vaccine for general use. this as the second u.s. case of the u.k./covid-19 variant is detected in california. lawmakers in u.k. approve the 24xit deal less than hours before they transition. and mitch mcconnell -- his hopes for the $2000 stimulus payments. stocks are poised to end 2020 at record highs. welcome to "bloomberg surveillance" and happy new year's eve, everyone. 2020 will have been eventful. some will want to forget it and some may be fully invested in stocks. london.ncine lacqua in tom keene is off. new zealand is the first country to be part of 2021. of course, usually, a very important firework display in new zealand. i understand, despite thousands

of people in the location watching the shows, listening to music, and waiting for the fireworks display at midnight, which just happened moments ago, it is more subdued than in previous years. we did understand the music blasting on the entertainment center speakers, including some of the national anthem and other lead singers. this is joyous to see some of the celebrations there, but more subdued than in the past. we will see what celebrations look like in europe and the u.s.. we have had extra restrictions here in the u.k.. there will be a fireworks display but people will only be able to see it from their homes. happy new year. if you are watching us from that part of the world. 2021 will not only be prosperous but keep your loved ones and family safe. let's get to the bloomberg first word news with ritika gupta. .itika: happy new year's eve

mitch mcconnell has made it clear the direct payments in the stimulus package will not be increased to $2000. the senate majority leader says the house bill that would do that has no realistic path to quick passage in the senate. the larger payments are backed by democrats and president trump , but mcconnell says the house legislation falls short of what the president wants. the british parliament approved prime minister boris johnson's post-brexit deal in less than 24 hours. written leaves the european union single market tonight. -- britain leaves the european union single market tonight. it's gripped politics and divided the country. a british judge will move monday -- rule monday whether julian assigned should be extradited to the u.s. to face criminal charges. there has been talk president trump pardon -- will pardon assigned. he worked to get classified documents, but the president

during the campaign when -- u.s. health officials admit the coronavirus immunization program is off to a slow start. that raises the prospect of the all in bet vaccine could be heard by the same affliction the hobbles other measures to contain the pandemic. only 2.7 million americans have been vaccinated by last night new york time, just a fraction of the 20 million the government hopes toreceive do -- have received shots by 2020. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am ritika gupta. this is bloomberg. francine? much.ne: thank you so happy december 31. if you look at the markets, it has been a tumultuous year. we are also ending on a quiet note today. if you look at global stock indices, this 31st of december, they are holding near record

highs. the dollar is the lowest in two years, and i was looking at china's benchmark index, closing at a five-year high end officials giving a green light to the first coronavirus vaccine there for general use. data shows in china that the economic recovery -- shows that with the economic recovery. two things we have been watching all year, the pound and bitcoin. cryptocurrencies shows no sign of slowing down. bitcoin bolted above $29,000 before pulling back to 28,800. additional assets have now advanced on most 50% in december alone. from tomorrow, january the first, the u.k. will have exited the eu. the u.s. election was a defining moment of 2020 with joe biden and donald trump receiving the most votes ever for a challenger

and incumbent president. from nominations to debates, to joe biden's victory, let's take a look back at our coverage. >> i except this nomination for president of the united states of america. pres. trump: my fellow americans, tonight, with a heart full of gratitude and boundless acceptt, i profoundly this nomination for president of the united states. [cheering] >> everybody knows he's a liar. pres. trump: you are the liar. you were last year classed, not first in your class. >> you are the worst president america has ever had, come on. pres. trump: when needed, i wear a mask. i don't wear masks like him. every time you see him, he has a mask. you could be speaking that she could be speaking 200 feet away from you and he shows up at the biggest mask. >> what is the trump health care plan? pres. trump: first of all, i'm debating you, and not him, which

is ok. >> will you shut up, man? >> breaking news at the top of the hour, president trump tested positive for coronavirus. pres. trump: i spent four days there, and did not have to. i could have stayed at the white house, but the doctors said because your president, let's do it. i said fine. you tell me what to do and i will listen. >> we will win this. as far as i'm concerned, we already have. >> we believe we are on track to in the selection. >> i want to look at in terms of the election map on what is going on. where we stand on the elect or map, biden is 264 versus donald trump is 214. the key number is 270. >> nbc and cnn and others have projected joe biden. >> the people of this nation have spoken. they have delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, a victory for we the people.

of the 2020snapshot election. it does not stop there. with the georgia senate raaf elections approaching, there is much on the line for joe biden's political landscape. wilkins, ais emily congressional reporter who i think will travel to georgia next week. emily, good morning to you. what are you expecting in georgia? emily: we are expecting a close race between democrats and republicans. georgia has temporarily become the new center of the political world for a little bit. this race will determine whether democrats or republicans control the senate for the first two years of joe biden's first term. this is going to be huge for whether or not biden can get key parts of his agenda done, and we are expecting a close race. we might not know the results. we night -- might not know the

results on election night. it might take a couple days to officially have a winner declared in a race expected to be this tight. francine: why is it so close? emily: a couple different reasons. simply the makeup of georgia has been pretty close. it presidential election, took it about 10 days to call it an biden won by only a couple of hundreds of -- by tens of thousands of votes and part of the makeup of georgia. it has a little more of a swing state then what we have seen in the past. this is a big election and a lot of people understand this is for control of the senate, mobilizing a lot of people on both sides. you look at some of the issues at hand, have people made up their mind? are there undecided voters? are there mailing voters? how different is this from the presidential election? emily: with the raaf elections,

it is always a little different, because special elections in general, anything held outside years,november every two normally people want to play to their base. it's less convincing people to vote for them and more of a convincing of having their core supporters turn out. republicans have been good at this but democrats i number of voters that turned out for them that have-nots before, that had not been mobilized until the last couple years. the hispanic population, asian populations, even black populations in communities in georgia. we saw them turn out in numbers we have not necessarily seen before in november. question is, can they do it again? the parties are working as hard as they can to really communicate to people what is on the line and how important it is to turn out on tuesday. at thee: if you look

stimulus conversations and checks, does that play out significantly, or are people thinking about other things besides who they vote for and whether they show up to vote? emily: i think it does, to a certain extent. you saw that when trump initially called for the $2000 to melissa checks rather than $600 -- stimulus checks, rather than the six dollar one. democrats jumped on it immediately and said they support the president in that regard. they saw the $2000 checks and thought it would be something politically popular, and they wanted to show they would back its. this week, both republican candidates came out and supported the checks. it seems i, in the mindset of the candidates, the 2000 dollar checks will be popular among people, even though, realistically, in washington, it has been declared dead by senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. emily, thank you for

joining us. emily wilkins, bloomberg government congressional reporter. we will have more on this and plenty more on the u.s. senate race in georgia. we will also have more on the special relationship between the u.s. coming up, and interview at 6:30 a.m. new york. this is bloomberg. ♪ it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today.

francine: this is "bloomberg surveillance" -- "bloomberg surveillance." tom keene is off today. i am joining ash joining us is a science professor at the university of chicago school of business to get us started right

for 2021. luigi, thank you for joining us. usually, we need to talk to you from three outs from anywhere from economic theory to brexit, but the hardest question is what will the economy look like, post and then make -- post pandemic? are we doing too much damage with central-bank measures or can we build better for longer? shaping of the economy depends on how fast the vaccines will be deployed. hopefully, if this is fast enough, the economy will restart i think well. what i expect is there will be enormous gains in productivity due to the fact people figure out new ways of doing things. course coy's -- which of there is a problem that there might be a lot of unemployment at the bottom of distribution, so we need to think about how to have those people positioned,

and what kind of new jobs can we offer for them. francine: who is an better place to deal with that? if you look at the u.s., the stimulus package that we have had so far in the transition toward a new economy, how many people will be left behind, and will we see the legacy in 2021? prof. zingales: i think we will certainly start to see the legacy in 2021. i think the united states have not done enough. think about how to address the problem. i don't think any other campus has done it either, but in the united states, things happen faster, so the new administration should deal with that right away. francine: what do you think should be on the priority for the biden administration? we know climate change, maybe it is closing the wealth gap, but what does he need to tackle that

we have not discussed yet? prof. zingales: i think some infrastructure would be helpful. i think the infrastructure in the states is far from perfect. it needs some work. at that is an easy way to create jobs that anybody can do. i think, toast suck up part of the unemployment we will see at the end of its. lessecond part, which is popular but i think is important, should things -- how some intervention can break up some of the monopolies and create more competition, meaning more jobs. luigi, does the obsession from the republican party in the u.s. about that creation-- about debt need to stop? if it does not stop, is there a

worry that the u.s. will underperform other parts of the world? prof. zingales: it depends on what you mean with the recession. weis important to remember have a budget constraint. it is also important to remember when interest rates are so low, the budget restraint is much less binding. is this a moment to spend in investments? absolutely, because if they are good investments, they really pay for themselves when interest rates are close to zero. now, it does not mean money grows on trees and we can hand out money to everybody. -- money to everybody without any concern. the answer is no. one needs to be careful and not to -- careful in not going to either extreme. room forhere is reasoning, and i think that is

the room we should push and try money, andd use of hopefully, everybody can be better along. francine: luigi, what happens to europe next year? does it fall behind or accelerate, as long as the recovery money fund is spent wisely? all, zingales: first of the ceos of the recovery fund will arrive late in the game, so i think that's will be a problem, especially in countries beginere weak to with. one is a name we both know. italy is definitely a weak link in the european system, and has been for many years. it does not seem to get better. i think, will germany recover? yes. will italy recover?

yes, but at a lower pace -- slower pace. i think that is a problem because, even if the recovery [indiscernible] i think the federal institutions ,n europe are still very weak and it is difficult for the continent to restart at the same pace as the united states. luigi, how will without --air how will the eu affair without u.k. and without chancellor merkel, given we have elections at the end of the year. prof. zingales: paradoxically, i think the u.k. will walk a little much better -- a little bit better. maybe in the wrong direction. without the role in europe, i think it is easier to get some form of action. i think the recovery fund will

--more difficult as the u.k. more difficult than the u.k. being part of europe. i think america was playing an important role but was not active in any front of that. the secretive angela merkel is she was able to see the writing ,n the wall at the last minute and just before it was too late. enough toink early eliminate the damage, especially countries.ered by 33 when germany was involved, she was prone to acting. while the future would be worth's without angela merkel -- will the future be worse without angela merkel? we won't know. we will see who substitutes you, but it is true the european union is incredibly dependent on germany.

so we all depend strongly on who is there, the chancellor in germany. francine: thank you so much. luigi zingales of the university of chicago of business. i hope you are wearing red as all italians should on december 31. this is bloomberg and we will have more in the markets, look at politics, and look ahead to the new year. ♪ when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $400 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store.

this is "bloomberg

surveillance." i am ritika gupta with your business flash. exxon mobil indicating it has suffered a fourth straight quarterly loss. they confirmed in a filing it would take a write-down of as much as $20 billion on its upstream assets. cash also reported smaller related to its refining business. the company has struggled to maintain a $15 billion per your dividend program. the bitcoinn end to rally. the largest cryptocurrency past $29,000. it has risen 50% this month and is roughly up 300% for the year. the maker of nordic track treadmill stationary bikes is reportedly going public. to pitch asked banks for roles in an ipo set for next year. fitness companies have thrived during the pandemic and icon has 700,000 subscribers to its

service. that is the bloomberg business flash. francine: thank you so much. stocks are steady and markets are having a rough ride on the year on a quiet note. global stock indices are close to record highs, and in many cases, in record highs. the dollar is the lowest in two years. is increasing.n there seems to be a lot of buoyancy on china as officials give the first green light to the coronavirus vaccine for the general public. up next, we talked the u.s. and u.k., and pegs it with the u.k. and with the -- u.k. ambassador to the u.s..

♪ numbers remain 48%.

>> the british people have made a clear decision to take a different path. >> brexit does mean brexit. >> their proposal is clearly dead. after three years and two missed deadlines, we must leave the eu. it is not just about some legal extrication. it is a moment of real national renewal. >> boris johnson is headed down a path that will end in a very hard brexit. >> we need a solution, the clock is ticking and time is running out. out. quickly running we have no more time to lose. my experience is sometimes in the last moments you will find a

solution. >> looking at where we are, i do asnk it is frightening everyone gets ready for that australian option. >> i cannot tell you whether there will be a deal or not. >> we have completed the biggest , 600 60 billion pounds a year. a comprehensive canada style free-trade deal between the u.k. and eu. brexitould finally put behind us. francine: that was a look back of 4.5 years of missed deadlines regarding brexit. joining us now to talk about all of this is karen pierce. pierce, thank you for giving us a bit of your time.

with president trump out of the white house, does that mean it is less likely for the u.k. to get a quick deal with the u.s.? karen: i don't want to be presumptuous about the biden administration's policies and priorities but we believe this in 2021.d be done we don't want to set a hard deadline. much more important to get a good deal with lots of good content. it is a big deal. it wouldn't take too much bandwidth. we would be delighted to work with the biden administration if there were particular angles. some people mention labor, climate, that they would like to see included. it is interesting. for the first time we will have digital commerce as its content.

would be the u.k. priority for a u.s. steel with united state -- deal? effort onput a lot of this deal focusing on digital commerce. intot a lot of effort small and medium enterprises. depend our countries very much on that type of business. that is also pretty crucial. another reason to do the deal would be that covid recovery. want to send an early signal of our confidence across the withe particularly the u.k. and the u.s. have you been talking to the biden team already? team does it one

president at a time. they made it clear that they don't want to talk to foreign governments. we respect that. all of the americans who have been nominated need some confirmation. we would not be able to talk to them and that is fine. is the way american administrations operate. we have talked to a lot of people around the biden team and a lot of people on the hill. i find as i go on the hill i get a lot of support for a deal. also when i'm talking to governments around the country. 33 out of the 50 states have exports to the u.k. in their top export markets. there's a lot of interest with the deal in the u.k. i don't believe prime minister johnson has ever met joe biden. will there be time for an early

meeting? karen: i don't think they have met. the prime minister has met a number of democratic contacts very close to the biden team. that includes the incoming secretary of state, if he gets senate confirmation. i think the prime minister was the first leader to speak to the president. they talked about a great many things including the free-trade deal, northern ireland, the importance of the agreement and northern ireland. workingforward to together on climate in particular and covid recovery. covid recovery is going to be at the heart of what we want to do.

we think that will work well with president-elect biden's priorities. francine: i don't know if you were on that call between the leaders but what was the chemistry like? karen: i was not on the call. this was handled directly between the offices. i have talked to the prime minister. i think the chemistry was fine. importancem know the of personal relationships. they have a lot in common. they were warm, friendly, both of them agreed there is a lot to do. very important that we work closely together on climate. president-elect biden has said he wants to bring america back in with the paris deals. what do you see is the biggest hurdle or biggest

challenge with the u.k.-u.s. special relationship? karen: the biggest challenge is making sure we see the new challenges coming down the track in 2021 and beyond for what they are. particularly technology industry. on thenow standing threshold of a major transformation in technology. i personally would liken it to the effect that nuclear had in the 1950's. we have to come to grips with that. charting the way to make sure up this newet technology it develops online to do justice in open markets. dayon't want to wake up one and find there is chinese

standards on things like ai and cyber. you want to have an open model. challenge isg china particularly. we need to get that right again. recover from the covid pandemic. do you think the u.k. and u.s. will work hand in -- hand in hand to tackle the challenges you just laid out? definitely. there is a deep, profound relationship they have endured since the end of the second world war and before that. the players of that bedrock that you like is science innovation along with the defense and military cooperation.

this is not an exclusive enterprise. the great democracies of the world, we want to work with them to ensure open societies recover go on withndemic and some of these challenges. maybe as a final question, we are towards the end in just 20 days really, what do you think president trump's greatest achievement has been? karen: we normalize relations with israel, that will improve to beat -- proved to be a very important step forward. it is a bit hard to say exactly how events will unfold. it is a very important achievement. we were happy to salute it at the time. it provides a basis on which to

build to bring peace and stability to the middle east. struck before covid president trump had presided over a thriving economy. that is something to look back on and think about how america could restore that level of economic dynamism. i think what president trump did on the opioid crisis was also very commendable. francine: thank you very much for joining us to talk about a number of things. let's get straight to the first word news in new york city. >> senate majority leader mitch says the measure had no realistic chance of passing the senate. instead, the senate will work on

combining the payments with legislation on election integrity and rolling back social media liability protection. the senate is closing in on a vote to override president trump's veto on the defense bill. it is a battle with the white house that may not end until the final hours before a new congress begins on sunday. to followre expected suit. the trump administration has ramped up its latest trade fight. it has announced additional tariffs on some products in the .uropean union in november, the eu imposed $4 billion in american-made products in new u.s. tariffs including aircraft parts and certain wines and brandies from france in germany. they have approved the first coronavirus vaccine for general public use. the shot is made by china national biotech.

>> we will continue to speed up the vaccine. first we will spade up -- speed up the phase three trials. second, play close attention to the mutation around the world. to do we will continue the research on the vaccine to provide solid technological support for national covid-19 response. ritika: global news 24 hours a day and on bloomberg quicktake. powered by 2700 journalists and in 120 countries, i'm really good group that -- ritika gupta, this is bloomberg. francine: this is bloomberg. ♪

, this isater today bloomberg. -- this is "bloomberg surveillance." tom keene is off today. the world has learned a lot about covid-19. the virus has killed nearly 2 million people and stop the global economy. takeserg's emma o'brien us to the original epicenter, wuhan. we are in one of the most popular going out areas.

people are out and about. they are socializing, eating. lots of people wearing masks still. [speaking foreign-language] here inlking to people wuhan, it is interesting to hear what triggereder the really harsh lockdown. cases on theght of hospitals here. people still talk about being affected by the lockdown socially and economically.

[speaking chinese] emma: behind me is one of the two temporary hospitals that were built here in wuhan shortly after the lockdown status. more thanere took in 2000 coronavirus cases. half of them were critical cases. in there treated here buildings built in quite famously in under two weeks. you can't get inside. these are not being used anymore. they haven't been since april

when they were shut down when the pandemic situation in wuhan. must have come from somewhere else. that thisally shows really is a mystery to where and how this pandemic started. one year on from where this all started, things are moving back to normal. people are moving on. china is also stepping up efforts to distance itself from the virus. after basically shoving the who out of wuhan, now mounting a campaign to cast out over china being the source of the virus. exhibition about the pandemic here is taking place. it is pretty overwhelming. inside, di ahram is with

,ospital beds, holograms manichaeans of military people bringing medical supplies. xi, ans of president emphasis on his role in containing the pandemic. they are really trying to pull at heartstrings with this city in this country. [speaking chinese] >> in many ways china has little incentive to find out how this all started. with the virus all but andinated the public angle

the economy on track to take over the u.s. in 2028. francine: bloomberg's emma o'brien reporting wuhan. we will continue tracking covid 19 and figure out what comes next. langford,eak to aisha an assistant professor. this is bloomberg.

this is "bloomberg surveillance." we are delighted to be joined by an assistant professor at new york university school of medicine department of population health. thank you professor langford for speaking to us today. we see a lot more lockdowns in europe. we also have a vaccine. what will the first six months of 2021 look like? prof. langford: i hope it will

be very inspiring with the vaccine rollout. that what we have learned so far in terms of getting the vaccine to the will provideuicker hope for us in the next few weeks and upcoming months. the new variant of the covid strain, it is important for people to remember that so far we don't know if the new variant will make people sicker or if it is more deadly. it is important people will wash their masks and -- foster hands, wear masks, and practice social distancing. francine: do we know it is easier to transmit? i live in london and there are or restrictions because of that. how does it change the way you should live until more people get the vaccine? it appears to be

more contagious. we don't know if that is going to make people sicker or more deadly. we have to continue practicing all of the behaviors we have been practicing like wearing masks and practicing social distancing. it will really be up to policymakers to determine how they will respond with regard to lockdown. many of the behaviors we have in place should remain in place. hopefully with the new vaccine that willupdate, slowly effects the pandemic has had on us. at some: when you look of the unknown quantities for 2021, how much are we protected after the first dose of the vaccine? prof. langford: it really depends on how much vaccine you are talking about. the first shot of the pfizer

vaccine has been estimated that the protection is about 50%. it is important for people to get that second dose. that is where you see the protection of up to 95%. depending on what vaccine people are getting it is important to follow through with all of the shots. to make sure they are coming back. francine: thank you for joining us. in the meantime i'm looking at .tocks that are still going up more bloomberg surveillance ahead. happy new year's eve everyone. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> there's going to be surprises on the way that will largely not be pleasant. >> we could see the first quarter get back into negative territory. >> i'm expecting it to mulcher was year. >> the first part of the year will be very tough but i think you are looking at a better second half. >> you could have an economic recovery and not necessarily a stock market recovery. >> what we focus on what happens during 2020, we will all be amazed at the reputedly of the response. this is "bloomberg surveillance." lisa: from new york city and berlin for our audience worldwide, very good morning everyone. this is "bloomberg surveillance ." alongside mattr miller.