carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." >> we are inside bloomberg headquarters in new york. carol: this week, a special look at the year ahead. this is the issue with everything you need to know for 2020. from politics and the global economy to technology and trends in the luxury space. >> coming up, we hear that the

real threat is it joe biden or elizabeth warren or even impeachment, it's recession. carol: and 2020 will bring about the great antitrust reawakening. the question is not whether to break up companies but how the laws are enforced. kailey: much more ahead. we begin with joel weber. start of a new decade, what are the big things we needed to be watching? >> you hit a couple. recession is one thing everyone is really aware of. it has huge implications, not only for the presidency, but the economy as a whole. we give a survey of the world outlook as a whole. 2% growth is what has been a projected but there's always a chance of it being revised downward. it comes down to the u.s. consumer. in many ways, the global economy is on the back of the u.s. consumer. carol: from the economy to

elections. >> and the u.s. is not the only place where there will be elections. that is an expected story. we can say elections, that's going to be a choppy sea. another place that will take up bandwidth is the antitrust conversation. this will dominate d.c. in a way that harkens back to the 90's and the last time antitrust dominated news. we think this might have different takeaways than it did in that 90's where ultimately nothing significant happened. we think there are more serious things that could happen. kailey: that could be a big implication for the markets when it comes to these big tech names. >> we basically tried to take antitrust as a theme and look at it from every possible way you can.

from how elizabeth warren can break things up to the players you need to know about to going back and looking at case studies of how the laws could be enforced. carol: it is a must-read. if you want to understand the players, issues, and the law. >> the other must-read is 50 companies to watch we start with 2000 companies that bloomberg evaluates and filter it down the companies that they are bearish on and bullish on. we are not making calls, but they are ones we feel will be interesting and everyone should keep in mind. carol: what i love is if you go online. get the magazine, and read all about the companies, but if you can go online you can play with the list. >> the sorting ability is neat. you can find out companies that excel at women being on board.

carol: for a look at the year ahead in politics, let's turn to josh green who joins us from our washington bureau. let's talk about it. what is it president trump needs to be worried about? >> he needs to worry about the fact that the economy, by most forecasts, is trending in the wrong direction. in particular, manufacturing is in a recession. that is key in the group of swing states in the upper midwest that will probably decide the next election. kailey: the demographics and geographics are all important here. is it too late for him to change the game? are we too far gone? >> i don't think so, necessarily. i break this into two lanes. when you look at what trump promised during his first year, he promised even 6% growth across the economy and that is not going to happen.

on the other hand, he has had positives. unemployment is at a 50 year low. the stock market is treading water near all-time highs. and he has managed to keep republican sentiment behind him even as he faces a slowing economy and impeachment. the big unknown is what are the effects of the trade war going forward? we have seen them by it into growth and the economy in states trump needs to win. however, there's still time to strike a modest trade deal. if you were to do that, it would turn sentiment around. that would certainly benefit his reelection choices. carol: what i love is that you break it down into kind of what happened after he came in to the white house and you did see manufacturing jobs coming back. that was a lot of momentum and the tax cuts had an impact. in the last year or so, you have seen that shift. and as you say, in the key

states he won, it has gotten tougher in terms of manufacturing jobs. >> if you go back and look at his term from a macro level, trump delivered. he had the stock market up, manufacturing growing. jamie dimon said trump had succeeded in unleashing animal spirits. the problem is that all of that has stalled out. in large part due to the trade war that he started. animal spirits have gone away, companies are not investing. we are now in a manufacturing recession. that has hurt states like wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, where recent polls show all of the top democrats beating trump in a head-to-head matchup. that is a flashing red warning signal as he looks ahead to the election. but again, there are bright spots.

he still has time to turn the ship around and pull another upset. kailey: let's talk about polling and where voters stand. >> trumps approval has been remarkably consistent. 52-56% disapproval, that has been true throughout everything. through the mueller investigation and now the impeachment drama. most importantly, he has managed to keep republican voters pretty much behind him. he has a solid 90% approval rating. as of now, they are not abandoning him. as we saw in 2016, the electoral college favors a republican candidate. there are areas he has to worry. he has lost enormous amounts of support from noncollege white women which were instrumental in 2016. he is driving away voters in the suburbs.

but he has brought new people into the political process. his campaign believes he can excite voters who do not usually vote and like what he stands for. it will be a test of whether he can turn out enough republican voters to overcome what is undoubtedly a blue wave of democrats. carol: with everything going on globally and in the u.s., we have seen this in past elections. it is ultimately about the economy and how everybody feels. >> it really is. if you look at the three presidents in the 20th century who lost reelection races, all of them were running in a recession. it cost them the election. trump is not there yet, but all forecasts show things trending in a bad direction. carol: josh green, thank you. more on that coming up. also, the stock market has a lot riding on the elections. kailey: but one thing could stand in the way of a recession,

your shopping habits. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

kailey: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." carol: join us every day on the radio starting at 2 p.m. wall street time. you can also catch up on our daily show by listening to our podcast on apple podcast, soundcloud, and bloomberg.com. kailey: and find us online and on our mobile app. carol: for better or worse markets have become entwined with american politics ever since the 2016 residential -- presidential campaign. kailey: that shows no signs of changing in 2020. >> it is an awkward position investors have been thrust into. now they have to have a sideline as a political scientist and gauge where the politics world

are headed. it is turning into a market of its own. there are these prediction sites where you can track where the betting community believes the horse race lies in politics. carol: tell us about a strategist you visited. you start off your story with that. >> it's funny, a woman at rbc wrote how she looks at these political polling charts almost like stock charts. she is looking at elizabeth warren as a momentum stock. she said she has really rising in the polls. she said she would advise shorting joe biden. but just because he is waning in momentum. what is fascinating is that so much is at stake with politics right now. obviously, when president trump was elected, politics ruled everything in global markets ever since.

but now some of these democratic candidates have platforms that threaten to upend a lot of the main industries in the u.s. carol: medicare for all will have implications. >> absolutely. that's why elizabeth warren's ascent in the polls has people scrambling to decipher what it could mean as her plans are all over the place. they are so broad reaching that you have to figure out her priorities and what will she be able to accomplish. a lot depends on what congress looks like. but a hypothetical elizabeth warren presidency has wall street scrambling to figure out all of the ripple effects. as you said, medicare for all have major implications for the health-care sector. she also wants to raise the

minimum wage which would pressure margins at companies but also provide more spending in the economy. carol: i think it used to be it was thought that if there was a democrat, it was not good for business. if there was a republican, it was. markets would play off of that. but in recent years, we have not seen that. tell me what happens if it is a democrat versus republican, is it all good or -- >> there are so many different variables. is it a democrat with a full democratic senate? there are so many different scenarios. i don't put a lot of faith in any of them because they are so unique and the candidates and the economic environments are unique. we have gotten into uncharted territory with president trump doing stuff that no president has done before. aggressively hitting china with tariffs, threatening them elsewhere.

he broke what i think would be the paradigm of the past. you have to just play cards on the table now. carol: one factor standing between the u.s. and a downturn is consumer spending. it makes up almost 70% of the economy, higher than almost any other country. kailey: while shoppers have been crucial for growth that is particularly the case now as we look ahead to next year. here is matt townsend. >> the u.s. economy has always relied on consumer spending. one interesting stat is 70% of the economy is u.s. spending that is consumer spending, in china, it is 40%. that shows you how different it is. consumerrely on the even more right now. the economy is technically in contraction right now, cutting jobs with less output. the u.s. consumer is what is propping up the economy. kailey: is the consumer feeling good to this point? >> they are, and that's one counterintuitive aspect of the story. broadly, economists at big banks

like morgan stanley do not see recession coming next year. the few bears on the case that sort of see one coming, they are pointing to job loss and slowing spending. but broadly speaking, economists do not see a recession coming because the consumer is so strong. carol: you go through a lot of economic data points. consumers are optimistic, right? >> consumer confidence is at relatively high levels. since before the recession. carol: it's remarkable considering how long the expansion has gone on. longest on record, and yet they are still optimistic. >> the data is showing more wage gains coming. if you look at a stat on job openings, it's over 7 million jobs open right now. that means there's a big demand for labor all across the economy. people are able to negotiate

raises or leave for better jobs. that is raising wages, lifting up the economic fortunes of america. as long as that's happening, it's hard to see how this changes. carol: how do you get recession if you've got that going on? >> exactly. cracks in the armor, so to speak is housing. housing is going up. think about what that means. you are buying furniture, hiring contractors, and that is going down. home prices are decelerating. carol: is it because of a lack of demand? >> it depends on the market. in sum, in new york, for example, the concern is too much supply. kailey: and you have more and more people renting rather than buying. >> exactly. and things like health-care

costs, if those keep going up. if there is some sort of repeal of obamacare and people have to pay more out of pocket. think about the people on obamacare on low income, that could stretch their wallets. and then job growth, while still positive, it has slowed down. if you are a bear on the u.s. consumer, you see that continuing to slow down. maybe the effects of the trade war, uncertainty about the economy freezes hiring and job growth slows. that could create a cycle of people worried about the economy and cutting back on investment spending. kailey: can the 737 max 8 regain altitude? carol: and what happens when the plane is cleared to return to the sky? kailey: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." kailey: you can also listen to us on the radio on sirius xm channel 119, and on a.m. 1130 in new york, 106.1 in boston, 99.1 f.m. in washington, d.c. carol: a.m. 960 in the bay area, also over in london on dab digital, and through the bloomberg business app. kailey: boeing reported earnings and the company is confident the 737 max 8 will be cleared to fly this year. carol: while that's good news for carriers, the question remains if travelers will be nervous about flying an airplane involved into fatal crashes. we have our reporter from dallas on what is to come or boeing. was grounded for most of the years following two fatal accidents that killed 346 people. airlines are not taking this. no regulator is letting it in their space. it has been a tough year for boeing. kailey: it is not just the fact they need to get planes back in the air, it is that they need to

get travelers willing to go back, right? >> right. customers really need to face up to how much fear there is about the airplane. the old saying is that the safest airplane is the one with the most attention, but a lot of the public does not pay attention to what they are flying. but in this case, they might. there is good evidence people will be cognizant of what they are flying and want to know if it is a max. if it's not, they probably don't care. but if it is, what to airlines have to do to get those people comfortable? carol: let's talk about what they are doing. they are going to lay it out. if you make a reservation, they will let you know if you are flying one of these. >> yeah. the three u.s. airlines that have it, southwest, american and united all say that they are going to be very transparent in this process and want everybody

to know up front when you are buying tickets. the idea is practical because they don't want people getting on the plane and then having a freak out incident on the aircraft with the crew, social media, etc. it makes more sense to separate those folks early as possible, even if at the airport at check in. they will let you book without penalty to go on another aircraft if you are not comfortable. we don't know how long that will last. they have been hesitant to disclose how long that policy will last. but for several months, it will be the case where you are allowed to rebook. kailey: how much of a burden to the airlines have to bear in restoring confidence or is that mostly boeing's prerogative? >> it is a shared responsibility.

but once the governments say this airplane can fly, the airlines are eager to get back into service for financial reasons, and it becomes an airline issue because they are dealing with their own customers and their fears, concerns, and questions. boeing will be involved in doing what airlines ask, but at that point, it becomes an airline-centered issue. that is probably where we will see the most outreach. carol: from the global skies to the supply chain. kailey: here is austin carr about what chipmakers tell us about the undoing of the great semi-conductor supply chain. >> the crazy thing is you don't realize how embedded in the market is every single device we use, whether it is windows pcs or all the teeny parts that control memory and processing speed. they come from a global set of partners mostly in asia, yet

they power so much of what we have here in the u.s. so the big thing we are focusing on is whether or not there will be this great unwinding for a market headed towards more interconnectedness that now might be pulled apart. kailey: so they are in everything, but they are not made everywhere. can you map that out? >> totally. one thing we highlight is this big ip lawsuit between global foundries, which is a semi conductor foundry -- kailey: these guys are always doing something. >> there's arguments about the legitimacy of the lawsuits. but what they are highlighting, and finding reception on, is not just the corporate consolidation but regional. the company they are suing, tsmc, based in taiwan, they own

about 70% of outsourced chip production. that is massive. global foundries says for the more advanced chips it's something like more than 90% of the share. so they are playing up the geopolitical concerns. how concerned should we be that our iphones could not run if we got cut off from the market. they kept referring to the company as being from greater china, but they want to play into those geopolitical fears. carol: we have seen that play out, right? semi conductors have been a volatile sector for the duration of this trade war. every trade headline, semi conductors are so vulnerable. the conversation is how to get supply chains out of china. can they really do that that quickly? >> it's complicated. one analyst we talked to said the immediate impact would be nearly one third of manufacturing would move out of china to places like vietnam,

india, taiwan, elsewhere. which is a compelling, massive shift. the downside is that normally takes a couple quarters, if not years, to relocate. it also means supply chain and component cost will go up quite materially, which has an impact on customers. this holiday season, you might not see prices raised, but enough might see -- but you might see fewer discounts. some companies are having to find their own suppliers or create new supply chains, huawei being a major example. that's because of these sort of corporate black lists that some people argue have been weaponized to a degree. kailey: coming up, will big tech survive antitrust? carol: more from this week's issue. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. kailey: and i'm kailey leinz. still ahead, the year ahead will be a big one for elon musk in his quiet courtship of china. carol: i'm looking forward to that. plus, 2020 looks primed to be a great year for consumer gadgets. we get a preview. theey: and we begin with

big battle for tech companies in the year ahead, antitrust. carol: social media and tech companies remain on regulator radars. this week, facebook ceo mark zuckerberg testified and got a lashing on just about every controversy. the tremendous power amassed by facebook and other big tech companies gets an entire section in the special year ahead issues. here's a editor of the section, pollard wire. ka la dwyer.er -- paua paula: it was a very short discussion. antitrust is going to be so important next year that nobody argued against a special section. it was like, yes! carol: because of the focus on big tech companies. paula: exactly. they are a big part of the economy and political conversation and 2020 elections. it was pushing on an open door. kailey: talk to us about the politics a little bit more. we know this is a big issue for trump and his attorney general.

paula: this is a bipartisan issue, and it is one of the where issues -- rare issues where both parties seem to agree that big tech has gotten too big and too powerful. but they come at it from different angles. so president trump thinks they are biased against him, especially facebook and google, and he really has it in for jeff bezos, owner of amazon. he personally owns the washington post, and so trump likes to refer to it as the amazon washington post. carol: that's interesting. i think a lot of folks think ok, this is just a political thing and this is just the president and folks in his administration carrying out what the president wants and the targets he wants to go after, but there are some serious antitrust concerns. paula: from the democratic side, you see them focusing more on the basic antitrust and economic issues. they are looking at academic studies that have connected low wage growth and low levels of innovation, the low levels of

productivity to big tech. they say that those companies are so dominant, so powerful, they control so much of consumer data that others can't compete. that that is the reason for all of these economic problems we have had. so their issue is coming from a classic antitrust examination. the republican issue doesn't seem to be coming from "these companies are biased against us, they are so powerful that they are controlling the political conversation and they are keeping out conservative points of view." so it is an antitrust issue to them, but to other people, they see this as political. kailey: this is a new way of thinking about consumer welfare. it is no longer about prices, it is issues of privacy and the control over information here. paula: yeah. another reason antitrust is so important is that the antitrust laws allow cases to be brought if the consumer experience has eroded.

and so privacy, obviously, has eroded. there are antitrust experts who say you can now make privacy part of antitrust, which is a new thing. they are connecting those issues too. question is not just whether to break up companies like facebook, google, and amazon, but also how the laws are enforced. kailey: exactly right. >> we are talking about coming out of an antitrust slumber, really. the last time the department of justice went after a company, really tried to break it up was microsoft, 20 years ago. even before then, antitrust had been evolving into this thing where if it did not harm the consumer, if it did not push up prices, the country, legal profession, and courts said it was ok. so now you've got google, you've got facebook, you've got amazon, other tech companies and all of

this consolidation that has taken place. and people are saying well, you can't use the consumer welfare standard for big tech because people are getting everything for free. kailey: it's different. joe: right, and that does not really get at its power and what it can do and what we should do about it. so there is this whole movement. a lot of young economists, but others as well, who are saying we need to start thinking about antitrust in a different way. we need to kind of go back to the way we thought about it in the 1930's and 1940's, where bigness alone is a problem. we need to come up with a different set of solutions. kailey: why is now the moment? why 2020? why is this the year of the great reawakening on this? joe: i think there are two reasons. one is the growing awareness of income inequality. i know that may sound strange, but if you think about airlines, there used to be 20 airlines, now there's four. that gives them incredible pricing power and it gives them incredible power over the labor force. so a lot of the people are

thinking ok, maybe this has to do with income inequality. the second reason has to do with all the problems facebook in particular has had. the privacy problems, the data problems, cambridge analytica, the election. the head of the house antitrust commission told me that when cambridge analytica came on, he said, you know, i am in a position to do something. i have to do something. kailey: still carol: ahead, we get some serious competition in the new year. kailey: plus apple smart glasses , could make 2020 the year of ar. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. kailey: and i'm kailey leinz. join bloomberg businessweek every day on the radio starting at 2:00 p.m. wall street time. you can also catch up on our daily show by listening to our podcast on apple podcasts, soundcloud, and bloomberg.com. carol: and you can find us online at businessweek.com and on our mobile app.

back to our special issue, the year ahead, in the next 12 months, four new streaming services are coming online. here is businessweek's explainer on the upcoming streaming wars. -- it is the talk of hollywood and wall street. the streaming wars. a battle that pits the biggest names in entertainment. in the next 12 months, for -- four streaming services will debut. disney plus, apple tv plus, comcast peacock, and at&t's hbo max. for years, the impact of netflix has downplayed the cable tv business. now, they appear to be going after the largest paid streaming service. who will come out on top? surveys suggest the average customer will pay for 3-5 streaming services. netflix, amazon and hulu are well entrenched. that leaves room for one or two more winners. disney plus is the favorite amongst analysts and executives. it will charge $6.99 a month, that's about half as much as netflix. and it will offer a library that

appeal to every kid, everything from "the avengers" and "star and "toy"the simpsons" story." one big winner maybe tv show producers. netflix is spending $15 billion on programming this year while amazon and disney are expected to boost their spending spending -- their spending to comparable levels. kailey: for more on the services, and if there are enough media hungry consumers to support the mall, we checked in with our reporter. >> the perception of us people in hollywood and wall street is that disney plus is the most formidable, in part because of its pricing, $6.99 is quite affordable, but also what it has. disney operates the most powerful movie studio in the brands,d has these pixar, marble, lucasfilm, that mean a lot to customers and kids. the on ramp for disney plus seems quite easy. it will be very hard if you are a parent not to buy this. just to save money a little bit

because you're probably having to rent or buy movies over and over again to show your kids. that being said, i am most interested, i think, in hbo max. disney plus could still be an additive to netflix. it is cheap and targeted, it is not trying to be everything. netflix's enemy is cable. it wants to replace cable television with internet television and have netflix be the number one network. disney plus is a little bit more like a cable network in a traditional sense. you stick with that analogy and that metaphor, because it still serves a particular audience. hbo max is the only one of these new services that is similarly trying to be all things to all people. carol: they have a wide array of programming right from the get-go. >> yeah. they combine what you already get with hbo. "the sopranos," "game of thrones," as well as the new catherine the great show that just came out. they are also folding and programming from what was once time warner, warner media, and movies that includes

from warner bros., so aquaman, harry potter, all things like that. it includes things like cartoon network. every day, i get a new announcement about a new original series or a new licensing deal they have struck on hbo max. the amount of press they are putting out about new projects dwarfs disney, apple, and comcast combined. kailey: there is just so much content. are people willing to pay for more streaming services? is there room for everyone here? >> there is room for a lot of them. everybody, i'm not sure. when i talked to the guy overseeing hbo max for at&t, their research suggests people will spend about $100 for tv. some people are still paying for traditional cable, in fact a lot of people are still paying for cable and satellite, the number is in the 80 million range, maybe higher. it will continue to go down, but

you have people who want news, sports, and live tv. but let's say people will pay for three or four services, maybe five. if they have a lot of disposable income. that means netflix, which is just built-in. amazon, which barely even counts in this, and then they will add on a couple with this. maybe that is hulu and disney plus, which can be sold together, hbo max, it is hard to see every single one of these services knocking it out of the park. carol: someone who knows a lot about cable broadcast and streaming area is the founder of jgb ventures. she weighed in on the upcoming streaming battle and the future of cable. >> i think disney is really interesting. i'm probably biased because i worked for the company for a decade, but i do think they have unique assets. that is one thing that iger has done that i think is incredibly smart. if you look at the movie business that disney has, because of the companies they have acquired. because of pixar, because of

marble, because of the star wars have -- i amey going to say more than half of the billion dollar films that have come out in the last five years. kailey: right. now -- susan and now with fox, they : have an even bigger library. so i think they will be hard to beat among the new entrants. kailey: right. carol: is cable dead? or getting slowly towards that? there are still like 80 million u.s. cable subscribers, but what happens? susan: i think it will take time, but i look at my children and they are not cable customers. so this is largely a generational shift. people who have grown up with digital assets and who understand how to use apple tv and how to use roku can put

together their own, you know, what would have been a cable assortment. carol: right. susan: they can do that themselves for less money. carol: do their own bundling. susan: exactly. carol: but some say you could ultimately see a bundling of streaming services down the road. susan: i think that's very possible. why not? carol: staying with entertainment, 2020 looks primed to be a great year for consumer gadgets. so get ready. kailey: i am so ready. here's mark gurman in l.a.. mark: it will be more the proliferation of the five g networks and the devices that as enabled by that, and well as a big push into augmented reality, by you name it. kailey: let's talk about augmented reality, specifically apple's glasses. what are they going to do? mark: apple has been working on this pair of ar glasses for a couple of years now, since 2016. they have a team of hundreds of people working on this project. the idea is that it is basically

like an apple watch for iphone -- watch or iphone for your face. you can put glasses on and it will have depth of field cameras on the front with different degrees of freedom, as well as holographic lenses. to be able to sort of get emails , text messages, games, maps and such, phone calls to be in your field of view. you are not looking at your wrist or pulling up her phone. what you are doing is just seeing it in front of you in your line of sight. and augmented reality differs from virtual reality, because you do have that line of sight. i could be wearing these right now and looking at you as we are talking while still getting information. carol: mark, talk to me about microsoft too. i don't always think about them when i think about innovative products. they seem to have missed the wave, but they have got a new surface duo coming out. this looks like it could be pretty interesting. mark: they are trying to change the narrative there, and i think this is pretty under told. we have stories on it, but it is a theme some are missing. devices, orcrosoft

at least microsoft's new phone, runs on android. that means it actually has a chance to be sold, for people to use this thing and buy it. if they launch their new foldable phone on another proprietary operating system, it would basically be dead on arrival. but because it has that app ecosystem and that backing from android and google, it is a phone people will look at. it is a different variation of samsunghave seen from on their foldable phone. it will be far more optimized, and overall, at least in its first iteration, will be a better product and a better offering to consumers than what samsung has done. carol: what are you most excited about? are: i think anytime there new big categories for multiple technology companies, it is very exciting. what we have seen for years is apple being the only one able to usher in cool new hardware. but what we have seen is a lot more competition from samsung,

microsoft, now it is amazon, facebook, google, all of these players really upping their game, increasing competition. it's no longer the point where apple is the market leader in hardware necessarily. so that is the most exciting thing to me, that everybody is trying to make each other better. that's not something we have seen in a long time. there is more parity than ever which will make everything better, and better products for consumers. kailey: up next, two car stories to watch in the year ahead. including what you love is building teslas in the -- including elon musk building teslas in shanghai. carol: and daimler's designers on leading the way to sustainable luxury. kailey: this is "bloomberg businessweek."

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. kailey and i'm leinz. you can also listen to bloomberg businessweek live on the radio on sirius and carol xm channel 119, and on a.m. 1130 in new york, 106.1 in boston,

99.1 f.m. in washington, d.c. carol: also, a.m. 960 in the bay area, london on dab digital, and of course, on the bloomberg business app. tesla surprised markets with an unexpected profit in earnings, the most in years. the company says they are also producing vehicles on a trial basis at the shanghai giga factory. kailey: if you one must delivers the first chinese-made tesla model, it will be a rare case in which the company's famously scattered ceo will manage to hit one of his mentor early -- notoriously ambitious deadlines. >> the first foreign owned automotive plant in china. it's in shanghai and the factory was built in record time. roughly six months. carol: talk to us about the pace at which this all came together, from permits to now ready to roll off the assembly line, how did it come together so quickly? >> china is interested in showing it can open its economy and tesla is very interested in china because china is the world's largest auto market. elon musk traveled to china earlier in 2019 for this official groundbreaking, and

since then, we have seen all kinds of drone footage and photographs from fans in china of this massive factory building going up. carol take a step back. : we spent so much time talking about the trade wars out there, and yet, elon musk, in record time, said he was going to do it and actually build a facility over in china. how did he do that? dana: really, you need the support of the chinese government. china is known for fast construction. they are masters that kind of building cities seemingly overnight. but in order to get a factory up and running, you need support from the government for permits and power. and tesla basically, they securedthe land, they financing, construction began, power was connected. this would not have been possible without support of chinese government officials. carol: he got the support of chinese government officials. what about u.s. government officials? here i'm thinking any executive

in the united states, if they talk about manufacturing in china, there is a lot of criticism that comes from washington. dana: absolutely. but what has been really interesting, you have not seen musk, who is known widely for his have it on twitter -- have on twitter, talking about the trade war. ly has been enormous complement about the chinese three government. he has remarked several times about the speed at which china gets things done. and president trump has stayed totally quiet on tesla. kailey: let's talk about elon musk and his twitter and the expectations he sets that are not always on target, especially when it comes to production. he has had difficulty setting realistic expectations. walk us through the capacity expected at this factory in china. how many cars will roll off a week? what is he saying? dana: in april during the earnings call, musk said he was feeling very optimistic. he expected the factory to

2000ce 1000 cars, possibly cars a week by the end of 2019, early 2020. if they do produce cars this week in that volume, he would actually hit his target. carol: talk to us about how china, specifically as a market, what this means for tesla's future. dana: so china is tesla's second largest market outside the u.s.. then followed by norway and the netherlands. so in terms of raw volume, china is hugely important to tesla. secondly, as we are seeing signs of a possible economic slowdown interms of car sales, both the u.s. and abroad, you really have to kind of focus on markets where car ownership is still new. in china, that's the case. you have a growing middle class and aspirational buyers. it is just a huge wealth of opportunity for tesla in that market. with: we are going to stay sustainable cars. for the year ahead, when it comes to luxury. our resident car expert caught up with daimler's chief operator to talk about what is to come.

>> he is a superstar in the car world for his designs. of course, if you drive basically any mercedes these -- the c class, the class, the as class, all of the suv's, gt mercedes, the sports car, he has designed all of those. he has been very influential. carol: been there for a long time? hanna: since 1997. a longtime designer, but he is still pretty young and he is the one who has been doing these crazy conceptual cars you have been seeing. if you follow him on instagram, it's great. he will put up photos of taxi drones that are like flying devices that he has conceived. it possibly could happen. but i spoke with him, and he's great. carol: i love concept cars. ok, how much about of this will ultimately be a reality? you kind of talks to him a little bit about that. hanna: he is great to talk to because he looks like a clean-cut am a staunch german clean-cut and a

staunch, german man, but he is very free and he says, look, i am already living in the future. we can certainly expect flying taxi drones and, if you think about it, planes are already using autopilot technologies to fly most of the time. so actually, autopilot, self driving vehicles are easier to do in the air than on the ground. kailey: right. hanna:h: because we already use that. that's kind of exciting. kailey: i want to shift gears to sustainability. you asked him if sustainable luxury was an oxymoron. hannah: no. immediately, he said no. the key to luxury is sustainability. he said luxury is being admired by society for any number of things. for your success, for your intelligence, for your wealth, whatever. part of that admiration is the responsibility to society and sustainability is how you show that responsibility. if that makes sense. he basically says, look, if luxury is going to continue with and it will, it

has to go hand-in-hand with sustainability. carol: bloomberg businessweek is available on newsstands now. onley: and also online businessweek.com and our mobile app. carol: find more on the year ahead including 50 companies to watch. the bloomberg intelligence analysts who tracked 2000 companies identified in the businesses that will make news next year. so much great stuff to read over. what is your must-read? kailey: for me, it is all about the recession. what about 2020, what are the indications for the election? i love to his piece this week. carol: just a reminder, it's about the economy, stupid. i think about that slogan. i think voters feel that when they go to the polls. kailey: and that will be true is a 20. what was your must-read? carol: the deep dive into antitrust. i think this will be a big issue on the campaign trail and it's certainly a big issue down in washington. what will happen to big tech? could we see it broken up ultimately? i just feel like the magazine went into all of the issues and players and what you need to know.

a little history of antitrust law i loved it. , kailey: it takes us through every single detail. you can also check out our daily podcast. that's available at apple podcasts, soundcloud, and bloomberg.com. carol: more bloomberg television starts now. ♪ devices are like doorways

that could allow hackers into your home. and like all doors, they're safer when locked. that's why you need xfinity xfi. with the xfi gateway, devices connected to your homes wifi are protected. which helps keep people outside from accessing your passwords, credit cards and cameras. and people inside from accidentally visiting sites that aren't secure. and if someone trys we'll let you know. xfi advanced security. if it's connected, it's protected. call, click, or visit a store today.

david: so why do you think some people do not believe that there is such a thing as climate change? bill: you know, they must not have taken enough science courses or something, i don't know. david: if you met with president trump, you could convince him on paris, to maybe get back in, or is that beyond your capabilities to do that? bill: someone else should do that. david: so are you worried about the power of a.i. to disrupt our civilization, put people out of work? those kinds of things? bill: the increased productivity that will come from a.i. will create dilemmas. >> would you fix your tie, please? david: well, people would not recog