we have kathleen hays over there. you have a question for ed?ecause year ago, the first time i met him in tokyo, he said he really thought then this economy was starting to turn and things were becoming different and it was time to pop in japanese equities. it was a timely call. after a year, people are wondering where are we now? is it time for governor kuroda to take that step, to start giving us a better sense of how these steps are going to be taken someday? he is not ready to do it right now. ed: first, thank you for that acknowledgment. i truly appreciate it. where are we and where is governor kuroda in his thinking right now, these are great questions. where are we in the japanese equity story? we think we are in the early innings of this game. the increases in productivity, the rising earnings, and the undervaluation generally -- and the undervaluation. generally speaking, we are looking at 14, 16 p value where in developed markets, much higher valuation levels. the reason is that japanese productivity continues to increase. what does th

economics editor kathleen hays is here. yes or no? kathleen: we are going to find out, what we?n tokyo come day one of the bank of japan's policy meeting, and no policy change expected to be announced yet even though policy makers may be thinking harder about what they will say when they are ready to signal a change. why aren't they going to change policy? output is strong, industrial production, a buoyant stock market, tight labor market, these are seen as fueling japan's reflationary efforts. the output gap also adding to inflation. time, 0.9%, this and the key index is him was halfway to the 2% target. two weeks ago, an unexpected cut in bond purchases by the boj led traders to jump the gun as economists are speculating they might announce a move to cut back on those purchases. but boj watchers are saying no way, and "the wall street journal" reporting that at most they might be wondering how to best communicate any changes they are making. here is what one of our boj watchers said a couple of days ago. >> the biggest challenges for the boj in the next couple of weeks is comm

our editor kathleen hays has the number. let's start with china. n beijing still continue this momentum? kathleen: that is the big question. but howt as much, impressive that china is starting 2018 on such a strong footing, when we take into consideration the concerns you mentioned. btv 403. what you see is the white line, purchasing managers index at 51.6 in december. it had been at 51.8 in november but anything above 50 signals growth so this is pretty good growth. maybe not spectacular but solid. orders production, new -- very strong but not as strong as the month before. new export orders and jobs picked up as well. nonmanufacturing, services at up from 54.8. construction is the biggest up from 54.8. construction is the biggest driver. that index hit 63.9. as we look over all, growth in china is being driven by stronger grip -- demand, deleveraging program. not aggressively pursued it yet. maybe we will see that finally. bloomberg economics expects tailwinds from exports and infrastructure blow strongly -- less strongly and headwinds from deleve

with a kathleen hays look ahead to the bank of japan as well. let's start with the u.s. data. be sustained when it comes to these price pressures? kathleen: this is a big question, it's a must like a scach test.st -- roar be the beginning of a move up in inflation that bond bears may be hoping for or betting on. u.s. cpi accelerated year-over-year to 1.8% in december from 1.7% in november. two drivers, auto prices, some saying, but there are lingering hurricane effects, eagle had to replace a lot of cars. medical goods prices rose, but that is indicating a rising economy. people are saying it is a less cyclical indicator. services are recovering. -- sorry, wrong one. 146. here we have the services numbers, inflation is a big drop in .17, starting to recover, flattening out, year-over-year still in negative territory. bloomberg economics is writing about the report, saying the core cpi surprise, they think it is a surprise this year, rising lowflation.rald but strong retail sales they think are solved. 10.58.ure was up to the, the odds -- excuse me, march rate hike increased sub

yousef: thank you for that update, kathleen hays live out of tokyo.t's show you something i caught my attention this morning and some other traders, as well, in terms of how the rally has been not just for dollar-yen, but others. dive into the bloomberg with me. the and has rallied -- the yen has rallied. i want to get some more perspective. nizam is still with us. what you saw from the boj so far and what you expect to hear from the presser, put it in context for us. nizam: kathleen covered it nicely, really. i'm the one hand, there was only a subtle change in inflation expectation in that the boj said inflation expectation is still low, but looking more stable. other than that, there has not been a change. the question of whether the press conference could lead to a , at least unless doctorate -- , for me ih position think the question really is whether the boj is on a tightening or bias right now. the boj has been buying less gdb's, they announced that couple of years ago. the point is this data has been released daily, and on it daily basis, it ha

our global economics policy editor kathleen hays. next on daybreak asia, more insight into the fed decision after janet yellen -- and a preview of the indian budget. stay tuned for that analysis. this is bloomberg. ♪ in :00 a.m. in hong kong. i am yvonne man and welcome to daybreak asia. the top stories, the end of an era, the fed will meet for the last time under janet yellen. signaling hikes in march and beyond. paypal, and ebay jumped after hours, and paypal fell off a cliff. betty: and from bloomberg headquarters, this wednesday evening, talking trade. post-brexit,alks and the great fire sale in china. off a cash crunch, and the level of debt. ♪ yvonne: we are getting breaking news from south korea at this hour. the trade surplus coming in smaller than what economists estimated. why is importson are coming in higher than what economists surveyed. an increase in imports against expectations. --orts still robust here despite the stronger won. this is all for the month of january. that import number quite a big jump from what we saw

let's bring in kathleen hays in tokyo.ate confirmation of jay powell, which was all but expected. certainly, he is entering a global economy that is quite in sync. but the u.s., walking this tightrope. kathleen: absolutely, betty. it is certainly true that jay powell will have a lot on his plate if he looks at the world. things do get more complicated when you look at trade because that is an important source of stability, an important source of everything the fed chair has to watch. let's start with japan. i want to look at this more than 9% year-over-year growth in exports. solid, this is important to governor corrode and the bank of japan. it is an important engine of japanese growth. this is something they are watching closely. chooseed mr. kuroda to his words carefully. the surplus have narrowed, but the most important thing for japan is the source of growth. oda's press mr. kur conference, this is most important -- no exit, not now. we need persistent monetary easing. factbuying operations, the the boj unexpectedly c

kathleen hays is here with more oas the plot thickens. kathleen: it certainly does.report. the first week of 2018, a good year and a good week for stocks so far. not so great for bonds. a lot riding on the jobs report. we saw markets move on the adp survey of private job creation and the u.s.. that number jumped 200 -- u.s. that number jumped in december. the payrolls gains from the u.s. government of 190,000. some people are saying over 200,000 at least. here is the issue. for jobs? to more g the fed had a big inflation conundrum of 2017. let us look at the door mandate. al mandate. 4.1%. very low number. inflation up and down, but still a bit away from the fed's 2% target at 1.5%. the president of st. louis fed said what is happening here, the link between jobs and inflation is broken. the phillips curve, which has been watched it for years, and is continuing to get more jobs, lower unemployment, more inflation, he says it has disappeared. will this affect other fed officials? we do not know. downsay it could be slowed -- sunday could slow down the pace of rate hik

our policy editor kathleen hays has the numbers. let's start with china. beijing maintain this momentum? kathleen: part of the question is how aggressively the chinese government can pursue these big policy changes like pollution and bringing down the inflated chinese debt. for now, 2017 and 2018 look good. let's go to the chart because we want to look at the purchasing managers index that we got in the last day or so are. this white line is manufacturing at 51.6 in december. anything above 50 signals growth it is down a little bit from 51.8 in november. chugging along. not spectacular but definitely some momentum. i would like to point out that we had good growth in output, new orders and jobs picking up as well. now let's go to services -- nonmanufacturing at 55 in december, up from 54.8 in november. construction is the biggest driver. you can thank the chinese in -- government infrastructure spending and stronger global demand. a deleveraging program that was always promised it has not been hit hard yet. bloomberg economics expects moderate slowdown in 2

kathleen hays live out of tokyo. markets with our markets live blog. there you go. the headline says it all. mliv , get a market run down, watch commentary and analysis from expert editors. you can find out what is affecting your money right now. this is bloomberg. ♪ tom: this is "bloomberg markets: asia." i am tom mackenzie. david: let's get you an update. and oil has expanded its debt raising plan. the board approved the raising of the debt level 25 $.5 billion. the acquisition is part of a that was first outlined by the finance minister in his federal budget last year. singapore airlines has reinforced its lead over rival cathay pacific last year, outpacing growth for a second successive year and shows the airline's decision to combine a low cost carrier with another has paid off. have apacific does not low-cost operation and is missing out on budget growth in asia. david: spinning off and floating its fund management acquisition and financial advisor operation, the news comes from the australian financial rev

our policy editor kathleen hays is in tokyo for us this week.t how tough a balancing act this is really going to be for governor kuroda. as i am listening to you introduce me so eloquently, i'm thinking, this is the absence -- essence of modern central banking. think of bernanke, janet yellen, as he hashi, kuroda, to choose his words so carefully. not just in changing the economic forecast or the policy statement. act a delicate balancing because he wants to stress the success of. whatthe boj has done he wants to stress progress on inflation. he doesn't want to give markets the impressing -- impression that he's ready to move the door towards less stimulus. that's the question for him today. all economists surveyed by bloomberg say no change now, but almost have say they will be some kind of a change over the course of this year. wrapping up eight today meeting, meeting, i two day will have a press conference live on bloomberg television. there is a lot on the boj and their chief. in the second to last meeting in his term as head of the bank of

kathleen hays is in tokyo with our special guest. take it away. absolutely.en rising, surging, white house sending mixed messages on the dollar, so who do you call at a time like this? mr. yen, of course. eisuke sakakibara at the ministry of finance in japan for 25 years and vice minister of finance and helped to guide the yen and the policy through the late 1980's into the 1990's. it is what has earned him that moniker of mr. yen. i want to start on the news of everything out of the white house. the weakchin says dollar is ok, president trump like the strong dollar. who should we be listening to? >> the strong dollar is to the benefit of the u.s., and trump has repeated that, but for the short time in order to reduce deficits, the weak dollar is better. two statements not inconsistent with each other. wasou are somebody who overseeing currency policy at a time when central banks, treasury departments were active in the currency market. if there is a trend in place, you can push it further. it is hard to create that trend. you think the dollar has peaked and

kathleen hays, our policy editor.has a very bullish view of 2018 and expect asia and emerging markets to open for joining us now is a audible core -- our guest. i know you say they are going to double in the next few years. what would it mean for asia at large, and even for your own outlook if we see more fed officials turn more dovish? >> hi, betty. yeta i thinkh it is clear what the impact is going to be,. asia likes a lower interest rate regime. we certainly don't like an inverted yield curve. i don't think any market likes that, especially in asia. if this new moved to dovishness fewer than theet market is expecting, i think scenario,goldilocks which means global growth could remain strong and we don't have any inflation or interest rates to deal with. that is how you get euphoria and bubbles. i look forward to that. [laughter] betty: you look forward to that. how could you say that? don't strikes fear in the hearts of many. well, obviously, the global factors are very important. so to me, our valuation looks pret

let's get more from kathleen hays, she has a look at the week. re saying the 30 year bull market and u.s. treasuries ended. and what about china, how do they factor into this? kathleen: let's take a look at that first. this is one of the stories i find the most interesting, even though it may not have as much impact as it did for 24 hours, the day before yesterday, when bloomberg news broke a big story. an official says officials were looking at china cutting back on their purchases of u.s. treasuries. maybe all of them altogether. that prompted a big global selloff. came in andn i looked at my bloomberg on thursday morning u.s. time, i saw a big story saying the foreign exchange association in china is saying the story about halting or slowing bond cited a wrongd -- source. that one gave me a chuckle. a couple departments and china are disagreeing about this. third day in a row there is a bear market in bonds. maybe not a severe one. but he thinks it will push yields higher. let's listen. are up to 5% nominal gdp. it is possible in the next few q

betty: kathleen hays with a look at the bond market and the fed.fluenced his oil, oil breaking its several day winning streak tuesday with brent and the vti falling the most in more than a month. both edit near session lows with brent: back from that $70 barrel market, the last time it hit that level was in the summer of 2015. for more on what is happening with crude oil prices, let's head to the wall with ramy inocencio. growth inbc says the oil demand could slow this year, is that having an effect? ramy: it might. especially with china being one of the biggest oil consumers in the world. they are saying that for this year, for 2018 they are seeing growth but not as much as 2017. it is nearly 6% for 2017 but while we are looking at that, we are looking at what is happening in terms of the output coming out of china and whether that will go up or down. this is the first of three bloomberg terminal charts. it is coming off a seven-year low, rebounding over the past month. we are winning for the december month -- december number to the upper down her

kathleen hays joins us. tell us the key points from the jobs report. en: remember, the month leading up to the december report had a lot of volatility, way down and way up after the hurricane. that is a factor. retail jobs, they were lower than they had been. a lot because of online competition, not surprising. a lot of people are saying, we are reaching full employment, employment is 4.1%, it stayed there in december, workers are hard to find, 148,000 is not out of line with what we've seen in the pasture, definitely slower than the previous couple of months. i think if you look at it from the full employment for specter, the glass half-full people are looking at that. one thing for sure, if you look at the map, less jobs growth in december, wider trade gap, that makes it tough to meet the 3% gdp growth as we get toward the end of the year. that spring in the president of the st. louis -- let's bring in the president of the st. louis fed. he was asked about the impact of tax cut, he said it could make a difference or change policy perspective. >> my ba

consumer prices picked up last month, we get the latest from kathleen hays.nd what that means for rate hikes, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ is 7:30 monday morning in hong kong. looks sunny to kick off the week. it is 6:30 p.m. sunday in new york. markets on friday closed at record territories, we talked about the s&p up over almost 7/10 of 1%, the dow adding 200 points. frigid temperatures again this weekend. i am betty liu in new york. yvonne: i am yvonne man in hong kong, you are watching "daybreak: asia." let's get to the first word news. ros: republicans holding out hope of a deal for young immigrants despite president trump declaring a bipartisan deal probably dead. prospects for a deal were damaged by the president disparaging comments about african nations and haiti. former u.s. army intelligence analyst chelsea manning has confirmed she is running for u.s. senate in maryland. her campaign released a video showing images of protesters and white supremacists in ins with the tagline "we got this," she was rented clemency by president obama after sentenced

ramy: kathleen hays, thank you very much. function that is tv . you can watch us live and catch up on past interviews and dive into any securities or bloomberg functions that we talk about. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out at tv . this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ david: this is daybreak asia. i'm david ingles in hong kong. ramy: i am ramy inocencio in new york. with nafta talks in the ballots and other pressure on global trade deals, coca-cola said it is best to sit back and wait. the ceo told bloomberg said he is still working for recent tax changes. >> we are still working through the numbers. our tax rate was about 24%, so it is not the biggest change for us. because we are international, the absolute rate has not affected us as much as the more domestic prices. we are positive on moving the territorial systems. --think the signification is simplification is positive. it created more demand. that will be good news. we are working through the numbers that we will lay out on our earnings core. we are part o

kathleen hays is here. a report shows that china's growth in gdp went from 2017 to 2018.t that is solid, maybe not spectacular but find enough. so what is driving it? driving demand, infrastructure spending, created a lot of stimulus, leverage and that is honored more in the brief -- will doing. they're not doing much to slow down that process, not slowing down the economy either. specifically to the purchasing managers index, manufacturing is slowing a little bit. they are boosted by construction. 403. jump into #btv the blue line is the nonmanufacturing, the services november,was 55 in anything about 50 signals growth. as for manufacturing, it is supposed to stay at 51.6. china will also be releasing a new composite pmi that combines manufacturing and services. the chinese government says this will allow them to monitor real-time economic activity in the country more effectively. what we are also watching is japan waiting for industrial production data, their manufacturing pmi and that will come out tomorrow. if we get something on either side of those numbers, maybe si

that might make it tougher to make trump -- kathleen hays is here with more.oes it change the picture? not change the picture but it does raise some big questions. let's start with the fact we saw the payroll number losing momentum, and that is as the labor market is tightening. we even saw unemployment staying at 4.1%. 1480,00 -- it was supposed to grow 190,000. we just cannot expect jobs to grow as quickly. but there are some questions it raises for the economy. economists said on friday less jobs growth. we also had a wider trade gap in the u.s. which will mean it is very hard to meet three people are -- 3% gdp growth anytime soon. , he was askedand about tax cuts and he said it could make me change my mind on policy. >> my baseline case is we are still in the same regime. i think there is some possibility this could light a fire under investment and really drive growth higher. if that happens, i would certainly take note of that and adjust policy appropriately. kathleen: adjust his policy? he is the one who doesn't want any more rate hikes. head of the cou

haidi: kathleen hays there for us in new york.l at $70 a barrel means for prices. next, david lipton, the imf deputy managing director come about the risk he sees for the global growth story. he says china needs to address its shortcomings. this is bloomberg. ♪ china reports its fourth-quarter gdp thursday. , within expecting 6.7% the targeted range. let's take you to the asian financial reform in hong kong. there seems to be a reckoning when it comes to what beijing needs to do. >> sure. there is a lot of global risk, including china. 6.7%.w down his still let's talk about the macro outlook and the risks in the system with the first deputy managing director of the imf. i just heard your speech. you said now is the time to address global vulnerabilities and risks. where do you see them? >> there are upside and downside risks, and those are balanced. first to be positive, there are upside risks. .e don't know the strength of this recovery has been surprising on the upside. >> the global economy is going from strength to strength. >

kathleen hays, let's start things off with china here. estion will be can the company maintained that momentum through the next 365 days? kathleen: we shall see because maybe the government will get more serious about some of the made.s that have to be bottom line, some good numbers the last couple of days show us 2017 drew to a close and 2018 began, china is chugging along. not spectacular growth but still moving along. we're going to look at china's latest pmi, purchasing manager indexes. on the white line along the bottom is the manufacturing pmi. very important, it tracks gdp pretty well. at 51.6 in december -- anything above 50 signals growth -- that is down a little from 51.8. it is driven by production, new orders, exports. the blue line is a nonmanufacturing pmi which is largely services. it came in at 55, down a little. construction is the biggest driver. 63.9 inex up two, december from 51.4. overall, economists are singing you can have stronger global demand. infrastructure spending, deleveraging program that is talking about str

kathleen hays here with more. rhetoric and then there is action. kathleen: good way of putting it.all talk, no action. if you are a bond trader, you will not wait to see if this very important story broken by bloomberg news overnight, where chinese officials say they are recommending slowing or halting the purchases of u.s. treasuries. we did have quite a selloff. remember, china is the number one holder of u.s. treasuries, .198he world, with $1 trillion. we have been looking at this one a few times today. you can see where you have got the total holdings of treasuries rising. china's have been fluctuating, stating out in 2014. a lot of reserves to defend the yuan. now kind of rebuilding those purchases again. may be chinale say is a paper tiger. after all, they are a big exporter with a big surplus. they have to sell back into u.s. treasuries. they do not have a lot of alternatives to invest. more than $3 trillion in foreign exchanges overall. likeing out this may be what happened back in 2009 when wen-chinese premier said, are worried about purchases of bonds. rising, the very be

global economics and policy editor kathleen hays is standing by with our next guest. kathleen?tanding by with a very special guest to talk to us about inflation and connect the dots for bank of japan. and where the economy is heading and investment in japan. director of research for develop -- the delhi international, welcome back to bloomberg. we just saw inflation numbers basically unchanged overall. ? >> more ofat mean the same. we don't see big major changes. there's no real incentive for any of the parties or stakeholders to make any bold moves. directionin the right and we see it move in the right growth is good and certainly better than it was. seven straight quarters of gdp growth. supermarketad the sales out today. does it really matter if japan's inflation is 1%, 1.5%, or .5%? >> this is the whole mindset japan really needs to get out of. it really needs to drive itself into a growth mindset rather than one of just protecting assets. and i think that is very much what we think kuroda is trying to do. the direction of inflation and where it goes will be a very importan

kathleen hays here with more.e last hour about john williams of the san francisco fed may be being the number two at the fed. a lot of there are names mentioned. john williams of course is on the list. assucceeded johnette yellen resident of the san francisco fed in 2011. he became director of research at the san francisco fed in 2002. what is most important about john williams, the fact that jay powell is the first fed chair in three decades not to have a phd in economics. john does. he is a respected theorist and monetary economics. he is on board with rate hikes. somebody talking about changing the inflation target to something broader. will that be dovish? we don't know. signal for the bears. anything that has to do with the fed, very important to the markets. we are getting the final headline the u.s. has in past the stopgap measure. they are going to send it to the senate. corrallingnell, democrats over to pass this. let's get to india. what is the latest? kathleen: they are slashing taxes. forill always be

kathleen hays is here with more. this was in this webcast that he put together. what is did he say?one of the original buntings, he is now the henderson capital advises but he says the bear market and bond has started, here is what he said, he broke a line.r trend we are now going back 25 years because this is pretty instructive, here you are with the benchmark 10 year treasury thing as high as 2.5, that was a pretty big move as you can see, you have to go back to march, that is when they were making their first rate hike of the year and then you saw this move up, back then, you get to 2.6%, you have a bear market but we didn't, things turned around, inflation was reeked. -- week. ak. what is interesting, on this this is the double in, the gross is it that of it early, he says if the 10 year we have get over 2.63%, a ways to go on that, it will head higher. he also said that the 10-year note has to close at 3.22% and actually and the market and bonds, i'd do see that he says this is plausible sometime in 2018 and he says it looks like a 2.5% two-year treasury could be in the offerin

kathleen hays joins us now from new york.ency longrs going relentlessly on the yen come how does the boj turn this into a moneymaker? >> it better start tapering. it is hinting that is the direction they are leaning in. i would not bet on that yet. a terrific story you can find in the bloomberg lace this out so well. that last week on jenny where he nine, the boj cut its long bond purchases of 10-20 five year debt with maturity longer than 25 years with ¥10 billion for each category, a small allowed, but people are saying the fed is raising rates and the ecb is removing stimulus, so maybe the boj is finally moving in that direction. some of the comments in this going --e investors story, investors going long on the trade and see the we yen rising to 100 or dollar. let's look at this chart, 4456. you can see how this has been moving in terms of the white purchases, and the yen. the boj has been buying fewer bonds since september 2016 when it decided it would focus on controlling interest rates rather than the bond purchases. l

kathleen hays has more. what are we looking at?ur question, former probably has more influence than the latter. yes, the adp survey which looks at private sector jobs, everything but government jobs, did come in stronger than forecast, up 250,000. the blue line is the adp report, the white line is the governments nonfarm payroll numbers. you can see they probably move in the same direction. is the magnitude always the same? no. at the very least we can say it supports the bloomberg consensus survey for a gain in nonfarm , a nice,of 190,000 solid number. let's move on to the next step of this story, more jobs come more rate hikes, more inflation. the problem is the fed's dual mandate is not looking as healthy as it used to. remember the 2017 policy conundrum was stronger jobs, weaker inflation, so not too surprising that jim bullard of the st. louis fed raising questions about this for some time gave a speech today and said the phillips curve is no longer working. here is what he said in his prepared text. curve was once again negat

kathleen hays has the latest.s out of san francisco that the fed president there is on the list to be the next vice chair. >> john williams, that is. we shall see. the wall street journal reporting tonight the fact it appears that john williams is on the list. he has had good company, larry clarida fromard pimco, not on the list anymore. mohamed el-erian and so much more, but john williams has a solid history at the fed. when janet yellen became vice chair, he took over as -- yes, took over as head of the san francisco fed because that is where janet yellen was before. this,r important thing is jerome powell said to be the next fed chair will be the first in three decades not to have a phd in economics. of course john williams does have a phd in economics and is a specialist well respected for research and writing on monetary economics. with a fed chair without the phd, depth and breadth, and experience or knowledge, very important to have a vice chair in that position. at a time like this, look at the bond market

kathleen hays in new york. been ahead, cobalt, it has powering up over the course of the last year. seabed for tap the more of that element. haidi: speaking of below the debt has been the grim reaper for many portfolios. we speak to moody's sovereign services about their outlook for bonds. this is bloomberg. ♪ loomberg. ♪ rishaad: i am rishaad salamat in hong kong. haidi: i am haidi lun in sydney. the latest business flash headlines. and mazda have selected alabama for a new joint car factory worth $1.6 billion. the announcement will be made on wednesday in the state capital of montgomery. the shared factory is planned for opening in 2021, and it is the only new auto plant announced under president trump who has pressured carmakers to build more vehicles in the u.s. geely saying full-year profit probably doubled last ,ear, topping estimates expecting net income to increase 100% on 2016's performance. the founder to turn his focus to another major acquisition in sweden after buying volvo from ford in 2010. geely shares tripling last year in hong kong. one company is working with fina

i'll global economics and policy editor kathleen hays here with a look.ut of the read on friday? >> probably this question of the federal reserve and what it means for rate hikes is most important towhat is key out of s how many fed rate hikes weekend in 2018 is a big deal. yes, drops are growing more slowly that the glass half-full economists are saying it is because we are reaching full employment in the u.s. and labor markets are tight, so you have to expect not as much jobs growth. this chart illustrates what is going on. ,he bars across the top september, hurricanes, 38,000 148,000. it is in the middle of the range we have seen over the past year. unemployment,om, 17 year low. that is illustrating a tight labor market. what does it mean for the president's plan to get gdp growth of 3% or higher? growth, aess jobs wider trade deficit in november, so it will be hard to get 3% in the fourth quarter, which would have made it three quarters in a row. that is one view. was asked if he things that tax cuts will have an impact and what it could mean for poli