assault and harassment claims be ready speaking at his -- claims. he said, i am not going to resign. pressure has been building after six women accused him of sexual assault or harassment and allegations emerged that his administration covered up covid nursing home deaths. he denies he ever touched anyone inappropriately. the biden administration is repealing a trump era policy on unaccompanied child migrants in order to encourage their family members in the united states to take custody of them, even if the parents or guardians are not living in the country legally. under a 2018 memorandum, officials were ordered to look into the immigration status and criminal history of potential sponsors before releasing unaccompanied minors into their care. biden administration said the policy undermined the interests of children. germans are being warned to

prepare for tough weeks ahead as covid-19 cases rise. leaders say they fear it is the beginning of a third wave following surges in cases last spring and in the fall. germany reported 12,000 new cases in the past day and 252 deaths. health officials say most people over 80 in germany have been vaccinated. the italian prime minister is pledging to triple the country's daily rate of coronavirus infections as most of italy faces under lockdown a year after the pandemic started. the prime minister spoke after a visit to a vaccination center outside of rome. the new measures will affect as many as two thirds of italians. the prime minister also promised economic aid to affected businesses and families. 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'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. >> welcome to "bloomberg markets ." >> we are joined by our bloomberg audience and vice versa, thank you for having me in your home and office. let's get you the top stories from around the world. first, treasuries tumble, the 10 year yield leaves above 1.64% to its highest level in a year, the move after inflation expectations rise to a seven-year high ahead of next week's fed meeting. a bloomberg exclusive, finance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange being investigated.

we will talk about this story with a former senator who joins finance as an advisor. and called in the middle of an activist fight, an investor group -- we will speak to one member of the group. an exciting and action-packed half hour. amanda: you could say the same for the markets, certainly a little bit of a swing here but the story is all about the yield and specifically that 10 year treasury. there is a look across the markets. the tech doing the worst, growth momentum stocks faring the worst. not a massive move to the downside. in the s&p 500, there are groups moving positive, all holding their own. maybe a little bit of the

rotation story that we have been watching, but there is the story of the week. we've got people saying, look for 175 before the year is over. this will be with us for some time. it doesn't speak to the continued question of is a time to pivot completely into value, time to get out of growth? it feels like there is life in this market for the growth sector because we do see buying on the debts happening. matt: we do see, for example, arc is down but only about 2%. you would expect, normally, when you see a jump in the 10 year yield, stocks selloff that etf because it has some futuristic super growth companies in it, but this drop is not bad compared to what we saw last week. it seems that kathy woods shareholders are keeping the

faith for now. amanda: yeah, to me, ark is an interesting symbol of where we are in this market. you have to believe the story, buying on growth and momentum, her view of what is the right thing to buy. a lot of liquidity concerns have been debunked by some bloomberg coverage. this is a place i would not want to be standing. matt: absolutely. that is the place to look. you might think if the markets were going to correct, typically you would think there would be a correction in the bitcoin price but that has not been the case lately. today, bitcoin is down, down to 57,300 dollars. pretty lofty heights and we will talk about cryptocurrencies and the biggest exchange for cryptocurrencies, binance.

the cftc is investigating it. max is the longest serving senator in montana's history, or he was, he used to work for the sec before he went to congress and now he is helping binance navigate these waters. he was also the chairman of the senate finance committee. this is the right guy to get if you need someone to help with these issues. max baucus on bloomberg next.

matt: this is "bloomberg markets ." there is a lot going on right now but i think the yield

picture has to be the most interesting. i was looking at the divergence between the u.s. treasury yield and german yields and not only has it grown to almost 200 basis points, it is interesting that the german yields have stayed around the same level, while treasury yields have rocketed. amanda: one of the interesting part of that story, it was not that long ago that we were having conversations about negative in the u.s., even though the fed said we are not going to go negative. we could have believed them. they have a lot of other tools they can use and maybe what germany shows is what you have gone there, it is tough to believe that you are going to offer an alternative. matt: the interesting thing also is that when you see rates rise, typically you see something like

gold fall but that has not been the case with bitcoin. it is up to over $57,000 right now. the largest exchange on which to trade cryptocurrencies is binance. it is being investigated over concerns it allowed americans to place wagers that violated u.s. rules. amid all of this, binance has announced that max baucus is going to join the company as an advisor, government rate things -- government relations advisor. he served as a senator for three decades. he joins us now. first of all, thank you for joining us. you have tremendous experience for an exchange like binance to navigate these treacherous waters. first off, what is the cftc looking into and what is

binance's response? max: well, crypto is an up-and-coming technology. it is exciting. it is progressing worldwide. you mentioned bitcoin has rocketed up. it is a huge phenomenon in the world. cftc is doing its job, as it should. the sec is looking into crypto, the treasury is developing regulations. this is such a new phenomenon, it is appropriate that regulatory agencies do their job. i cannot state whether or not the cftc is investigating binance, that is not for me to say, but i know that they are looking at, not investigating, looking at a lot of exchanges because it is the right thing to do and binance is just part of the general effort of the cftc

to figure out what is going on because it is an exploding area. amanda: it seems to me, forgive me, it is obvious what binance wants to do. it claims to have no headquarters, there are concerns it is a big regulatory headwind. why did you want to be involved? max: one, it is an exciting new technology, it part of the future. second, i spent some time with the founder. i'm not going to join binance unless i am assured that what you do is on the up and up, following all the laws. he assured me that is the case and after a long conversation, that is my conclusion. in addition, i checked with lots of people who know a lot about binance, former regulators who know binance, so my judgment was

they are doing the best they can, they are doing a good job, and my reputation is on the line. if it looks like they are not doing the right thing, i am bailing out. but my goal is to help them and to try to help the industry work with regulators and with congress. i think congress should have hearings on crypto like they did on web hood and rabbit -- robinhood and reddit. matt: it would help the industry, it would help binance if they would register with the cftc as a futures broker and submit to agency oversight. are you preparing them for that? max: i think they are moving in that direction. they are the largest exchange in the world. they are moving in that direction. matt: right now, americans can't

trade certain contracts with binance because of that. wouldn't it be better for the business if they registered to the cftc? max: that is a decision we are discussing. it is a business judgment. the real point is to make sure they are following the law. that is my job. also, my job is to help them develop their business in a way where they expand but also following regulations. to answer your question, that is a business judgment. my main concern is to make sure they are following the rules. amanda: would you say there should be the same kind of congressional oversight here as there is with gamestop and

reddit -- what are the changes congress might want to see it is not completely regulated space? what would you warned binance? -- warn binance? max: there are many questions numbers of congress want to have the answers to. it is so complicated. most people have the -- have a hard time understanding blockchain. hearings that get into blockchain would help. hearings into the crypto market, bitcoins, how they are developed, manufactured, how they are made, also questions like how slow the crypto exchange is compared to bank accounts, there are a lot of questions. i worked hard on the affordable care act and i found numbers of the senate had no idea how our health care system worked in the

same thing is true here. most numbers of congress have no idea how crypto exchanges work and they need to find out. matt: do you own bitcoin? do you own ethereum? max: i do not. i'm looking into it but so far, i do not. matt: really appreciate your time. former senator max baucus there, the longest-serving senator of montana. when i am ready to retire, i'm going to head up there and pick myself out a house and hopefully, it is not too expensive because he was telling us, prices have been rising as americans look to get out west. amanda: you can thank yellowstone for that, everyone wants to move to montana. coming up next, an activist leaving the fight against calls. we have fred disanto.

stay with us.

amanda: this is "bloomberg markets." activist investors continue to take a run at calls. not without some pushback. the latest has been this tussle over the five directors that the activists would like to nominate to the board. investors saying they have five experienced directors. our slate of qualified directors to against tenured directors who we believe do not have the relevant skills. we believe those individuals should be held accountable. fighting words. matt: absolutely.

kohl's, to be fair, has to -- has made some moves lately, the stock has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, although it has kinda been a dog for the last decade. kohl's says the activist investors are focused on financial engineering at the expense of operating financial success. they also propose ideas that the company already has underway. we reject their attempt to disrupt kohl's strong business momentum. that is the answer from the company. the question is, how does this play out? amanda: that is right and that is often the argument against activists, that they are short-term in thinking. fred disanto is with us now, an exclusive conversation. thank you for being here. let's get to that point.

you are thinking short-term, they are thinking long-term, they are already doing some of what you would do, leave them alone. is there an argument to be made that activism tends to focus on short-term results? fred: that is not the case year and that is not the case with ancora. if you take a hard look at kohl's, you mentioned underperformance. if you invested a dollar in kohl's 20 years ago, it would be less today. we are not doing this for trade. if you look at where kohl's is coming from, and that is important because from 2011 to 2019, they spent $6.6 billion in capex and earnings cratered 44%. 2020, throw away. we are not in this for the short

term. if you look at the board that we are putting up versus the five candidates that they have, the five existing board member as they have, i don't think anybody is going to say, that is objective, but the slate that we are putting in cannot add value to the organization. matt: i wonder what you can do with the asset. i realize that over the last 10 years, sales have gone up fivefold but there has not been a lot of change in margins, certainly not to the upside. i think about peter lynch, he said it does not matter who you put in charge, you could put in charge elon musk or bill gates or any incredible business magnate, if you don't have the

right assets, they are not going to be able to do anything. do you think you can do something, really, with kohl's in this climate? fred: absolutely, or we would have not have invested in the name. of course we do. this is not just a game. if you look at where their stores are located, they've got a good tailwind because mall be taylor's -- retailers have been in trouble. they have an opportunity. they have some strong competitors and that is why the execution is critical. if you take a look at a couple of the people that we are bringing to this board, that is what they have. they have operational experience and they have been enormously successful. do we think they should do something with a leaseback program? of course we do.

they have $7 billion of capital tied up in real estate. why not take some of that capital, if you truly believe -- this is what they have said -- if you truly believe in their plan and it is not just sitting here and they are successful, the stock is cheap. so why not buy back stock? their competitors did raise their dividends and some of them raised them to above pre-pandemic levels. they brought their dividend back , way below pre-pandemic levels. there are some things that are going on that, as a shareholder, we don't understand and the best way to affect change is to be in the room. we want to be in the room. we own just under 10%. amanda: you have set a detailed analysis of what you think the gibbet it to the under management of kohl's.

you have noted that the culture may be part of the problem. probably why you wanted nine directors. how easy would that be to change, even if he did get the five directors that you want? fred: culture is difficult to change, but it can change. it can change with what i believe is the right governance at the board level. you talk about culture. you talk about what the employees have gone through in 2020. very difficult year for the workers. a lot of them laid off, a lot furloughed. but here we go. the board, the ceo got a 43% pay raise from 2019 and 2019 was not a great year. you have to start at the board

level. that is where the management team is going to be held accountable, be it a sense of urgency, and they will be aborted if they perform -- rewarded if they perform but they should not be aborted if they don't perform. matt: it is an interesting story. forgive my stupid question, clearly you have put your money where your mouth is. clearly, you believe in the story of kohl's or else he would not have made the investment. we are looking forward to see what you do with this asset. i think the charts have shown an incredible story. fred disanto there. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> the world health organization

has granted an emergency use listing or the coronavirus back in by johnson & johnson. that means the window shot can be used as part of the international c effort toovax distribute vaccines globally. the united nations health agency said today the data from large clinical trials show the j&j vaccine is effective in adult populations. new york governor andrew cuomo is defined calls to step down in the wake of sexual assault and harassment claims. speaking at has covid briefing today, the governor said quote i'm not going to resign quote pressure has been building on the governor after six women accused him of sexual assault or harassment and allegations emerged his the administration covered up covid nursing home deaths. the man overseeing a criminal investigation that poses one of the biggest legal threats to