joining us now is james bullard.s isow simulcasting inclusive interviewed live on bloomberg radio. good to speak to you. we just got the latest jobs figures. what was your reaction when you first saw that, and the slack out of the jobs market? my interpretation of the child's report was that it was a bit weaker than expected based on the headline nonfarm payrolls number. i think it is consistent with 2% growth for 2017, which is what we are predicting at the st. louis fed. you also have weak gdp tracking for the first quarter, so i think those two things seem to suggest that 2% growth is about what to expect out of the u.s. economy in 2017. shery: so much talk about reducing the fed balance sheet. can normalizing the balance sheet the as substitute for boosting the benchmark? >> well, one of the issues i felt that is important about the balance sheet is that it is putting downward pressure on the medium and longer in the of the yield curve -- longer end of the yield curve while there is pressure on the shorter end of

objectives -- general bullard gives it to his officers. marshall sends orders and says we need intelligence. we need to know where all german machine guns are. which village shelters and sellers have ammunition. we need to know this. we need to know the locations of everything. every night from mid-may up until the battle, for two weeks -- some nights there were as many as five or six patrols in no man's land, coordinating with each other. they would go out and crawl to enemy lines after dark. in the national archives, they had stacks of these reports. they are the most fascinating things to look at. the men would handrolled what they got. some of the men actually got through the village to the east on the far side and into the field on the other side. all under the cover of darkness and quiet. they would come back before dawn, hopefully and fill out a , patrol report. that was sent back to marshall and his staff -- bullard's staff. they would plug it into the map. slowly, the operation's plan took shape. i show you this photograph. . you

what was the reaction of president bullard to this? jobs report fell short, only 98,000 instead of 180,000. true, winter storms, the theme in march, bad weather ap created a fluke. whether maybe created a fluke. #222,look at the chart, the white line the jobs rate, the turquoise line six month moving average come the yellow line three month moving average, a steady trend higher, suddenly turning down, maybe add weather. mr. bullard said the report was week, and here's what he had said. was a weak report. it was weaker than expected, but jobs growth of around 100,000 would be consistent with labor force trends in the u.s., so if you get numbers in that wouldorhood, to me, that be neither good nor bad because it would just be a trend pace of growth in jobs that you would expect in a 2% growth economy. around 100,000 is enough to keep the jobless rate falling which fell to 4.5% from 4.7%. , with the anomalies unemployment rate at 4.5%, wages are still not growing. year over year average hourly earnings up 2.7 percent, down from 2.8% in fe

you'll see general bullard. behind him to the left is general duncan. he would go on to be the commander of the 82nd. partially obscured behind general duncan is general bullard's operations officer. he was 37 at the time. he would've believed the army in world war ii. he later became secretary of state. he was the division chief three here. he was the operations officer. general pershing sends them to this photograph is one of the only known photographs of cantigny. a wartime photograph taken before the american assault. i wanted to show it to you tonight because i think many people look at the west -- think of the western front and think of some dantes inferno landscape here it it was accurate before the spring offensive. , this is freshit farmland. because of until then, the war had been 40 miles east. the germans had pushed 40 miles. this is on a front where victory for the last 3.5 years had been cldver one 200 yards. -- 100 or 200 yards. up until 300 weeks -- up until three weeks before they got here, this was farmland. cantigny sat on a hilltop.

after working as a boxer and vaudeville performer in england, bullard settled in france.infantry of the french legion. after sustaining injuries declared unfit for infantry service, bullard earned his wings with the mill tear i of france and joined the lafayette flying corps in 1916. his plane was decorated with the slogan, all blood runs red. when the u.s. entered the war, bullard tried to enlist as a flyer for the americans. >> i was more and more puzzled until it suddenly came to me that all my fellow country men who transferred were white. later i learned that in world war i knnegros were not accepte as fliers in the united states army. this hurt me deeply. >> when hostilities broke out in europe, thousands of americans touring the continent descended on london hoping to find safe passage home only to find themselves unable to obtain accommodations or tickets for the few ships sailing. a 40-year-old mining engineer and financier from iowa by the name of herbert hoover, was living in london in 1914. hoover organized an american relief committee that provided food, shel

james bullard there. and coming up today, janet yellen what answer questions at the university of michigan. we will bring that to you live on bloomberg television and radio. it ahead is options insight. today's trading involves british petroleum. oil prices way on energy stocks. will that continue? this is bloomberg. ♪

louis fed president james bullard says it will not stop the bank from producing a balance sheet thison is higher than anybody thinks it is going to be. if you want to create some policy space for the future and have the option of doing quantitative easing, you should get the balance sheet down to a reasonable size today. you have to do is allow the reinvestment policy to end. then you can gradually run off some of the size over town. is lumpy, itit does look kind of lumpy but we in such a wayhat that it declines at a given rate. i do not think this is a matter of doing something to cause volatility. i think it will be taken in stride. if we can get to a lower number than 4.5 trillion -- yousef: what is a reasonable sizing? guest: that is a good question. about the crisis, it was 800 billion with some reserves could if i have my number is is at 1.7 trillion now. some reserves to, you could get to a size of 2 trillion. now is trillion we have way above anything like something in the 2 trillion range. we should make some progress toward that eventual goal. the committee has not decided

fed president jim bullard discussed the need to bring that figure down..5 trillion is higher than anybody thinks it should be, that is number one. number two, if you want to create some policy space for the future and at least have the option of doing quantitative easing in the future, you should start getting the balance sheet down to a reasonable size today. another aspect of this is that all you have to do is to allow the reinvestment policy to end and then you can gradually run off some of the balance sheet size over time. also, if you think it is lumpy, if you look at the pictures of what is maturing when and what month and that kind of thing, it does look kind of lumpy. we can manage that and smooth it out in such a way that it declined at a given rate. so, i do not think this is a matter of doing something that would cause volatility in markets. i think it would be taken in stride by markets. i think we could get to a lower number than $4.5 trillion with a reasonable policy. >> i need to jump in here because i want to ask what is a reasonable size

while the fed's james bullard's focus is on the balance sheet. >> $4.5 trillion is higher than anyonehinks it should be. michael christine lagarde goes : over what keeps her up at night. >> who do you think will be the next french president? what will be the next coalition in germany? what will happen to the terms and conditions of brexit? michael: donald trump continues to promise big reforms, but opinions differ on if and when he will pull them off. >> i don't know when it is going to happen. if i knew that, if i would be pretty rich. >> to accomplish something in that area, there has to be something taken away. michael: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ michael: hello and welcome. i'm michael mckee. this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of the most important business news from bloomberg television and around the world. with several major banks reporting earnings on thursday, investors were poised for big news from the financial sector this week. they certainly did not expect the news about barclays that came out on monday. ♪ francine barclays says they made : a

david: that was james bullard speaking to us exclusively yesterday.nberg in new york. we see the contours of the proxy debate shaping up here between james bullard and deadly. it is clear that they don't what to do. if nothing else, their lack of action shows there is no true clarity or vision over what the right thing to do is. there is concern about growth, for sure. there the mandate about employment. and something has to be done. i think the only question recently is how we go about doing it. david: what is the market inking as all of this is being talked about? we were member the taper tantrum. what is the lesson to be learned from that? what did the fed learn from that? karl: you would like to think tot they have learned communicate more clearly but it doesn't seem to be the case. so right now, i think they're exploring what their options are. i think what is clear is that there has to be something at this point in time. even at the time of the taper tantrum, it wasn't clear whether they should or shouldn't, but now it is very clear with the une

thate: jim bullard says america remains in slow growth mode. we have more from the bloomberg interview with you. is the hp bulletin latest company to be targeted by activist investors. spinning off oil assets. will others back this push? let's have a look at european equities. is your function. luxembourg is down. spain, italy -- france, today, currencies are rising. this is the spread in the difference. widened since february 24. was very 21statch when we reached 79 basis points, that is the widest in four years. march, we came down to roughly 55 basis points. but uncertainty prevails. the latest report published on sunday had macron and marine le pen tied in first place at 24%. and the by mela sean republican candidate one point behind. when you have margins of error stern into the mix, it does suggest that all four candidates are in a position to be among the top two in the first round of voting two weeks yesterday. and the contest remains wide the with a month ago until may 7 runoff. there is the spread. keep an eye on that as we approach t

feds james bullard has told bloomberg that interest rates can remain relatively low since the u.s.growing slowly. the federal reserve bank, st. louis president says this is a good time for the central bank to begin shrinking the balance sheet. a half trillion that we have right now is way above anything like something in the $2 trillion range. we should allow it to run off so it at least we are making some progress toward that eventual gold. the committee has not decided what it wants to do. but even if we ran policy with significant amounts of reserves, we would only need a balance sheet in the $2 trillion range. juliette: u.s. secretary of state rexx tillerson travels to moscow on wednesday. america'sldened by decision to drop tomahawk missiles on a syrian airbase. he is likely to face a tongue lashing. unless the president snubs him. the u.s. says it was forced to retaliate after the syrian president used chemical weapons in an attack that killed dozens of people. tillerson has that america is not interested in regime change in north korea. these comments come after heightened t

entered the war, bullard tried to enlist as a flyer for the americans.re puzzled until it came to me that all my fellow countrymen who transferred were white. later i learned that in world os were not accepted us liars. this hurt me." >> when hostilities broke out, thousands of americans descended on london hoping for safe passage home only to find themselves unable to obtain accommodations or tickets for the few ships sailing. a 40-year-old mining engineer and financier from iowa by the was of herbert hoover living in london in 1914. he organized the american relief committee and provided food and shelter and financial assistance to more than 100,000 americans. his leadership earned him the respect of the u.s. ambassador to great britain walter hines page. hoover to page tasked lead a relief mission to belgium. starvation.d germany had invaded but refused to take response ability for feeding the population. on the other side britain's naval blockade prevented ships from entering belgian ports. 22, 1914, herbert hoover established an organization to proc

james bullard's focus is on the balance sheet.agarde goes over what keeps her up at night.

while the fed's james bullard's focus is on the balance sheet. goes over what keeps her up at night. >> who do you think will be the next french president?

while the fed's james bullard's focus is on the balance sheet. >> $4.5 trillion is higher than anyonechael christine lagarde goes : over what keeps her up at night. >> who do you think will be the next french president?

thate: jim bullard says america remains in slow growth mode.e from the bloomberg interview with you. is the hp bulletin latest company to be targeted by activist investors.

. >>> jim bullard said the central bank could begin winding down the bank this year.aying it should make it less necessary to raise the funds rates. but opinions differ on the fed on the topic which is something we've discussed before. now, it seems to be consensus in terms of interest rate reduction. the balance sheet is something is that favarious fed members nd to get on track. >>> fed chair janet yellen speaks this afternoon at the university of michigan in ann arbor. wednesday, look for import prices, jobless challenges. even though markets are closed on friday there is still some economic data to watch, including march retail sales, cpi, big inflation number. earning season also gets under way on thursday. this is the big story of the week. the revolts from jpmorgan chase group. how are you going to balance three earnings reports on one day? >> i can't wait. it's exciting. two of them are exactly the same time which does make it a little tricky. but it's exciting to get your head around those numbers. i think the story is expectations are a lot higher than they

while the fed's james bullard's focus is on the balance sheet. >> $4.5 trillion is higher than anyonel: christine lagarde goes over what keeps her up at night. >> who do you think will be the next french president? what will be the next coalition in germany? what will happen to the terms and conditions of brexit?

james bullard weighing in on the importance of balance sheet normalization. >> one of the issues i feltas important about the balance sheet is that it is putting downward pressure on the medium and longer end of the yield curve, well the increases in the policy rate are putting upward pressure on the short end of the yield curve it's a kind of a twist operation, and i'm not quite sure that there is any theory that says that's the right thing to be doing in this situation. what you'd like to do is allow the entire yield curve to adjust to the rate increases in a more natural way, and i think one way to do that is to begin allowing some of the balance sheet to run off. alix: adding to the rhetoric on friday, bill dudley said some people misconstrue what he said, he said a little pause, and i think that would be shorter than that when referencing whether to normalize and hike at the same time. jonathan: this is one of the smartest guys on the fomc, read that paragraph again. what is a pause? that's what it has come to? alix: talk about understanding rhetoric. luis -- lou,bob and what is a

bullard is a nonvoter.streaming to tighten policy, suggesting no need for further rate hikes this year. we will ask him about that as well as his thoughts on reducing the balance sheet. ramy: definitely unwinding the $4.5 trillion balance sheet, something we will go into. but later on we will also speak to the credit suisse chief economist for japan in 10 minutes after that. we look at the current japanese accounts, and we are forecasting a surplus, expanding from january to february, ¥1.68 trillion. we will see how that plays out in 15 minutes time. data to chinapan data, it is a big week, because we are looking at trade inflation. i will talk to j.p. morgan's chief china economists. ♪ >> weak payroll numbers give the fed something else to think about and may suggest employment stable. >> modest gains at the start of a week launching earnings season. >> president trump and president xi jinping held their meeting a success. >> strengthening transpacific ties with china. >>

jim bullard from st. that he thinks 2 million is the mark rather than say 1.5 trillion. and the chance right now of that june rate hike running around 65%. >> also jumped just last week. >> it was basically unchanged. a little bit up, a little bit down. but basically the idea of june being baked in despite the support is probably the market's best sense of, you know what? we're not really thinking either we or the fed are that affected by the disappointing number. >> knowing now that the fed's going to shrink the balance sheet that may affect the timing and the pace of future hikes beyond june? is that the thinking? >> yes. that it can compensate for tightening. >> faster than slower is the way to think about it. what a lot of people are saying now is what this does is gives you a june and a september rather than a december one. because what they're going to do is perhaps pause in the rate hikes. ahead of this -- i think the thing that the market has to begin to grapple with and the fed is grappling with

up next on "bloomberg best," an exclusive conversation with james bullard on the challenge of cuttingconsiderable balance sheet. plus, businesses is chomping at the bit for donald trump to deliver a tax reform plan. stephen schwarzman says, "take a deep breath." >> it is very complicated. if the numbers were easy, somebody just would have printed it and sent it to you. michael: this is bloomberg. ♪ yousef: look, the poles had said this would be a close race but most people would have expected more of a comfort margin in there. that did not happen. 51.4% in favor of that motion, giving the president the power stay as head of stage. and more importantly, dismissed judges and get back to the leadership of the party. the reaction, let me show you what has been happening in the moment. but first, this is what he said. >> wheel we said we would not now down in front of anybody. citizens, i salute you with my feelings. we became lively and brothers and altogether, we became turkey. on alled together different fronts. against all of these, my nation stood tall. here and abroad, you exploded t

haidi: that was kathleen hays with james bullard. that is ahead of the fomc march meeting notes.ing uncomfortable truths when it comes to china's economy. this is bloomberg. ♪ haidi: this is "bloomberg markets: asia." i am haidi lun in sydney. avestors are looking to highly anticipated and potentially very controversial report when it comes to households in china. led byy the study southwestern university has fundamentally changed the way one should think about the economy. tom mackenzie spoke to the economists uncovering some uncomfortable home troops. >> the income a quality is really bad for chinese economy, not for instability for social instability, but for china's economy. china's government has done not enough not sufficiently to help the poor by transferring income to the poor. i give you statistics come up 40% of chinese government spending are using as transfers. the united states number is 36%. other european countries are higher. >> what have you learned about asset allocation, where chinese money is in savings? .> housing so for example, overall average asset ine hou

imagine the bullard amplified voices warning nobody leaves the corral. try and leave the corral and you will be severely disadvantaged. you will, that's not a analogy. there are munitions roaming in the corral and a lot of inmates are restless. the corral is not a great place to be. nobody likes to be threatened and bossed around. nobody likes to play the fool or cater to someone else's whim spirit nobody likes to go against what someone respected voice in the own conscience and homes state universities are telling you. your point is that the republican senators apparently feel compelled to do so. talk about that a bit. >> guest: i said this over and over again. talking to republican colleagues about climate change is like talking to prisoners about escape. they may very well want to do it, but they are really anxious about being caught. so we probably have six to ten republican senators who probably would like to work on a good climate bill. we have wines have sponsored climate bills before citizens united. we have wines who have run for president on go

james bullard there.oday, janet yellen what answer questions at the university of michigan. we will bring that to you live on bloomberg television and radio. it ahead is options insight. today's trading involves british petroleum. oil prices way on energy stocks. will that continue? this is bloomberg. ♪ julie: this is bloomberg markets and it is time for options insight. joining me today from the cboe is the chief market strategist at bullseye option. alan, i am curious how the market looks to you right now. we have seen this sort of sideways trade over the last month or so. at the same time, we have oil up a little bit and earnings approaching. what do you make of all of it in terms of what we will see next? have seen a bit of applause in the last few weeks. the market made an all-time high, so it's been a bit of a time here even though the nasdaq did make the all-time highs last week. markets catalyst to the upside. but what got my attention, we had a frantic friday. is thursday. that should set the ton

bloomberg spoke to the president james bullard about his concerns.ames: one of the issues i found important is that it is putting downward pressure on the medium and longer and of the yield curve while the increases in policy right are putting upward pressure on the short end. operation.wist i am not quite sure there is any theory that says that the right things to be doing in this situation. you would like to allow the entire yield curve to it just in a more natural way. one way to do that is to begin allowing some of the balance sheet to run off. >> the head at ubs wealth management. i just come back from three days of a convention run by you guys bring together jpmorgan management. best thing i came away with is that this is a great experiment and they are so scarred -- tenure volatility over the last 10 years in the u.s. markets. it has been fairly repressed. we are in for a bumpy ride. is that to reduce the size of the balance sheet and raise rates at the same time. >> when it comes to the balance sheet, i asked if you're a stock person. that ac

talking about the unwind of the fed balance $2.5, $4.5 trillion to trillion after our talk with james bullard yesterday. we do not know when that will happen. meantime, we will be on pins and needles. looking at stocks, we much flat. shery: the dollar has been pretty cautious ahead of that ixeech and of course, the v jump into this year's high. in asia, the only market open at the moment is new zealand and we are not seeing really that much change in early trading. the kiwi dollar, do keep an eye on it. westpac switched from a neutral to negative bias on the kiwi this week. quarterie dollar, last is best to g10 performer against the dollar, now being pressured ore, thefalling iron metal now entering a bear market. futures pointing lower. slightlyikkei futures lower although we have got to say the nikkei did rise for the past two sessions. we are seeing some strength on the japanese yen as well. let us stay in the region and head over to china because a tech conglomerate has been forced to drop its $2 billion vizio.ition of selina wang joins us from new york. about the know pullback in the u.s

i agree with professor mercer bullard who is a proftsor of law at the university of mississippi school of law who testified before the capital markets subcommittee voicing his concerns about this bill. in his testimony, he noted that to take advantage of the terms of this legislation, an issuer would have to have at least $34 million in total assets. surely such minimal disclosures required are not too burdensome for those sorts of companies. i do also understand that some proponents of this legislation argue that such an exemption is needed because disclosure of company information to employees runs the risk that confidential information could be leaked to competitors. employees with access to such information can simply be subject to nondisclosure agreements, which are typical today. indeed, nondisclosure agreements are a simple solution that protects the company, does not deny the employees the right to understand the worth or of or the risks associated with the compensation they are receiving. unfortunately, this bill would limit that transparency and those protections. i oppose th

louis fed president jim bullard saying overnight from australia, "now may be a good time for the fomc to consider allowing the balance sheet to normalize by ending reinvestment." the thinking among economists seems generally to be that the jobs number not disappointing enough to deter the fed either from hiking rates or eventually reducing the size of the balance sheet. here's three ways to look at the jobs number. here's the lame one, the one everybody focused on was the 98,000, much less than the 175 expected. adp was 263. and the household report was 472. it's been running a little bit stronger recently. other indicators have shown very low jobless claims and strong growth in tax collections. add to that the 4 1/2% unemployment rate. you have a market that remains pretty sure the fed will hike again in june and there's little expectation yellen is going to deviate from that script. >> when we saw the minutes there was surprise that they talked about doing the unwind all at once when it comes to letting the balance sheet know or doing it progressively -- >> gradually. >> a taper. >>

[applause] amy: you have been listening to bob bullard, a professor of environmental justice at texasty, speaking last night at the environmental justice in action conference that took place at howard university. this is democracy now. we are broadcasting live from the people's climate summit. they are about to take off. we were at the pool in front of the capital. we bumped into sheldon whitehouse. sheldon of rhode island, the senator. this is what he had to say. we are broadcasting from the people's climate march. senator sheldon whitehouse is with us, the senator from rhode island known to take on those in power. welcome to democracy now. se: it is au great day. amy: talk about what are the stakes in the senate, and what you can do? mr. whitehouse: the stakes are incredibly high. we can keep talklking about this issue and force the republicans to address or deny the issue. a bigld really make difference if the house of representatives went democrat in the 2018 elections, and the democratic chairman were able to push subpoenas and legislation. don't forgetet the politics s of this.