where the world of politics meets the world of business. on the brief today, carl riccadonna on the latest read on the u.s. economy. from washington, jenny leonard on the trade talks, and emma from london on efforts to stop a new deal brexit. we got the second read on the second-quarter gdp. what did we learn? carl: we are on slower but steadier footing. from london on efforts to stop a new deal brexit. a .1% downward revision. not substantial. the primary pillars of economic wrote look well-positioned to continue driving the expansion in the back half of the year. consumer spending stronger than reported. government spending running at the strongest pace in this cycle. that is where the economic activity will be in the back half. business investment has been a weak spot. no change on that front. that is a landscape for growth that will probably be just below

2% in the back half of the year. [indiscernible] slow and steady -- david: slow and steady, but there other numbers we will come back to. now let's go to jenny leonard in washington. i have lost track of where we are with the talks. steven mnuchin saying there back on. the chinese saying they will not retaliate. are we moving forward or backwards? jenny: it is hard to keep up or anyone, even for us. heording to the president, said there will be a phone call happening. whatsoeverdetail will participate in the phone call and if this phone call will move a planned meeting forward that is supposed to happen in september. whatsoever will participate in the phone that meeting, according to secretary mnuchin, is still on track. we still have no details at all whether the chinese will come here, when that will happen. it is confusing where we are at right now. the chinese saying overnight

they will not retaliate. i think it was over interpreted, even by the president. he focused a lot on the positive message, saying we will not move forward with retaliation right now. that is not a commitment by the chinese they will not retaliate at all in the future. tariffknow, with other batches coming from the u.s. side, the chinese have always had a lag in their response. between now and december 15, when the batch of u.s. tariffs go into effect, it is a long time for the chinese to come up with a response. meantime, ae question for u.s. companies. what do they do? the president said he ordered u.s. companies not to do business in china. you have report out that says companies may not be following that admonition. jenny: this is a new report out of the u.s.-china business council saying almost 90% of

companies in a survey conducted in june, of course before the escalation was even worse in the past couple of months, conducted in june, saying we are not moving our production out of china. we are here for the long term. the u.s. china business council president say no one is expecting any orders out of the white house of the trump administration saying you need to leave the chinese market. our companies are there for the long run. he defended his companies, saying these companies have successful operations in china to service the chinese market. the president is very concerned with the trade deficit and he is trying to rectify the trade imbalance. those companies are not really contributing. david: jenny leonard, thank you so much for reporting from washington. now let's go to emma chandra in london to report on brexit and the attempts to stop a no deal brexit. we talked to the shadow

chancellor of the exchequer earlier, john mcdonald. this is what he had to tell us. >> boris johnson's old behavior, he seems to be welding together an alliance against him with own hit -- within his own political party. we could have a majority of a majority of the legislative move and maybe a look majority on a no-confidence motion. david: do they have the time to get a vote? emma: that is absolutely crucial. parliament returns to westminster tuesday, and they will have two weeks before the suspension of parliament tics in around september 12 or so. this is something else john mcdonald told us. he ishe may be confident building some kind of cross party consensus to prevent the suspension of parliament in the form of legislative moves, which they would try first, and secondly in the form of a no-confidence vote, it is whether or not they have the time to do this. he has set it is an aggressive

ametable and that could be factor in whether those who want to prevent the suspension of parliament will be cisco -- successful. david: yesterday we saw the pound react and it seemed to indicate the markets thought the chances went up of a no deal brexit. what are the chances and one are the markets telling us? emma: the market still seem to think the chances of a no deal brexit continue to be high with the fact that we have the suspension of parliament that has been approved by the queen. the fact that the queen has approved it suggests she was getting advice from her lawyers that it is constitutional, meaning the legal challenges happening in courts in scotland, northern ireland, and london may not be successful as they try to prevent it, even while parliament goes down its own route. even if the suspension goes ahead, the fact that you might have no deal brexit, the likelihood goes up because it

gives lawmakers less time to try to prevent it. it does not mean we will not see boris johnson strike a deal for an orderly brexit with the europeans, but we have also heard from people in europe who say they are working on the assumption that no deal is the most likely outcome. david: thanks so much to emma chandra in london. let's go back to carl riccadonna on the numbers that came out today. let's put up a chart you gave us. both lines tell the same story. carl: we look at the quarterly sequential change, we can see a 5.3% increase in the second quarter. even the underlying trends for the year on year change re: accelerating. the big fear in the purse -- in the first part of this year was the prophet recession, which turned out milder than people were anticipating. prophets did think. in an environment of slowing global growth, slowing domestic

growth, the risk of a hard brexit, the ongoing escalation of tensions with china, in a declining profits environment that is a troubling signal that may be the economy is heading towards recession. the fact that profits re: accelerating tells us any hesitation from the private sector in terms of investment or hiring is going to be temporary. prophets are a core barometer of health and the private sector. the fact that they are re-accelerating is a strong indication the economy, while slowing in the back half of this year, is still well clear of the conditions that would lead us into an actual downturn or outright recession. david: i do not wanted take anything away from the important point, but that is before new tariffs in the fall. absolutely, but this tells us there is a stronger setting is a stronger setting than we anticipated before the trade escalation.

in light of the tweets we saw last friday, my team lowered our expectations for growth. we were not just above 2%, now we would be just below 2% in gdp gains. this tells us the preconditions, where we sit in q2 prior to the escalation of tensions, and the economy is on firmer footing. the prophets trend is favorable. consumer spending on sounder footing than what we initially perceived good -- then what we initially perceived. david: thanks a much. that is carl riccadonna. now let's get a check on the markets with abigail doolittle. abigial: the bulls are out for the second day in a row. nice gains. the dow, s&p, nasdaq all higher than 1%, on pace for the best day in two weeks. youre at session highs and can see the "fear index" is down , all on optimism around trade between the u.s. and china. let's take a look at the chart of the s&p 500, up for the second day in around. last week we saw a few days of

recent trading times with all of the uncertainty around the macro factors. investors on edge. we have seen investors fighting the highs, but not over the last two days. yesterday the s&p 500 finished at the highs. you can see the dip. that came as officials from the ecb top about the idea that new quantitative easing might not be needed. about .5% onp that. that is true when we look at sectors for the s&p 500. you will see lots of green on the screen. 11 sectors are higher on bottom. some of the defensive sectors, real estate, health care, utilities, and consumer staples are up but not up as much. people talking about the correlation between the s&p 500, whether it is defense. we have sectors like energy and information technology.

that correlation suggests more volatility ahead. as for what is helping out, the standout stars on the day having to do with retail. dollar general up 9.6%, best day since 2016. ge made a sale of their air finance for $2.6 million. investors liking that. h&r block and morgan stanley not happy with the off-season results and best buy, their outlook not shining and tariffs and consumer uncertainty is weighing. david: thanks a much to abigail doolittle. coming up, it may not be a shooting war, but the united states is using cyberattacks in its conflict with iran. that is coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

david: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television. i'm david westin. we turned to mark crumpton for first word news. mark: the national hurricane center says the storm is expected to strengthen to a category 4 in the next 72 hours. kobe the first hurricane to slam it to florida's east coast in 15 years. the storm raced past puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands on wednesday, causing limited damage. the justice department's inspector general says former fbi director james comey violated fbi policy. the new report says the former director mishandled memos that documented private, -- private conversations with president trump. the doj will not prosecute comey. federal health officials have a warning for marijuana users. officials say science shows the drug is harmful to the

developing brains of teenagers and they say marijuana is stronger than it was in the past. more than 30 states have legalized the drug for medical purposes or personal use. hong kong police say they have banta saturday protest by the organizer of previous historic mass marches. police say they believe some protesters were turned violent. it is a move likely to anchor demonstrators ahead of a plant 13th straight weekend of pro-democracy rallies. global news 24 hours a day, on air and @tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. david? david: thanks so much. the new york times is reporting that in june united states may not have attacked iran with cruise missiles, but it did you cyber warfare to denigrate iran's ability to attack tankers in the region. we welcome seth jones, who is

the director of the transnational threat projects. he has served as senior advisor to forces in afghanistan and he comes to us from washington. thank you for being with us. what we know about our capability to degrade the ability of iran to target tankers in the area and our use of it? seth: the u.s. has defensive measures. those include protecting ships transporting oil or other goods through places like the strait of hormuz. it also has offense of capabilities. operations,e cyber which we have seen at which the new york times reported. it has defensive and offensive means with which to protect ships and deter iran from future activity. notd: let's assume we do know that new york times reporting is correct, and we really did damage databases that

would keep track of these tankers. if that were true, would that be a permanent damage or something they could fix quickly? seth: i do not think it has a significant impact. i think the purpose of doing this is to show that the united states as some capabilities. i have followed iran long enough to know and worked against them and i was in u.s. special operations, they very good human intelligence, signals intelligence, geospatial. none of these operations will take down their ability to collect intelligence. what these operations do show is the u.s. has the capability and could use it and could escalate if it needed to. david: the united states has said that their goal, the president has said that his goal is to get back to the bargaining table with iran to negotiate a more broad agreement than the jcpoa, which was limited to nuclear issues. at the same time, we have heard from the iranian president he is

not interested in that unless the sanctions are lifted. what is our prospect of getting iran back to the bargaining table? seth: i think they are low. iran wants sanctions relief. looks like it will be at -6%. inflation is around 30%. at the same time, the u.s. is asking it to take down its major capabilities, its missile program, the role of its revolutionary guard. there could be areas around the margins, support for a resolution in the yemen war, there could be room for bargaining. i do not think iran will but just capabilities it used as part of its survival. david: in the meantime we have western europe caught in between on the sanctions issue. we saw president macron trying to broker a meeting or a deal with the foreign minister of iran. where does western europe sit on this? are they on our side?

seth: the europeans are not on our side. the u.s. pulled out of the nuclear deal. the european states, the french, the british, even the russians have supported a continuation of that nuclear deal. all of the states except the u.s. want to keep the nuclear deal that is in place. the u.s. has wanted to expand it. in that sense there are serious differences between the u.s. and its european partners. david: what you describe sounds like a standoff. iran is not going to back down. the united states certainly does not appear to be backing down. the position president trump is taking, it would be hard to back down off of. how does this get resolved? what will precipitate a move forward or a move back? seth: the most significant likelihood of this getting resolved in some way -- i do not

think it will get resolved anytime soon -- we saw an example of trust. if there was some level of u.s. and european and iranian cooperation on something. take the yemen war, on helping to resolve that would build trust. the gap is so significant. the other, which is a looming issue, and i've talked to iranian officials about this is some of these countries will wait to see what happens in the elections next year. i wonder if anything will be resolved until these countries see who the next u.s. president will be, trump or someone else. david: in the meantime, iran has gone back to enriching its uranium beyond what the jcpoa permitted. it says it will keep ratcheting up as long as these sanctions are in place. does that put pressure on us because it gets them closer to a breakthrough where they could have nuclear weapons in a short time? seth: iran has he knowledged it is enriching uranium over the

limit from the nuclear deal. limit on u.s. actions. the sanctions are not preventing iran from going nuclear. that means you have to go back to the bargaining table and get them to bring those levels down as part of negotiation or you have to strike targets in iran and take out the uranium enrichment facilities or conduct cyber operations good -- or conduct cyber operations. the clock ticks for a political or military resolution. that is the pressure on the u.s.. david: finally, talk about afghanistan. there been various reports of the united states trying to broker a deal with the taliban, not involving the present government. how do we avoid this involving vietnam in 1975? seth: the u.s. did not have long-term strategic interest in vietnam.

the problem right now is there are terrorist groups operating in and around afghanistan, including al qaeda and the islamic state. the issue is regardless of any kind of negotiation that the u.s. cannot leave like it did in vietnam. the security risks are two significant good -- part too significant. david: that is seth jones, center for -- in washington. retail sales are in the crosshairs today. that is next in our stop of the hour. this is bloom -- in our stock of the hour. this is bloomberg. ♪

david: you are watching balance of power. i am david westin. time for the stock of the hour. dollar general is a bright spot in retail. shares on pace for the best day since march of 2016 after the company lifted its forecast despite increasing tariffs. kailey leinz is here with more. kailey: it was a broad-based left. 7% estimate, comp sales also higher. this will -- this is as more and more tariff headwinds will come online. these discount retailers are much better position to withstand that send some of their competitors. some of the reasons, they are good at keeping costs down.

even if tariffs increase, those lower costs are able to offset it. they're also more diversified in their supply chains and their product lineups. you have household goods, party supplies, groceries, a lot more diversity and they were able to withstand a lot. dollar generald: is one retailer that seems to be able to handle headwinds. not true for everybody. kailey: not true for everybody, certainly best buy, shares down about 9%. they took down their guidance because of what they call consumer uncertainty, read tariffs are coming online for a lot of electronics. wells fargo estimates it will affect about half of what best buy sells. what they sell are more expensive discretionary goods. things that should money ever get tight, that is what the consumer will cut back on. they are not insulated like a walmart or target or the dollar sure -- or the dollar store.

david: and abercrombie as well. kailey: also down about 15% today. for best buy, electronics have the luxury of waiting until december 15. apparel makers, the vast majority of those are coming online on sunday. that has called abercrombie to take a hit. david: a rough weekend ahead for retailers. united states says talks to her resolve trade issues with china are still going forward. china says it will hold off for now. we talk with former u.s. trade representative ron kirk. that is coming up next and this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

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up steam.dorian picks it's expected to strengthen within the category -- interest ur -- into a category four hurricane. the trump administration will tighten its policy for children adopted overseas by u.s. military personnel. adopted kids will no longer be guaranteed citizenship. revis lee, these families were considered to be living on american soil even when stationed overseas. boris johnson is facing growing backlash over his call to subtend -- suspend parliament. maneuver gives him political opponents less time to prevent or no deal brexit. the u.k. is expected to a draw from the european union on october 31.

government forces are pressing ahead with their military offensive in a province. troops have captured three small villages in the area. this follows yesterday's airstrikes which killed 12 and wounded 34 others. the united nations says more than 550 civilians have been inled since the events began april. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton, this is bloomberg. secretary treasury told bloomberg that the talks would go forward with china on trade issues but he was not sure when. an economist told us earlier today that we better get used to the situation because e*trade trade problems with china could last 10 years. >> we are in a new phase where there will be real contention trade.rapid growth in

maybe no growth in trade at all. theory is that this might be something that last for like 10 years or more. david: we welcome someone who has had the responsibility for negotiating u.s. trade agreements, ron kirk. he is senior of counsel at cruncher. it comes to us from dallas. ron, thank you for being with us. ron: thanks for having me on. david: give us a sense of where these talks all right now. conflict that could last 10 years over china trade? ron: i'm not optimistic about where we are now just because of the arbitrary of non-schizophrenic nature -- arbitrary schizophrenic nature the president rolling

out tariffs, pulling them back, same people are enemies. believe even underlying the differences in the approaches of the chinese government and u.s., which are going to be difficult to resolve, the reality is that we both need each other. in order to achieve the growth models that china has in their five-year plan and that we want to see to continue to grow our economy. i am hopeful that if we get to a certain level of pain, which china's economy is slowing. they are not looking forward too much of a future with gdp growth in the low single digits. painthe growing anxiety, that is being felt immediately by america -- america's farmers, and america's tech

company, there should be enough interest to work toward a resolution. i don't see anything positive happening in the near term. david: soon, by american consumers as well. o effecttariffs goes int on consumer goods. -- steve mnuchin said mnuchin said -- china said china has ample means of retaliation but the question that should be discussed now is removing of tariffs to de-escalate the trade war. are these two sides trying to get back to the bargaining table? ron: i think they would like to. i want to be careful. witholutely am in concert the broad ambition of the trump administration at this was in the obama administration -- as it was in the obama

administration to say that china, you have benefited as much from your becoming a part of the world of global commerce and trade since china was admitted into the wto, but you have to fulfill the commitments you have made. you have to open your markets, have respect to intellectual property, stop trying to enforce the transfer of trade secrets. forward if a path you have negotiators that never know what their leaders will wake up and tweet tomorrow. i think secretary mnuchin, trade representative lighthizer are doing the best they can in the difficult situations, but if you peel back language of the treasury secretary's statement and his counterpart from china looking for silver lining that says right now we don't have a path forward. it will be interesting to see

how congress begins to respond to the pain and anger from consumers as we now go into the holiday season and back to school, and people realize the fact that it is american consumers that are paying the brunt of these tariffs and not china. david: you raise a powerful point, there is a political aspect to all of this. there are farmers, manufacturers, and consumers down the pipe. we have an election coming up in november of 2020. bethe same time, whether it democrats or republican, do they seem to be sucked on china in an election? i think there's bipartisan agreement that there has to be some basic reform of our trading relations with china. ron: there needs to be, but one of the things that concerns me -- and look, i think it is a legitimate approach as a

country, both democrat and republican hasn't yielded the results we want. i'm concerned that we have shifted so far now to the china is the enemy and that there really isn't any political currency for being a member of the united states congress and say hold up, let's go a little bit soft on china. it isn't going soft on china. it is a reality that is notwithstanding our very real concerns. china has become a huge markets, certainly, for farmers and ranchers, but also for many american businesses. we cannot ignore a market with 1.5 billion people, just as we should not ignore the potential others,, africa, and because the hard reality americans have to embrace, we are only 5% of the world's consumers now. nakedvery much in our economic self-interest to make sure we have access to these

emerging developing markets. the challenging is how do we do that in a way that is fair and balanced and we don't of up our core innovation, the backbone of our economy. toid: finally, let's turn what appears to have progress. u.s. and japan. are they making the progress you would like to see made, and by the way, does it include what would have been in tpp anyway? ron: it is very much tpp like. as you know, our administration launched the transpacific partnership along with 11 other members of the asia-pacific, because one of the things president obama did best was realized that as unique and strong of an economic partnership that we have had in terms of the transatlantic relationship or pacific hour as well, had the added benefit of

entrenching us in one of the fastest growing economic zones in the world, under terms and principles favorable to u.s. businesses and employees and workers, and president trump through that all away. now, he is saying to farmers yout i would give you what would have gotten had we stayed in the transatlantic partnership. but this agreement only covers agriculture. there were many other provisions that fully liberalized to not only japan's markets for u.s. exporters but would have given us access to emerging markets in korea, malaysia, and so many countries. it is a welcome to step it only giving us what we already would have had. david: mr. ambassador, pleasure to have you on. that is former u.s. trade representative ron kirk from dallas. the ftc is reportedly investigating the marketing practicing of -- practices of

juul. investigators are working to see --juul engaged into separate deceptive marketing. the person owns a significant declined to juul comment. we will keep you posted on that as it develops. in the meantime, president trump is facing an increasing list of primary challengers and his gop challenges are looking to make their stand in new hampshire. we will talk about the first in the nation primary and the granite state with good greg -- judd gregg. ♪

david: you are watching balance of power.

the crowded field of presidential candidates is spending a lot of time in iowa, but it is often new hampshire's first in the nation primary that becomes the moment for white house hopefuls. it was the first state president trump carried into thousand 16 and the first set of democratic voters to choose bernie sanders over hillary clinton. we welcome judd gregg, a republican who served as senator hampshireor as new for today's conversation. senator, thank you for being with us. before we get to horserace, let's talk about issues. the issue of the economy, and whether president trump is losing the advantage he had. the it shows, this poll, first time since president trump was elected, more americans think the economy is getting worse rather than better. does president trump have a problem on the economy now? sen. gregg: not yet. i think the economy is his one ace card he has in his hand right now.

certainly in new hampshire, we have an extremely strong economy. we can find people to work at our high-tech jobs, the dominant jobs in this state. most people have done well over the last 2.5 years. they have seen their net worth go up if they have a pension because their pension phones -- tension funds have grown because of the stock market. cloudare dotcom recessions out there and it is possible we could be moved to a -- moving to a slowing economy that could be recessionary, for a number of different reasons, but right now, things are good. david: you took us there, trade. one of the things they said in the poll is that the trade tensions for china are dominating the headlines and confidence in the economy are slipping. to what extent are voters getting increasingly worried about trade specifically? sen. gregg: i think what is happening is you're seeing

corporate america, the people who create jobs, because of their concern about trade and they think the trade fight will lead to some slowing economy, they are slowing down their capex investment, their expansion in risky procedures, starting to go liquid, starting to pay down their debts, so you see a contraction across open america, which leads to a slowdown. it is a self-fulfilling event. if you have corporate america, which is the creator of jobs in this country, starting to contract then you probably do get a slowdown. that is what is behind the concern, and that concern is driven by the president's trophy policy with china which is digging a hole -- trade policy with china which is starting to dig a hole. what point does the corporate activity spill over into the consumer, or can the consumer support the economy on

its own? sen. gregg: the consumer is 70% of the economy. as long as they feel good, they will buy things. as long as they see the business that they are involved in or the activity they are undertaking starting to contract, they will contract their buying. it is inevitable. things slow down, consumers slow their buy. there's a recent pullout out that shows joe biden is ahead, in most of the polls. it is early going. the interesting thing about new hampshire, number two is over cited -- undecided. is that typical for new hampshire? are you have your people likely to hold off in deciding on how they want to vote until they are closer to the vote? sen. gregg: absolutely. the decision point in new hampshire is seven days before the actual election after the post iowa caucuses. that is when the large majority of people make a decision not only on who they will vote for,

but which primary they will vote for. the majority of new hampshire --ers are the independent voter in new hampshire is a center-right voter, but they are comfortable going into either primary. the decision point is way in the future in there's a lot of water to go under the bridge. biden is ahead, and the fact that he has two socialists running against him in sanders and warren, splits that vote, which is a big vote in new hampshire, 30% of the democratic primary. if that vote is being split, biden, who is seen as the fellow moreould win and the centerleft candidate, the more thoughtful, moderate candidate, he has a leg up unless -- as long as he doesn't make too many mistakes. david: you and i have talked about the deficit before, which is up, at, or over $1 trillion

per year. that is something we never hear about on either side on the campaign trail. are people in new hampshire concerned about the deficit? sen. gregg: it doesn't seem to be. the people anywhere don't seem to be concerned. i'm concerned about it. it has become systemic. about $1 trillion deficit for as long as we could see, a debt to gdp radio that crosses 100%. you have to pay the piper someday. those debts have to be repaid, and when they are repaid, they will be repaid by the next generation and it will reduce their standard of living and it is inexcusable this is "erring. the blame fault is on the president and the democratic .ongress neither side has interest in addressing the deficit and drivers of the deficit areas

until you get the entitlement accounts under control, so they are not growing faster than the economy, you can't get the deficit under control. david: it strikes me there are two or three people that would run against president trump or have said they are thinking about it. party, billublican wild, mark sanford, and others. they seem to be talking about the deficit and are more concerned about the deficit. is there any prospect of any purchase of a new hampshire -- they seem to be jumping off of iowa and going to new hampshire for their pitch. is that just a pipe dream? sen. gregg: i don't see any of those three people being viable in new hampshire. the president came up here and had 11,000 or more people show up for the rally. i've been in politics in new hampshire for a long time and have never seen a rally that has had that many people show up whether it was for president, ronald reagan, the bushes, or

bill clinton. there, the president has a strong following. within the rational conservative movement of the conservative party, there is real concern about the way he is handling his job as president. undermining the dignity of the office, being erratic, saying things untrue, pursuing policies inconsistent, and pursuing this trade fight with china. there is an opportunity if somebody gets into this to maybe have traction, but none of those three candidates, and my opinion, will be viable. they are the wrong messenger. they may have a good message but are the wrong messengers. david: thank you senator and governor judd gregg. -- up, at, rapidly growing up economy -- this is bloomberg. ♪

david: this is balance of power on bloomberg television. david westin. i recently sat down with our next guest and talked about growing up under the shaw and talking about what it was like watching her country go through a radical -- that was up in an iran

70's.growing and post- when oil prices went up, unfortunately, for the rest of the world, but iran had plenty of resources. everywhere, you saw a crane. it was the same experience china had but much later. the other thing interesting, at the time, there was lots of women who were ministers, women and parliaments, women academics, doctors. i grew up in iran as one of three daughters through my parents. anything was possible. david: you saw, as a young girl in leadership roles. >> absolutely. i went to the international , given itsehran name, made me very comfortable with lots of diversity. it wasn't just diversity of the people i grew up with in iran,

but also people from all over the world with very different backgrounds and different circumstances. david: your father was an academic. did that make you interested in studying? >> i think the one thing that was the most important thing in our household was education. my father was in education, our family was in education, my mother thought no one could take away your education. as it turned out, she was right. if you have a revolution in your country, no one can take away your education. >> let's talk about the revolution. you had gone to oxford pursuing an education by the time the shaw fell. what was it like to be away from the country when that turmoil was going on? >> it happened at oxford and i was studying economics, but my college had a middle east center, so i was also learning a lot about the history and economics of the middle east outside of my classes, which was interesting. in a way, i was learning more

about the region i had grown up in. very differently than what i had experienced growing up. the second thing is that when you are seeing your country that is, wherever you come from, is trajectory,g growth but politically it is not moving towards democratic system fast enough, how fast it can derail. there was no way any of us could have imagined how fast iran got he railed and moved in a different direction. david: part of my interview with her. coming out, alix steel and commodities edge. this is bloomberg. ♪ is bloomberg. ♪

>> global's were awarded later. place traded levels as global yield sink. ♪ alix: i'm alix steel, welcome to bloomberg commodities edge, 30 minutes focused