♪ welcome to "street signs" i'm julianna tatelbaum. >> i'm willem marx both in london happy monday here your headlines. >> sterling surges to a seven-month high against the dollar in a two and a half year peak against the euro as a new poll suggests the conservative's lead over labour has extended. hundreds of thousands flood the streets of hong kong has protesters peacefully mark six months of anti-government demonstrations in the chinese territory. france braces for a fifth-day of nationwide strikes

against pension reforms adds the government seeks to calm fears but push ahead with an overall of the system. and checking out tesco trades near the top of the stock 600 as the retailers considers a move that could generate $9 billion. ♪ well, a very warm welcome to "street signs" this morning. let's kick off with a look at fx markets because we have seen a pretty strong move higher in the pound. you can see here trading around 131.59 sterling has hit a seven-month high against the dollar after a opinion pollex the ended their lead over the labour party the british currency hit a two and a half year high against the

euro very strong reaction in fx markets. that seems to be the main way they play. very strong move there, just under the 132 mark now, we're going to have more on the upcoming uk election in about half an hour with managing director at teneo. let's look at equity markets a slightly weak estart to trade 234 europe following a positive day on friday, not only for european stocks but also for wall street. the stronger than expected u.s. nonpharm payrolls report better than expected german export figures out but over the weekend weak chinese export numbers out showing that experts contracted for four months in a row in november. bit of a mixed picture there central banks in focus with the federal reserve and ecb meeting as well as the snb in switzerland. plenty to keep an eye on today

couple corporate stories in focus i want to highlight started with osram where shares are surging after ams announced second bid has been successful the austrian chip maker was forced to lower threshold to 55% after the initial offer failed in october ams says they plan to approve a planned $1.6 billion rights issue to help fund the deal. osram shares up more than 14%. very strong reaction ams shares on the flip side down nearly 5%. tesco said they're considering a potential sale of its units in thailand and malaysia. despite that, their shares are trading nearly 5% higher they added that talks are in a preliminary stage and there's no guarantee an agreement will be

reached. the deal could reportedly see the businesses valued at up to $9 billion that's it for the markets. willem, back to you. >> protesters in hong kong this weekend staged the largest rally since last month's local elections which the pro-democracy parties won a massive majority it's been six months since demonstrations since the government first began in the chinese territory and hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets to mark that milestone. our colleague has filed this report for us from hong kong >> hong kong's anti-government protesters took to the streets once again on sunday, ahead of today's six-month anniversary. organizers estimate 800,000 people participated in the demonstration, which was the biggest since august of this year but, we also saw that deep drigs here in hong kong with pro china supporters rallying on saturday with some of the beijing supporters calling pro democracy

protesters rioters in the meantime, the hong kong government just reiterated its calls to end the violence and its promise to engage in dialogue in the meantime, the hong kong economy is teetering because of the disruptions stemming from this anti-government protest and the clashes between the protesters and police. hong kong's government calling for the very first budget deficit in 15 years and also forecasting 1.3% of economic contraction in 2019 on year. some of the economists we have been speaking to say unless the fiscal stimulus coming from the hong kong government is more sizable and targeted, it's economy could remain in recession in 2020. let's push on and talk about 2020 and the risks that investors and businesses should be looking out for in the year

ahead. businesses will need to be courageous and self reliant if they are to tackle the biggest threats of the coming year, that's according to control risks. the firm has identified a handful of major risk factors for 2020 that includes, let's take a look here, that include a fractured geopolitical landscape, increased consumer activism and rise in the likelihood of cyber warfare. the current group of world leaders are too focussed on the short term and lack the competence to tackle the world's major challenges a lot for businesses to be aware of patches of red across the map here this political and security risk map. and on that note, we have a special guest to discuss these risks in more detail willem >> as a senior partner at control risks and joins us now in our london studio let me ask you this, charles, if you look at the current crop of global political leaders, what are the biggest potential

obstacles they can throw up in the way of business leaders? >> oh god there's a huge range of things they can do in terms of business leader es. one of the biggest problems we're highlights for the 2020 is the world appears to have gone tactical and political leaders seem to be lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis without any real strategic view of how they want the world to work that's a big problem for business business likes to plan business has one-year plans, five-year plans, ten-year plans and a strategic vision we're finding that the political world right now really is having difficulty coming up with a strategic vision that business can rely on? >> can we start with the u.s donald trump recently warned north korean leader kim jong-un about not interfering in the u.s. election, not acting in a hostile way. should american voters or politicians be concerned that some kind of external crisis

could play a part in the innovate presidential elections next year? >> yeah, absolutely right. the presidential elections, just the campaign itself, is our number one geopolitical risk for the coming year. if you're incumbent in the united states, including the current incumbent, two things you want to be careful about during a campaign. and that is don't mess up the economy. and don't start a war. america's allies and its adversaries around the world both understand that president trump's appetite for global military engagement is low so what we're going to see perhaps is north korea and places like iran push the boundaries, push the envelope and test the limits of the united states administration perhaps with some sort of either tactical strike in the gulf area or maybe a resumption of mice si missile testing in north korea moch those external events could push very hard on the presidential campaign this year.

>> one of the big external pressures that's been affecting lots of different parts of the world are what's happening in hong kong the untles it's no longer an issue that's contained to that region we have seen the u.s., western europe weigh into what's happening there. so how big a risk is that as we look to 2020 >> look what's happening with civil unrest and protests around the world everywhere from chile all across the hong kong and what you showed at the beginning of the show, what's going on in france there's a very high risk in the coming year that this sort of government-oriented civil unrest will pass into the corporate sector and that all of the drivers of this issue, whether it's concerns about authoritarianism or climate change or concerns about income inequality that these sorts of civil unrest protest issues are now going to start to confront business >> how well do you think businesses appreciate that risk? are they actually preparing for

the kind of scenario that you're outlining? >> i think it's a mixed picture. you hear businesses talk about esg and csr and throw around these acronyms to sort of show the market or to show their customers that they care about these things in 2020 they have to get much more serious about these issues. >> giuliani mentioned hong kong. we heard those detention camps are no longer detention camps. they're a place you can willingly go to be reeducated if that's what you're after as a global risk from u.s. and china, you have pressure from the uyghur detention, i'm wondering how that relationship outside of trade when it comes to geopolitics plays a role on the world stage. >> we don't see any grand deal being struck at all. this year and what's left of it or in 2020 because the united states and china and again, this is a reflection

of the tactical nature at the moment of that relationship. this again goes back to becoming an election issue. president trump has the option of signing a superficial trade agreement with china, some sort of interim accord but that could collapse under tight scrutiny. if he doesn't come to some sort of agreement with china more broadly on trade, then he's hung up on his phrase about trade wars being quick and easy to win. so really very, very little emotion or movement between united states and china in the coming year. >> thank you very much stay with us let's talk france now. france's prime minister promised to push ahead of pension reforms in the face of continued strikes of french unions opposed to the plan overall he insisted if they were not carried out then a future government would be forced to make what he called really

brutal changes instead now our france reporter charlotte reed joins us on set despite the fact that we're now bracing for five days of protest in france, it feels as though the government is keen they'll keep pushing for the reforms. >> big success, big mobilization there. and feels like since then everything has accelerated on friday, the prime minister came out and said i will present the detail of this reform. that's the thing the first protest demonstrations we didn't know the details of this pension reform. now they're going to be unveiled on wednesday the unions have called for another protest tomorrow in the meantime, there was a cabinet meeting yesterday. the president also met the president as well. today, the unions are meeting the labour minister in paris all these movements here because the government wants to tackle it and address these fears that have been coming because we didn't know the details of these reforms. now the question is because the public opinion is 50/50 here

people are in favor of reforming the pensions, but they don't really trust the macron government to actually address it they're in support of the strikes at the moment. about 50, 55%. the question is how long can it go on with especially with the demonstrations no, transport in paris, absolute horrible weather to paris and the public opinion can go one way or the other and the government is hoping they will go their way after they unveil the details of the reform, but the unions on their side want to keep momentum going within demonstrations tomorrow and try to keep pushing and just have this reform put away. >> we leave the politics aside in some senses and you look at the impact economically of these last few days of strikes as we enter the workweek today with no definite end in sight. are there any estimates out there as to what this will mean for france's economy >> not yet that's also with christmas coming soon, on thursday, people made arrangements, work from home or when cycling to work,

that's when reality hits really. we have seen the scenes in paris in transport a lot of shop owners are concerned about the impact on the christmas shopping you know, in the next two weeks and people will be able to move around in paris and other cities that's really where there's going to be another impact that can impact public opinion people can get more and more stressed and more and more worried. won't be able to travel around christmas time potentially this is when things can move one way or another. >> timing of this very important. we'll keep an eye on these developments throughout. thank you for bringing us the latest now, president trump has warned north korea's kim jong-un that he will lose everything if he acts in a, quote, hostile way. pyongyang state media had earlier on sunday reported that a, quote, successful test of great significance had taken place at one of its satellite launch sites some missile experts said it had possibly been a static test for a rocket engine and not an actual missile launch. north korea's ambassador to the u.n. said his country will not

denuclearize after all and that extended talks with the united states were no longer necessary. well, we're going to squeeze in a short break, but coming up on the show, the pain continues as u.s. trade tensions impact chinese export data. plus, we'll discuss the threats that face the eurozone with a former finance minister from greece next beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond.

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♪ welcome back to the program. the french finance minister says france is prepared to refer president trump's recent tariff threats to the world trade organization the trump administration has proposed tariffs on french products like champagne and chiez in retaliation for france's planned tax on digital revenues washington says the tax will unfairly burden u.s. tech giants, but they have insisted that the tax is no way intended to be discriminatory and will equally impact companies from all over the world now, we got some fresh data out of china over the weekend. chinese exports in november

contracted for the fourth nomon in a row exports fell by just over 1% compared to the same period last year while imports grew by more than expected, hinting that beijing's bid to stimulate domestic demand may be paying off. let's get back to senior partner at control risks who joins us around the desk. so the u.s./china trade war clearly complicating things for foreign businesses looking to invest in china, but as we just saw there on the import side of things and have seen in much of the consumption data, the domestic picture is still very, very compelling. there's a huge consumer growth story there. so how do you see this playing out for businesses in 2020 as they try to navigate a world where the trade outlook is so uncertain but the growth prospects are so compelling? >> well, the growth prospects for 2020, we have a partnership with oxford economics. and together and with oxford economics we have come up with a view for 2020 gdp growth which

is actually extremely conservative global gdp we're putting at 2.5% for the coming year. china will probably be around 6% there's a chance it will drop below 6% growth, although it looks like china will make its target of doubling gdp nationally from 2010 to 2020, eurozone at 1%, u.s. 1.6% and so we think that the growth picture is really grinding going forward. yes, you're absolutely right there's still enor rouse opportunity in places like china. 6% growth in china is a new g-20 country every year exactly. it's eye popping. >> amazing to put it into context like that. >> so that is a whole new g-20 country for investment being born every year. political risks are extremely higher, absolutely right, given what's going on between the united states and china, but it's all about managing those risks and getting in there and

understanding the way the market will play out for the coming year. >> what does this mean for other countries in asia where we have seen, you know, some businesses try to adjust their supply chains to account for this political uncertainty. if we look ahead, do you think the businesses are going to start committing significantly to these other countries like vietnam, other places around asia that offer alternative to china? >> there's a strategy called china plus one strategy which has countries either moving some of their capacity from china because of the political risk to places like vietnam, thailand, et cetera, and those countries grow as a result of some of the heightened areas of risk around china. nobody is leaving china. nobody is abandoning china for any of the countries around its periphery, but it appears to be wise risk management to sort of double up and mirror some of your capacity. that plays very, very well into the countries that surround china on its southern rim. >> now, we also got some data

out of germany this morning on the export side, a rare bright point showing that german exports rose in october versus an expected decline. but the political climate in germany is also pretty uncertain at the moment. what's the kind of view for 2020 in terms of what businesses are thinking about >> yeah. there's a very, very close relationship between politics and economics. that's particularly the case for the coming year. and we feel that under the economic pressure that we're forecasting for the coming year, unless a country has its political foundation solid and it's economic foundation solid, it will come under enormous and perhaps transformational pressure one of those areas really is the eu we're wondering whether between france and germany the netherlands, spain, some of the biggest players even though there are bright spots we're wondering if this sort of constellation of countries is going to get its political and economic act together in order to survive what could be a

fairly tough year going forward. >> do stay with us that's charles, senior partner at controlled risk. there have been 60,000 bank cuts deutsche bank laid off the most workers. it announced 18,000 job losses while bnb and union credit slashed thousands of positions moody's cut its outlook on global banks to negative over the past week, but it did specifically warn that the profitability gap between euro area banks and global peers will widen further. and as julianna mentioned just a few moments ago, german exports rose 1.2% in october in defiance of estimates that figure followed a string of weak data following the manufacturing and industrial sectors and the export german economy faced a great deal of pressure from the on going u.s./china trade war as well as that slowing global economy. i'm happy to say this morning

we're joined by george, the former greek finance minister and professor at the european university institute his new book "whatever it takes towards a post crisis europe" argues it is at a developmental cross roads and faces key challenges in its economic, social and institutional architecture thank you for being with us, george. >> good morning. it's a pleasure. >> let me ask you about this, you got a new commission in charge here in europe as of the last beak or so, do you think they are better suited, better positioned, better qualified than the last when it comes to tackling some of europe's most intractable problems >> i believe in new beginnings so, already the fact that you have a new commission taking place within your parliament, with new head of the ecb gives hopefully a fresh impetus to something which has stalled over the last few years because we're out of the eurozone crisis but truth be told we stopped reforming swins 2012, 2013

not much has been happening. lot of the eurozone areas, banking union to the backstop are stalled. we have a eurozone budget which isn't worth the name the evolution of the sm treaty is not going very well, so one would hope that on these purely institutional, architecture matters of the eurozone, a new commission will have a new push, but also new commission ready from the pronouncements of the new commission president is putting an emphasis on two areas that they should look at urgently, digital and transition on climate yes, i am more hopeful that we'll see more activism. >> i just want to pin you down on this. you say you believe in new beginnings the last commission failed to do what was required? >> no, i wouldn't say that the last commission faced the worst. they had to handle a crisis as

it developed the eu is famous for acting too late but actually rallying in the end to save the currency and what we have billed together so you can credit the last commission for bringing you out and not just the commission because the ecb had a lot to do with it actually for bringing the eu out of the worst of the crisis. we had six years of growth unemployment at a 20-year low. that's not something to frown at but that's not enough. we're not where we should be to deal with the next crisis. >> you mentioned how the ecb played a significant role in bringing the eurozone out of crisis mode. now they're facing a huge amount of backlash not only from the public and from banking leaders but also from within the governing council around the approach to policy they have taken thus far madame le garde in the leading seat, you had a lot of interaction with her when you were the greek finance minister, what do you think her role will look like there and will she be

able to get more done on the fiscal side as the monetary policy chief had >> christine lagarde is a deft political operator i think that we know for sure from her time at the fund but also before as a french finance minister so the real question is can she build on the draghi legacy, with his parting shot, he created a clear rift which was already there but was exposed for everyone to see. it could have been handled perhaps his parting shot, but we are where we are and the truth is that diplomacy will get her only thus far it's not only question of charming the germans in terms of changing the fiscal mix. the ecb has been very vocal about this the question is will she be able to push those countries in that direction? will sbhe able to push in new

areas. the ecb is at a good point for you talking about climate for example. so, she's got her work cut out for her. >> i want to bring back in charles and ask you, we heard a bit there from george about disunity, some division inside europe when it comes to fiscal plans, all sorts of things when we look at this from a global perspective, not just within europe, when you look at the division amongst international leaders, even on the g7 level, if there's a major economic problem, god forbid over the next 12 months or so how well do you think these various policymakers and leaders will be able to work together to try to confront it >> not very, to be honest with you. we have lowered our political risk rating for greece for 2020. so positive trajectory in greece's political outlook but you know, in the 2008 crisis we saw the federal reserve the european central bank, the bank of japan, the bank of china,

just big central banks acting in concert to resolve that particular financial challenge given that multilateralism seems to be falling apart and that the united states is no longer playing ball on the same field as all of the other major players, we fear that a serious external economic shock will not be met with a coordinated policy response primarily because the united states is not going to set the ball rolling in that direction. >> charles, we'll leave it there. george, former greek finance minister and professor of european university institute with a new book out. thank you both very much for joining us. still ahead on "street signs," brexit is front and center as political parties begin the final week of campaigning ahead of the uk election we'll discuss latest polls after the break.

welcome back to "street signs" i'm willem marx. >> i'm julianna tatelbaum. these are your headlines. >> sterling surges to a seven-month high against the dollar and a 2.5 year peak

against the euro as a new uk poll suggests the conservatives lead over labour has extended. hundreds of thousands flood the streets of hong kong as protesters peacefully mark six months of anti-government demonstrations in the chinese territory. france braces for a fifth day of nationwide strikes against pension reforms as the government in paris seeks to calm nerves but still pushes ahead with its planned overhaul. checking out tesco trades near the top of the stock 600 as the retailer considers a potential sale of its units in thailand and malaysia in a move that could generate $9 billion. ♪ well, european markets starting the week off on the back foot this morning and negative moves across the board

here in europe this follows the weekend data out of china which showed the exports contracted for a fourth month in a row in november so, some negative news there, although the import numbers were more encouraging german numbers out this morning, better than expected on the export front we actually saw exports rise in germany in october versus expected decline, but nevertheless, the dax is trading 1.6% stocks lower, french and italian stocks are underperforming and in the uk, ftse 100 down quarter of a percent. the election taking place on thursday sharply in focus for uk investors. we also have central banks the fed, the ecb, the snb also meeting this week as well. a lot for investors to keep an eye on this morning and of course bear in mind also that friday was a positive day for european markets as well as wall street this is perhaps a little profit taking after the strong moves on friday let's look at fx markets we have seen some very strong movement in the pound over the last 24 hours or so.

the sterling is up about 0.2% this morning above the 131 level as polls suggest that boris johnson and the conservative party are set to win a majority at the election. the euro trading slightly higher versus the dollar around 110.66. madame le garde first as chief of the central bank. willem ♪ >> boris johnson said he's nervous about narrowing polls in the final days of the country's election campaign. before polling day on thursday, the uk prime minister will visit four separate constituencies currently represented by labour mps but voted in favor of brexit during the referendum. johnson promises that brexit will transform britain and lay lour will lay out its first 100 days in office in a bid to deliver a budget that will end austerity.

speaking to sophie ridge on sunday program, johnson defended his brexit deal and outlined what he says it means for northern ireland's place in the united kingdom. >> the only checks there would be would be if something is coming from gb via northern ireland and was going on to the republic, then there might be checks at the border into northern ireland let's look at the currency sterling hit a seven-month high against the dollar after it showed the conservatives ahead of the uk election this week the british currency hit a 2.5 year high against the euro the opposition party sits on 31% down 2 points and there are just three days to go until uk voters head to the ballot carson nickel now joins us around the desk. well, firstly on the back of these new poll numbers willem and i were just highlighting, how cautious should markets be

about relying on these numbers given what we saw for the referendum. >> yeah, exactly the referendum is, of course, slightly different thing here but i think the most important point to keep in mind here is this nationwide sentiment reflected in the pollsneeds to translate into individual results in many constituencies that's why we're seeing boris johnson up there in the labour held seats because the individual seats he needs to win. that's the pinch of salt we need to keep in mind over the coming days. >> last week we spent so much time covering nato and president trump weighing in on the situation here despite his assertion that he would stay out of the uk election but the fact that the event essentially went off without a hitch, no glitches it went off smoothly, do you think that will play into how voters think about boris johnson. he is the prime minister now he reigned over that he was able to carry out this international event with a lot of contentious political leaders and issues at hand and it went off smoothly.

>> that's true there would have been the risk that something goes wrong. that didn't happen good for boris johnson let's keep in mind this election is playing out about the one thing boris johnson wants to speak about and that is brexit that's what voters care about if boris johnson play works out, that's basically the story he nato and all these other things are effectively side issues. >> one question i get a lot from people i talk to who participate in the financial markets is what are the chances and what does it look like if the liberal democrats, traditionally third party end up as king makers at the end of this vote on thursday do they side with conservatives? do they side with labour and what impact does that have on the uk future economic trajectory >> yeah. liberal democrats that will be an interesting situation it's very difficult to see how that goes together obviously the united element in the end labour very cautiously

gradually moved in the direction of somehow talking about a second referendum. that would ultimately be the deal what we would be looking gnat that scenario is increased risk opportunity however you want to see this, the second referendum and government that will have a life span of a year maybe once we're done with the referendum i don't think how a jeremy corbyn government will last much longer. >> if we end up with a hung parliament and conservatives can't find someone that will work with them, how likely would you say there is for a second election >> second election obviously more likely in that scenario tory largest party but then without anybody who is willing to work with them. that's definitely a risk to keep in mind. that's much higher in the scenario it would be enough for labour snp and lib dems. >> what are the odds of an orderly brexit come january 31st

if we do get a conservative majority at the end of the election. >> that should be fairly plain sailing. my big concern is that everybody will get in that scenario very excited and the party will last until 31st january then we will figure out we have 11 months to strike a trade deal that takes you eight, nine years to negotiate first july, we want to make up our mind if we want to ask for more time. these difficult tradeoffs that will haunt us next year. >> all right so, the uncertainty doesn't necessarily end after thursday stay with us managing director of teneo let's touch base on one corporate story. tunnel oil plummeted over 50% sending shares to the lowest level since 2004 the moves come after ceo paul mcdad stepped down amid criticisms of the company's poor performance. dividends were scrapped and the

2020 production output slashed by 60% as the oil and gas explorer continues to face major issues in one of its main fields in ghana ♪ saudi aramco will officially begin trading on december 11th according to the domestic exchange, the opening auction for the oil giant will be extended to 30 minutes the state oil giant priced ipo at 32 per share aiming to raise $25.6 billion. the valuation makes it the biggest listing in history. >> that follows the idea that opec and its allied pledged to cut output by 500,000 barrels a day, slightly more than the market had expected. saudi arabia has specifically committed to additional voluntary cuts of 400,000 barrels a day. the fresh reductions amount to 2.1 million barrels a day. representing around 2% of global demand our colleague hadley gamble

caught up right after the opec plus meeting on friday and asked him to outline how the new outlook cuts would work. >> the new deal will kick in first of january i think we will see better numbers of some countries as they were promised by our friend from nigeria, they will be in full compliance for the month of november we will be able to verify that in somewhered my december. we were told also by our friend from iraq that they will have been doing something extra in terms of their performance so, in reality i think we would be able to see their performance, everybody's performance in december. that would appear in mid january. but the new deal would kick in on first of january and we would

be able to see everybody's performance somewhered my february. >> how closely was this correlated. >> just so happened that the timing of opec meeting was deci decided way? yun. the timing of the ipo was decided more recently. if it was to be intertwined, we would have elected to defer it or bring it earlier or something. that is not to make it coincide with any opec meeting. >> so 30 years in the industry -- >> the fact they coincided people try to draw a corallation between the two. but, you know, it's some media outlet tried to use that as a caveat for getting us to explain

what you have time to do and this opportunity. let's put business and politics aside for a moment. at least five people have been confirmed dead by new zealand police after the eruption of a volcano on white island. boats, ships, around emergency aircraft in the area rescued 23 people, however search operations have stalled over concerns of a further explosion. police are unsure how many people are left on the uninhabited island. get in touch with the show via twitter and contact myself and julianna directly. coming up on this program, a heavy weight champion reclaims his crown after a gripping bout in the saudi arabian desert.

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♪ does this bring new meaning to the term starving artist? performance artist david datuna ate a piece of art in miami. the piece by italian artist

entitled comedian had been sold for $120,000 he wrote on instagram that he respected his work, adding it's very delicious it's not known whether he went bananas. this is a pretty remarkable -- the price tag is pretty remarkable also the fact that he just ate it right away. i have seen numerous memes now about this it seems like the idea is living on despite the fact that he ate it. >> from my per spigotive an overripe banana is better suited for banana bread than eating >> you're right. maybe he should have thought about that i think the banana has been replaced that could happen still. >> it's probably quite affordable to do that. saudi aramco's ipo clearly a big event coming out this past week but another event caused shock waves in the world of sport there this weekend british heavy weight anthony joshua risen once again to the top of his sport after he regained all his world titles from the american boxer andy

ruiz on saturday he lost his belts to ruiz in one of the most shocking losses six months ago this was a fight held on the outskits of riyadh set to offer one of the most lucrative fight purses in sports history. let's get you an update now on impeachment proceedings state side democratic lawmakers could vote on articles of impeachment this week against president donald trump. house judiciary committee chair jerry nadler says democrats have a, quote, rock solid case against the president. trump continued to hit out against the probe on twitter, calling it a witch hunt and attacking speaker nancy pelosi ♪ john harwood filed this report after his exclusive interview with former vice president and leading 2020 candidate joe biden. >> i sat down with joe biden, the national democratic front-runner to face president trump in the 2020 election to talk about the economy

he's facing a challenge from the left from bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, each of them favors a wealth tax. joe biden does not, but he told me he does favor a financial transaction tax. >> is there certain things that you have to right the market a little bit here. and the market is that if you have all of the tax breaks, essentially all the tax breaks, all of the benefits flowing through the top 1/10th of 1% there's never been a greater concentration of wealth including going back to the great depression ever. it's not just the political, the economic impact on people who are hurt, the middle class is getting killed. >> treasury secretary mnuchin said said he opposed a transaction tax because it would destroy financial markets. is that why rejected that idea.

>> no, i still think that we should have a financial transaction tax. >> days after elizabeth warren laid out a new plan for stopping megamergers, joe biden said he agrees that the corporate concentration of power is a significant problem for the american economy. >> it is a big economic problem. and one of the things i have said along the way here is that i would do as president is set up within the justice department an entire new entity to go back and look at the megamergers that occurred and those that are being proposed to occur. whether or not it's in the telecom industry, whether it's in -- whatever it is there's a lot of concentration of power and make a judgment whether or not it made sense for that to happen and so one of the things that always happens from one administration to the next, even with the same party, you go back and look at the consequences of what was done. i think that we have -- there's too much concentration of power and i don't disagree with elizabe elizabeth's generic point.

how do we go about making that judgment remains to be seen. i don't think you go about making judgment by picking a particular company i think you talk about what happens -- what happened when we concentrated the power. >> joe biden told me that he fears the president who succeeds donald trump will inherit an economic recession he wants it to be him, he needs to make political progress here in iowa which kicks off the voting in early february john harwood, cnbc business news, chester, iowa. >> back here in europe, the head of germany's cdu party has criticized the new leaders of the ceu coalition parties. the two new leaders publicly refused to commit to the coalition government kans la angle merkel's potential successor said the government should serve germany and not be a, quote, trauma therapy for ruling parties her remarks come as the sbd completes its three-day party congress the party's leftist leaders

agree to stay on as coalition partners for the time being but they are demanding new policies on climate, investment and minimum wage we'll talk about german politics on a scale of 1 to 10, if 1 is not even slightly bothered and 10 is terrified, how concerned should investors be about the collapse of this coalition, this grand coalition in germany >> three maximum, absolute maximum. i mean, the reality is if you look at both parties, effectively three, if you look at where they are in the polls, none of these two parties can really have an interest of going back to the polls right now. none of these parties have sorted out, by the way, who is going to run you made that very clear just now, right the potential successor for angela merkel. that is by no means certain. there's all these open questions. what we'll see next year is a lot of noise, mini crises, a lot

of drama but i don't think anybody has the political clout to pull the plug on this. >> so if she's a potential successor, isn't this one of the biggest problems in german politics no, certainty about who takes over from merkel. >> it is in one way and the other way if you look at this historically it's the way in which german politics work it's the way in which german chancellorships end. angela merkel is around for 16 years the longest serving chancellor you only make it to that record-breaking number if you have made sure that there is nobody who can channel you on the way and then usually comes to haunt your party once you're gone we have seen that once before. >> now, there's so much talk about fiscal stimulus out of germany. we were talking to the former greek finance minister earlier on the show about these prospects. one thing is clear there is momentum for more green spending we have seen a rise in support for green parties across europe. do you think it's feasible we could see germany use that as a

lever to justify more spending if it's under the umbrella of green spending that needs to be done >> yeah. i think there's momentum in germany for green policies, whether that translates into green spending the german case we have to be very careful because the usual disclaimers that we had over the last decade, talking on and off about is this the moment for greater german spending, they still apply. to me, i don't really see it in substantial terms under this government if we were to see a green-led coalition led government potentially with the social democrats after the next elections, maybe then we can get back to that. >> with the fragility that exists within the coalition, i know you put the collapse of the coalition at 3, when challenged by willem with his spectrum there, there is still fragility. there's no doubt about that. what does that mean for politics at the european level? are we going to see the eu leaders be able to push forward a lot of the reforms that they want if there's all of this sort of uncertainty within germany? >> i mean, look, even in the

most stable days of german domestic politics the ones who have been standing on the brakes really when we're talking about substantial reform on the european level have been, who, the germans led by angela merkel let's face that. unless we're in a scenario significant market pressure returns and germany finally needs to address the question domestically how much is it worth to continue the euro if how much are you willing to give up and to pay? that's the question they never had to answer unless we get into that scenario, i don't see major leap forward here. >> carson nickel, thank you for joining us, managing director from teneo we'll leave you with a look at u.s. futures. that is it for today's show. i'm julian tattle balm. >> i'm willem marx "worldwide exchange" up next on . on . ouch. i don't even want to think about it. comcast business has a solution. we go beyond fast with a cloud-based security system that automatically updates, so you always have the latest protection.

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♪ it's 5:00 a.m. at cnbc global headquarters and here is your 5 at five searching for direction. stock futures not giving investors much to chew on after friday's block buster jobs report and triple rally numbers suggest the ageing bull market isn't ready to be put out to pasture yet jeff bezos has a message when working with the pentagon. new comments from china hoping a trade deal gets done asap and the house of mouse strikes again. already raking i