join us tomorrow on "in the loop," betty liu with peter cook.will interview paul ryan about the trade bill. that city: 45 washington time. -- that is that 8:45 washington time. cory johnson reports from the conference in san francisco. ♪ just because i'm away from my desk doesn't mean i'm not working. comcast business understands that. their wifi isn't just fast near the router. it's fast in the break room. fast in the conference room. fast in tom's office. fast in other tom's office. fast in the foyer [pronounced foy-yer] or is it foyer [pronounced foy-yay]? fast in the hallway. i feel like i've been here before. switch now and get the fastest wifi everywhere. comcast business. built for business. mark: welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line" on bloomberg television. thank you so much for staying with us. let's get to some of the top stories were following at this hour. let's begin with a check of the price of crude oil at this hour, down about 1.4%. oil halting its advanced before government data forecast to show u.s. crude inven

peter cook previous president obama's face-to-face meeting with role castro -- raul castro. hillary clinton will make it official on sunday. she is running or president. a person familiar with the matter says mrs. clinton will make the announcement on video before heading to iowa and new hampshire. it does not look like she will face many competitors in the democratic primary which begins in february. jeffrey is still in favor of raising interest rates in june. recent soft figures on the economy will probably only be temporary. fed policymakers were split on when to start raising rates. that was before the weakest jobs report in a year came out last week. ge is selling up the bulk of its finance unit so it can refocus on its industrial business. it has agreed to sell $27 billion worth of real estate. most of that is going to blackstone and wells fargo. ge announced a share buyback of as much as $50 billion. >> this is an excellent time to sell financial assets. the performance demonstrates that our platforms may be worth more outside the company. mark: apple's first new gadg

peter cook has breaking news about this. peter: we will hear from president obama at 2:15 p.m.ime from the rose garden at the white house. he had been scheduled to leave for louisville, kentucky for a trip about the economy. that is on hold at the moment. the news that this potentially landmark agreement with iran moving forward, arguably the signature foreign-policy achievement of this presidency. the president will talk about this at 2:15 p.m. eastern time and start to put this agreement in context, what were still needs be done, and the sales job ahead on capitol hill and across the country, and around the world, for that matter, as this moves forward. cory: and while we have the broad strokes, we don't have all the details. it sounds like they were not able to hash it all out. i want to thank you for your time, as well as julie hyman for the big market update. we will continue coverage here on bloomberg's -- bluebird television and including the presidential address -- bloomberg television, including the potential address and about 20 minutes. some of the details are not ha

tom: the policy you are so good at, peter cook -- peter: he will be back for this meeting.e back story of the dynamic between the senator from tennessee and the other republicans of that committee? peter: the reality is senator bob corker has been very willing to work across the aisle, to work with the obama -- tom: with senator schumer? peter: with senator schumer with this president. bob corker is probably his best bet, and if you cannot convince bob corker that congress cannot have a say in this, he will not be able to have a say in this. tom: barry ritholtz. barry: that letter that caused such a brouhaha a few weeks ago, are there any lasting repercussions, or is that actually impacting foreign relations and domestic policies? peter: i think if you talk to the white house, they will say it has had an impact. the president's argument is listen, foreign policy come of the debates over this stop at the water's edge traditionally but now this is a new and different ball game one that not only this president does not like but future presidents republican or democrat, may not

peter cook sat down with leew. mr.greece needs to make a list of changes in policies it is prepared to put in place so it can work with institutions to come to a mutual understanding of a path forward so they can get out of the cycle of being from one crisis to another. the rhetoric was not helpful early on and i send a signal to both the greek government and the institutions, as they are now called, that everyone had to attend down rhetoric and get to the technical work of seeing what policies can be put in place to address this. obviously it would be better if the work had been done six weeks ago and not over the next six weeks. no time to waste. my understanding is the president is going to be speaking to the hellenic celebration day. it is not a bilateral meeting. peter: does the u.s. have economic interest in making sure greece stays within the eurozone? mr. lew: there is no doubt that if this leads to a crisis such as greece leaving the eurozone it would cause an enormous amount of disruption and hardship in gree

peter cook looks

mark: peter cook joining us. thank you. standard of poor -- greeks rating has been downgraded by standard and poor. he joins me in studio. welcome. pleasure to see you. the situation in greece has been so bad for so long. why this downgrade now? >> we are getting to the endgame phase. the government is not really looking in all corners and all barrels to find the liquidity to make the payments coming due and a couple of weeks, so we are running out of time relatively quickly. mark: we have lower gas prices, a weak euro. why has that not help the greek economy? >> the greek economy is suffering from a great confidence crisis. what we're having here is uncertainty about the path of policy going forward. in particular, whether there will be an ingredient with fellow european nations which are giving loans and currently withholding disbursements. i think the markets clearly no without the disbursements, the money will run out very quickly. mark: today the greek prime minister ordered local governments to move the funds to the c

betty: that was peter cook speaking with the former treasury secretary, hank paulson. to catch peter's interview with jack lew today at four clock p.m. eastern time on bloomberg television. i want to get back to those pictures you saw a few moments ago. a protester jumped up, interrupting ecb president mario draghi. chanting "ecb dictatorship." it brings home how much not only the world is watching monetary policy but also how it affects people's lives. i want to bring in scarlet fu. i know you've been on top of this news. you and i were remarking, he was interrupted. a pretty dramatic moment. he went back to talking about the economy. scarlet: as if nothing had happened. betty: the euro falls, not because he was attacked but because he said, we're going to continue with our bond buying program. scarlet: he did not miss a beat. there were headlines at said he was attacked by a protester and they had adjourned the conference. the woman was wearing a t-shirt i believe it was in german. it looked as if it said something about a tater ship. -- something about dictatorship.

we begin with peter cook. he is at the white house with more on the obama administration's reaction to the agreement that was reached on the outline for a nuclear deal with iran. peter, good afternoon. peter: good afternoon. we will hear from the president in about 15 minutes and get his reaction to this landmark agreement between united eggs the european union, the p5 plus one -- the united states, the european union the p5 plus one nations. this deal will allow negotiators to fill in the details between now and july 1. it will be in exchange for an easing of sanctions on iran. what we heard is the negotiations went into extra time in switzerland. some of the details that have emerged -- iran will have to reduce the number of centrifuges it has down to about 2/3 of the existing total, about 6000 centrifuges. that will be controversial on capitol hill. other aspects -- they will be allowed to do some nuclear research going forward at some of their facilities, but it will be monitored to some extent. there are q

and peter cook is live in chicago. it election it could shape the future of the democratic hardy. there is a developing story out of d.c. the white house, the capital, and other sites have been affected by widespread power outages across the district. the state department lost power during the daily press briefing at around 12:42 washington time. you are looking at a live shot of the u.s.. white house power was knocked out and cycled back on using generators. it is now back to normal. the u.s. capital also experienced sporadic power outages according to capitol police. pepco is reportedly investigating the report. there was an explosion at a southern maryland electric cooperative facility according to "the washington post." we will bring you more details as we get them. fedex will be expanding in europe. they will purchase a struggling dutch logistics company, tnt express. more than two years ago their competitor, ups, had to scrap its own bid divide tnt. regulators moved to block the deal. executives say that they do

chief correspondent peter cook joins us as well as andrew short smith, lecture at georgetown law. r, what is the latest and coming out of the sea -- of d.c.?/ >> we reported back that the antitrust team had reservations about this deal and that they were prepared to recommend that the justice department challenge it. the double ramey for comcast came in meetings yesterday at the fcc. according to people familiar, they learned at that time the company did, the company lawyers, that the fcc would also recommend they go to a hearing on this deal. r gidley, a bigger blow to the challenge posed by the justice department because that hearing process can take months, if not years. simply the delay could make this -- put this deal into jeopardy for comcast. it gives them the option of challenging the fcc and the doj but we are not at that point. there is still an opportunity for negotiation. cory: schwarzman, let me ask you. it seems among other things this is a big srew up for people act comcast before they went through the trouble of making it happen. >> let me say that historically it h

congressman ryan spoke to peter cook earlier today. s want to give the president more authority to do anything now? the story of the president residency has been gridlock. peter: republicans have also accused this president of exceeding his executive authority on issues like immigration. it does raise the question to some republicans, why would they cede any ground to the president ? i put that question to paul ryan and the answer is they agree with the president on trade and they believe fast track trade authority the weight is being constructed will give them more power over the final product. congressman ryan: there is nothing stopping the president from negotiating a trade agreement at plopping it on congress' desk. by offering this vote with his transparent process with negotiating objectives at the front, we think we will get a better outcome and a better outcome from our trading partners as well. peter: the white house is pleased they are getting help from paul ryan. he is delivering votes for them on this issue. last time we had

mark: peter cook joining us from the white house. thank you. it lyrical strategist at -- a political strategist at potomac research group joins me now from washington. greg, welcome back to bottom line. good to see you again. do we in the media have this all wrong? is it possible that congress is closer to backing and iran nuclear deal than we had been reporting? greg: i think there is a key number and the number everyone has to focus on is 67. it takes 67 votes to override a presidential veto. as peter said, if there is a bill that goes to the white house that gives congress an up or down vote, the president will veto it, and i think he will get enough democrats probably to be sustained. it's a close call. but i thought a key development over the weekend, other than the pope i guess, was dianne feinstein, a moderate democrat who is pretty hawkish on foreign policy said basically, the deal is a lot better than i thought it would be. if democrats like feinstein all into line, he can get enough votes to have his veto sustained. mark: let's look a

although century lou sat down for an interview this afternoon with chief washington correspondent peter cookked -- although secretary lew sat down for an interview this afternoon with chief washington correspondent peter cook, and peter asked him -- secretary lew: the real engine of growth right now i am pleased that the united states is doing much better, and there is a lot of attention on how resilient and how much the u.s. economy has recovered full stop when i look around the world there is clearly a need for more attention to how to generate faster, more sustainable growth. i think that as you look around the world, there are areas where there is a need for policy levers that are available. we took advantage of all the policy levers to get our economy back in gear -- monetary policy, fiscal policy, reforms, particularly in the financial area. there are a lot of economies that need to use all of these levers. peter: secretary, we have gone through this before -- who is that you are talking about? secretary lew: we have gone around the world, and there is clearly a shortage of demand in a

tom: peter cook, thank you so much. his conversation with paul ryan, we will look for that later today across bloomberg media and bloomberg television in the 8:00 hour. this is really fun -- joseph plumeri has a career of doing, not talking. the title is vice-chairman of first data's board of directors. that barely describes his career. we will talk about his new book "the power of being yourself," i will not give you the surprise -- just yet out there and do something. right now, joe on the future of his wall street. i remember you yelling and screaming about creating revenue -- is that a day from another time and place, or can the new wall street be your wall street? joe: i think the old wall street is the same as the new wall street. i think it is different from the quantity of how we make money, but i think wall street's connection to society and what it does to society is the same. tom: one of the great conversations is can the guy from william and mary in history come out and is on the a finance, or do you have to

but sent to the white house, to peter, peter cook. ss on the defense relationship and there are most -- already preliminary announcements about how the relationship will change, particularly focusing on china and north korea. peter: that's right a more robust role for japan in terms of defense. the first time in 20 years the guidelines between the u.s. and the japanese mutual defense treaty are changing. they will allow the japanese military to move into cyberspace and outer space. they will allow the japanese military to do more in terms of missile defense and the region. if a u.s. ship comes under attack there will be the possibility for japanese military forces to intervene. that is the change in the relationship. it's controversial in japan. abe needs to sell it to his constituents back home and it needs to be approved by parliament. that is one of the agreements they signed off on yesterday john kerry and asked carter for the u.s. as they meet with their japanese counterparts. -- john kerry and ash carter. it would be a counterwei

let's bring in chief washington correspondent peter cook joining at the website. here, what has been the most controversial part of the deal so far? peter: i think a couple things stand out. these will be some of the questions you will hear almost immediately on capitol hill. the fact that iran will still be able to enrich uranium if it wants to. that is going to be controversial, even though the level of uranium enrichment will not behind enough, occurring -- according to what we have heard so far, to build a nuclear weapon. the fact that they can build any nuclear program, that will be controversial to israelis, to critics on capitol hill as well. and the other thing that will stand out, how quickly will be sanctions be eased? that will be a question for members of congress who do not want to see them eased anytime soon. the irani and's of course will be insistent it as quickly as possible. those are some of the big questions. and i am seeing those on e-mails from capitol hill. alix: fair enough. let's bring in mark halperin. let's talk about congressional reacti

we see clarity from our chief washington correspondent, peter cook. peter, on and on. how do we gracefully end the talks if there is no end to the talks? peter: one of the goals for the u.s. side is if the talks do have to come to an end, if the iranians are blamed for a failure, that the u.s. did everything it could at the negotiating table to show flexibility. that is a key goal of the obama administration. but they still would like to see this come to a fruitful conclusion, which is why john kerry went back to the negotiations within the last hour or so in-laws and switzerland. -- in luzon, switzerland. there is the real possibility these will not end with the kind of success the administration was hoping for. certainly not the framework agreement they were hoping for in the first place. you could see perhaps enough progress made here that negotiations would continue toward the deadline. brendan: in all international negotiations when they begin to break down, you can tell because sides are wildly starting to lay the groundwork to blame the other side. are you getti

mark: peter cook joining us in new york today. thank you so much. bill: service secretary of defense under president clinton from 1997 to 2001 and is now chairman and ceo of the cowen group. welcome back to "bottom line." last week, the chair of the senate foreign relations committee said he is within a few both of being able to override that threatened presidential veto. does today's compromise make an overall -- make it overall more or less likely? >> it depends on what the agreement is. frankly it looks as if there is something in the works to make it bipartisan. even so if they were to pass it today and it appears they will with the next two days the question becomes should be brought to the floor for a vote prior to the time that this agreement is worked out in detail? that would be a mistake if they bring it to the floor. it's open to amendment, it could be 50 amendments. any number of changes made that would jeopardize it. hold the fire. congress has an important role to play but don't jeopardize the agreement before there is an agreement. it

let's go to bloomberg chief washington correspondent peter cook. peter, good afternoon. peter: mark, the fed is not explicitly ruling out a rate increase in june, but they are acknowledging the recent weakness. the first interest rate increase, and they are a true picking that weakness partly to transitory factors, so that is something for fed watchers to consider. there is definitely new language on the economy. there was a slowing in the winter months, and the pace of job gains moderated, and the employment rate is steady. indicators show an underutilization of resources was little changed, and they also refer to witness a fixed investment softening, as well so they acknowledge the weakness, but they go on to say that employment slowed, and the committee continues to expect that appropriate action will continue to move forward. as is consistent with the dual mandate. inflation is anticipated to remain near the level in the near term, but the committee expects inflation to rise gradually towards 2% as the labor market improves further and the transitory effects decline,

while we wait for that speech to happen, let us bring in peter cook. not entirely unusual that we would find out several months after the fact that something happened. why is this particular disclosure significant? peter: what is significant here and we expect the president to discuss the shortly is that this would represent perhaps for the first time that we know of an accidental death of hostages as a result of a counterterrorism operation. we expect the president to disclose this was a drone strike in generating. this happen in a remote part of afghanistan on the border with pakistan. the significance again is that the president who has backed the drone strikes since 2009 and have been relatively successful or so we heard from the administration and the intelligence community. the issue here is that these debts apparently -- deaths apparently the u.s. did not know they were there at the time. they have high confidence these two were killed in this counterterrorism operation. that is the significance here. it will raise questions about the drone strik

peter cook looks at the coming fight between the white house and congress over the iran nuclear deal.irst, the stories we're following. marco rubio telling top donors he is running for president because he feels uniquely qualified to pitch his republican party is one that will defend the american dream. the first-term republican florida told the biggest backers he sees the presidential 2016 campaign as a choice between the past and the future. he spoke on a conference call before a political rally scheduled for tonight in miami. hillary clinton is scheduled to make her first campaign appearance tomorrow at a community college and i want. sunday she ended the suspense over whether she would seek her party's nomination. >> i am running for president. americans that pop their way back from tough economic time 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. mark: she is taking a road trip to iowa in a van. iowa is the traditional site of the first party caucuses. a surprising number for one of the drivers of c

peter cook joins us now with the latest. peter, any word on how things are going thus far? peter: not a lot of reporting out on this very important meeting. the justice department and comcast basically not even acknowledging it is happening. we do have knowledge of this meeting between comcast and officials set to put take place today. it is not entirely clear and the focus of the conversation is again justice department concerns about the accommodation of comcast and time warner the size of the entity and its hold on the broadband business in this country. a combined mark of 57% of broadband subscribers in this country. that is a central area of concern on the part of the government. the justice department attorneys were leaning towards recommending the government sue to block this combination, that they had not reached a final company -- a final decision on that yet. mark: what can comcast offer the government to make the deal succeed? peter: that is the $45 billion question at this point. they could try to reduce the footprint in terms of the number of subscribers and pe

peter cook sat down with secretary paulson. here's his take on p -- his take on president obama's handling of. >> the right thing to do would have been to say right on, we want to be an observer. we want to argue for better standards. that is the right policy i believe. to keep working to bring china into the existing institutions with a bigger role. many observers and much of the press said this is landmark. this is a watershed event. china passing the torch. that is bull. that is not a huge thing. we do not get everything right. mark: former treasury secretary hank paulson. coming up, who will stand druckenmiller -- who will stan druckenmiller back in the 2016 elections? ♪ mark: welcome back. a tense moment at today's ecb press conference in frankfurt, germany. a protester jumped up onto a table where president mario draghi was speaking. demanded an end to what she called the ecb dictatorship. the woman was taken into custody. after a short break, mr. draghi resumed speaking. interest rates, unchanged. aaron hernandez has bee

. -- peter cook has details on u.s.ounterterrorism operations that killed an american being held hostage. peter: president obama says he takes full responsibility that accidentally killed two american al qaeda hostages, one an american. he had been held by al qaeda since 2011. the other, an italian held since 2011. -- since 2012. what we learned today from the white house is a u.s. intelligence official said that this compound along the afghanistan border did campaign -- contain al qaeda terrace and was targeted because of that, but what was not known is the hostages were also being held there. they were killed in essence by accident. the president did take responsibility. >> as president and commander in chief, i want to take full responsibility for all of our counterterrorism operations including the one that intermittently took the life of warren and giovanni. i profoundly regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government, i offer our deepest apologies to the family. peter: the president did say there w

peter cook is in chicago as mayor a manual is scheduled to take the white and black vote. what is the distinction if chicago goes to the polls this morning? peter: the? is the black vote in chicago and who will win it. is it going to be rahm emanuel or his challenger back up or will many members of the black community not vote in this election? it does appear that rahm emanuel is going to likely head on to victory and reelection in the third-largest city in america. he was up as much as 20 points in recent polls. he said it has been a humbling experience. he has done campaign ads here where he has the knowledge that he has some sharp elbows. not everyone gets along with me. i will fight for the city. he has made the feel to black voters directly and they could be the critical deciding factor in this race. olivia: it looks like rahm emanuel is clearly in the read -- in the lead. but this is the first runoff election since 1989. is this because of the an appeal or loss of support? peter: i would say this as much about a message as anything else to rahm emanuel. should we garc

washington correspondent peter cook is at the white house with more on that story. good afternoon. peter: good afternoon. a beautiful day at the white house. the president had the chance to roll out the red carpet for prime minister shinzo abe. a very warm greeting for the japanese prime minister. through the course of their press conference, referring to each other by first name. clearly a good moment for the united states and japan in the eyes of the obama administration. the leaders during the quiz of their press conference talked about the alliance and that they are more than just allies, they are partners and friends. they talked about military cooperation, enhanced military cooperation moving forward to that it shouldn't be seen as a provocation to china. and on the central economic issue between the countries, the transpacific partnership, the ongoing trade talks between 12 pacific nations, they knowledge that the u.s. and japan have not resolve individual differences over trade but are getting closer to a final deal. president obama: with respect to trade, we have reviewed t

to answer that, we are going to bring in our chief washington correspondent, peter cook. ve been walking through this step by step few weeks. does the president have to go to congress? peter: if you are talking to people at the white house, the answer is no. he has to inform congress but the president has a lot of attitude -- has a lot of latitude to waive some of the sanctions in place. you go to members of congress and they say not so fast. congress does have a role to play, but the reality is there something in between. the president has committed to fully brief congress but he has not signed off on an up or down vote for congress. could we see something in between? maybe. the good news is one of the people he's dealing with his bob corker of tennessee, who as done business with the white house and he is promising not to necessarily stand in the way of this deal. senator corker: it's very important congress is in the middle of this, understanding and teasing out these important questions. peter: he is insisting on a binding vote. the president has been talking about a n

peter cook is here with more.ght have lost sight of what the transpacific partnership is about. let's remind everybody what that state. >> what's at stake is it paves the way and inject new life into these trade talks that are supposedly coming to a close. this is a giant deal for u.s. businesses and for the specific rim companies. 793 million consumers and 40% of global gdp. the projection is this deal what had $123 million more in u.s. exports per year. it would boost in i $77 billion a year. this is a giant deal. it makes that deal more likely because this trade promotion authority fasttrack means congress has an up or down vote on this remit area they cannot amend or change it to kiss is a huge win for the president and a big win as well for businesses. even service companies who want to do more business in the pacific. erik: let's talk about the political dynamic in these got republican support. it seems as though he's getting the support he needs. when the democrats? >> that's the big? where is we know there

peter cook, lots of talk about trade and defense. no daylight between these two leaders could what did you hear either of them say on those issues that would be fodder for news in asia and here in the united states? peter: i think the president's answer at the end about his level of confidence that this will be passed in the united states he says it is no fun trying to pass a trade bill in this town. that is a reality for this president. brady did express confidence that it would e in the hand prevail because he believes the administration can make the case to skeptical democrats and they will certainly have republicans on board. no daylight here. what you heard particularly at the end is that he is hoping that shinzo abe can sway a few minds on capitol hill tomorrow when he speaks. he says it is in japan's interest but also in america's interest, it will raise american wages. that will be interesting to see shinzo abe before congress if he helps the president on that front. mark: he did a strong job selling that to americans, a lot

our chief washington correspondent peter cook is at the fed.from him in a few minutes. let's get you set up on this day, joining me this afternoon in chicago the chief economist. the head of global fixed income market strategies and j.p. morgan asset management, bloomberg news editor mike mckee, and standing by with wall street's reaction is our senior markets correspondent, julie hyman. are we expecting surprises? will this be a mulligan? will they say second quarter is what we're focused on? >> this will be a why meeting. it is only a question of how much weight they put on the weather, on the dollar, on the west coast port things and how much they say that is temporary and going to reverse. they will probably say inflation has stabilized. it will be interesting what they say about the impact of business . they will probably take june off the table after this. cory:mark: will they take june off the table? >> i certainly do think that june is off the table in our opinion in terms of the hike because as we have seen weaker data especially gdp n

given the fears over global liquidity, first, to peter cook. first, a look at the history may last night. give us the level of euphoria over this transaction with enron -- with iran. peter: they feel very good the white house, about what they have achieved. it is clearly be big story. this is a big moment for this president. he invested a lot of time and energy and risk a lot -- and risked a lot with this deal. there is huge risk steel. there is a lot -- there is a huge risk still. tom: the new york times notes --. there is a lot of specifics in this transaction. were you surprised by that? peter: the romney and test suggested not as specific as john kerry and the president did. i was not surprised. for the president to be able to sell this, the iranians needed to know he could provide specifics to members of congress. the united states needed those specifics. those other world leaders who were going to be at his side able to convince members of congress this is a good deal. tom: do you agree with that? olivia: it is not just about the u.s.. wha

erik: chief washington correspondent, peter cook.ket makers" will be back in a moment. ♪ stephanie: welcome back. i'm stephanie ruhle. more breaking news on aaron hernandez. the verdict was in, guilty of first-degree murder. scarlet: aaron hernandez was firm -- formally sentenced to life in prison without parole. it comes after members of the victim's family spoke. this comes about one hour after the jury found he was guilty. of first-degree murder for the shooting of odin lloyd fecund 2013. it followed -- back in 2013. the defense had to pivot their strategy at the end to a knowledge during closing arguments that hernandez was there when lloyd was killed. aaron hernandez's troubles are not over. more legal problems because he is awaiting another trial that is tentatively scheduled in may for an alleged double murder and 12,012 -- double murder of two men in 2012. stephanie: my kids are 20 years younger than he is, they would know what to do. being 23 is not a good defense. scarlet: p are pressured into it is what -- you are pressure

we are joined now by peter cook chief washington correspondent. he spoke to paulson. ke away? peter: he does talk about the problems with the chinese economy and the fact that the double-digit road we seen in the past is not going -- growth we've seen in the past is not going to continue and that china needs to make changes to its economy going forward. he says he has cautious optimism that the folks we deal with on a regular basis -- he traveled to china all the time even though he's no longer the treasury secretary -- and he's confident that they have the tools and the will to make the changes, but it's what to be difficult. here is paulson about why he wrote the book. henry paulson: i wrote this book because this is by far the most important bilateral relationship, and it impacts business leaders. because china has now come up the value-added chain and they are now a formidable competitor in addition to being a partner. we will be increasingly competing on the one hand -- and there is nothing wrong as long as it's healthy competition and not debilitating competition

peter cook is in washington. where are we -- is this an important vote? done or is there more to discuss? peter: this is not a done deal. for american businesses who have made trade their top priority. this bill is the top legislative priority, this is a big deal, a bipartisan agreement with orrin hatch of utah, and his top democratic counterpart, ron wyden, a lot of other democrats upset by this legislation. they will not back it at this move moves the president's trade agenda out of the priest. -- out of the deep freeze. tom: one question, how does paul ryan fit into this discussion over in the house? peter: he was part of the negotiations. he signed off on the same agreement, the same fast-track trade bill that will be introduced in the senate and the house, there will be test votes next week and then votes on the floor. watch for how many republican defections are there, people who do not want to give the president any latitude on any issue, and democrats, they need probably 50 democrats. businesses are lobbying on this. positive it's -- positive comme

peter cook, outside the fed with much more. you have been to so many of these. you know what the big sticking points are. what are we going to learn today? peter: as you said, even before the fed releases its statement after this latest meeting a lot of expectations among fed watchers that their timetable is being pushed back because of the weakness we have seen in the economy. our latest survey of economists 73% now think the first rate increase will happen at the september meeting, up from 37% from our last survey back in march. you have a certain percentage of economists that think we will not see any sort of rate increase until 2016. today's statement might give us clues as to where the fed falls in that calendar window. it is not going to be explicit. we know janet yellen is not going to spell it out with specificity but we could get a better sense in the statement where they fall. betty: the key will be the airline which on the economy, right? peter: they are going to have to acknowledge the recent weakness not just in jobs but the first quarter weakness. h

we are joined by peter cook who joins us from our offices in d.c. why pimco?an went into the seven when he retired. i think pimco was also want to pony up the cash. they've been working with bernanke for two quarters. they have been having come into their secular forum to talk about strategy. i think pimco is in a transition right now. they lost their does -- they lost their two cios. matt: i can't imagine he will have an office and go out five days a week and the a regular worker bee. does he occasionally call off? is he on conference calls? does he get paid to have his name on the letterhead? mary: i think you are on the nose. he is going to engage with clients to some extent and it's it on -- and sit on investment committees and try to help them understand where he sees it going. it is like phone a friend. you have a superhero on the line. they are paying for that access. matt: how much do we think they are paying? mary: he makes 250,000 per speaking engagement. you have at least three secular forums. plus you have this access with clients. that is worth se

peter cook is at the fed with more. is june still on the table for a liftoff? peter: looking at this statement out today from the fed, it is safe to say that june is still on the table, but maybe less likely than we thought heading into this. the expectation was at the -- that the liftoff would happen later in the year. the statement itself technology is the weakness in the economy. the economy grows a slow in the winter months. although growth and output in employment slowed during the first order, the committee expects economic activity will expand at a market -- at a modest pace. they think this lowdown is temporary, that these will see improvement. the reality is that right now we are not seeing improvement. some people still give june on the table but still think the whole picture is heading down the line. alix: i am joined by my guests. let's kick it off where peter left off. what is your prediction for the rate hike and what does today's meeting different at? michael going no saturday night movie going. i think the fed is likely to be going in september.

they have to sell it to israel as well the peter cook is in washington where he is expert at parsing preliminary interviews about preliminary agreements. why did the president speak with tom friedman. what was the significance of that conversation? peter: he wants to hit the influential foreign policy crowd as quickly as he can with this deal and he knows that tom friedman has a large voice on these issues and with his column in "new york times." it was about a 46-minute interview on camera as well and that interview i think will be watched. interesting moments in the discussions about israel and how he was about the safety and security of israel and personal pain he was when somebody in israel question whether he is in solidarity over the security going forward. he's trying to reach a wider audience and make his sales pitch and so far he's done pretty well. he seemed to convince tom friedman and has work to do with congress and israel but he should be feeling pretty good. brendan: tell us about his primary negotiating partner within congress senator bob corker of tennessee. he seems

peter cook is in washington. with the summit, it is a little bit like high school. you never know what the meeting is going to look like. are they going to shake hands or me by somebody's locker? what is the nature of the meeting? peter: it is going to be like high school. we do not have a clear picture about the scope of their engagement. they are both there. there is a likelihood they will cross paths. we know that we have had this high-level engagement between the secretary of state and his cuban counterpart. direct talks between the dose co-companies. there is a lot riding on this. it is taking the air out of the room. the meeting between role castro -- raul castro and president obama will dominate the conversation. francine: what are the meaningful words they have to tell each other? peter: it has to do with the conversations between the u.s. and cuban delegations that are trying to bring about a thaw in these relations. the first being getting cuba off of the terror list right now. cuba has been there since 1982. that is a stumbling block. cuba sees this as a

joining us, former economic adviser for obama's campaign and corresponded peter cook. peter, break this down. hillary just started her facebook page. she already has more likes the end jeb bush. it was going to win here? >> this is a good start particularly because she has not been accused of being the most tech-friendly candidate. they are introducing her to the public in a new and exciting way given the fact she has been around for a long time. this was an important step in the campaign. a have gotten into a good start. she is definitely going new-school with the digital release of her campaign. emily: she famously joined twitter late. do likes translate into votes? emily: -- >> they definitely translate to making sure people are familiar with the candidates and get the word of mouth that is so important to grassroots organizations. emily: mitt romney's followers famously trailed a box -- barack obama's. what is their strategy? what should the republican strategy be? >> i'm not sure what their strategy is but i do know you can watch a little bit from the video and the

betty: that was jack lew speaking to peter cook.will have much more from that interview throughout the day. we are awaiting some breaking news right now on housing and jobless claims. housing starts expected to come in at over one million. this is for the month of march 1.0 4 million housing starts expected to have begun. that rise would have been about 16%. on building permits, 1.0 8 million building permits expected to have been granted for the month of march. a decline of 1.9% come a step back from the gains we saw in the prior month. initial jobless claims expected at 280,000 claims. we'll see if that number six below that key 300,000 level. and we will see if it will have an impact overall in the market reaction. the numbers are out. housing starts, and undershot. scarlett has more other breaking numbers. scarlet: it is a real miss. analysts were looking at an increase of 16%. we have an increase of 6%. this is an increase of february. it was revised to be less of a drop. in terms of the actual net numbers, 926,000 housing star

peter cook there after his interview with angus king.d manager bruce richards says there are lots of distress opportunities in europe. where is he putting his money? ♪ matt: bruce richards says there are lots of distressed opportunities at home and in europe. stephanie ruhle. you will be talking to one of the most intelligent, kindest, most fun wall street dudes. stephanie: i'm pretty sure you think that because i think you went to dinner at his house with bon jovi. i think that is what you think he is so special. it does make him special. that is not why i am excited to sit down with him. we are talking about where he is investing. marathon has only gotten bigger. they always send up on bloomberg's top 100 list. since the day i walked into bloomberg, bruce has been saying the greatest opportunities lie in peripheral europe. when is it really going to pay off? are we seeing major improvements in spain, in portugal, in greece ? not so much. guess where else he invested? matt: where else? stephanie: near the united states. matt: haiti. ste

. -- peter cook has more. how does the white house feel about the progress made over the weekend? peter cook: they feel good about the arguments they have made so far, the -- the response they have gotten. the pope signed off here that was encouraged will -- encouraging. they like iran passes neighbors in the middle east have expressed concerns privately. they have not gone public with their criticism. even congress, the republican criticism we heard was not totally unexpected and there has been encouraging signs that some of the key republicans in congress are reserving judgment. one of them is the critical chairman of the senate foreign relations committee who spoke on sunday on fox news. >> i know it is very important congress is in the middle of this understanding, asking those important questions. peter: the senator not alone in giving the president some latitude here. he does not want congress to buy in. congress is on a two-week recess right now, one of the big reasons the president has not heard more vocal criticism -- they are simply not in town. matt: will congress vote

tom: peter cook did not grow up too far from you.any quality today and the coming political debate, -- when you look at the inequality today and the coming political debate, what do the democrats get wrong over the last number of years on inequality? joe: they get a lot wrong. one is de-regulation. it began under carter. it got stronger under reagan. it continued under clinton. we passed a law that said you could not regulate derivatives. it is described as financial weapons of mass destruction. we had to bail out aig to the tune of $180 billion. tom: what does clinton have to do to speak to the middle class? joe: we have to understand that it is not just a matter of redistribution. is the way our economic system has been working that has led to before tax wages being unequal. america has the highest level of an equality. -- of any quality. tom : what did the republicans get right? what have the republicans gone right? joe: they were against slavery. they really fought for it strongly. they lost some of the passion. i think it was a

i'm joined right now by our washington correspondent, peter cook. any new developments? peter: i do have some breaking news, but the meeting has begun. we saw a short time ago our crews saw the comcast attorneys arriving for these conversations. this is an opportunity for comcast to make a place to the justice department. it does not reduce competition and there is no overlap between these two companies and the deal should be able to move forward. there are concerns about the scope of this combination, so the question is what is happening in that room? what is it the justice department wants to see in terms of letting the move go forward. alix: what is the next process in this? peter: we need to find out the $45 billion question -- what is it the justice department would like to see to give this deal the green light? what they like to see a divestiture of certain assets? high-speed broadband customers would be under this combined company. would they be asked to get rid of some of those subscribers in chicago, new york or l.a.? we just don't know at this point. comcast mak

for more, we're joined by peter cook who has been on top of this story.nd from the hill senator bob corker. mr. chairman, thank you for joining us. do you have a deal with the democrats on the deal that would give congress some ability to sign off or block a deal with iran? senator corker: we have reached an agreement that absolutely keeps the integrity of the process in place. today is a vote a vote by members of the foreign relations committee as to whether they believe the president should be able to go straight to the united nations and reach an agreement or, as it relates to the congressional sanctions that we put in place, that congress put in place that everyone a knology is what brought iran to the table, whether we will have the ability to see video in full, including all the classified annexes, let it lay before the united states senate and house and let us make sure we understand and have the ability to vote to approve or disapprove, but also that we will remain involved in the event -- in the event, so we know iran stays in compliance with wha

peter cook, let's start with you. is bernie sanders further to the left than elizabeth warren? mself a socialist, which is something that elizabeth warren doesn't do. they are big supporters of raising the minimum wage breaking up the biggest thanks action on climate change -- raking up the biggest banks action on climate change. there is not a lot of daylight between them. it might push hillary clinton to the left may force her to take some positions on issues she might not otherwise want to take given the general election to come. but by and large, it proves it will not be a coronation for hillary clinton. it is a token opposition for her, which may be a plus rather than a detriment. stephanie: how big a deal is this, really? mark: it has long been expected he would run. he represents the aspirations of tens of millions in the democratic party on the left. it's not a majority. he will have to work hard to expand the knowledge to those who don't know about them but are interested. clinton has artie shown in her brief time in the campaign -- hillary clinton has already shown in

alix: peter cook joins us now with the d.c. angle. what has been the rhetoric in washington? peter: the rhetoric is that it should not move forward in the first place. there are some members of congress and we had al franken who was arguably leading the charge in washington on capitol hill against the deal. not claiming credit but certainly feeling like their message was heard at the this end at d.c., the concerns about the combination here the concerns regulator should have as well. this is a big decision. the doj and ftc to indicate to contact -- indicate they were not on board. alix: if you announce the deal, you might have felt like the regulatory environment was favorable. you have been looking at comcast past purchases. can you give us perspective? >> brian roberts has been described as a serial dealmaker. he makes a lot of acquisitions. what you will see is the company historically has made a 122 purchases worth a combined $207 billion. of those 114 of the transactions were in north america. only about $120 million were outside the u.s. for separate transactions in the

peter cook is in chicago with more on a manual's win. it looks like he got through but had bumps and scrapes along the way. peter: that is pretty much an understatement. rahm emanuel will be chicago for the next -- will be merit chicago for the next four years. he won with 56% of the vote last night. emmanuel was helped by strong support in the african-american community and the $22 million in his war chest that allowed him to blanket the airwaves. in his speech, he thinks supporters for their help in did say that this experience has changed him. he told the voters, i heard you. >> i am humbled at the opportunity to continue to serve you, the greatest city with the greatest people for the next four years. peter: in his own speech, chuy garcia was gracious in defeat. the teachers union that is done battle with mayor emanuel, there is more to come. matt: what does this race show us about the national political theme? a lot of people are looking at chicago as a microcosm of a bigger picture. peter: a microcosm of the picture for democrats. w