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tv   Business Briefing  BBC News  December 11, 2017 5:30am-5:46am GMT

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this is business briefing. i'm david eades. a new era for bitcoin, as futures trading in the digital currency debuts in chicago following a wild week in the value of the crypto currency. talking tough over trade — the world trade organization calls for the international trade system to be strengthened in what's being seen a response to president trump's protectionist trade policies. and on the markets: let's have a quick look. they are not exactly buzzing. nonetheless, some signs from asia that they are still warming to indications of further global economic growth. welcome to the programme. the digital currency bitcoin has begun trading on a major exchange for the first time in what is being regarded as step towards legitimising the digital currency. the cboe futures exchange in chicago
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opened trading in bitcoin futures on sunday. after opening at around $15,000, bitcoin once again surged past the $17,000 level. so, is bitcoin set to be the christmas gift that keeps on giving, ora bubble about to burst? bitcoin started the year at around $1000, but the cryptocurrency has surged in value recently. last week it rose to $17,000 for the first time, but many experts are doubtful that bitcoin can function as a normal currency due to its wild swings in value. last friday, it fell by 14% in a single day. despite this, supporters of bitcoin believe that the introduction of futures contracts will help cement its status as a mainstream asset. futures contracts are commonplace in traditionalfinance. they allow investors to lock in a price at which they can buy or sell assets in the future.
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this allows them to profit from price increases or limit their losses if prices fall. so, is bitcoin ready for as leap into the mainstream 7 speaking in september, the managing director of the international monetarty fund, christine lagarde, said their time hadn't come yet. for now a virtual currencies such as bitcoins pose little or no challenge to the existing order of currencies and central banks. why is that? they are too volatile, too risky, to energy incentive and because the underlying technologies are not scalable enough. and many are too opaque for regulators, and some have been hacked. but many of these are technological challenges. that could be addressed over time. that was
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christine lagard. with me is 0liver von landsberg—sadie, founder of the cryptocurrency brokerage, bitcoinbro. thank you very much for coming in. the whole question is about legitimising bitcoin at the moment. how far does this go to change the landscape? it changes the landscape quite dramatically. for the first time institutions can take a position in bitcoin and manage that risk. the key point about a future ease you can have a position in the underlying asset, combine it with a future and your price risk is literally zero. in the past any position in bitcoin was widely exposed. the problem at the moment as we saw last week, 14% drop after major gains. would it be your expectations those sorts of fluctuations, so dramatic, will not be seen in chicago now as they trade in futures? we can expect to see
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volatility to continue for some time. it is a very immature asset class. it is still at the foot of the mountain in terms of participants in the market. this is going to drive the price up and down. the forces are futures, which isa down. the forces are futures, which is a stabilising force, but on the other side you have a large quantity of bitcoin in the hands of a few number of players. they are called bitcoin whales. this is talking about legitimising or not. many people are thinking maybe they should jump on the bandwagon or maybe not. and you are saying that because it is dominated by a couple of players, it is liable to fluctuation. so, is your recommendation — we accept what you are coming from — to say to individuals to enjoy it or be very careful? my recommendation is always understand what it is before you think about putting money into it and, when you are ready to put money
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m, and, when you are ready to put money in, only put as much in as you can afford to lose. we have seen drops of 20% in a day, we have seen rises of 20% in a day, we have seen rises of 20% in a day, we have seen rises of 20% in a day, we would be wary of this as an asset. christine lagard, that was a couple of months ago, but things move fast in the bitcoin world, saying its time has not come yet, is it old news, have things changed? things change so quickly, this morning i woke up to a market value that was 20% greater than it was yesterday morning. to put that in perspective, the total value of all of these cryptocurrencies is over $400 billion now. in perspective, that is the gdp of countries like sweden, singapore, switzerland, it is gaining that momentum and i can't see it stopping soon. 17,000 has been its peak. very briefly, what will the peak bee in your estimation? irresponsible for anyone to predict a peak. i see a lot more institutional money in this
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and that will inevitably have a price rise affect over the long—term. but it is impossible to say. there are many cryptocurrencies which are also interesting. that is afair point which are also interesting. that is a fair point as well which we can't go into now. it has been good to have you. thank you. a meeting of the world trade 0rganization has opened in buenos aires, with a call for the 164 member international trade body to be strengthened. let's go to our asia business hub where sharanjit leyl has been following the story. is this being seen as an attack on president trump's protectionist trade policies? that is right. an attack on mr trump and the president has lashed out at the global trade body, calling it a disaster. and of course it is under this cloud of us hostility to multilateral trade accords that the wto has opened the conference, which will last until wednesday. the 164 member trade body is racked by disagreement over china, of course,
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struggling to start trade talks as well, and, as you say, the meeting in the first of the era of president trump, who has made the wto a target of its america first policy, threatening to pull the us out, for instance, of the trade organisation. it claims they are hampering its ability to compete. now, at washington has, for instance, been blamed for blocking the appointment ofjudges to the wto dispute settle m e nt ofjudges to the wto dispute settlement system, saying it has been ineffective, and the wto, for instance, has come under scrutiny, and been accused of failing to do enough to resolve problems many of its members have with china, for instance. they accuse china of unfairdumping instance. they accuse china of unfair dumping practices and selling its products, everything from steel to aluminium, much cheaper in order to aluminium, much cheaper in order to crowd out rivals. and beijing, in the meantime, wants to be taken more seriously by the wto and be seen as a market economy. of course, which
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is something the europeans and americans don't want because any recognition would entitle china to preferential economic treatment under wto rules. so, preferential economic treatment underwto rules. so, certainlya cloud of all sorts of scrutiny, this conference, as it opens in argentina. we will watch closely. thanks very much. later this week, the eu summit will take place in brussels, where leaders of the member countries will meet and discuss brexit. the eu countries will decide whether to open the next phase of brexit talks on future trade and transition terms. i think we know they will. businesses across europe are following the talks very closely including airlines. the bbc‘s sameer hashmi spoke to pieter elbers, the president and chief executive of dutch airline klm, and began by asking him how crucial was a brexit deal for european carriers. for klm it is an extremely important market with 16 destinations in the uk. we serve more cities in the uk from amsterdam than ba does out of
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london heathrow, so it underlines the relevance of the uk market. then if we look to the brexit, obviously it will create a complicated picture, even more complicated picture, even more complicated picture for the uk carriers as compared to the european carriers. so we need to see what the exact structure is going to be and i think there is still a lot of pieter elbers clarity on that, with various parties and stakeholders how it will look like —— un— clarity. clarity is extremely important to get going forward. what will be the ideal scenario from a klm point of view? from the european perspective there should not be the eu a la carte "pick and choose what you want". it is important for the eu perspective that there is pros and cons and things you like and things you like less. i think it is important that evenif less. i think it is important that even if we look to the aviation sector, we are part of a global trade system between the eu and the
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uk. sol trade system between the eu and the uk. so i think it is very important that even an aviation solution should be considered in that perspective of solutions which are found in other industries as well. that was pieter elber from klm. and now, what's trending in the business news this morning: digital website quartz reports on the wedding list of one couple in india who have ditched the traditional array of wedding gifts like dinner sets, bedsheets or towels, in favour of one, bitcoin. bloomberg has the tale of two former london brokers who have now set up a grocery store in luxembourg, offering financiers leaving the city of london to relocate in the grand duchy a steady supply of uk staples, such as yorkshire tea and marmite yeast extract. and the daily mail has details on the sale of the east german village of alwine, 75 miles south of berlin, forjust $165,000. the sole bidder at the auction bought up the entire village which is home to just 20 rather nervous residents,
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most of them elderly. alwine fell into decline shortly after the re—unification of germany in the early 1990s. and i should say also, let us know what you are spotting online with the # bbc the briefing. up next, newsbriefing — we'll take you through the stories making headlines in the global media today including: feedback on brexit and many other stories besides. goodbye for now. freelancers and people with zero hours contracts or flexible working hours are more likely to face unwanted sexual behaviour, according to the biggest survey on workplace harassment for the bbc. more than 6000 british adults
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were asked about the types of behaviour they'd faced and where it happened, across different age groups. adina campbell reports. freelance copywriter laurie says she has lost count as to how many times she has faced sexual harassment since being self—employed. sometimes it is just background noise, you hearan it is just background noise, you hear an inappropriate comment or someone is talking to your t—shirt rather than your face and other times you can be subjected to really inappropriate behaviour like groping. in the latest survey for the bbc, the results revealed 43% of people in flexible work had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour compared to 29% who were directly employed. those working in industries such as hospitality, retail or the public sector were more at risk. and, overall, 40% of women and 18% of men had experienced
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sexual harassment in the workplace. the survey also found people aged between 18 and 34 were more likely to report unwanted sexual attention compared to those over 55. so about a power dynamic. if you are the youngest person in a workplace, if youngest person in a workplace, if you are new in a workplace, less aware of your rights and how to report who to report to, those things make you slightly more vulnerable. campaigners are now calling for employers to take reports of sexual harassment seriously, with protection for all workers. and coming up at 6am on breakfast, dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport. and more on the enquiry into the g re nfell tower and more on the enquiry into the grenfell tower disaster, all on brea kfast grenfell tower disaster, all on breakfast at 6am. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines:
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heavy snow and freezing temperatures has led to power cuts and disrupted air, rail and road travel — in many parts of northern europe. tens of thousands of air passengers were stranded over the weekend as airports were closed or flights diverted. hundreds of schools will remain closed on monday. the venezuelan president, nicolas maduro has backed a decision to ban the country's major opposition parties from taking part in next year's presidential election — after they boycotted sunday's mayoral vote. the opposition claim the polls were designed to bolster, mr maduro's ‘dictatorship.’ a quarter of a century after the internet became widely available — the united nations international childrens fund, has issued a warning that too little is being done to protect young people, from the dangers of the digital world. unicef is recommending greater protection against online sexual abuse. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world.
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we begin with the irish times and brexit secretary david davis who has clashed with the irish government after claiming that the brexit divorce agreement between britain and the european union was a "statement of intent" rather than legally enforceable. which leads us to other comments made by mr davis this time to the bbc as reported by the telegraph stating the brexit secretary wants a "canada plus plus plus" trade deal with the eu which would also involve the best of trade agreements with japan and south korea. the gulf news looks at the continuing fall out

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