Topics of high importance. It is important for the future of the city of london. We have to face our social and environmental challenges. Lives are being saved for very small amounts of money. It is all straight ahead on bloomberg best. Haslinda hello, i am haslinda amin. From the Worlds Economic Forum in doubles, switzerland, welcome to us to show edition of bloomberg best. We have met with the most influential people in the world , discussing what they think are some of the most challenging things facing business and society. We have also been keeping our eye on the stories shaping business around the world. Starting with yesterday with the agreement to reopen the u. S. Government. Senators, duly chosen and sworn, the motion is agreed to. Reporter the senate moving to end of the u. S. Government shutdown after three days with a temporary spending bill funding the government through february 8. Reporter President Trump has signed a bill to end the government shut down which leaves the dreamers fate still unresolved for another three weeks. Reporter, thee are a lot of good people in congress and the senate but the system is broken. This bipartisanship is a dirty word and it gets you hurt in your primary, if that is the case, then we are doomed as a country. Reporter President Trump has long talked tough on trade, he may be taking some action with a decision, putting tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. Obama had tariffs on the back. It is not a new thing. I thought it was wrong when obama did it and i think it is wrong when trump does it. It is bad for the american economy, that for jobs in the United States. Does the president s decision to slap a tariff on solar imports change anything for you. Reporter for us, it is not going to change our approach. We generally agree with free trade. It will not change our direction on develop solar projects. Were you planning on making investments in the United States that you might reconsider. Guest we still have plants in the United States to what we bought into in december was about 40 , in the United Kingdom. That was the largest Solar Developer in europe. They have projects in the middle east and india. That is the focus of our country. I do not know how exactly this will change our direction. Endorsing achin is weaker dollar. A weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade in opportunities. He said a weak u. S. Dollar is good for america. Do you agree . Guest i think it all depends why. If you think about the dollar today, it has weakened and it has baffled some people. There are two likely scenarios out there. One is what we talked about at the of that, in terms of the surprisingly stronger europe, the stronger rest of the world has now moved Central Banks into a position where they can start to normalize and raise rates. Him like we saw in the u. S. In 2014, it was a pretty robust move in the dollar as the fed started that. We can say its a bit of a correction. If that is what it is about, some adjustment, that is fine. The other side of the potential argument is that there is fear and it is a precursor to a protectionism and potential trade wars and causing people to shy away from the dollar. If that is what is causing the dollar underperformance, it is more concerning. Host the ecb holds steady. Mario draghi seeing very little chance of a rate hike this year. German Bond Investors see no reason to sell. The 10 year level in its highest level since 2015 . Host how can you be so sure that inflation will come to europe . Guest because we see it in the last two years. If you remember two years ago, we saw a danger of deflation. It is now over there we had the first success of our Monetary Policy, and it was a message that we expressed yesterday, a message of confidence and patience. We are confident that in the path of gradual normalization of our Monetary Policy, this gradual normalization is progressing in an efficient way toward our inflation targets, but patients, because we are not yet . Host . Host their in a tumultuous week for the dollar, on wednesday, Steve Mnuchin laying a weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade in opportunities. Hi the currencies shortterm vae is not of concern at all. Yesterday though, President Trump said that mnuchin may have been misunderstood. As he put it our country is , becoming strong in other ways and the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger and ultimately, i want to see a strong dollar. Host there has been so much talk about whether we are entering currency and trade wars. If we are, how much will that complicate things . Guest it is the last thing that the Global Economy needs today. We live in a world where Interest Rates should not be targeted for competitive purposes. Thats what the g7 and g20 have agreed it. Let us stick to that. We have seen lots of activity come and i think it is not helpful, the recent statements. I am here to deliver a simple message, it has never in a build,me invest and grow in the United States. America is open for business, and we are competitive once again. Host he sold America First as america for everyone, and did a very good job i think, of speaking to his audience. He almost appeared to be a globalist in some ways. We are also working to reform the International Trading system so that it promotes broadlyshared prosperity and rewards to those who play by the rules. I think the people there and people around donald trump will think it was a great decision to go to davos and i think they will be invited back next year. Haslinda still ahead, ubers new ceo discusses the companys cultural turnaround. There are no excuses for not not doing the right thing in. Saying it. Saying thing. And, the biggest names in finance tell us how they see the Global Economy, up next. We have seen the numbers up with growth, but trade even higher. Haslinda from the Worlds Economic Forum in davos, switzerland, this is bloomberg best. I am haslinda amin. Its an annual ritual, getting a read on the Global Economic climate from the worlds financial leaders, what are they excited about and what worries them . We start with the imf managing director, christine lagarde. Guest we upgraded our forecast for 2018 and 2019. The characteristic of that upgrade is that it is significant. 3. 9 for both years. Second, it covers a wide range of countries, not just of the emerging markets leading the charge, not just the advanced economies. Its pretty much across the board, but for some countries which are not seeing a capital basis income growing, that is primarily that subsaharan african countries. When you look at japan, the u. S. , turkey, some of the big emerging market economies, we have upgraded very much a cross across our range of countries. The only one that did not get an upgrade is the United Kingdom. We left it where it was . Host if we see more protection, does it hurt the forecast, Going Forward . Guest what we see is growth going up but trade even higher than growth. Trade is a significant engine of growth, of reducing inequality in countries and clearly, trade is has to be fair and in accordance with the rules and be reciprocated. Thisools need to make sure is the case. That is the area where people will rally around some of the themes of President Trump. It is not an issue of being protectionist, because protectionist measures generally do not help trade or growth. Looking at the rules, resetting some of the rules eventually, in view have what is happened in the last 10 years, whether it is through automation or financing, that needs to be looked at on a regular basis. It does look like the immediate future is pretty good. Theres nothing like the leverage of the system. We had a lot of some prime mortgages. Households were overleveraged. Hedge funds were much more leveraged than we are today. It was wild. That unwound very quickly. Host in some respects, it anticipates my next question. Is there any reason to believe that this part of the cycle, 20182019, are going to be the next 2006, 2007 . The euphoria before the crash . Guest i do not think so. You need to have the expensive leverage. We are going to have a recession one day, and when that happens, stock prices will go down. Hopefully it will be a normal thing, not that i am wishing for it, but it is going to happen. At this point, i am less worried about monetary hollis policy and the real alignment for a more natural stands starting in the u. S. And europe and eventually moving to jump moving to japan. We have markets at record highs, and we know that these things do not come in a Straight Line . Host you run a big equity shop. Do you think that the prices are very high . Imagine that i was one of your clients . Guest i think that markets are expensive but they are not ridiculous. There are some sectors and if you look at some of the socalled bank docs, they are trading at very high models, but they have extraordinary growth. The way that you value equities is by looking at the net present value of your future earnings and you look at whatever market model there is today. Futures are growing and that growth will be amplified. So, Global Economic growth, earnings growth, made earnings growth, you will see the s p reaching new highs . Host because of volatility levels in the market, it has been a tough year in general for investment banks is 2018 expected to be better . Guest if you refer to my comment of taxes come i think it was a Huge Positive for the u. S. Economy and the world economy. If the u. S. Economy is doing well, it is important. There will be a lot of investment in the u. S. Economy. Keep that in mind you feel that protectionism. If the u. S. Policymakers want more investment to come in, they will have to be pragmatic. It makes me optimistic. Since the beginning of the year, we have had a rare combination of markets going up, volatility going up. We have a scenario where everything goes up. This is a very good conjunction of volatility increasing a little bit and market going up. But you cannot draw too many conclusions from 2017 . Host youve had a few weeks now to evaluate the tax bill. This is where i am going to start. How it affects your business, how it affects the competitive environment. What conclusions have you drawn . Guest relative to the place of American Business in the world, our competitive business has improved. I think we have caught up to the rest of the world, and i think it is what we need to do to make American Businesses competitive with other businesses in the developed markets. Host does it change the competitive environment for your industry . Guest our industry was a relatively high taxpaying industry, and now we have converged with other countries. They did a good job of widening out the base, and there is a common rate for everybody. The have equalized the consequences of keeping money overseas versus heaping money bring it home. Home. It has made the system more sensible. So to that extent, we like operating in a sensible them . Host do you believe the United Kingdom regulators are looking at the u. S. And ready to relax the rules themselves . After all, brags it is happening. Brexit is happening. Guest post the financial crisis i think there was a consensus around the Major Economies of the world that we needed to deregulate the Financial Markets that do it in a way that maintained parity while speaking across those markets. So that no institution could arbitrage one regulator against another. I think a lot of important new regulation was brought into the Financial System over the last 10 years, and we consistently or i consistently supported a more regulatory environment. But now, there is a new equation to it and its teams like the u. S. Is willing to be very much on the front foot in terms of making the u. S. Market competitive. Him him barclays is a transatlantic tanks, so 40 of our revenue is generated in the United States in riyadh so now, the u. S. Has become one of the lowest tax regions that we operate in. That is been very good. Host there is a lot of cash on the sidelines. Investors have cash on the sidelines, banks, consumers, and they feel that they are being left out. They feel stupid to own cash in this environment. I think it will be great for earnings and great for the stimulation of growth. We have to look beyond that to say, what is Monetary Policy going to be . How difficult is Monetary Policy . So, let us take a look at that. We could look at step one, the blowup stage of everything . Hi host before we get to monety policy, how long do you think we are going to enjoy this perfect environment . When i say we, i do not mean just the financial community, clearly it is good for risk assets and earnings, and stock prices but companies are raising wages, doing hiring and investing. Some of it is trickling down to the real economy. How long will people be able to enjoy that . Guest if you look at it, it will be a 1218 months growth spurt, and then when that is happening, the central bank will have to tighten Monetary Policy. Here we are, Financial Markets are up three times since the financial crisis. Three times. The pool of money sitting in cash worldwide has never been greater. It is a problem. China, 40 of this it disposable incomes sitting in a bank account. If you speak to the french financial minister, 72 of all french savings are in a bank account. In germany, no interest. Can you imagine the type of inclusion we would have worldwide, if we had better financial literacy, more investing over the long run . The type of financial gains that people would have in their 401 k . I think that is one of the bigger crimes that we do not talk about, and the reason why i believe we have more momentum because of the money that is sitting around. There could be an alliance between authoritarian states and these large datarich i. T. Monopolies that would bring together a nascent system of corporate surveillance within already developed systems of statesponsored surveillance. They may even result in web of totalitarian control. The likes of which not even aldus huxley or George Orwell could have imagined. The countries in which such unholy marriages are likely to occur, first, or in russia and china. The chinese i. T. Companies in particular, are fully equal to the american ones. They also enjoy the full support and protection of the president xi jinping regime. The government of china is Strong Enough to protect its National Champions at least within its borders. Haslinda welcome back to bloomberg best. Uber has been under a global microscope, mired in controversy as well as burning cash. The new ceo has set aside set his sights on changing the culture and tearing the company towards profitability. He discussed his goals with bloomberg editor in chief john micklethwait. Host i think you lost 4 billion last year. Guest at some point, we have to become profitable. That is one of the plans . Host do you thought have a goal you have a goal to be profitable by 2022 . Guest i think we will be profitable by 2022. Host would you like to go down a bit maybe 2020 . Guest i do not want to name a specific year, but this is a business that the core business the ridesharing business can be , profitable within three years. We will continue to make very aggressive invest in an building out our economy. We think that is a terrific economy, building out new technologies such as uber elevate, where nearterm profitability is not a goal, but longterm growth is. We will look at that but as a company, we will always be a company that makes things go fast and take risk . Host what about this culture change, you talked about making money, but not at all costs. Do those two things . Guest i do not think profitability and culture are the issue. The company in the past was willing to make tradeoffs as it related to how we did is this. Business. And i think we are guilty of hubris. We were guilty of thinking that we knew better than others, and i think what we know now nearly, clearly is that breakneck growth can hide cultural issues that there are no excuses for not doing the right thing. As a Management Team, we are specifically talking about the tradeoffs that you have to make and we have to be patient sometimes, because working with government regulators sometimes takes longer. But in the and, you build a more lasting business. Haslinda coming up on bloomberg best, much more from the world Economic Forum in davos. Leaders in government speak frankly about the most pressing challenges. With brexit, we would lose the most important voice in terms of the liberal economy. Haslinda and bill gates shares his perspective on the role of the u. S. In addressing mobile problems. I am in there saying, come on, let us keep up the good work. Haslinda this is bloomberg. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. Haslinda you are watching bloomberg