from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i am mark crumpton. this is "bottom line," the intersection of business and economics with a mainstream perspective. former u.s. treasury secretary tim geithner takes the stand today in the aig bailout trial. and we will have highlights of our exclusive interview with the second richest man in the world, carlos slim. to our viewers in the united states and to those of you joining us from around the world, welcome to it we have full coverage of the stocks and

stories making headlines on this tuesday. shannon pettypiece investigates enterovirus d68, suspected of sickening dozens of children nationwide it we begin with peter cook as former treasury to test treasury secretary tim geithner takes the stand in the trial. >> tim geithner up on the stand, much like henry paulson yesterday, reliving moments from the financial crisis. it carries a degree of drama, certainly not a place he wants to be at this moment in time. you can see right now not enjoying the notion of going through the crisis one more time. course of hise answers on the witness stand in the afternoon portion of the trial, just picked up in the last a few minutes, he has been slow and deliberate with his answers here it he has recalled key moments in the financial crisis, not able to remember some other details about the decision he and the fed made when he was new york fed president. by and large, nooks smoking guns, no bomb shares -- no

smoking guns, no bombshells so far. >> is it safe to say that secretary geithner is a reluctant witness? >> reluctant is too strong a word. he knows where this is going. he knows the crux of the case against the government. governmentt is the went too hard, drove too hard a bargain with aig, that the terms of the deal were so harsh that it amounts to an unconstitutional taking of personal property. pretty clear he does not share that view. we will get into the details about his role in negotiating the actual agreement, and he was a critical player, more important in terms of the terms than hank paulson was at the time. but he has answered the questions fairly directly and it has been cordial. pleasantries have been exchanged through the course of the testimony today. point, sections of

timothy geithner's book have been pointed to, and timothy geithner said it looks like you are quoting my book and those are my words and i believe those things. it seemed like a challenge, but what he wrote is truly what he believes. >> is hank greenberg there for the trial? >> he is not there or at least over theot seen him first week of testimony and so far this week or you can be sure he has his representatives in the room, besides david boyd and the extensive legal team making the case for him. >> peter cook, thank you. health officials in spain have placed three more people under quarantine for ebola. this is at the same madrid hospital where a spanish nurse became infected. it is the first case of ebola transmitted outside of north africa. the nurse cared for a spanish priest to that of the virus. more than 50 other possible

contacts are being monitored. among those quarantined is the nurse's husband he shows no signs of having the disease. officials describe his hospitalization as a precaution. ebola is on the only threat to our health as a nation. enterovirus d68 has sickened hundreds of children and almost every state. it has been linked to four deaths and dozens of cases of paralysis. researchers warn it may be this generation's version of polio. shannon pettypiece has been digging into this issue and joins me now in studio. this is very disturbing. tell us about it. >> enterovirus looks like a common cold. but this year's version of the virus going around seems to be particularly severe and easily transmissible here at hospitals have been seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of kids with this respiratory in with

distress, difficulty breathing. they cannot get enough oxygen and have a very severe cough. now there is concern that it has been linked to four deaths. it does not mean it has caused those paired with this person has died and it has been detected in their system, and cases of paralysis here to even more severe than in the past. >> what do we know about the paralysis? >> the virus has been detected in some people who have developed a mysterious form of a row assist. it typically happens with a have either a cold, sometimes in upset stomach, they develop a fever, headache, and the gate. days ofhin three to 16 developing early signs of a cold or stomach virus, they develop a sudden and swift form of paralysis. in some cases, people cannot move an arm. one little girl went to reach for a toy in her hand cannot close around it. a few days later she lost

complete use of her arm. it has been more dramatic weird a little boy in dallas is bound to a wheel -- it has been more dramatic. a little boy in dallas is bound to a wheelchair and cannot speak. it does not look like it is reversible. with an mri scan, it looks like a complete break between the connection of the spinal cord and the muscle. they do not yet know how to rebuild that. >> are we hearing anything about a possible treatment or cure? researchers are still trying to determine if there is this link between paralysis and the virus, if there is a real cause here, and whether or not this virus will burn it's about naturally on its own or whether it will stick around and start coming back year after year. researchers are racing to try to prove whether there is a definitive link and to be able to route it is a severe virus that wall street around before drugmakers and xe makers are going to get in and start trying to develop something. >> are the drugmakers working on something?

>> not yet. from everybody i have talked to, no one is involved in anything right now. it is in very early stages. this virus really only reared its head in august of this year. >> where are we in terms of containment? >> the only real containment right now is handwashing. what seems to happen in some areas is that it peeks and then everybody is exposed and then it sort of goes down. the worst cases happen of those who do not respond that severely, they get over it on their own. spreadis continuing to around the country and new parts of the country. it does not show signs of slowing down. the hope is that the virus will die out around the winter. they get worse and the fall. they do not know why can that is the help. as far as containment, they cannot do anything. it is like a cold virus. >> so this is literally parents telling you it's to wash your hands and right away. >> yes, wash your hands with

soap, hot water. if you are sick, stay home from school. >> coming, an interview with the world's second richest man. mexican billionaire carlos slim talks about breakups and mark zuckerberg when "bottom line" on bloomberg television continues. ♪

>> breaking up may be hard to do, but in some instances there could be an upside to the world's second richest man, telecommunications billionaire carlos slim, set down with betty liu for an exclusive interview. they discussed the benefits of splitting up companies. >> carlos, we have to talk a little bit business to you have been the leader in the telecom market in mexico. of course, the mexican president -- >> [indiscernible] >> you are, yes. >> in most of that. in u.s., we have important

cooperation. and now in europe, of course. >> we were talking about splitting up companies in the u.s. earlier. splitting appeared i know there are reforms in mexico, and you anticipate splitting up america movil. it has actually helped your stock price here at it has actually been a benefit, it seems. shareholders are applauding this breakup. it was what, [indiscernible] -- [indiscernible] >> do you support the reforms that have been taking place in mexico? >> one and a half years ago, the institution was changed and you need clear rules and businesses. e that wasrral -- rul put in place was the 50% rule. what you need in business is

rules and the state of law. and you have some regulations, and mandate of law, you should do that. >> in this complying with the rules, i know america movil has been a talks with various parties. have you been negotiating with at&t, for instance? >> not this close. something more bigger. --t coast and the border >> it is a bigger package of assets? >> it is a package we think is right to be done, but always, we are working with the potential buyers. >> are you -- job and working to have information available to make the corporations that are interested.

>> are you closest to the deal with at&t? >> that is all i can tell you. >> that is all you can tell. on one final front, i heard you met mark zuckerberg for the first time recently. meeting,e every year a a conference, with 10,000 scholarships. nice, and wevery were very happy that he was there in mexico. >> what did the two of you talk about? >> a few things. many, how youany, , things in common, like giving internet access to everyone. that is what we are working on with the broadband commission.

broadband access to all. that is one of the points. and then allocation and other issues that are very important for this new society of knowledge and technology. carlos slim with betty liu. let's turn to brazil. it appears the key to sustaining the country's stock rally is the candidate who lost on election day, silva. there are reports silva will be supporting the former senator who will be facing the president in the october 26 runoff. the blackrock senior portfolio more of a manager -- portfolio has the biggest holding that is brazil, and he joins me in studio. welcome to the show. thanks for your time. you and i were both watching the interview with carlos slim. what struck you about it? >> clearly, they had to do

something. what was not spoken there is that other than mexico last week, everybody is talking about energy reform in the next run which will be the first round of auctions. clearly, mr. slim and his committees will have a play in that. dominantalready marketshare for telecom, but they will look to make money on the oil sector >> switching to brazil, you were discussing the election with bloomberg news last month to use that we are overweight because we are looking and continue to look for change. you continued, we have good reasons to believe the election will go towards marina. what happened? >> it was amazing. the commercials and the free tv time. ms. silva's campaign unraveled. she did not perform well during the debates. marketer one was the

preferred candidate, and he came up and really out did. >> you also said that if president rousseff was reelected, we would significantly have to rethink our portfolio. win give a rousseff you pause? >> it would be a repeat of the last quarter of years. entrepreneurs are not really investing in business. they do not feel confident about the rules of the game. it will be an economy growing at the 1% to 2% range at best. not a great environment for investing in equities. >> the senator has already acted , naming his won prime minister-designate, a princeton-educated man. he says he can implement policies to enable brazil to avoid a credit hungry. theold bloomberg -- macroeconomic adjustment has to be gradual, but it has to be credible.

how should creditors in the market and investors interpret that? >> brazil is a liquid environment. it has less debt. we are in much better shape than we were even 10 or 12 years ago. that is when brazil was getting back on track. what we need to do is to get back to fiscal discipline. have the central bank try to control inflation. being able to have both sides of the government working together over the next year to make necessary adjustments, we can get back and shape. winsgh 2015 no matter who the election. in march, it cut the brazil credit rating for the first time in more than a decade or less month, moody's raised the possibility brazil may be cut to junk. will this presidency change the outlook? >> absolutely. >> he is that critical to this equation? ,> i think it is what he brings

the team he has put together already that is ready to govern. being able to bring good people to the central bank. the fiscal discipline is really all that is needed. it is not one of those countries ratio, 200% debt to gdp but it is going the wrong way. >> you talked about fiscal discipline or the lack thereof. was that in evidence during the world cup? there were a lot of street protests and a lot of poor people in brazil who were upset because brazil opened up the vault to put on the world cup. but, yet, there are a lot of people there who are living on basically pennies a day. is that the type of discipline you feel is lacking? has 39 ministers. how many do we have in the u.s.? a lot less spirit you do not need 39 ministers to run the

economy. it trickles down. it has to allow the private sector to do its job. having the transparency for the private sector to make large investments that are needed. allow for us to go back to where we were 4, 5, 10 years ago. increasing the middle class and improving competitiveness in a global environment. today we do not have that are people were protesting in the streets because the last three or four years, they have seen no improvement in living standards. in the previous decade, you saw about 40 million brazilians being lifted from poverty into the middle class. >> or international businesses itching to get back there? is a potentially vibrant domestic economy. absolutely. theegardless of who wins presidency in the runoff later brazil has some problems in 2015. high interest rates, a budget

deficit the largest in five years. how long is it going to take to turn the fiscal ship around? will be thek 2015 year you make the heavy adjustments. and 2016 will growth or investments. investments will only come if people are confident. like the blackrock senior portfolio manager joining me, talking about brazil. thank you. still ahead, we will go on the markets and get you the very latest on trading. julie hyman is standing by with those details. ♪

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>> tonight on our new bloomberg politics broadcast "with all due respect," josh earnest, the white house. that is tonight at 5:00 and 8:00 em new york time. check out the new bloomberg on six site with even more content, new articles, and new videos every day. bloombergpolitics.com. 5:00ng stock" is now at p.m. new york time. we're coming up on 26 minutes past the hour. that means bloomberg television is "on the markets."

julie hyman is standing by. a down day. >> indeed, and that is after the imf cut global growth forecast. came inal production below what was estimated in germany which has been one of the growth engines in europe. so the idea it is slowing down is baking investors. if you look at the major averages, we are seeing declines across the board. they have been pretty steady throughout the day with industrials and health care helping lead some of the declines. in terms of individual members, walmart is one of them, cutting medical benefits for some of its part-time workers in the u.s., those that worked fewer than 30 hours a week. it affects about 30,000 employees and they will not now be offered health insurance to walmart blames rising costs for the change and joins a number of other companies who have made similar moves. a bright spot, trading of green mountain jumping 5% as goldman rating and it a buy

a $166 price target. they believe sales and earnings are likely to pick up at greenmount in the next few years. more "on the markets" in 30 minutes. more "bottom line" is next. ♪

>> welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line." staying with us. the european union added amazon to a number of multinational tax dealings it is investigating. a 2003 -- we have the minister of finance for luxembourg joining me in the studio. pierre gramegna, thank you for joining me. thank you for your time. the eu's competition chief told

reporters today that luxembourg's tax authorities agreed to limit the proportion of amazon's turnover that is being taxed in luxembourg. he says this happen regardless of the company's profit. he called this type of realty payment exaggerated. he implied it may amount to an unfair advantage. what is your reaction to his comments and what repercussions will it have on luxembourg going forward? thatrst of all, let me say the role is to look after fair competition in the eu, as written in the treaty. is alsocommission allowed to focus on an individual case to make sure that there has been no state aid.

the commission can play its role and exert its power. it is a normal thing that if there are doubts on the other side of the commission and they continue to provide all the .ecessary information >> your predecessor would not even use that term. is it a tax haven? >> i think that luxembourg is a country that has been very

respectful of international treaties. we are a founding member of the european union and the oecd. and as a small country, you have to do so to the full. as such, we cannot describe a tax haven at all. we play by the rules and continue to do so. >> you have been calling for fiscal transparency, one of the hallmarks in your current position. would that scare off international businesses and investors? >> new standards are being elaborated. our country is cooperating, being active, making proposals.

it is our interest that it is a level playing field. when there is a level playing field, when you have a fair competition, let me also say that a new government really embraced transparency and said that we are going to comply with all the rules and eventually also in the field of automatic exchange of information. in the past, we did not apply, and we have declared that we are in 20 15.o so >> i am speaking with the finance minister of luxembourg. chris williamson, the chief economist at the financial information, the market, he said last week of the eurozone, the overall picture is one of an economy struggling against multiple headwinds. what are those headwinds and how has luxembourg been able to navigate that? you have a look at europe and you see that those countries that have done structural reform, making sure the

competitiveness is the number one priority, those are doing reasonably well. i think of germany and other european countries. we are expecting a growth rate of 2.5% this year and in the years to come. there are recipes or success, and we must make sure that we are embarked on that road of structural reform, making sure that we can also take advantage of the very accommodative monetary policy that is being favored by the european central bank. monetary policy alone cannot do the job. >> speaking of monetary policies, austerity, has that worked in the eurozone? >> well, if you have a good look at it, austerity is not the answer to the question. what we need in europe is more investment, especially more productive investment and research, development, and innovation. i can see that there is not enough and we must do the utmost

to make sure that we free the soessary money and zones that europe can invest more than it does today. >> this summer, china's central bank signed a memorandum of understanding on business with luxembourg central bank. how is the remember the market in luxembourg? is your country now the main hub for the currency in the eurozone? your comment is quite correct. luxembourg has been developed as mbi placeimportant remi in the eurozone, even europe, if you think about it. we have the most deposits and most bonds listed. foremost, we are number one in terms of investment funds i.nominated in the renminb i think the chinese authorities have a desire to build on that. draghi, the european

central bank president, said the bank will begin purchasing assets for at least 2 trillion years. they want to boost inflation and boost growth, economic growth, throughout europe. is that enough? should the ecb have done more? does the ecb have more tools to do more? >> i think the ecb has been proactive.rily mario draghi said that the bank would do whatever it takes. he is applying that again now by trying to find asset-backed to make sure loans that there is enough liquidity on the market. , it is not only a matter of enough money on the market. you need good projects. would you like in europe is good .rojects good services and products. >> such as? good projects. >> infrastructure projects.

i think my country, we have invested a lot in data centers and broadband. it has made our country one of the first in terms of being quick and efficient of the digital infrastructure. such things will bring europe a step the on. >> mr. minster, good to meet you. coming up, silicon valley shows it still gets excited over bitcoin those details when we continue in just a moment.

>> it is time for today's latin .merica report the eight richest person will face trial in brazil in a month. a judge from rio de janeiro's third criminal tribunal projected the request to be dismissed and said a court date for november 18.

-- set a court date for november 18. they were ordered to freeze $40 million in assets held by the former billionaire. for bitcoin skeptics who have written off the digital currency, a company is saying that so fast. block chain just raised a little from ventureion capital investors. the biggest single funding round yet for digital currency firms. taking it as a sign that silicon valley is still excited over the prospects of the digital currency. trish regan joins me now. $30 million? money.'s a lot of this is the largest bitcoin while a company. they have 2.3 million users. they're hoping to grow to 20 million users. wallet. the actual

that's what this company is providing. they've got the $30 million from future branson to perfect partners and other angel rounds. braintree is another investor. a significant amount of money. competing withis coin base. they need to attract users to bitcoin. you and i spoke during the commercial break. it seems like it's something that is still in the hazy phase for a lot of people. the recent summit a venture capitalists get excited about this is because of the future. the potential it represents. as for being a currency, think it's going to face a lot of challenges. .t is so volatile this time last year, it was around $1000. now, the $300 range.

is anlatility itself issue. there is the regulation issue. does this become something that is regulated? it needs to become a clearly, otherwise there are lots of things that could happen. it's effectively like cash on the internet. one of its original uses was on silk road, the website known as the ebay of drugs. people were doing some rather dubious things with it. one would anticipate that it's going to continue. interesting that there are some people backing it and it's because of the technology that we are talking about. we moved to this mobile money world. >> you spoke about sir richard branson. the potential for a global transformation in payment powers is exciting. >> a lot of people don't know the history of bitcoin. it came out in 2009.

it had been lingering in the extreme libertarian circles as something that needed to be done as a way to fight back against money printing by the fed. this all came about on the heels of the financial crisis. we have a lot coming up on the show. mention the stocks chain ceo, the company that got all this money, he is going to be joining a spirit alongside stephen roach am a who will be with me for the hour. we are going to be talking about his outlook on mergers, outlook on hong kong. his take on the recent rise in cyber attacks. atstreetsmart coming up the top of the are peered up next, like a bad movie that spawned a sequel after sequel.

hewlett-packard and yet another crack at restructuring. corey johnson joins us from san francisco. ♪

excited theackard stock market with the announcement that it will split the company into in order to stay competitive. hp announced plans to lay off another 5000 workers and take another $600 million restructuring charge. that increases the size of the layouts to 55,000 and the to $4.7 billion. could hp be in a permanent state of catch-up? corey johnson joins me now from san francisco. what's going on? >> the big news is the split up of the company. one took away the medical and testing division. other sliver of

hewlett-packard here. lost in that news of the restriction. the turnaround of this business is not just taking a lot longer than anticipated, but they are .oing to take much more another 5000 layoffs is a serious issue. out just how much of a serial restructure hewlett-packard is. unique in all of technology, maybe even all of big business. >> talk to me about the challenge this presents. >> they want to get beyond it. opportunity lot of for meg whitman. mark -- everyk to hasfor the last 14 years been taking restructuring

charges for the company. the notion this is an extraordinary event and a this has been a regular event for this company ever single quarter every single year going back for many years. >> these restructuring charges -- how do they change hp's earnings report? , thee real earnings non-gap earnings after restructuring, they have to pay for those restructuring costs. they want to look at non-gap. cap is small. non-gap is bigger. the adjusted number is bigger. it makes the earnings look so much bigger. it's also worth noting that this is also how management, part of their bonus get paid. part of meg whitman's

performance bonuses based on the non-gap number, not the actual earnings of the company. larger theyoffs, the pool of her potential bonuses derived. is this move common in the world technology? >> this kind of regularity i can't think of another company and technology that has been able to do this for so many years. companies that are regular restructures have less cash flow in the future and earnings can be impacted the future as well. right now, wall street likes it. but we know how this works out. stay with us. another check of the market movers is on the other side of the break "bottom line. "bottom line"bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

>> get the latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio and streaming on your tablet and on bloomberg.com. that is it for this edition of "bottom line." things for joining a spirit on the markets with julie hyman's next. >> coming up on 56 past the

hour. let's take a look at where stocks are trading right now. we are seeing an acceleration of the selling as we get closer to the closing bell. the s&p down about 1%. all of this selling triggered by economic woes this morning. germany's industrial production worse than estimated and the imf cutting global growth forecast. the national retail federation protecting a pickup in the holiday spending, specifically of 4.1%.n in november joining me now for today's -- what do yous make of this forecast for 4.1% increase? we see these headlines that tend to be on more of the negative side about consumer spending. how do we reconcile that? >> when you look at the 4.1%,

it's not as robust as you would think. had a 4.4% increase come out earlier. if you look at last year, november was good. december and january were pretty weak due to weather. we have next year's filing day between thanksgiving and christmas this year. it may look healthy on the surface. it's not necessarily that much. something else that points to that is the idea that it is still driven by sales. this is something retailers have said as well. sales.shopper expects in has to be to get the traffic in the doors. inventory is very lean.

hopefully those promotions are planned. it should help preserve some margin for the retailers. you and i have talked consistently throughout the year. we have seen a trend of people more spending on bigger ticket items in some cases. electronics, cars have been going well. not so much on apparel. will that change during the holiday? >> while he would like it to change, there is not that much new in apparel. now, you have the iphone launch. maybe a new iphone or ipad. the higher priced gadgets are on people's wish lists. that may pull spending away from apparel yet again. headlines outome there that walmart is not going to be providing health benefits for people working under 30 hours a week. this joins a lot of other

retailers doing this same thing. what does this say about how much money consumers are going to have in their pockets if they are not now getting that health insurance coverage? >> it's definitely going to hit -- that consumer is not doing any better than last year. you have the food stamp reduction and higher health care costs. be hard for retailers to get more from them. >> thank you so much. thinking about the holidays already. we will have more on the markets throughout the afternoon. street smart is next. ♪

>> welcome to the big show. with 60 minutes left until the close. tim geithner says a failure of aig might have caused mass panic. packers look the on jpmorgan to target wall street. "street smart" starts now. it quickly got the market rent out because it is another big down day.