Good morning. Time Magazine's Person of the Year will be unveiled this morning on the Today show. ... Our money is on President Donald Trump, because almost every other nominee on the shortlist is on that shortlist because of him.

• Moving the Market: The bail hearing for Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, which could alter the course of U.S.-China relations, continues into Tuesday.

Bloomberg

What Sundar will say

Today on the Hill: Google CEO Sundar Pichai will tell the House Judiciary Committee that his company is dedicated to user privacy and security, politically neutral and "proud" to work with the U.S. government. He will then face a barrage of questions from grandstanding lawmakers, many of whom are looking to score political points.

• The Big Picture: Today's hearing is the biggest test of Pichai's leadership to date and could open up Google to new public scrutiny over its handling of user data, its control of online advertising and its work with China.

Highlights from Pichai's prepared remarks:

• "We support federal privacy legislation and proposed a legislative framework for privacy earlier this year."

• "I lead this company without political bias and work to ensure that our products continue to operate that way."

• "We cherish the values and freedoms that have allowed us to grow and serve so many users. I am proud to say we do work, and we will continue to work, with the government to keep our country safe and secure."

Between the Lines: Pichai will cast Google as an America-first company, a cooperative partner of government and a faithful steward of user data at a time when scrutiny of the tech industry is at an all-time high.

What Lawmakers Will Ask About:

• The Ad Duopoly: Google and Facebook's control of more than half of the entire U.S. digital ad market has raised regulatory concerns.

• China: Google's plans to create a Chinese search engine that would allow Beijing to block content and monitor users has raised alarms among lawmakers, employees and human rights organizations.

• Data Privacy: The full extent of Google's data-monitoring efforts and its vulnerability to third parties is gaining widespread public attention and is a top concern for lawmakers in both parties.

• Political Bias: Republican lawmakers are suspicious that Google has an anti-conservative bias and secretly limits conservative content. Those concerns prompted Republicans to call the hearing in the first place.

• YouTube: A Washington Post report shows Google's video site still hosts "hateful, conspiratorial videos, allowing racists, anti-Semites and proponents of other extremist views to use the platform as an online library for spreading their ideas."

What's Next: Hearing starts at 10 a.m. ET at 2141 Rayburn.

Bloomberg

Dems target Bill Shine

Senate Democrats are investigating whether White House deputy chief of staff Bill Shine is violating federal ethics laws by receiving bonus payments from his former employer Fox News, per CNBC's Brian Schwartz:

• Shine, a longtime Fox News executive, received an $8.4 million severance payment when he left the company and is due to receive an annual bonus of $3.5 million in both 2018 and 2019, a financial disclosure report shows.

• Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse and Edward Markey are asking White House counsel Emmet Flood to provide documents and answer questions about whether Shine is breaking conflict of interest laws.

What Ethics Experts Say:

• "Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, [believes] Shine may have broken the 'extraordinary payment regulation' which disallows federal employees to be paid in excess of $10,000 by a former employer."

Shine and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.

Bonus: What the Fox crowd is talking about ... This photo of Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, from Jay Roach’s forthcoming Roger Ailes film. .... and Ahna O'Reilly as Julie Roginsky.

🐂Rally the Market: Sign up friends and colleagues for Byers Market here ... and thanks for reading.

Jared Siskin/Getty

Mike Bloomberg for the middle

Bloomberg 2020 Watch: The likely presidential candidate is trying to make the case for a “middle-of-the-road” strategy for Democrats — a thesis as appealing to his moderate supporters as it is alienating to the more progressive wing of the party:

Bloomberg on ABC's "The View":

• “I think most Democrats want a middle-of-the-road strategy. They want to make progress, but they’re not willing to go and to push something that has no chance of ever getting done and wasting all their energy on that.”

• "If you go off on trying to push for something that has no chance of getting done, that we couldn’t possibly pay for, that just takes away from where we can really make progress in helping people who need help today."

Two thoughts on that:

1. In a political climate that favors bold ideas for radical change, running on caution and moderation could be a death wish.

2. There's something remarkably refreshing about a moderate pragmatist who doesn't pretend to be anything other than a moderate pragmatist.

Meanwhile ... What's eating Bloomberg: "Four former [Bloomberg] employees ... have been indicted in an alleged multimillion-dollar kickback scheme," Mike Hayes of BuzzFeed News reports:

• "Lucrative construction projects were awarded to contractors bidding to do work on Bloomberg offices."

• "Those charged include two senior Bloomberg LP executives and two lower-level employees. One ... is Anthony Guzzone, Bloomberg’s former global head of construction."

• "The four are expected to be arrested some time this week."

What It Means for 2020: Not much. "There is no evidence Mr. Bloomberg was aware of the alleged fraud happening in his company," NYT's Charles Bagli reports.

Market Links

• Sean Hannity is #20 on Worth's Power 100 List (Worth)

• Bob Bakish gets the Variety cover treatment (Variety)

• Julie Henderson jumps from Fox to Snap (Adweek)

Charley Gallay/Getty

Bob Iger takes your money

Talk of Tinseltown: Bob Iger's Disney has passed $7 billion at the global box office for the second time in three years, a reminder (as if any where needed) of Disney's overwhelming strength.

• Disney first achieved a $7-billion-plus box office in 2016 and is the only studio to ever hit that landmark.

The Big Picture: Disney's box office strength portends future success in Hollywood's streaming wars, given the unparalleled quantity and quality of its content portfolio.

Bonus: Disney and Comcast are expected to dominate global content spending in 2019, per Ampere Analysis.

What's Next: The Jealousy List, a compendium of the articles Bloomberg Businessweek writers wish they'd written ... & Pitchfork's top 50 albums of 2018, to fuel intra-office debate.

See you tomorrow.