to have reached that point. francine: if shareholders ask for more buybacks, you could do it? tijane: it is not a function of the current position and market conditions. these numbers announced today are very prudent. they, after discussions with a regulator for next year. it is reasonably safe. there can always be upsides in life. i'm not known for holding capital as a ceo. any excess capital will be issued. francine: talk to me a little bit about the headwinds and the market conditions.

are they going to get worse from here? tijane: when i came into this job, we already have been very long into an expansion. all of our thinking has been about protecting the bank against the downside. what did we do? we cut risk by 40% to 50%. we cut cost by more than $5 billion, making the breakeven point of the bank lower. it could withstand a drop in revenue and remain profitable. we raised capital and we dealt with our issues. that leaves us with low risk, low cost, a lot of capital, a in aposition to go into difficult environment. at some point, things will turn and i am afraid we are getting to that point. francine: this is a market correction or something worse? tijane: a market correction. we still are positive about growth albeit at a lower level ,

which drives our ability to make profits. profits will be higher than they were in 2015. if you recall, a group where we had 60% of our business in the investment banks and we now have more than two thirds. profits are higher. we have a much higher quality of earnings and higher profits. we feel we made the pivot at the right time and it leaves us in a much safer position. juliette: coming up on "bloomberg best," more of the week's top company news, including an uncomfortable trip to capitol hill by the google ceo. plus, more compelling conversations. david lipton of the imf sees risk on the horizon for the global economy. anothere will have downturn. the question will be, is that a

garden-variety downturn or another more serious crisis like we have had before? juliette: this is bloomberg. ♪

juliette: welcome back to "bloomberg best." in a week when global markets continue to show volatility, conversation on bloomberg television turned to growth and an impending recession. let's start with imf deputy manager david lipton who shares his insight with bloomberg surveillance. david: we have many risks in the global economy. we will surely have another downturn. the question will be, is it a garden-variety downturn or another more serious crisis like we've had before? what we do now will determine that. there are so many opportunities

with new technology for a better future. ap thosenly re opportunities if we work together. it is important that we speak about that and we have a broader understanding of the situation. francine: what are the chances of the downturn or the beginning of a downturn in the next 18 months? what role does the china-u.s. trade tensions play in this possible downturn? david: it is very hard to know exactly when downturn will come and what will be the precipitating cause. history tells us there will be another downturn. i think it also behooves us to realize that national policy responses may be a little less potent this time. monetary policy doesn't have room because interest rates are still so low. fiscal policy doesn't have as much room as before because debts are higher. in many respects, we may not have the strength to respond as we did before. it is really important like

we've been saying at the imf to fix the roof while the sun is shining to try to put off that downturn and make sure it is not a severe one. that future is not deterministic. it is in the hands of policymakers. as well as economy china, with high odds clearly avoid a recession, i think the market until recently had been complacent. the deceleration growth will be marked by periodic blips. with fiscal policy running off, trade war tensions high, and the fed being less accommodative with each passing day. all of that sets up for modest disappointments in growth in 2019. >> you expect the fed and markets to not capitulate? >> that would be somewhat risky.

there's talk today that the federal reserve may pass raising rates this month. i don't think the federal reserve will ultimately do that. the burden of proof is high not to raise rates but the long-running thesis was that the federal reserve was not going to raise rates above 3%, which means two rate hikes in 2019. we estimate that would be in march and june. events could change that timing but we still believe the federal reserve is appropriate in raising rates. they will not proceed on the dot plot they were anticipating to do. juliette: former u.s. treasury secretary jack lew offered another perspective on the global economy with particular attention to how policy in washington may affect growth and spill over to assess around the -- assets around the world. he spoke exclusively with manus cranny in dubai. >> recovery and growth don't

time-out, but they don't go on forever. we are seeing policies that make it more difficult for growth to continue. whether it is deficit policies in the united states at a time of economic growth, or trade wars that are man-made problems. i think you are seeing a lot of uncertainty and disruption put into an economy that is already late in the cycle. >> the deficit is something that is blowing out. $1 trillion is what the cbo predicts. a year earlier than expected. when does the debt pile really begin to matter? jack: if you look at the debt and accumulated debt, we spent time stabilizing things. we went from the deficit at 10% of gdp to 3% of gdp. we stabilized in the mid-70's. we are putting in place policies that are driving it to hit 100%. that is a mistake.

for a couple of reasons. first of all, you know when a business cycle ends, there is a need for governmental intervention. and if you already spent your fiscal resources during growth, you don't have those resources to spend when you need to stimulate the economy. secondly, the cost of the debt will squeeze out other important things, like investing in the future. there are things from infrastructure, research, and development that would help the future. paying debt bills does not help the future. risk -- we use -- what bond vigilante is the risk of real activism or indigestion in the u.s. bond market with issuance at this level? jack: the u.s. market is the most liquid market in the world. words used in an official capacity. >> you really believe that? ?

jack: the issue will be the price. a flight to safety is towards the dollar. i think the price will go up. interest rates will go up. the spread between u.s. and other yields is actually ahead of fed policy. i think that the idea that the u.s. can't borrow is not the right way to think about it in the short term. i think the right way to think about it is, if you are concerned about trade deficit, when you spend more and borrow more, your trade deficit goes up, not down. all of the things that are creating tension now will get worse because of those deficits. plus, our ability to invest goes down. juliette: hedge fund pioneer paul jones offered another vision this week. he shared the stage with another legendary investor at an event hosted by forbes and the nonprofit just capital. he told vonnie quinn that high market volatility next year may

not be good for investors who hold long-term positions. >> i think that markets are highly volatile. i can easily see a situation in 2019 where all of the deleveraging we have experienced in the last month and a half, really in the last 4 or 5 months, all of that deleveraging gets reinvested back in the market. so often, it is the relative game. there will be some in 2019 where point markets are up on the year and there will be a beta squeeze. all of that deleveraging we have seen is going to go back in the market. 2007 is a great example. the last hike was in 2006. in 2007 the economy was falling apart, but the stock market did great all the way until october. can we have a scenario like that again? i think it is possible.

>> are you doing macro trades on, are you keeping some powder dry? what are you doing to prepare for that scenario? >> i think we will be in big trading ranges, just having and holding static positions. this might be a better time to be a trader than to just hold. i don't know if we're going to have a huge amount of trends. it just could be an enormously volatile period with a lot of back and forth. juliette: now for another bloomberg exclusive. tom mackenzie spoke with the chairman and ceo of xpeng motors, a chinese electric vehicle company that delivered its first commercial model this week. it is expected to live for a share of the booming market against tesla, volkswagen, and forward. do they see themselves in direct competition with tesla?

he: i expect we will be able to better compete with tesla in the next couple of years. customers will benefit from competition. tom: do you think there is a risk of overcapacity in china's electric vehicle market? if so, do you think we will get to a point where there is rapid consolidation? he: i think we will see a process for consolidation in two years or more and i think this will lead to bigger companies. tom: is the financing more challenging for a company like yours? he: there is a bunch of free capital out there and investors need to look for large and stable investment opportunities. xpeng motors is in a new industry. we're seeing many investors who are interested. they are more cautious than before. tom: it looks like the chinese government may be about to do a favor to u.s. automakers.

they were considering cutting the tariff as a result of the trade negotiations. do you lose an advantage if that comes into play? he: we always hoped the chinese government would lift restrictions around subsidies and tariffs. protection can benefit us in the short term. in the long-term it would damage us. ♪

juliette: this is bloomberg best. i am juliette saly. let's resume our roundup of the week's top business news. in silicon valley, uber became the latest ridesharing company to begin the journey towards an ipo. uber has joined its rival lyft, filing to go public. bloomberg has learned that the ride-hailing service submitted its filing confidentially last week at the sec.

when do we expect it to go public? when do we expect the companies to file publicly and come to the market? >> uber had talked about the second half of next year. that is possible. uber is looking at reported to make acquisitions in the scooter field. lots of things could delay this. it looks like we are talking about the beginning or the spring of 2019. so many factors. they want to take advantage of the slow interest rate environment. still a lot of enthusiasm for ridesharing, ride-hailing, the strength and growth of their uber eats business. lots of things perhaps unanticipated could delay filings. >> uber selected morgan stanley to lead its initial public offering, which is expected to be the biggest public listing in 2019. this is a victory for morgan stanley banker michael grimes who has become the go-to guy for silicon valley firms. >> that is exactly right. morgan stanley helped uber in

the ipo this and has been the main bank in the room. michael grimes is sort of the key banker there. it's just a big win for morgan stanley, getting uber ready for what could be this $120 million ipo next year. >> tencent music has risen on its trading debut in the u.s. it happened after a series of negative headlines, including a lawsuit and a two-month delay threatened to dampen the mood of investors. an ideal ipoess the pricing, but how did the debut go? >> 24 hours ago, we learned it would be towards the lower end of $13. but when it started trading on the new york stock exchange, to much fanfare, as is always the case, it popped to $14.10 write -- right at the open. throughout the day, it did

meander a little bit lower but closed smack on $14 a share. what does that mean? that is a price jump of about 7.7%. all told, it raised $1.1 billion versus an expected $1.2 billion. that still values the company at $22.9 billion. and they sold 82 million american depository receipts. >> qualcomm declaring a win in a chinese court. it has ruled in favor of the ongoing legal battle with apple. it is banning the sale of many apple iphone models in china. the tech giant says all models will remain available. these companies locked in an ongoing dispute over licensing fees. how serious is it for apple to have this injunction in place in china? >> this has been qualcomm's tech it, to get these

injunctions in china and europe and the u.s. to make it look as though iphone sales or production would be restricted. this is the first type of this kind of ruling we have seen. we don't know the exact extent of it yet. it does not include the latest iphones. certainly, this is not the kind of headline that apple investors want to see. >> apple saying a chinese ban on the sale of some models force it to settle with qualcomm despite the fact that they are thinking of settling, they are asking the court to reconsider. what is next? >> publicly, apple has not indicated that it intends or plans to settle with qualcomm. qualcomm has made statements to the opposite. what we have here are legal documents. this is an application for consideration that apple filed in mandarin to the china courts handling this matter, indicating that it is a possibility if the

injunction is not overturned by the government. >> rising trade tensions between the u.s. and china have apple suppliers prepping for some unfavorable scenarios. that could mean moving production out of china if tariffs rise to 25%. president trump told the wall street journal last month that tariffs could be slapped on smart phones and laptops made in china. what do we know about the likelihood of apple moving its production out of china? what would it look like? >> it does not appear to be very likely. we will get more clarity on how much longer this administration is going to last. if there is indications that the next administration is going to continue these tariffs. there are plans a, b, and c. the company is weighing right now. what we are told, is that

tariffs are 10% on iphones. if those go into place, they won't make rash decisions, but if discussions begin of a 25% tariff, that is where there might be contingency plans going into effect. >> google's ceo faced the house judiciary committee earlier today where lawmakers expressed growing distrust of the tech giant. the possible release of a censored version of the engine in china. walk us through the long list of complaints they are throwing against google. the search engine in china is just one possibility. >> i think the exchanges might be the most significant development that came out of this entire hearing. we saw sundar pichai refused to rule out launching a search engine in china. he got multiple questions and cap going back to the same response and never directly answered the response about having conversations or being in

conversations with officials in the chinese government, which i think is significant. >> the pay scandal, a formal indictment of not just ghosn, but family members are being barred from entering nissan purchased homes around the globe. what happens from here? >> the indictment allows prosecutors to formally lay charges against carlos ghosn as well as greg kelly and nissan. you open up the books and you are going to find some things. they apparently have been. now that the formal indictments have come through, he is eligible for bail. that is unlikely to happen. what happened yesterday is prosecutors re-arrested carlos ghosn about allegedly misrepresenting his pay over a different time period.

that would prevent any bail from being issued or granted to carlos ghosn. >> activist investor elliott advisors has taken a stake. the company is seeking better governance as the company has lost market share and underperformed its peers. talk us through what we might see from here in terms of elliott? >> the activist campaign has been announced. it has been the flavor of the month, the flavor of the year. time.o 18 month we have got a company that has been pretty dormant the last few years. they have done a number of smaller deals, but nothing significant and outstanding. he is coming in and trying to shake up the tree and trying to boost value, for sure.

>> germany is said to be intensifying efforts to try to fix deutsche bank. that may include a merger with commerzbank. is this an indication that berlin is beginning to worry about what is happening in frankfurt? >> they have at least been watching carefully what is going on in frankfurt for a while. at least, that is the belief that i have. they are concerned about the situation at deutsche bank. in the past, they have had a very hands-off relationship with the bank, and now they are considering helping it and are weighing options. for example, a change in the tax code, is apparently what we have been told, and that could pave the way for a merger at some point down the road. ♪

>> you mentioned sterling and this bloomberg function on the terminal obvd showing how volatile it has been. i don't want to overwhelm you with this cool graphic, but what this shows is demand for sterling puts exceeding demand for sterling calls at the rim area on this curve. it means that there is a weaker pound over the next six months. juliette: there are 30,000 functions on the bloomberg and we enjoy showing you our favorite. maybe they will become your favorites. here is another function you

will find useful. quic will give you insight into timely topics. here is a quick take from this week. >> wealth inequality. >> income inequality. >> a very disturbing trend toward rising income inequality. >> income inequality. >> income inequality is the phrase of the moment. over the last decade, every region in the world has seen its income gap grow that has fueled populist political movements in places like italy, mexico, and the u.s. while wider income inequality is generally seen as a bad thing, there are debates about whether equalizing incomes helps the poor. this is your quick take on income inequality. income inequality is incorrectly used as a catchall description for related ills like poverty or class division. while the issues are intertwined, the term itself simply measures the gap between

rich and poor. after the great depression, the share of national wealth held by the richest citizens fell. since the 1970's, it has been growing. take the u.s. the average yearly income for the poorest households grew 12% to $12,943 from 2007 to 2016. the wealthiest 5% saw their average income increased 31% to $375,088 a year. the u.s. ranks 39th most unequal among 157 nations. china has a wider gap ranking at 29. president xi jinping has dedicated billions of dollars to tackling the disparity but continues to because -- be caused by rapid urbanization. >> researchers can link rising inequality to negative outcomes. some of those are greater political instability, sluggish wage growth, slow productivity gains, reduced investment.

>> is also thought to create longer commutes and higher divorce rates. >> one thing that we do point out is inequality isn't necessarily a zero-sum game. it shrunk stock portfolios of wealthy americans and reduced inequality, but the poor do not get richer. >> which is why some say that inequality is not the best measure of well-being. >> people who say that worries about rising inequality are overblown and inequality can act as an incentive to innovate, take risks, and produce wealth. >> there is cause for optimism. since 1990 despite widening inequality, more than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. juliette: that was 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 juliette saly.

this is bloomberg.

ferro,i am jonathan bloomberg real yield starts right now. coming up, fueling global growth fears. data from china and the eurozone. trouble in paradise. in the feds 2019 plans balance of ahead of next week's decision. we begin with a big issue -- what does the fed do when 2019 looks increasingly uncertain? >> the fed is going to pause for the time being. >> one hike next yea