hans nichols speaks on "bloomberg surveillance."nd resurrection of print and newspapers. good morning everyone. this is "bloomberg surveillance." we are live from new york. i'm tom keene joining me is olivia sterns. let's get to the top headlines. olivia: crews are racing against time to dig through rubble to find survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 30 600 people. it relief agencies warned that the next big problem may be disease caused by tainted water. the earthquake rated 7.8 on the richter scale. >> conditions are extremely difficult to know how to get there. we do have teams in the area. it these are remote villages. olivia: it was frightening on mount everest. look at this video. 19 people were killed on everest. one of those killed was a google executive. helicopters evacuated almost all of the climbers who were stuck on the mountain. deutsche bank is making major cost cuts to revive profits. they are reducing costs by $3.8 billion. they will shrink the securities business and cut back its ownership. they have

let's get more from hans nichols. re saying that as an opportunity for trade italy's in modi's -- for trade and in modi's terms, huge." it is 60 billion euros and that makes germany, india's largest trading partner in the euro. they are far behind. other traders, swiss is ahead of india. you look at germany's trade with china and close to 100 55 billion euros. almost 10 times to trade with india. that is what the focus has been. there's a big trade fair. that is where they met yesterday. both sides are looking for each other. mr. modi has been clear. what he needs to do is clearing up the democracy and make companies easier and partnership easier and give investors a little more certainty. india will go on a spending spree. they was the money on energy turbine. their energy consumption is set to rise. and rails. that is a good for companies. on the other side, the defense side, they are spending. in france, he announced they would buy a french fighter enough not the euro fighter. angela merkel's response was that is co

guy: for more, let's go to hans nichols from frankfurt. where is the bank trimming cutting, where is it looking to grow? hans: they are going to be cutting in retail units. it is not just postbank. deutsche bank itself, their retail outlets will drop by about 200. there are currently about 730. they are trimming back the investment bank, but they are also redeploying some 50 billion to 70 billion in assets into relationships and client-based services. they are looking to shed about 200 billion in assets. that is going to get their capital requirements to about 5%. before, their goal was to have a return on equity of 12%. in 2015 they came in just north of 3%. a lot of that is litigation costs. they were hit by 1.5 billion. we are heading into a press conference shortly. we want to find out where the job cuts are, how many, and what is the overall strategy in terms of the investment bank. francine: that is what we don't know, we are still trying to find out. you are also speaking to the co-ceo later on. hans: we will bring you that interview

hans nichols in berlin. usually germany is the one that outperforms. this data is not so good. surprisingly, there's a miss on the manufacturing. the manufacturing miss was the greatest of all three. it is manufacturing we expect to be stronger because of quantitative easing. in the last 3-4 weeks, we've had mixed economic numbers out of germany. there has been concern about the slowdown in greece. for the most part, the view was the german economy would be able to withstand that. on tuesday, you had the new gdp figures updated from 1.5% to 1.9%. the other data is troubling. earlier in the week, we got the eew number -- the z.e.w. number. that was disappointing. a lot of attention is going to be paid to that number. jonathan: data disappointing. i imagine the railways disappointed of you people this morning. what is going on? hans: we've got a 2-3-day strike. the passenger strike is going on until the end of the night. huge, massive lines all throughout german rail stations. the local news have been playing it all morning. about two thirds of long-distance trains in germany are

hans nichols is in riga. one big yawn. what do you want to glean on friday? hans: it was a headline until the headline crossed moments ago on the bloomberg terminal that said yanis varoufakis took "a hammering" inside the meeting. according to three people familiar with the talks. some complaints, accusations against varoufakis was that he was an immature, a gambler, a time waster. intense comments directed at yanis varoufakis. it's breaking up shortly and we expect everyone to go to the cameras. for a sense of how frustrating finance ministers were have a look at what mr. dijsselbloem the your group president said. mr. dijsselbloem: it's a matter of urgency for the greek side to get the deal to make sure there is enough money available to keep the government running. hans: the expectation heading in is that we would not have a of progress. we've actually gone backwards. at the beginning, wolfgang schaeuble the german finance minister, he said what is everyone doing in riga? he encouraged us to go see the city. we had a blowup inside the meeting and we have to

hans nichols has the story from berlin. ns: $1.5 billion would be north of one point -- ubs, they were right at $1.5 billion. that was the high water mark up to that point. rabbo bank paid $1.1 billion. it gets a little confusing translating from euros. barclays came in at $451 million. lloyds bank paid $383 million. this would be the biggest settlement. it would also include potentially a guilty plea for their u.k. subsidiary. barclays never actually pled guilty. they were one of the first banks in. deutsche bank has already settled a yen and euro libor probe with european authorities. that came in at 725 million euros. what analysts are saying is that this is good news. it removes the uncertainty. one of them said, the psychological effect is that the uncertainty is gone. for deutsche bank libor is one of the last big legal disputes. it includes two countries and the new york state department of financial services. the cftc velasquez shop and the cfa in the u.k. you have multiple regulators coming together here. deutsche b

guy: for more, we are joined from greece by our international correspondent, hans nichols in berlin. a reporter who normally is in greece, but i've got this completely wrong he is in london with us today, which is great. hans, walk us through the roadmap to may. hans: in many ways there's a lot of talk about deadlines. the european commission is saying that mid-may after that may 11 meeting, is the real deadline. mr. dice alone heads they -- he may have said it best when he said the real deadline is when greece runs out of money. we got 80 million coming due today. later in may, don't forget that may 1 payment. a lot of focus is on the may 12 payment. that is to the imf. there are another 200 due on may 1. mr. dijsselbloem seems to be the most negative. he says they are still far apart. take a listen and have a sense of how many people are talking about isolation and contagion. mr. dijsselbloem said just 2% of euro output is coming from greece. that seems to be an indication that there is an emerging view that you can survive an exit. one final quote, he said, on the content, we are f

hans nichols has this report . hans nichols: frustrations world over in the meeting here among finance ministers trying to figure out and get a status update from the greek government on where they are in committing to the agreement where they said they would commit certain reforms. in some ways, the biggest casualty is time lost. we have heard that again and again from finance ministers coming out. it was a critical conversation taking place. listen to how the head of the eurogroup couched the tops. >> it was a critical discussion. we came to an agreement two months ago. today, we had hopes to hear a possible agreement on which we could take a decision. we are still far from that. hans nichols: according to some in the meeting, mr. varoufakis received a hammering. it was quite tense at several moments. coming out of the meeting, mr. varoufakis said they had made some progress and had constructive talks. he was about the only finance minister to make. throughout, there was a consistent line that greece needed to do

hans nichols's has been following the story. hands, what is on the list? hans: about $1.1 billion in fresh spending. much of it comes from a 13th month of a pension. that would be an acceptance or all of branch to the protesters in greece. some of the stuff we have known about. there is the 800 million for offshore accounts. nothing concrete came out of the finance deputy finance ministers meeting. the greek site is claiming some progress. they say the move has improved. nothing concrete. we get back to the clock ticking, it does not look like we will have any sort of agreement until we have the meeting. when we have all the finance ministers gathered together. it is april 24. that is a big problem. when you to give out the april 9 payment. it was reported that greece may miss the april 9 deadline. greece said there was no possibility. but they were putting the interior minister of greece. 71.8 billion of emergency liquidity assistance. they are keeping that part of it tight. caroline: former prime minister interesting moves there. he is indicating in an in

i will get to hans nichols who is tracking the developments. lots going out -- a lot is going on outside our borders. what exactly do we know so far about this battle between google and the eu? hans: what we have is a statement of objections. u.s. tech companies are going to have to start reckoning with the power center in brussels because they have so many concerns. this case is about google. it is about antitrust. it is narrow and broad. narrow in the sense that they are focusing in mostly on google shopper which is one feature they have on google search. they hinted that it may go on further to google travel but to the core search function, they did not necessarily say a lot about that. they are expanding it and they are going to go after an inquiry into the android operating system. that is the bad news for google. the other aspect of this is the commission gave google an opportunity to remedy this. they say you have to have your results with shopper be somewhat comparable to the other results. the fines are significant. it could be up to 1/

hans nichols follows this very closely and joins us with the latest. what is the government saying? varoufakis was just an d.c. where does the money come from? it has come down to this. hans: they do have the ability to juggle some money internally for the first part of the month. the tax receipts they say are up, even though they were down in january and february for a total of 900 million euros, when you look at what came out of the meeting with madame lagarde a clear assurance to make that debt payment to the imf. they also talked about ways they can strengthen the between greece and its creditors. mr. varoufakis had a meeting with treasury department officials and in some ways he has allies in the u.s. administration because they would like to see less austerity imposed. varoufakis is saying over the weekend, april 24 is the new date. that is when euro finance ministers meet in rego for a meeting. that is when he was to see some kind of deal. it includes a primary surplus of 1.5%, new investments from the european surplus bank and the creation of a bad bank with nonperforming loa

manus: let's get straight to hans nichols who is in berlin. you look at this, it is the timing of it. it is spectacular in terms of what pugin is doing -- pugin is doing. hans: what you have from lavrov is him saying that this was done in the spirit of goodwill. they insisted it is about stimulating progress in those very nuclear talks that concluded, at least limited early concluded, on april 2 in switzerland. what lab rock is insisting is that these missiles will not be pointed at israel. >> the s-300 is a defensive weapon that cannot serve offense of purposes and will not jeopardize the security of any country, including of course israel. hans: the u.s. were pretty measured in their criticisms. what both sides agree on is that the 2010 you and weapons ban does not include a ban on the s-300. what you are really seeing, and you saw this overnight in washington, is that republicans in congress are seizing on this issue to talk about obama's and russia's intentions in this negotiation. many are saying this is just about russia seeking a commer

hans nichols it seems that the bar is set very low for this meeting. ns: the bar is just to get a status report at this point. you mentioned frustration. there are really two pockets of frustration. one is with mr. tsipras. mr. tsipras may be trying to short-circuit what happened here in riga and cut a deal on the sidelines with angela merkel. in that meeting yesterday, he asked for a short-term deal. that is one bit of frustration. the other frustration is that greece simply hasn't shown enough details. they haven't done enough technical work. as mr. muscovy c said, time is wasting. >> the overall issue is about the regime the present program to deliver reforms we can change. we need jobs and growth in greece. on the other hand, we need to think about further arrangements which could come afterwards. this is why it must be a coherent and strong exchange of views leading to a maturation in the process. hans: mr. dijsselbloem said that it was incumbent upon greece and that greece is going to be feeling the pressure to cut a deal faster than european part

caroline: hans nichols, thank you very much indeed.credit suisse reported earnings in line with estimates. earnings for the investment bank he estimates. we will have the numbers with an interview with radio can labor gazprom -- interview with brady dougan a little later. gazprom will have a probe. the eu has been examining whether the company contracts unfairly link oil and gas prices and prevent customers from reselling gas. the eu president has called a summit on april 23 to address the growing humanitarian crisis in the mediterranean after a boat carrying hundreds of people capsized off the libyan coast. >> the situation in the mediterranean is growing. it cannot continue like this. we cannot accept that hundreds of people die when trying to cross the sea to europe. this is why i have decided to call an extraordinary council this thursday and this is why i traveled to the region. the objective of the summit is to discuss at the highest levels what the member states and eu together can and must do to alleviate the situation now. car

we are joined by hans nichols. i am pleased to say we have a ubs investment banker. ns, a new deadline if it is mid-may, what does eurozone finance minister going to be doing later this week? hans: [laughter] they will be taking stock all the talk, the significance. the real deadline is when greece runs out of cash. that is what -- said out of hollander this morning. when they run out and it could be mid-may or later made, they have been payments do. they owe 80 million euros. in may, that starts to crunch free here is what i will watch for. to what extent are finance ministers talking about firewalls? you heard from mr. dies will -- dusselbloem he thinks the rest of the eurozone can withstand an exit. he had this to say and said the content we are a far apart and everybody sees the process is difficult. the line out of the imf meetings in washington was there was not much progress and taking too much time. if you're looking for a bit of optimism and i have an interview with a german newspaper that was published and they are saying there was some incremental progress

half the gold. -- hans nichols. hans: they want to grow in their relationships.rim 200 billion in assets that is going to bring their ratios up. they will have an ipo by the end of 2016. here's a quote from the ceo explaining what they are planning to do. "we must remain client centric but focus on climate -- client relationships, and remain universal but avoid training to be all things to all people. the new girl is having -- goal is having 10% return on equity. in contrast to what they had in the first quarter, it was 3.1% return on equity. they will also be closing down some branches. some of the retail operations will be coming back. i will be trying to figure out where those are so i can find a cash machine without paying. this is going to make the a prime robbery victim because i will be carrying around so much cash because i might not be able to find as many outlets. caroline: thank you very much indeed. to be sure to stay tuned throughout the morning. hans has a fantastic interview with the co-chief executive of deutsche bank. you won't want to miss that

thank you so much, hans nichols, in berlin n.ling with china," we've been speaking to investors and we'll hear plenty more from tom on china. in terms of the biggest interviews we have coming up, we have mr. paulson these are two great interviews you don't want to miss later. he's the chairman and founder of the paulson institute. he was the former u.s. treasury secretary. it will be interesting to get his take on this new book that he has out in dealing with china. today we found out that china's economy expanded at the weakest pace since 2009. we've been trying to discover whether that means you should be worried about it or whether it just means there's a shift in balance that actually just becomes a stronger economy because it's gotten rid of all that overhang. another interview is the u.s. treasury secretary. he's coming up a little bit later today. now, just a reminder you can follow me on twitter. for u.s. viewers, it's "surveillance" with tom keene and his team. there's guy john sofpble he's doing a debate on europe and t

let's go to hans nichols in berlin for more. should we start with who said what and when? is good playground stuff. it has big implications. on friday afternoon, there spiegel published an interview with the grandson of the founder. he said he was keeping himself at a distance from martin winter corn, the current ceo. we have that. on sunday, there was a statement released by the other grandson of the founder, a cousin. here's what he had to say. he represents his private opinion. content and facts have not been coordinated with the family. we have an open split on the board. the porsche family have two votes. the piech has two votes. there are 20 votes. 10 of those are with the workers council. another two of them are with the state of lower saxony. it looks like mr. winterkorn has the clear support of the workers council and lower saxony. the issue is, one mr. piech doesn't think mr. winterkorn has done a good enough job in the u.s. they also haven't come up with a low-cost alternative, a cheaper volkswagen for this market. the company has been very successful. their sto

hans nichols has the details from berlin. pons, put this into context. that is a lot of money. r a bank, in the context of some of these fines, maybe not much. hans bank they have said aside 3.6 billion euros for legal costs. you compare this $1.5 billion figure, and it is probably north of that. you compare that to what ubs did, ubs previously had the high water mark. ubs was $1.5 billion. rob a bank were about $1.1 billion. barclays was at $451 million. remember, barclays didn't plead guilty. they cooperated quite early. lloyds bank is down at $383 million. this is all on libor. deutsche bank has already paid more than 700 million euros. that gives you a sense. what does it do to the uncertainty? it wipes some of that away. i was talking to analysts. here is what some of them said. the uncertainty is gone. for deutsche bank, libor is one of the last egg legal disputes. this was a four-part deal. you have the department of justice, the cftc, the fca and benjamin lasky's shop in new york. they have been late to the party. they also been driving them up. there's a great deal of r

let's get out to hans nichols who is been tracking all these developments. it was the best case and give us the worst case for google. hans: good morning, caroline. the best case for google is that when these formal charges come down today is that they are actually weaker than expected and that google is able to litigate for quite a long time in various restrictions before any remedy is put in place or for any fines are put into place. there is no dispute about google's market share. they have 90% of market share stop -- market share in europe compared to 65% in the states. they came close to settling it with the last commission but at the last second there were complaints from some rival tech companies and now the new eu commissioner for competition is taking a harder line. google is bracing for a harder outcome. here's a quote from an internal memo. it says "this is obviously disappointing news but we have a very strong case with especially good arguments when it comes to better services for users and increased competition." the worst case for google is not

guy: let's get more from hans nichols in berlin. the new ecb limits and what that tells us about the situation and how it is developing. hans: what the ecb did yesterday is that they increased emergency liquidity assistance up to 75.5 billion euros. that was a 1.5 billion euro increase from the previous week. what they have tried to do is cap the increase -- have the increase match the amount of inflows that have left the greek banking system -- outflows that have left the greek banking system. when we had the first ela increase -- back of the envelope calculations suggest that you have lost 15 billion in the last two months. there is some positive news. there was some optimism. in recent days, there has been tangible progress in the quality of the discussion. significant differences on substance remain. it is those differences they are going to have to start hashing out. later tomorrow is the big meeting with the euro finance group. the new deadline is technical costs sometime in mid may. that is with the eu commission said earlier

hans nichols joins us in moscow. la merkel's view on the visit, she has tried to brush it aside as a sideshow. hans: according to three german officials, merkel thinks that separates's -- merkel thinks that alexis tsipras's visit is a sideshow. he said the idea of world war ii war reparations is a dumb idea. he may be looking for a little bit of help to cope with the austerity that has been imposed. there may be some forbearance, some relief from russia for greece for the export ban on fruits and vegetables. this could help greece exporting little bit more. remember, russia imposed that dan eu wide in response to the sanctions that russia is enduring. at the same time, remember that sanctions rx -- sections are set to expire on russia in july. they will be looking for greece to block the renewal of any sanctions. they are also looking at some discounted natural gas prices. earlier yesterday, there was a report that there could be an asset swap. some greek state assets in return for a reduction on gasoline prices. offi

let's bring in hans nichols in berlin. marcus bensasson is in athens. eece is trying to secure the funds. they have submitted a revamped version of the reforms less. our event is it? hans bank it is much longer. whenever you look at these were formless -- these reform lists, you want to look at what is there for the creditors and the domestic audience. for the domestic audience, there is 1.1 billion in spending this year. 600 million of that comes from a pension reform. so much of what we've heard is that pension reform is going the opposite direction. on that side, it looks like a veer towards the domestic audience. for the international audience 3.7 billion, a little bit more cracking down on offshore tax accounts. that is where they are going in that direction. we had some news out of the finance minister from france this morning, saying that progress is being made. that is perhaps the most positive sign that was discussed . up to this point, it was mostly the greek side saying they sensed a positive mood. let's see if anyone adds to sapin's comments.

let's get more from hans nichols. he joins us from our land. e number is soft. -- he joins us from berlin. hans: that is the point. it is expanding. it is lower than what was expected. you look at the spain number and it was 57.3 up from 56.2 in february. we may hear about diverted economies. growth in spain and italy. and people will take a very close look at the numbers in greece and whether you are -- you can accept these other points and whether or not greece is swept -- excuse me, slipped into reception -- recession. our tax receipts were way down in a january and february. they have seen capital flee the country. 25 billion euros in the first quarter. in some ways, an indicator of how the economies are diverging and what is happening in greece and adopted proposals on what expansion every track that are on. guy? guy: let's talk about greece.. imf payment and that meeting with christine lagarde this week. there is an awful lot going on. pull the parts together for me. hans: the meeting matters in terms of the optics and if there any firm ag

guy: to fiend out what's going on, hans nichols has the latest. he numbers on the poll with quite tight but the majority still has them leaving at some point. hans: yeah. 52%. what is remarkable another 52%, surveys that view bloomberg, it was just 31% four months ago. you really see a change. that is one of the reasons there has been a stress on the banks and just yesterday it increased by 1.5 billion euros up to 76.9 billion. real stress on the banks. guy? francine: hans what is with the sudden optimism? hans: one, mr. tsipras is saying i'm in charge now controlling things. that is part of the optimism. i would caution against that saying we just heard from an e.u. official saying that the idea of having a deal done by sunday would be optimistic. we spoke with a leader who has been talking about the challenges and what other countries can learn from the greek situation. good interview we had with them. now it seems there is optimism on greece. we'll try to report back a little bit more and get a better sense on whether this optimism is merited. g

let's get out to hans nichols from berlin. y is that greece has only raised the 700 million euros. they are giving them incremental increases to keep them on a tight leash. last week, they did over -- around a billion dollar increase. it is right now at 71.8 billion. brendan: one of the things we had been looking for in the ecb minutes, they call them accounts, we call the minutes is whether or not there are enough assets in the eurozone to buy under their current program. any sense yet from our ecb watchers on whether they will change what they're looking at at the by. hans: we will have to drill down deeper when we get the full scope. will there be enough german bonds? brendan: the other -- olivia: the other question is who will be buying them? hans: it will go through the national banks. that has always been the setups the national banks will be doing the purchasing. brendan: our own stephan rieger and frank for says his takeaway, the media takeaway is that the ecb may alter the pace of bond buying plan if it finds it necess

let's bring in hans nichols. what the you think angela merkel of this trip? s: she things it is a sideshow. that is according to three of her government officials. earlier, a german official did say that no one would really mind if russia lifted their sanctions on eu exports for greece for the agricultural products. you could see the emergence of some sort of agricultural deal am aware russia allows those exports from greece to russia. they may be also looking to give them some discounts on gas. the question is, what do they want in return. we know sanctions are up at the end of june. they will need unanimity among the eu. you may have some russia pressure to end the sanctions. will greece stay with its european allies? that is on everyone's mind here. one final note on this, we did have a government official saying that greece was not going to request financial assistance from moscow. we may have some bilateral deals on national gas, may have some restrictions on fruit being lifted, but right now, that looks about it. guy: homes, thank you very much indeed. f

hans nichols there with the latest of what to watch. that is it for "the pulse." joined by lee ann wood. and in the u.s., tom keane and "surveillance." later today we'll be speaking to 21-year-old golf champion jordan spieth. keep it here on bloomberg tv. ♪ >> this is bloomberg surveillance. tom: german yields indicate further distillation. the too big to fail earnings season is upon us. we go beneath the headline data with jpmorgan. america is divorced from reality , the cost of attending olivia sterns eight wedding. it is tuesday, april 14. i'm tom keene. brendan greeley is off. eight weddings or nine weights? brendan:olivia: i want to 13 weddings last year. marco rubio says it's time for his generation to lead america during he held a rally in my auntie to say he is running for president. he is just 43 years old. he did not target any of his republicans. he went after hillary clinton. >> a leader from yesterday

let's get to our international correspondent, hans nichols. good morning. we heard from yanis varoufakis late last night. what did he say? hans: good morning. he said it would be catastrophic if both sides didn't come together for an agreement. at the same time, it looks clear that greek will miss that end of april deadline to submit a list of reforms. young this very fact optimistic and mostly positive, here is what he had to say last night. he said the convergence is clear and the institutions are admitting that. what's interesting is that he is saying that the institutions are walking towards directions. we have a figure -- 1.5 billion euros. that is the amount that is potential he in these municipality accounts that will be transferred to the central bank. that gives greece another 1-6 weeks time. at the same time the ecb are tightening the screws. what they are doing is discussing -- and it hasn't reached the governing council. but they are discussing whether or not to impose the discounts that are imposed on greek securities, posted as collateral. thes

betty: hans nichols is joining me fresh off of that conversation. hans: there have been a lot of talk, a lot of hype, about a very drastic overhaul. deutsche bank decided to cut off survey and they're are keeping retail operations of storage tank. 730 outlets will be cut down to 500 30. there may still be concerned that litigation cost. when i asked about what is charged this is his response. >> very painful. hans: they do not necessarily know what is in the pipeline and with the next charges will be. he said he is utterly confident they have made legal provisions for most indeed any, contingencies. he said he had a lot of contingencies set aside for future litigation charges. now they want to execute this strategy. and then refocusing the investment bank, tweaking it ever so slightly and getting involved in private wealth management to a greater degree. a lot of tanks are talking about that. they see a lot of growth there. betty: let's bring it back to the u.s. markets and their business in the u.s. and how they are competing with other american ban

hans nichols is in berlin. take away from what he has to say there. >> the first role of a crisis is that he has the first and final word. you are getting a bit of pessimism and reality and you can almost hear his frustration with the new government coming through. >> the program has been extended twice and runs through june 30. if greece wants to avail itself of the funds in the program this solution must be found by june 30. >> that is the deadline of the program. >> it dashes hopes that there will be some sort of agreement next week. publicly, he is contradicting him and some officials are saying that they want to have the deal done and the timeline is much further out. there is the big debt payments and may is a difficult month. they start paying interest and at the end of every month, the have salaries and tensions. it will be a big problem and a tension. bill increase borrowing pressure before the interview. you saw the yield spike on the three-year note and there is an increase of 25-26%. he said that he

let's get out to hans nichols in berlin. hans, new deadline midma-may. hans: good morning. they will be taking stock of the talks going on -- that is the big moment. in some ways, the anticipation and urgency has been let down because we have this new deadline. however, it makes it dangerous. this will only increase pressure on all sides. what we heard very clearly coming out of the imf meetings that took place in washington last week was a great deal of frustration -- restoration mounting. lesson how the finance minister of france put it. >> too much time has been lost. time is not limited. i want to say something clearly -- it's something damaging happens, it will be great or greece and the greek people, not for the other countries in the eurozone. hans: and yet no sign of movement on the greece side. we just heard over the weekend -- there was an interview published by the deputy prime minister in greece saying "we don't back down from our redline." the energy minister said, the "so-called partners wouldn't be blackmailed." let's do a quick recap of where all the parties

bloomberg international correspondent hans nichols filed this report from regard, latvia. ns: frustrations boiled over in this meeting in riga, latvia among finance ministers trying to get a status update from the greek government on where they are in committing to that february 20 agreement where they said they would commit certain reforms. in some ways, the biggest casualty is time lost. we have heard that again and again from finance ministers coming out. it was a critical conversation taking place. listen to how the head of the eurogroup couch the talks. >> it was a critical discussion. we came to an agreement two months ago. we had hopes to hear a result and agreement on which we could take a decision. we're still far from that. hans: according to some people in the meeting varoufakis received quote, a hammering. coming out of the meeting mr. varoufakis said they had made some progress, they had constructive talks. he was the only finance minister to make those comments. time is running short. back to you. alix: hans nichols reporting from riga latvia. i'm joined by th

hans nichols will be sitting in front of him. let's go dover -- let's go to stephen engle. you expected it to be higher after the announcement on friday. then, another rumor and report this weekend. take us through the story. stephen engle: they had a quarter-point boost after the report from the chairman and they said they could relocate the headquarters. on sunday, we have the news from the sunday times with the unnamed sources. they said that hsbc may spin off the retail banking business and reemerge. again, the report said that no deal was imminent. it did not say where it got the information. it was moving the market and it was the most since it was up at 5%. the other one got tons of information in hong kong. there is speculation that if they move the headquarters, it would likely be back to hong kong, the city that was cofounded in 1865. many say this would be a likely scenario. the talk emerged and they put out a statement saying, they will take a positive attitude should they decide to move back. again, they say they have links to hong kong. jonathan ferro: is the

hans nichols, what is hillary hoping to do by getting in the race this early? hans: and speculation and formally start a campaign. she really wants to reintroduce herself. when you look at the fanatic structure, or challenge -- thematic structure, her issue will be to reintroduce herself to the voters. she will say i am in it, to win it. hillary clinton: i am running for president. americans have fought their way back from tough economic times but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. every day americans need a champion, and i want to be that champion. hans: hillary has a number of advantages. one is money. it is expected that she and her affiliates will raise $2.5 billion to spend. the other is that she is familiar with the issues. she will not get tripped up and will not make many rookie policy mistakes. the other great advantage is she does not have a serious riemer a challenge. no one has -- primary challenge. republicans will be cutting up like a knife fight and all of the internal divisions will be exposed. hillary can coast through that.

that is the hans nichols way of doing things. we are almost 50 minutes into the session. i go straight to my bloomberg terminal and confirms the all-time high. equities are pushing higher. join us after the break and we will talk markets. jon: let's get you are to speed would talks this morning. concerns remain that a deal will not be reached by the deadline. the prime minister has failed to deliver revisions. the white house said that obama will drop cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. it marks a shift towards restoring relations between the countries. congress now has 45 days to respond. the slow down is deepening and the output slumped. gdp matched analyst estimates and initial estimates came in weaker. this bite the disappointing data, stan that's the chinese economy will improve. the legendary investor made billions of that's against currencies and he sat down with bloomberg to weigh in on the market. >> the market is up 140% in six months after being in a downtrend and is doing so with a record volume. if it is any other stock market i would tell you th

francine: for a look at what we're watching the rest of the day, hans nichols is looking ahead to the. g.d.p., hans? hans: the expectation was at the beginning ott year for 2.8% growth. now 1%. the trend for the last couple of years in the states, if you had a first quarter that was disappointing, then the economy has grown above trend. the question is there is something funky going on with first quarter numbers or did the first quarter just have a natural amount of slowdown? if so, why don't you have that seasonal adjustment? expectations for one, but fourth quarter last year, 4.4% growth. it looks like we're going to get a slowdown. i guy? guy: jon, let's talk about the bond market. i'm looking at the german curve. jonathan: it is a reversal of the trend we had seen. we have seen a little bit of a steeper curve. a nine-10 basis point move on the 30-year and a move on the 10-year. eight basis points higher. that is higher than the yield was. you a supply issue as well. more debt coming. more auctions. italy, germany totaling about 12.5 billion euros. the german auction fell short of

hans nichols half-inch -- has been following this story for 15 years now. what is going on? exis tsipras trolling germany? hans: he is celebrating and honoring those in moscow who stood up to fascism. his position on sanctions is unchanged. in an interview last night he claimed they were "a road to nowhere." that is what everyone in brussels and berlin is wondering, has the greek government position changed on russia? and if so, what do they get in return? brendan: that is a negotiating tip that they are offering -- negotiating chip that they are offering. germans have officially calculated they -- the debt they are owed for war representation -- the debt they are owed for war reparations. hans: it is $278 million. they did a variety of calculations to arrive at that number. that is what alexis tsipras the same. the german spokesman said it was a dumb distraction to be talking about this in this context. and we have a more recent tweet from alexis tsipras showing an affinity with the russian people against fascism. taken in the aggregate, it seems as though for his domestic a

mark: thanks, hans nichols in riga.loomberg on more of the greek situation for step we will be joined by the mayor of athens. that interview will be on bloomberg this afternoon. manus: asian markets are poisedtop to end the week on a high note, but the trading indices are just a little higher. what's good over to david standing by on hong kong. we still have the nasdaq futures , but looking at the nikkei a little bit of a fade as we go to the end of the week. david: yeah, there has been a little bit of a loss of momentum. good morning, guys. a loss of momentum over the last hour, 90 minutes. across the regional markets this was not the picture when we started out friday. we are at the low point of the day. a lot of the major markets are about to close up shop for the weekend. the nikkei 225, last few minutes of trade, the asx 200, that is just about the only major market that is keeping the losses from moderate losses. i think we are just about flat. still a very good week. we are poised for a weekly gainful stop you go

hans nichols, thank you for decoding germany for us. olivia: very cool interview.on my agenda have you noticed how many ipos are going to start trading today? etsy and party city. they all priced last night. they will price at the top end of their range. i'm curious to see what they do today. this will be an important read on the temperature of the ipo market. there has been a bit of a slowdown this year. they are smaller deals, but three ipos in a day is exciting. brendan: they are not necessarily raising capital for new organic growth. my agenda, as always, is greece. there has been a lot of news from the german finance ministry and the spreads are whitening. -- widening. olivia: i saw the two-year at 23%. german 10 year debt -- brendan: negative four sovereign debt. olivia: what are you looking for today? tom: what i think onis on the agenda here is the disagreement -- christine lagarde and the extended -- caution we see from imf. a nice tension here about where we are going. brendan: it has been interesting, watching your interviews and everybody's pre-read on

our international correspondent hans nichols has been following the developments. at does this timeline look like? hans: it looks like we won't have a deal before easter. that was the line from the president of the eu council and then merkel and holland speaking together and both said time is running short. merkel said the talks in brussels were a start but they were not there yet. mr. hollande was perhaps even more blunt. this is what he had to say several days ago -- we have lost too much time. ms. merkel was asked about the plan to visit moscow. she said he was not bothered by that. she said she went to moscow as well. crucially, domestically -- there is a little bit of change. merkel lost a key ally -- the vice-chairman of her sister's party. he resigned his seat in parliament because he said he is being pressured to take votes on greece that he does not agree on. he has always been an anti-bailout politician but we will see how much domestic pressure increases on merkel not only now, but in june when there could be a potential third bailout. it is something to

we have hans nichols in berlin and mark spencer in athens. hans, how much room to the greek banks have? hans: they are up to 71.8 billion. it was only increased 700 million. you talk about an all of branch, it is very short when you look at some of the pressure these greek banks are under. you totaled it up from back in october. 28 billion in outflows. others are taking a look. here is what we know one point one billion in new spending this year. about half of that is for a hurting month pension. pension reform has been one of the things going the opposite direction. we have this there and there is more on tax revenue, my colleagues have done a great job of reporting this. 875 million in new taxes or ways to tax offshore accounts. a new lottery scheme. dream lighting of the vat. maybe more out of the vat tax. -- streamlining of the vat. maybe more out of the vat tax. greece is saying there were a lot of good vibes and good mood. not a lot of concrete things off the european side. the next time everyone is scheduled to meet, april 24. we will s

close up to 200 branches, and reduce some overseas operations fair the bank ceo told bloomberg's hans nichols what the bank would eventually look like. >> will see stronger inequities than today. you will see a considerably stronger corporate finance than today. probably a smaller fixed income house. less transaction and more advisory. mark: investors are not impressed. shares falling. 45 billion -- $45 billion offer. it says the offer is too low and does not deal of problems of combining the companies with different cultures. it is committed to his $33 billion offer for the irish maker of store drugs. they have already rejected that. loretta lynch has been sworn in as the first afghan american female attorney general. joe biden did the honors at the justice department. for the last five years, which has run the u.s. attorney's office in brooklyn. harvey miller a partner in a law firm that recommends lehman brothers is dead. he died today in his home in manhattan of lou gehrig's disease. he was 82 years old. that is a look at top stories we are following on this monday. the apparel industry i

hans nichols is in berlin. what can we take away from wolfgang and what he has to say. nothing has really changed. he is not offering concessions and greece is not blinking. >> you have seen the government all but destroyed the efforts and the improvements the previous government had started. here is the important thing about the interview, he is publicly contradicting the idea advocated by the finance minister that there can be a deal. he says it is a non-starter and there is more work to do. it brings us back to looking at the counter and when the big payments have to come. they are rolling out one billion in t-bills and we have a meeting with important actions happening. they will have to pay salary and there are big payments that will come due. we have is him publicly saying opposite things. the important thing is that they will not get it done. you want to see some cash and he needs to watch to see how markets react. there is a piece of optimism and the advisor close to the prime minister has the possibility of a referendum in greece. that kind of vote could allow

guy: for more on greece let's go to hans nichols. you spoke to president obama's top economists. what impact does he think greece 's plight could have on the world economy? how seriously is he taking? hans: he said president obama is dedicating quite a bit of time. what jason furman was getting at is the risk is unknown and they do not even want to take that leap into the unknown. mr. furman: i do not think it in his experiment we want to run. i do not think we ever want to know the answer to that question. if they don't greece and the institutions, do not find it -- find a path forward, it would not just be terrible for greece. it would be a risk the global economy should not want to take justice things are starting to work or getting growth going or getting out of that crisis. we do not want to see what would happen. hans: now, he went on to say that there is a lot of work that needs to be done, that both sides on the technical talks need to roll up their sleeves and get to work. a lot of work it should've been done at this point should have already been done. he was very clear

erik: hans nichols just spoke to mr. jain. mr. jain is under a great deal of pressure right now. hans: he's in a great deal of pressure and now the hard part starts. he's got to sell this internally and externally. they shed some $2 billion in assets. they want to take it privately and then have an ipo at the end of 2016. throughout all of this press mr. jain on this point, and he insisted he would not need a capital increase. mr. jain: very painful, and indeed, the actions of a few have done untold damage to the franchise overall. hans: but in terms of your expectations? mr. jain: we would have hoped for a smaller number but that is not something we can control. hans: i want to know how you can rule out a capital increase when you do not know what future litigation costs will be. mr. jain: we have built-in significant analysis in the next five years. we put in some very hefty assumptions for what could come and we are completely fine and we will be able to maintain our capital ratios despite that. stephanie: i realize normally i'd shoot jane --anshu jain is cool as a cucumber but

. -- let's go to hans nichols. what are you going to prepare for.reece needs the money, how badly do they needed and how quickly will they run out? hans: today, they will be rolling over 1.4 billion in t-bills and april 17, another one million in t-bills. most of your box by greek banks. there should not be a huge high risk. the biggest issue in may and i believe may 12, 700 million euros in special drawing so approximately 770 million euros due to the imf. what are the core of the report is saying is that there is not a deal by april 24, that's when finance ministers meet to have should this out, greece will be left with no other choice but to default. the government last night has denied at every opportunity given. the greek government has denied in this report which is citing people familiar with at the thinking of greece's government. unclear if the sources are inside or elsewhere. we should really note that greece is denying this report at the same time, we heard from the defense minister of greece. he spoke in a local interview and said greece

hans nichols is in latvia. hans let's start with you.was telling us about european finance ministers hurling abuse at varoufakis, calling him an amateur, a gambler, a time waster. what did varoufakis not do at this summit? hanis: he did not provide specifics as he was supposed to. he did not appear to grasp the gravity of the situation. the difference between where the euro great -- eurogroup once greece to go and where they are. talking to finance ministers after the meeting, we caught up with the economy minister of spain. he said the next move is up to greece. >> there is a certain sense of frustration with respect to [indiscernible] we need to take advantage of the limited time we have available over the next days and that everybody wants to reach an agreement, but now the ball is on the camp of [indiscernible] hans: it is still an open question on whether or not greece understands what they need to do, at least in the minds of eurozone officials. this was 18 against one. it was described as a hammering against yanis varoufakis. mr.

that's go to hans nichols. hans, run us through this.ns: manushans: manus, you have a sense what global investors are saying, and there is a clear majority that thinks that greece will exit the eurozone. the number is 52%. what is interesting is that four months ago in january, that number was just at 31% on the question "will greece leave the euro?" there are some who think it will stay in but that number before was 61%. a clear shift. let's take a look at when this exit might happen. most people surveyed think that the euro will stay in the 42%. but before the end of 2015, a full 18% -- in the next year, 22% -- than 12%. that puts you at almost 40% of survey respondents who think there could be a exit in the next year and a half. that is a remarkable change. you see why there is so much stress on greek banks. yesterday, the ecb increased emergency liquidity to 76.9 billion euros, to 1.5 billion increase, and we have yet another downgrade from moody's. manus: that is the reality of what is going on in the market in the bonds market. the

hans nichols is in berlin. can the eu fix this? hans: it is unclear how the plan as different. problem. death rates are higher. they are fleeing awful situations. they're are going to take enormous risks and with those risks come the possibility of losing their lives. what you are hearing now is to have visa-free travel. if you are a refugee and you have endured -- and you have ended up in libya, you should be allowed to have that. i don't suspect it will be a reality. it is one proposal gaining steam. tom: look to the authorities and the elites think about it? had he get in the way of the economics of this? hans: you can go after the smugglers. there are talks about increasing penalties for people involved in human trafficking. you have very strong human trafficking. tom: let's ask you. >> what about the toll on each of these nations? how do the government's cope with this? hans: it is a political problem. germans went from 130,000 to 2000. a refugee house was set on fire out side of berlin. a lot of refugees are not necessarily in those areas. this is a massive dialogue. it i