Mario draghi made it clear the European Central bank has one way to go and that is lower when it comes to rates. Earnings reports continue to roll out fast and furious. We have been successful with pricing. The revenue pressure is not sustaining in the industry. It is the teflon company. From Central Banks to brexit, the weeks top interviews. There is a certain small probability this could be dangerous. What is happening to the u. K. Economy is not entirely driven by brexit. Juliette it is all straight ahead on bloomberg best. Hello and welcome. Im juliette saly. This is bloomberg best, your weekly review of the most important Business News, analysis, and interviews from Bloomberg Television around the world. Lets start with a day by day look at the top headlines. On monday, optimism grows on signals the u. S. And china might be preparing to restart trade talks. Facetoface negotiations between top chinese and u. S. Trade negotiators could be restarting soon after a number of goodwill gestures by beijing over the weekend. That is according to Chinese State media. What we are seeing with the chinese moves on agricultural purchases, what we are seeing from our reporting out of beijing, it looks like they are about to start buying again, soybeans and possibly some pork and other agriculture commodities. That is all about goodwill measures, if you will. We should not take that to mean a deal is suddenly at hand. Ceos of Major Tech Companies paid a visit to the white house to discuss the economy and status of the u. S. Ban on huawei equipment sales. What was the outcome of the meeting . According to the white house, the ceos of the companies expressed support for National Security restriction for huawei. They also asked for timely decisions on when there would be exceptions to that ban. We still dont know how the companies and the Trump Administration are making distinctions between what the National Security risk is and what isnt. Boris johnson will be the next british Prime Minister, johnson promising to take the u. K. Out of the eu by the halloween deadline. I say to all the doubters, dude, we are going to energize the country. We are going to get brexit done on october 31 and take advantage of all the opportunities that will bring in a new spirit of can do. He has a razor thin majority to work within the house of commons behind me. It is going to be a very tall order for Boris Johnson to deliver. The only way i can see this going through with a deal actually, the only way i can see this going through is if he can persuade the European Union to do something, to give him something which he can then sell to his party as removing the backstop. This is the bit of the brexit deal they dont like. My mental image of this is a very small runway in a very dense jungle on which he is trying to land a very large plane. Senior u. S. Trade officials are to fly to china on monday for the first highlevel facetoface talks to ans may. Robert lighthizer and his team will be in shanghai through wednesday for talks that are expected to be a broad review of the issues that are dividing the u. S. And china. Any reason for some cautious optimism . I would be very cautious. This is the first breakthrough since President Trump and president xi announced the temporary truce in the trade war last month of the g20 meetings, but the Administration Officials have been really cautioning not to expect a whole lot. It is something of a breakthrough, but one that doesnt portend to any quick resolution. We have equities closing right around their session highs and it all changed just before 2 00 p. M. Bloomberg reporting that facetoface trade talks are back on. Nothing like a sprinkling of trade earnings and some mood music around the u. S. And china to help galvanize the risk. Deutsche bank, germanys biggest lender, lost 3. 2 billion euros in the Second Quarter. A bigger net loss than expected. Trading revenue dropped 12 in the Second Quarter and again underperformed its biggest u. S. Rival. We are continuing to execute on the restructuring as quickly as we can, and with the execution comes the recognition of the steps we have taken. This quarter, we are recognizing about 3. 4 billion of costs associated with the transformation, so we get a good portion of the accounting impact already behind us in the Second Quarter. In the balance of the year we are working to take severance and restructuring charges in the second half as we execute on the restructuring. Facebook out with secondquarter earnings, proving yet again the company can grow both advertising and users while feeling the heat from regulators worldwide. Just hours after facebook announced a settlement with the federal trade commission to end of row into the companys Privacy Policy and practices, the company confirmed it is now being investigated by the ftc on antitrust as well. With all of these controversies and all of these scandals, all of the scrutiny, how did facebook seem to keep beating the odds . It is the teflon company, it really is. Every quarter, i say the same thing. They have been able to grow their revenue, grow their user base despite mounting challenges and this quarter, more of the same. They just keep raking in the dough, they are a brilliantly welldesigned advertising platform, especially for smaller businesses, there is not another place to go where results can be achieved that are similar. That is a great thing for the company. But longterm, is it going to affect them . It is absolutely going to affect them, no question about that. Boris johnson has wasted no time in shaking things up. He has appointed brexit hardliners to several key positions. The former home secretary making a big promotion for the home office, and another brexiteer has been made foreign secretary. This is essentially him doubling down on his brexit commitment, recommitting to the 31st of october as a brexit headline. And we see him shaping a cabinet that will help them deliver brexit. He is bringing alongside all those people who were rebelling against mrs. Mays deal, and one of the conditions to be in the cabinet seems to be a willingness to accept the no deal brexit at the end of october. But remember, he will have every single one of them, including some labour people as well, in order to get a deal across, so it will not be incredibly challenging to do that. The ecb is dovish as the Central Bank Issues a rate cut in the face of a weakening economy and lowered expectations. Economic stimulus continues to be necessary to ensure financial conditions remain very favorable and support the expansion. Mario draghi made it clear that the European Bank only has one way to go and that is lower. He also made it clear that the European Central look at all the tools that are available for qe2. He did not give any details on qe2, did not really elaborate much on what it could look like. Of course now, we will look at a situation where they will be speculating the entire summer what is going to actually happen. September, do we look at a rate cut . How big is the rate cut going to be and do we actually get other policies . Do we get clear guidance on qe2, and clearing accompanied by that rate cut . Google having a bounce back quarter thats all revenue topped analyst estimates. Shares from googles Online Properties climbed to more than 27 billion. The good news for google is they were able to stop the decelerating ad revenue for the first time in about a year. They were able to decrease that a little bit. But i think the story remains from last quarter, which is the Digital Advertising ecosystem is significantly more competitive today than it was a year ago. Obviously facebook and amazon being the new entrant as the thirdlargest Digital Advertising company that is out there for advertisers to put their dollars into, so i think there is more competition and that is what is feeding this new normal that we are going to expect when we look at googles earnings going forward. Amazon fell in extended trade after reporting a lower than expected forecast. It says it will continue as cycle of continuing to improve delivery time and boost topline growth. One of the takeaways from this amazon result . Spending is back at amazon. They told us last quarter they will be spending some 800 million on trying to turn their twoday delivery pledge into a oneday delivery pledge and it indicated to investors it is going to continue at least for the next two quarters, rolling it out in the u. S. And internationally to try to increase the speed of delivery and integrate growth in the core retail business. Tmobile has won the u. S. Nod for the sprint sale, merger included. Does it mean they can go ahead with the deal . Pretty much. They still have some stakes they need to be in front of and make sure they get aboard, but yes, it is a momentous occasion for the two companies five years in the making. It will be i call it a very strong race to see who can provide the best 5g. We feel very confident combined we are going to be able to do that, because the sprint 5g spectrum that we have, called the midband, combined with the low band of tmobile, gives us the ability to build an advanced network. So there will be some great competition and i think the big beneficiary of this will be the American Consumer with more choices and obviously better prices. We are going to bring competition up. U. S. Growth slowing in the first quarter, but not much as expected for the headline number, at any rate. Consumer spending pushing gdp growth to 2. 1 , despite a drop in investments and exports. Business investment taking it on the chin over concerns of an escalating trade war. I would be more encouraged if we were looking at diversified growth, meaning that it was contributions from exports and Business Investments and a whole array of categories, but that wasnt the case. It is consumers going it alone type of economy, which would be good enough to prop up growth at a pace that is sustainable, low 2 territory, but certainly would be more encouraging for the Economic Outlook if we were seeing a bunch of contributions. Juliette still ahead as we review the week on bloomberg best, an exclusive conversation with former fed chairman Alan Greenspan. Plus, bank of england governor mervyn king says brexit is not britains only economic problem. Coming up, more of that weeks intriguing earnings reports. What we are seeing in the u. S. Business growing, is going down. Juliette this is bloomberg. Juliette this is bloomberg best, im juliette saly. The earnings drumbeat could be heard loud and strong this week. Lets continue our round up with results from more European Banks, starting with swiss lender ubs. Ubs saw a revival in its fortunes in the Second Quarter after what Sergio Armani called one of the worst starts to the year in recent history. Record profit at its Wealth Management business and a strong Investment Bank performance have helped them post the highest net income in almost a decade. If you look at the performance we had in the Second Quarter, it is a strong one, but that does not make us complacent about the environment. It is quite clear that if i look at, for example, the Investment Bank activities, the revenue pressure is there to stay in the industry. We are acting from a position of strength and a position which we constantly look at how to improve our business, and not one off initiatives that we let make a difference. We need to take advantage of our position in the market. Secondquarter profit hit by cost cuts along with a restructuring. In the bank reached an agreement with unions to dismiss 3000 workers, 10 of its spanish workforce. The lender is also closing 140 branches in the u. K. , eliminating jobs in poland. They have delivered the strongest quarterly performance in years, reflecting the progress we have made in our digital transformation. It is clearly a relationship between customers and banks is changing. Customers are channeling more and more transactions online than through the physical Distribution Network and we have to continually adjust to that new way of digital and relationships. Julia fair has reported the slowest inflows in at least seven years. That new money grew by 3. 2 in the first half of the year, meaning switzerlands thirdlargest bank missed its mediumterm goal from 4 to 6 . Net inflows are quite robust from the core Wealth Management business, particularly from europe, asia to the middle east. Youre right. We had some outflows. And we are actually in the target range of 4 to 6 . If i look at margins and revenue, compared to the second half of last year, they have substantially recovered. We also have benefited from better markets, and what is very important going lowered, the cost program that i explained in february is nicely on track. German asset manager dws had a 4. 2 billion euros in inflows in the quarter, so it was actually a very big, bright spot for deutsche bank, the Parent Company and the Asset Management business has really turned around 700 billion euros in assets under management. What is going right for dws . What is going on for us, we have a diversified portfolio of asset classes, spanning passive and active, and we can respond to our clients needs and we see strong inflows in passives and alternatives in particular. Shares of cocacola up 5 , posting their biggest gains in four years, pushing coke to a record. The beverage giant got another boost, less sugar. I want to ask you about the north american unit. We did see a little bit of a weakness. You managed to raise prices in north america, but are you losing sales and what to do about that . When you look at the north american business, we have a very Clear Strategy we have been pursuing, which is to drive engagement with consumers and one of the legs of that is using smaller packages so we are looking for transaction growth, even if it means a little bit less volume. We would like in future quarters to see the volume increase slightly, but our strategy in north america is really about expanding the portfolio, creating value, and growing the revenues. I think the sign of the strategy working is he will see more households buying more of our products, and penetration of households in the u. S. Going up. What we see in the u. S. Is the business growing, but the Carbon Footprint going down. Shares of tesla are tumbling in afterhours trading, doubledigit losses, down 11 . The electric carmaker reported a larger secondquarter loss than expected and is cutting its fouryear forecast for capital expenditures. The Company Still aggressively pushing ahead with expansion in china. At least they kept their forecast for deliveries. Yes. They also kind of walked back from the idea of making profits in the thirdquarter and later this year, but we see from the results that the model 3, as we suspected, sells for less than the model s and the model x, and now the makeup of the company is one where it is selling three to four times more model 3s than those other vehicles, the models at tesla are really under pressure. Volkswagens operating profit fell 8. 1 on fading demand in key markets come a but the worlds biggest carmaker is sticking to its fullyear outlook. You are right, you refer to sales being down 4 , but we have still been able to grow operating profit by special items by 2 . Our mix is improving and we have been successful with pricing. We know we are forecasting into a potentially difficult second half, but a Strong Foundation gives us a comfort to stick to our guidance for the full year. Nissans troubles far from over. The carmaker doubled its plants job losses and unveiled new production cuts after reporting a 99 plunge in firstquarter profit horrible numbers. So what is the issue with nissans job cuts plan . Nissan is basically producing too many cars, and we can see that from the way sales plummeted and the way incentives and were being used, especially in the u. S. , to move cars. In i think some scale of job cuts or certainly necessary, but the problem is where the job cuts are located. If you are looking where they are cutting jobs so far, north america, europe, talk of indonesia as well, and to some extent japan. They need to think about their extent of the japanese export operation, which is about half of the revenue for the japanese operation in the global mix. Juliette youre watching bloomberg best, im juliette saly. All eyes will be on the fed next week as the fomc is expected to cut rates, despite generally strong economic conditions. This week, former fed chairman Alan Greenspan spoke exclusively with bloombergs david westin and said an insurance cut could make a lot of sense. Forecasting is very tricky. Certain forecast outcomes have far more negative effects than others, so in that sense, you will act to reduce the risk of those types of events and that is a valuable thing to do. I remember very distinctly, on a number of occasions we cut rates not because we thought it was highly probable or that it would be necessary, but the probability of what would happen if indeed it did happen was very large, relative to other events. So it is relative balance, and you consider there our small probability events that could be very dangerous, it pays to act to see if you can send it off. David one thing we talk about now is for the need to cut rates, perhaps of uncertainty. Chair powell talked about that, as well as anemic and slowing global growth. Do lower rates help or remedy uncertainty and slowing growth . It is not something i recall, being active in that type of activity, but they might and they might not. I dont think that in and of itself it is a reason to act, but there is a relative trade oaks to this day. Juliette coming up on bloomberg best, more of the weeks top news in business and finance. Activist investor carl icahn pushes for more seats on occidentals board and Congress Works out a deal to raise the u. S. That no one is very happy with. And former bank of england governor mervyn king is fed up with the battle over brexit and he says he knows why it has been dragging on. So far the thing that matters more than anything else is that parliament has voted for nothing. Juliette this is bloomberg. Juliette welcome back to bloomberg best. Im juliette saly. This week, a new nasdaq file Stock Exchange opened in china, shanghais star market. The first day saw a trading frenzy as 25 companies that made their debut rose an average 140 , although the exuberance faded a bit as the week went on. Bloombergs selina wang caught up with china renaissance groups ceo, fan bao, at the launch of the new exchange, and asked how this new stock venue will distinguish itself. Whats different is where to find the timetable, and it is all about disclosures, in the end. Its not about whether you meet a certain requirement for those things. At the end of the day, it is about disclosures. So thats a process for us, who actually represent a lot of chinese Tech Companies both here and overseas, we are quite familiar with. It is actually a quite him interesting change of the concept. How much do you see this shifting the balance of listing from new york and hong kong to Mainland China . I mean, the u. S. Is still a very attractive place given the opportunity to raise u. S. Dollars amid capital control rules. I think these are different markets. U. S. , hong kong, china, including the stock markets, theyll all have a different focus. And the u. S. , i think, if you him are large cap company, the u. S. Is the best place to go because it is most liquid, the broadest Capital Market in the world. Hong kong, obviously, it has connections and liquidity to the china markets, and if you are a Consumer Company with a unique Business Model, hong kong is probably your top pick. And if you are hard tech company, the Technology Driven or based economy, semiconductor, china is probably the best choice. From our perspective, it is always good to have more options. I think eventually the chinese Tech Companies entrepreneurs also will find that they will group toward different selections. The u. K. Has a new Prime Minister, but it faces the same question it did before Boris Johnson took office on wednesday what will happen to britains economy as it heads towards an uncertain divorce from the European Union . Former bank of england governor mervyn king tells bloomberg how the country might use fiscal and Monetary Policy tools to meet this challenge. In terms of a macroeconomic response, if there were a weakening of the u. K. Economy, and i think its important to make clear that what is happening to the u. K. Economy is not entirely driven by brexit. One of the great mistakes of the past three years amongst many commentators is just to assume that everything thats happening in britain is a result of brexit. It isnt. We are part of a bigger World Economy which itself is slowing. Other parts of the world europe, the United States are thinking about how much policy space they have. I think we have quite a lot, if it were thought to be appropriate to ease either in monetary or fiscal policy. But that is a judgment to be made by the respective authorities further down the road. But it is there if we need it, that isnt the big challenge. The big challenge is actually for parliament to come to a view as to what we are going to do, and so far the thing that matters more than anything else is that parliament has voted for nothing. It has voted against everything, its voted against remain, against eight different varieties of brexit, against the no deal brexit. It hasnt voted for anything. And that is the source of the deadlock in which we find ourselves. So what is the solution . On the demand side of things, you say in the end of alchemy that demand is impervious to Monetary Policy, that it cant stimulate demand, but thats the Global Economy slowing argument. Then, on the political side of things, we know that the u. K. Has already entered a technical recession. What is to be done . Can the boe do anything by easing . I think we need greater cooperation within the World Economy. I think the Federal Reserve is quite likely to ease Monetary Policy, to see continued growth in the u. S. The bigger problems i see lie within the European Union. They are exporting deflation to the rest of the world. They have a very large current accounts surplus. The trade surplus of china has for the moment disappeared, is the big issue on the international front. The issue is the current account in surplus of the European Union. I see no prospect of them being willing to face up to tackle that for some considerable time. Well, if trade tension is the leading Downside Risk for markets, geopolitical shocks are certainly close behind. This week, bloombergs Kevin Cirilli sat down with the u. S. Secretary of state, mike pompeo, one of the worlds most influential actors in diplomacy and and foreign policy. They had plenty of hotspots to discuss. Iran has this long history of lying behavior. So our mission is that when we came in to create as much stability in the middle east as we could. We watched iran engaging in this behavior, we had a terrible deal that the Previous Administration had entered into, that had as one of its major side effects creating enormous wealth for the leadership of the Islamic Republic of iran. They were using that money in malaligned ways, and we broke out of the deal and put pressure on the regime and are forcing them to make tough decisions about how theyre going to behave. Would you go to tehran . If thats the call. Would you appear on Iran Television . I would welcome the chance to speak directly to the iranian people. Ive talked about this before. He drives around new york, he drives around in the most wonderful city in america and speaks to the media and talks to the american public, gets to put iranian propaganda into the american airwaves. Id like a chance to go, not do propaganda, but speak the truth to the iranian people about what its leadership has done and how it has harmed iran. Within the last 24 hours, the north koreans have fired a new short range ballistic missile. How does this impact denuclearization talks with kim jongun . President trump has been incredibly consistent. We want diplomacy to work. We want chairman kim to deliver on the promise he made to President Trump, which was that he would denuclearize. I was there they day they signed the document. I have heard chairman kim tell me this half a dozen times. There is a negotiated solution to this. We look forward to the opportunity, but chairman kim told President Trump you would send his working team to negotiate with hours. Next week, right . It will be a couple weeks, i anticipate. More important than the date, if we wait two weeks or four weeks or six weeks, to make sure we have enough conversations to have productive dialogue when the teams get together. Thats the real objective. If it takes us another two weeks or four weeks, so be it. Juliette this is bloomberg best, im juliette saly. Lets continue our global tour of the week with the top stories in business, finance, and politics with a victory for the Ruling Coalition in japans upper house election. Japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe has won the upper house election, but has fallen short of a super majority that would have let him push through his revised constitution. He didnt win the super majority, fine, but he won. So what does that mean if he tries to move ahead . Its another mandate for shinzo abe as he attempts to become the longestserving japanese Prime Minister. By november he will be the longest in modern history in japan, but he also solidified his mandate to push forward with the sales tax increase. That is due to take effect in october. Ok, he might not have gotten him and that super majority to push forward for the constitutional revision, but at least he can have the next three years or so until the next upper house election to sway the lawmakers and move the ball forward on what he calls his mission, and that is to revise the constitution, to basically legalize in the constitution the selfdefense forces, which is not in place right now. Lets focus on turkey. The nations new Central Bank Governor delivering the biggest Interest Rate cut, 17 years of putting president erdogans policy goals into practice. President erdogan has a different view of economics than many of us. He believes that high rates contribute to high inflation. How much pressure is he going to put on the new Central Bank Governor to deliver a series of rate cuts like this . President erdogan thinks that if turkey lowers Interest Rates, inflation rates will fall. Thats an unusual view on how the cost of money in the cost of goods interact with each other. How far he will go i think will depend on how the lira reacts. The president may have certain ideas about the economy, but he is a pragmatist, a pragmatic politician, and he will look at how the lira reacts, how it is taking a toll on the rest of the economy, including inflation and unemployment. Germanys industrial crisis seems to be getting a little bit worse. Manufacturing fell to its deepest slump in seven years as trade tensions weakened abroad and water levels on the rhine river taking their toll. It shows the hopes that a rebound in europe, that weakness was over unfortunately, it really isnt going to happen. Him and the german Manufacturing Sector has jumped from 53 to 43 in 18 months. Its not all about china, its not all about the trade war, this is a real change in the economy and it is showing the Business Model is not working and even though services and the wages are holding up nicely in germany, no problems on the fiscal side, the main engine of growth has the real problems. Oil has extended gains as tensions in the persian gulf remain elevated. The u. K. Has demanded the Immediate Release of the senate impairer, which was seized by iran in the strait of hormuz on friday. Prices elevated by 1. 5 this morning. What is iran doing to try to find markets for its oil . In the midst of the sanctions from the u. S. And others, this is proving very difficult for them. We are watching the tankers move out of iran full, they are moving largely to the east, and we are seeing them enter in china should chinese buyers take that oil and should they have access, that the u. S. Could attempt to seize or take through sanctions, again, should the chinese take the iranian oil. But they are not sitting still. They are shipping that oil and trying to get it to market. The european governments have agreed to assemble a Naval Mission to provide safe passage for ships through the persian gulf. I dont think it is surprising that the u. K. Is going to its european allies and asking for help, and that they would join in an effort to try and make sure that the strait of hormuz stays open, limiting irans ability to disrupt it. Because the u. K. Seems to be very keen to separate itself from what the u. S. President is doing. Jeremy hunt was quite clear about that, saying they are still sticking to the policy of wanting to ensure that a nuclear deal sticks and continues, and they are not aligned with President Trump on his policies. President trump announced a bipartisan deal to suspend the debt ceiling and boost spending levels for two years. This averts the risk of damaging payments default. Trump praised the deal on twitter, calling it a real compromise. Who won, jody, in terms of this deal, or is it a real compromise . Its a compromise in the sense that they needed to get this done, so they all gave in and nobody is really happy about it. Conservatives think that there was too much given away. House progressives dont like that they didnt get enough domestic spending. This will send the annual budget deficit above 1 trillion likely next year, which of course makes budget hawks very unhappy. The u. S. Department of justice is poised to open a broad antitrust review into big tech, putting alphabet, amazon, apple, and facebook in the spotlight. Regulators are looking specifically at whether u. S. Tech companies are so big, they stifle competition. This, of course, ratcheting up pressure on tech giants already facing scrutiny from europe to capitol hill. I think what we are looking at here is a sort of complement to an actual task force that the federal trade commission announced a couple months ago. So the ftc and the doj, they share antitrust oversight. So i think we are looking at the complementary task force, which is especially interesting to me, we had believed that the doj and ftc had basically split up the companies. The doj would only be looking at google and apple. Now it seems like they will he taking something much more highlevel that could be doing criminal referrals to other parts of the agency. They could be working with the ftc, and some of these companies could actually be facing scrutiny from both agencies. Facebook has agreed to pay a record 5 billion in fines to resolve u. S. Investigations into years of privacy violations. This is a big slap in the face to facebook, but does it actually change anything regarding facebooks future policies . I dont think it does. The decision here from the ftc imposes a 5 billion penalty and it imposes some restraint on the business going forward, but not likely anything that will change its basic core Business Model. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller finally testified on capitol hill, but democrats hoping for a jumpstart on their case against President Trump were largely disappointed. Mueller never went beyond the report. He declined to even read from the report, which would have given the democrats the soundbite, probably, that they were looking for. So there was no new news here from his testimony. His answers were very short. They were very terse. It is likely that the battle lines that existed before he arrived at the capitol are still there. Chinese government offices in hong kong have condemned what they call the siege of the building by prodemocracy protesters. Police fired tear gas late sunday night to disperse a group that had infiltrated the office after people mass marched on the city streets. Six straight weeks, and now theres a liaison office. Why is this such an important target at this point in time . This is the chinese liaison office, a nondescript building in a nondescript part of town, but some of the radical protesters contend that this building is ground zero for beijings influence peddling and attempts to interfere with the one country, two systems system, which is supposed to keep hong kongs Administration System separate from that of the rest of china. In a residential part of the new territories, over near the chinese border, around the same time yesterday, a group of organized progovernment demonstrators, i suppose, attacked people who looks like protesters, and they attacked them on the metro. This is a new, disturbing, darker part of the protests taking place here in hong kong at the moment. Activist investor carl icahn is stepping up his attack on Occidental Petroleum in his letter to shareholders, saying they rushed the deal to purchase anadarko in order to stop occidental from being taken over itself. Essentially, what carl icahn is trying to do is get four Board Members on the board and he has to go through this convoluted process, he has to get a record date and get shareholders to support his effort to remove and replace four directors. This is a good example of somebody that goes in and does this deal in a panicked way over a very short period of time and spends billions of billions of billions of dollars of shareholders money overpaying for it. I think there will be a day when we are very much needed on that board, because really, that board does not hold the ceo accountable and the chairman is not accountable, and i think the chairman has a lot of power on the board, and i think they are both greatly at fault for the way they conducted this. Softbank has announced it is launching a second vision fund, this time worth 108 billion. What do we know about this second fund . First, we know it will be named sensibly, vision fund 2, we know softbank will contribute 38 billion, which is quite a bit more than what they put in their original fund of 28 billion. It is in line with what we have been hearing, that they are looking to take a much more active role and a much more controlling stake in the fund. So far, only softbank has committed the money, but theres a list of companies that have signed a memorandum of understanding and it is pretty much all new names. Apple and foxconn have signed up for the second fund, although we dont know how much they contributed. These are the investors from the first fund that sealed the deal and launched a whole vehicle will about two years ago, so it will be very interesting to see if they will come back for more. Juliette the venue designed for those Tech Startups got off to a positive start on monday, might be downplaying it a little bit, if you take a look at that performance we have seen so far. On their first day, all 25 stocks rose on their debut, some seeing double digit if not triple digits when it comes to that stock price. We put it all on the terminal for you. Juliette there are about 30,000 functions on the bloomberg, and we always enjoy showing you our favorites on Bloomberg Television. Maybe they will become your favorites. Heres another function you will find useful, quic. It will lead you to our quick takes, where you can get important context and fast insight into timely topics. Heres a quick take from this week. Chinas spies have got a lot of unwanted attention recently, thanks in part to political tensions between china and the u. S. Many of those spies work for the countrys main intelligence agency, the ministry of state security, or mss. In december 2018, one of chinas top tech executives was arrested in canada on a u. S. Extradition request. Soon after, agents abruptly detained two canadians in china. Then, days later, the u. S. Publicly named two of their alleged assets as part of their sweeping indictment involving hacking on a global scale. The series of events has people asking, what exactly is the mss . This is your bloomberg quick take on chinas elusive spies. Compared with the u. S. , the mss is something of a mashup. It conducts intelligence operations abroad like the cia, counterespionage at home like the fbi, and cyber snooping like the nsa. When you hear the details of how the mss operates, you think it wouldnt be out of place in a spy movie. The number of employees is classified and the exact location of its headquarters is unknown, but it is thought to be a nondescript building in beijing. It doesnt have a public website or press office. Whats clear is that the mss is key to president xi jinpings efforts to tighten control over security. Its head is an expolice chief who helped direct nationwide antigraft campaigns. In 2015, National Security law extended the mss power to outer space in the deep sea as well as the internet. The mss benefits from close ties between the state in chinese tech giants like baidu and alibaba and tencent, all of which have the ability to mine personal data. Other Government Departments are required to cooperate with the mss and provide support for its activities. The mss operates secret detention facilities within china and is known for its harsh treatment of dissidents. For example, the blind civil rights lawyer was under house arrest for 19 months before he fled to the u. S. Embassy in beijing in 2012 and eventually moved to new york. So the organization has developed a fearsome reputation, and that is based on how much power it has and the vague limitations on that power. These, including foreigners, have alleged violations of their basic rights while in the custody of security agents, and some have talked about daily sixhour interrogations, not having access to lawyers, or confinement in cells under lights that never go out. Media reports have noted some key mss victories, including the possibility that they monitored president Donald Trumps calls made on unsecured cellular devices. There was also a report that the mss had dismantled cia operations in china over several years, killing a dozen or more of the Agency Sources reportedly in one of the worst u. S. Intelligence breaches in decades. This is an organization that is completely immune to the global microscope. A senior mss officer was arrested in belgium and extradited to the u. S. In 2018 on charges of conspiring to steal trade secrets from top aviation companies. But you have to remember, this is still an organization that is very powerful. That was reportedly the very first time a spy for chinas government had ever been brought to america to face charges. Juliette that was just one of the many quick takes you can find on the bloomberg. You can also find them at bloomberg. Com, along with all the latest Business News and analysis 24 hours a day. That will be all for bloomberg best for this week. Thanks for watching. Im juliette saly. This is bloomberg. Hey im bill slowsky jr. , i live on my own now ive got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. Unlike my parents. You rambling about xfinity again . Youre so cute when you get excited. Anyways. Ive got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. Emily this is the best of Bloomberg Technology where we bring you our top interviews. For baked tax, amazon apple and facebook released secondquarter report cards. Facebook results overshadowed by a new antitrust investigation into the social media companys businesses. Facebo