carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. julia: and i'm julia chatterley. we are here inside the magazine's headquarters in new york. carol: a graphic look at slaughterhouses. those workers at risk. a guy hit -- guide who will keep you traveling all year long. julia: all that ahead on bloomberg businessweek. ♪ carol: we are here with bloomberg editor-in-chief megan murphy and let's start with

politics. i can't wait to see how the magazine covers everything in the world of politics in this year. you start here in our home front. domestic. member of the trump team, mike pompeo has had a good year. megan: he has had a good year. you pick out people of had good years. you have nikki haley who is the ambassador of the u.n. and you have mike pompeo, who is the director of the cia and those names have been mentioned as a potential successor to rex tillerson. our secretary of state has not had a good year and we will talk about his departure has cooled, there is a widespread feeling in washington elsewhere that his relationship with the president is not long-term. so mike pompeo has emerged as a personal favorite from the -- of the president. this matters a lot to the president, how you get along with, who you get access to. how he gets along one-on-one. his circle is very, very small

and mike pompeo is one of them. julia: how has he managed to cultivate that relationship with the president? one story that comes out is the daily briefings. how normal is it for the cia director to meet the president on a daily basis? megan: it's more than that. how do they break down the information? bite-sized, a lot of pictures, a lot of graphics. there are two things about mike pompeo. one is that he's ideological. he's been forthright in defending the president about charges of whether it is collusion with russia, whether it is north korea, whatever. this is a guy who is a west point graduate, harvard law graduate, someone who wears that coat of arms as i call it. the president likes those people. he likes people with a military background. julia: the domestic cover story, it is a shocking subject of which we don't know about or talk about enough, and that's what's going on in the late-night shifts in meat processing factories.

megan: we have fought hard to expose the horrors that our -- that are underexposed labor force, sometimes illegal immigrants, sometimes white working-class marginalized people working to support their lives on eight dollars an hour, $12 an hour. this cover story goes into this third shift and it shows the life and death on the lines of this third shift when people are risking everything for an average of $12 an hour and standing literally in vats of chicken fat and what their going -- what they are willing to go through as sanitation workers. carol: we have more from peter waldman and what he says points to a dark place in human united states history. peter: the third shift is so named because it's the graveyard shift. it begins around midnight and it is the folks that come in and clean poultry plants and these , people use high-powered hoses

and all kinds of chemical cleansers, usually chlorinated. they generally clean meat packing machines while they are operating, so there are lots of blades and blenders spinning. steam is wafting everywhere. these are the folks that come in and clean. very often, they are immigrants. this is not a desirable job. it's sort of the bottom of the labor ladder in the united states and even more often, they are undocumented immigrants. julia: so in that vein, peter, talk to us about martha and her experience because you begin her story in graphic detail. peter: sure, i call her martha because torres was only one of the surnames given to her by several people in the documents we reviewed. the reason is that she was or is an undocumented person. we don't know if she is in the united states or not because we couldn't track her down, which is sort of part of the story. that is why would begin with the mystery surrounding her surname.

she was working at a tyson plant in kansas and she was cleaning a conveyor belt at one point and her glove got caught and the conveyor belt essentially reeled her in like a fish and it cracked her forearm in two places, the bones literally sticking out of her skin. she was taken to the hospital and given emergency surgery and so forth and where the story gets interesting, there are lots of factory accidents, but her employer was a sanitation company called packard sanitation out of wisconsin and they were in charge of helping her. they did cover her medical expenses, but when it came time for her to apply for worker's comp to account for the months and months of lost wages and some perhaps cushion for future disability, because she was

permanently impaired in the nerves in her hand, they refused. not only did they refuse, they fired her. it turns out that's not an untypical response to workers in this industry and perhaps others when the employer in this case could prove to a worker's comp judge that the accident was martha's fault. in kansas, there is a fault-based worker's comp system and packard and their insurer convinced the judge she shouldn't have put her arm where it was and that cracking it in two places was her fault, cleaning the machine, and they gave her nothing and fired her. carol: in this third shift, there is often a lot of undocumented workers so that if they are injured, it is like they have no recourse, no voice to speak for them and say here is the compensation for damages or so forth and these

individuals are afraid to come forward. julia: they are afraid to whistle blow. peter: we have very little picture of what they do. i mean, there is anecdotal evidence here and there, such as what happened to martha. there is another case where an employee, and undocumented employee of packers sanitation made a claim for injuries in arkansas. packers fought them under the sole reasoning that they were not a legitimate, authorized worker. and in that case, the state appeals court of arkansas overturned packer's decision and told packer's you have to pay for that person's worker's comp. whether or not they are a document worker. but this is just a tiny and a total -- anecdotal snapshots here and there. in general, these people kind of melt away into our society. if they are able to work, they go to another place and work. if not, they perhaps head back

south over the border. we don't know what happened to martha. julia: up next, why the latest uprising in iran is different from the last. carol: what is most at stake for the middle east and the united states? julia: this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪ ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm carol massar. julia: and i'm julia chatterley. you can find us online at businessweek.com. carol: and on our mobile app. in the politics section, the wave of antigovernment protests in iran. julia: and the men and women are taking to the streets, largely from rural areas. carol: and their grievances stem from the cost of common items. julia: here is our editor matthew philips. matthew: the 2009 green movement came from the disputed reelection of the then president.

you saw millions take to the streets and it was concentrated in the capital city of tehran and it was by and large being led by the upper class, who were reform minded. they wanted political reforms. what we are seeing right now, while you are seeing fewer people in the streets, it is more dispersed and it is concentrated in the outskirts of iran, not necessarily in tehran. you are seeing it in the kind of smaller, midsized towns in the rural parts of the country. and it is really about the economy and how after the nuclear deal was tied, a lot was promised in terms of economic success and it has not necessarily been delivered and people are feeling it in their pockets and they are taking it to the streets. julia: talk about what we have seen. we have all seen the headlines of spiking agricultural prices. you point out a 50% rise in the price of eggs. i mean, that is crippling for ordinary iranians. what is going on and what is driving this because you would

expect to see some kind of reaction and now we are seeing it. matthew: that's right. the economy is not doing very well. i mean, unemployment is double digits, 12%. inflation is down 10%. you are seeing a big spike in basic food prices for things like eggs and agricultural goods. those concerns have kind of broadened to a much wider demonstration about the very essence of iran's political establishment, which is the theocracy and the iranian republic led by the ayatollah that have ultimate control over the country. carol: let's talk about this. this is the second term for the president. he has brought inflation down to 10%. one thing slow to come back to the country is foreign investment. many see it is necessary to helping the economy. matthew: that was part of the

deal he sold to the iranian people through the 2015 nuclear deal that it was going to remove sanctions from world powers and lead to a huge investment from foreign companies and multinationals and governments. it hasn't played out like that. and the degree that it has hasn't really impacted your average iranian. on top of that, there is a banking crisis and oil prices are still pretty cheap, below $60. he has faced concern and strife from his supporters and hard-line conservatives, many among them, the clerics. julia: it bought rouhani time to enact the reforms he was talking about as a moderate and he was consistently fighting the hard-line in the country.

step forward to today and we have donald trump pushing back on the nuclear deal and creating uncertainty surrounding the situation. to what extent has that also precipitated some of the fears we have seen with ordinary people? matthew: i think that is right. i think donald trump does pose a threat to rouhani because he is able to do certain things with his rhetoric to kind of make foreign investors even more nervous to put their money into iran. he has increased sanctions, he has talked about tearing up the nuclear accord and he has raised the idea of putting it to the u.s. congress about whether this thing should be completely rewritten and if sanctions should be reimposed. that has a direct impact on the confidence that foreign investors have of investing in iran and that in turn slows economic growth and that is a problem for rouhani.

he also does have, i should say, an opportunity to play this to his advantage, rouhani does. it is clear that there is structural change that needs to happen and time is not on the side of the clerics. if he can navigate this delicate political balance and convince the hard-line clerics that we need to do this, you need to let me push more reforms through, whether that's cultural, letting women, for example, go to soccer stadiums, or economic reforms, that could help in a big way navigate and survive this, which is the biggest challenge he's had since being in office. julia: we have already started to see him react like this. in terms of the approach to women, in particular. who are the people blaming? are they blaming rouhani? because they are also calling for the death of the supreme leader, so where is the blame

being placed here? matthew: it's very hard to find the political lines as they cut across iranian society. it's easy, maybe too easy to put them into two camps. on the one hand, you have the reform minded moderates who support rouhani and his election, and on the and on the other hand you have hardline conservatives who aligned with the clerics and the ahmadinejad line. what's interesting is that it was much more of a rural populist and he was much more liked in those parts of the country than rouhani is. rouhani has had to do a lot of things that had a bad impact for your average working-class person in the rural parts of iran. he's cut subsidies way back that was simply not sustainable, the system he took over. he had to make a lot of reforms that cause a lot of pain in the lives of people.

julia: up next, what unicorn frappuccinos and trending hashtags might tell us about economic growth in 2018. carol: plus, to raise rates or not to raise rates. that is the question. the tale of two curves. julia: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

♪ julia: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm julia chatterley. carol: i'm carol massar. you can listen to us on radio on channel 119 and a.m. in new york, boston, and the bay area. julia: and in london and asia on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the economic section, several social trends in 2017 that may help us predict what will happen in the economy in 2018. carol: here's our reporter.

>> there were a couple things that stuck out to us. it told us something about the american consumer this year. that struck me as i was talking to some friends at the party, the things that talk to us our economic at heart so i called the economists and chatted about what happened in 2017 and it struck them similarly. julia: i've never heard of a unicorn frappuccino. carol: that's what they came up with? these economists? jeanna: i came up with the unicorn frappuccino. carol: the frappuccino is interesting. i had to look it up. it's a lot of pink and purple and blue. people bought it at five dollars or something? jeanna: the thing that really struck me about this frappuccino is it's five dollars a pop, really expensive drink and people were buying them like crazy. it was a treat yourself phenomenon.

it was the small extravagances we've seen among young consumers, whether avocado toast or unicorn frappuccinos or five dollar bottles of kombuchas. we have seen people being able to splurge on these kind of luxuries. side, it's a sign of consumer confidence. on the other hand, it could be worrying if people don't move on to bigger purchases. julia: do they end up spending more on bigger luxuries? jeanna: exactly. are you spending $5 on unicorn frappucinos consistently and not saving up to buy that house. carol: another sign is vacation. julia: they are all splurging. jeanna: absolutely. one thing i really like about travel spending is that it moves up recovery and falls when you hit a recession and sometimes it's even a leading indicator. what we are seeing right now is travel spending is going gangbusters. people are traveling abroad. they are really leaving.

we saw a record number of outbound trips in 2016 and a really high travel imports, which means americans spending on travel abroad. really surged in the first months of 2017, so it looks like the trend has kind of continued and that struck me as something important about consumers. julia: interesting, we are not seeing the wage gains we were expecting. is that pointing to a growing confidence rather than a financial reward response? jeanna: absolutely. we have seen wages trending along 2.5%, which is keeping up slightly over inflation, and we haven't seen the pickup we would expect to be driving consumer confidence. some people hope it will happen in 2018, poll we saw in 2017 was a lot of nonwage benefits. we saw a collection of anecdotal reports around the country speaking to employers offering things like perks at work. you know, think about snacks in

your pantry here at bloomberg, fitness programs, benefits, that kind of thing. these nonwage compensation to get around wage gains. it will be interesting to see whether that holds in 2018 or whether employers have to spend more. carol: staying in economics both , of the u.s. treasury yield curve and phillips curve are flattening. julia: that makes it a tough job for economists to decide when and how to raise rates. carol: we let economics editor peter coy explain. peter: the yield curve and the phillips curve are different and the only thing that unifies them in my story is that some people looking at these two are saying the fed reserve and other central banks, as well, can afford to not worry so much about inflation and still keep the focus on getting growth going. in my article, i am saying not really sure, maybe we still need to think about the fact that inflation could start accelerating in 2018.

julia: okay, so take a step back and explain what we are talking about here because it comes down to interpretation. what is the phillips curve and what is it saying to us at this moment, the relationship to the factors? peter: it's named after a new zealand economist and he simply, it is a simple idea, which is that there is a trade-off between inflation and unemployment. when you have high inflation, it's associated with low unemployment and vice versa. now, milton friedman and some others in the 1960's poked holes in the phillips curve by saying that in the long run, there is no free lunch. central banks can't buy stronger growth on lower unemployment on a permanent basis by tolerating high inflation, but on a short-term, there remains in theory, what you think of as a slope.

if you imagine inflation on one axis, high unemployment. the problem is, it hasn't proven out in the real world. the curve is flat. julia: because the u.s. economies have been creating jobs hand over fist and we haven't seen inflation pick up. now we are confused. where is inflation and why aren't we getting wage growth? peter: inflation remains below the fed's target of 2%. even as the unemployment rate was down to 4.1%, and so there are people saying the phillips curve is broken and we can ignore it. and all i'm saying in this article is no, the underlying logic remains sensible. right? you would think the economy heats up, workers are in great demand, can demand higher wages,

wages go up and that transit -- translates into higher pay overall. carol: you have written about this over the past year, whether globalization or workers not having enough power, technology having a factor, maybe workers are satisfied. peter: there are always reasons, but i just think there comes a point where for all the excuses and explanations, at some point you would think it would bite. carol: are we just impatient? and maybe it will start? peter: i think over the coming year it hasn't happened yet, but , that doesn't mean it never will. i don't want to leave the yield curve out of that. julia: if you look at the shape of the yield curve, it's the flattest it has been in a decade and if people are expending stronger inflation, the back end should be higher. peter: exactly. that's the other conundrum. the yield curve, just to back it up a little bit here, is the idea that if you look at the maturities of say, treasury bonds, the short ones, have the

lowest interest rates and the curve goes up like this so that the long-term 10-year note, 30 year bond have higher yields because people want to be rewarded for tying up their money longer. that's the normal shape of the yield curve and every time the yield curve tips so that the 10-year note is less than, pick your points, it's a strong precursor of a recession. so there are people who are warning now that because the yield curve is flattening, we need to worry about a recession. all i'm saying is if we were indeed inverted, if the yield curve had tipped, i would be worried. we are not inverted. we have a positively sloping yield curve and there is no guarantee we will ever invert. we might stay like this for a long time.

carol: what will it take to undo the damage in zimbabwe? julia: where would you go if you want to know what it's like to camp on the moon? it's all in the pursuit 2018 travel guide. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

julia: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm julia chatterley. carol: i'm carol massar. zimbabwe looks for a way to resurrect itself. julia: plus, the running shoe backed by warren buffett. all that still ahead on bloomberg businessweek. ♪ julia: we are back with the editor in chief of bloomberg businessweek megan murphy and megan, in the must read section, the political turmoil in zimbabwe. does this mean a future of change?

you focused on the company's that have struggled in the economic challenges. megan: this is a great piece by matt campbell and with all the other turmoil engulfing the world, zimbabwe and robert mugabe's downfall has drifted off into the sideshows again. why this stands out is that it traces the economic devastation, not only through the companies that have really struggled as the company tries to get back it economic bearings, but the reasons why that exists. it's not as simple as people think with exportation and poor use of national resources. they have a lot of lithium, abundant national resources, bad government, corruption. it's also specific inflation and turns the issues that are crippling these companies who can no longer pay for much-needed, whether to move their goods abroad, whether to pay for the equipment they need

to harvest their crops to make a sort of 21st century go of things. it's really a systematic go of all the problems that combined together to make this economic devastation so real. julia: liquidity a real problem. carol: a real liquidity crunch for those companies that are financially viable, they are having problems accessing money to run their businesses. megan: that's the thing. everybody knows about the $100 trillion zimbabwe notes which existed and issues like inflation running at 98% per day at points. we all remember that. but what people know less about this the creation of this parallel currency. much of our audience may know is that zimbabwe essentially runs its economy on u.s. dollars. it lost the ability to trade lateint money during the to thousands.

0's.00 but they do that, they have a sort of virtual currency. it is for these companies that need access to liquidity, need access to cash it has become virtually impossible season to season for them to maintain liquidity. but what people know less about is the creation of the zollar, that is sort of the parallel currency. much of our audience know zimbabwe runs its economies on u.s. dollars because frankly, they lost the ability to print money during the hyperinflation in the mid 2000s, late 2000's. but they do that to a virtual currency and exchanging those in making those viable for companies that need access to liquidity, need access to cash, whether it's to buy supplies, farming to keep them over season to season has become impossible for them. carol: no easy segue except that this is another feature. a sneaker company owned by warren buffett. like i said, no easy segue. megan: i love this story, another gem. this is a story -- carol: not even a story -- megan: if you are not a runner, you probably don't wear these shoes. it's owned by warren buffett. it's a brand that is a great tale of how a company reinvents itself continually and is now looking to people who hate what its shoes do. it's a great story. carol: are you a runner? megan: do i look like a runner? no. julia: we all claim to be that. here is our reporter for more.

>> one of the things i found interesting when working on this story is that there are sports and athletic industries that track this stuff and since 2001, 13 million people have taken up running, the equivalent of the state of illinois. carol: let's talk about why you were writing about this company because i told you i had never heard of them and my husband had a foot injury and he bought one of these a year ago. who are these people? this is a company that has had, it has been around for a long time, give us a history. it had troubles but it's really come back strong. claire: it's been around since 1914, but it's been owned by many different people throughout the years. carol: private equity, right? claire: yeah, so they started making baseball cleats and victorian era bathing slippers when you use to wear shoes and they got into the running market in the seven -- in the 1970's

when jogging took off and they had a shoe that took off and was bouncy and was made with springy foam and all these people started buying it and they were manufactured in puerto rico and the manufacturer didn't know how to handle that sort of size of orders so they ended up shipping , a lot of defective shoes. there were other issues with the company and it went bankrupt in 1981, passed through a number of different owners. meanwhile, a lot of other sneaker companies, nike is growing, adidas is growin. then it turned around in 2001. julia: fast-forward to today. if you've ever been to a berkshire hathaway agm, you probably know brooks. it's tied to the ownership. claire: in 2001, the owner said we are just going to do shoes because that is what we do best. in 2006, berkshire hathaway, actually fruit of the loom,

bought it and warren buffett has a number of investment managers that are triathletes and they say they have these shoe companies that are doing well. he met with weather. -- webber and webber explained his all running, only running, no cross trainers, no cheap shoes at walmart. these sort of $150-$180 high-end shoes. carol: the company is doubling in size every three years. claire: not currently. it was at the time. carol: but it is still growing. claire: yes. i think it is at half $1 billion now and their goal is to double it. julia: how? claire: that's what i asked. carol: especially with nike out there, adidas out there. there is a lot of competition. claire: there are two ways to do this. one, you get more people into running. or you can make other products aside from running. they decided to stick with running and they are trying to get people who are more casual runners who probably currently

run and all those other brands you've heard of to switch to them. carol: up next, boston landlords try to win over millennials. julia: growing pains at the hawkish thing on social media. can hq trivia keep up with its own success? carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

♪ julia: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm julia chatterley. carol: and i'm carol massar. you can also find us at businessweek.com. julia: and our mobile app.

in the finance section, how some boston office landlords are trying to woo startups and their armies of millennial workers. carol: our reporter experienced it firsthand. >> the idea is, in the financial district, a lot of tenants are leaving and going to areas, sort of burgeoning areas where towers are going up. they are losing a lot of tenants. they are trying to get startups to fill in the gaps. they have opened up second-floor amenities room, kind of a bar, game room, coffee house, where everything is free. free video games, food tables, beer, wine, lattes made by baristas. it's pretty amazing. carol: it like a club. sounds like a lot of fun. hey, blackstone is a huge landlord. these are the guys doing it. blackstone, a huge landlord. prashant: right, this is their equity office division. and they are not the only company doing this.

all the landlords are scrambling sort of to appeal to this millennial generation and the younger gen x people, who sort of, their expectations are different. when they are choosing a job, they may even consider what kind of office they are moving into. this helps with recruiting. it helps with retaining, it helps the landlords fill vacancies, at least that's the hope. julia: it's not just boston, though. it's happening all over the country. new york, chicago. if we want the best talent, they have to make the workplace speak to them. prashant: that's right. i guess the idea is that if you are hiring really talented people and you are expecting them to work long hours, maybe they don't have as much time outside of the office, so let's try to make the office more fun.

so even while, if you are working 10 hours, maybe you stop for an hour and have a beer down in the second floor and you come back up and continue working. carol: what's interesting, you have companies like we were, where you can go and rent out some space and it's open space with couches and so and so forth and amenities, and traditional landlords and office owners, i mean, they are having to compete with companies like that. prashant: right, yeah, so not only are they competing with each other, they are competing with new construction. a lot of these new buildings have open floor plans, industrial looks and high ceilings, collaborative spaces, lots of fun stuff. they have that, they are competing with those new buildings, but they are also competing with we work and

places that are temporary spaces. but a lot of these startups started in we work and they look for something more permanent as they grow. and, you know, the landlords want to be there to provide that. carol: speaking of startups, in the technology section, hq has a hit on its hands. julia: but it has one or two hurdles on its path to growth. max: intermedia labs looks like a tech company. they make an app. it looks like it. i noticed when i came there and to my annoyance, i was trying to record audio, it's rather noisy. there is a fan whirring, it's an old new york city building, which is strange because it also houses a studio for this show or it's sort of a show called "trivia hq." carol: what is "trivia hq?" max: it's a game show. jeopardy-esque, but you play it

on your smart phone. and it's a bit lower rent. there's a single host, single camera, it is recorded in what amounts to a closet. the thing that makes it cool is that it is participatory. unlike jeopardy, when you have three contestants competing to win cash, the viewers are competing. so you at home are answering questions. julia: there are two shows a day, how many people are trying to get involved in this? max: hundreds of thousands. there is a 3:00 eastern show and a 9:00 eastern show, a primetime show. carol: who is playing this? aren't they all at work? max: there are entire offices shutting down. in fact, people tell me that even at bloomberg, people are pausing their workday to play this game show. julia: it's a conspiracy. lies. max: the midday show is attracting between 400,000-500,000 people. the primetime show, we are talking over 600,000 on new year's day, 750,000 playing and

they said a million people tried to play. so these are big numbers for live videos. julia: and you compare it to nfl on amazon, this is important. max: it's easy to say over 400,000, that isn't much because we see 10 million views on youtube. those are cumulative views. so concurrent, live views which , are really important for advertisers, those are important. they rely on advertisers. the numbers are a lot lower on the internet. the thursday night nfl game on amazon, the first one in september attracted 372,000 as an average audience. it's not totally comparable because the nfl game is three hours long, the trivia game is 15 minutes. but it gives you the sense, if you can attract half a million people at the same time and same place on an app, that is valuable. that is a kind of thing that can be monetized. carol: are they? are they monetizing? max: no.

they are not monetizing. this is silicon valley. carol: lots of years, right question mark -- right? max: they are a smart silicon valley startup run by a couple of veterans, run by the ceo. he was one of the founders of vine. and they have decided, probably wisely, although it could turn out not to be wisely, to not as they say, monetize it yet. that said, it does seem pretty obvious that there will be ways to bring advertisers into this because you have a two-minute window before the show starts and right now there is just a countdown clock. you can also imagine sponsored questions, this question brought to you by proctor and gamble or something. [laughter] max: and now, to be clear, i'm just speculating on the sponsored question thing, but it's pretty easy to sort of anticipate how they might try to make money. carol: up next, the consumer electronics show in las vegas matters again. julia: a holiday as if you are in the greek isles, but at a fraction of the price. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek."

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♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm carol massar. julia: and i'm julia chatterley and you can listen to us on the radio at sirius xm channel 119 and also in new york, 106.1 in boston, am 91 in washington, d.c. and in the bay area. carol: and in london and asia on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the technology section, the consumer electronics show kicks off in las vegas next week. julia: that's where you will find the very latest in hardware, software, and up virtual reality. carol: we talked about why it is in vogue again. >> cef's used to be the hottest tech show in the early 1990's, early 2000's.

the original xbox was announced with the rock and bill gates in 2001, the palm pre of iphone competitor was announced in 2009. but since then, it has slowed down where microsoft, apple, samsung, and google set up their own private events they hold with media and special people that they invite towards the holiday season. carol: i've been here a couple of times years ago and it was chaotic. it was crazy. everybody was there, microsoft had their own huge venue. i mean, it really was a huge event. so it has really come down off a lot from that high level. julia: peak. carol: yeah, its peak. mark: absolutely. all the major companies are what drove people toward cef's in the early years and other have their own events that will slow down traction and visitor numbers, but that's starting to change in the last couple of years, especially this year.

julia: in a world where social media and mobile apps are king, fast-forward to today and these same internet companies are focusing more and more on hardware and never have to take -- and now they have to take it seriously. what are we expecting this time around? mark: this time around, the companies are not going to be presenting. apple is not going to have a booth. google actually will for the first time. all the big players will be behind the scenes trying to strike deals in order to get the components they need to unlock the next wave of major technologies. all the big tech companies are working on self-driving cars, augmented reality glasses, voice assistants, and speakers. what they need are the component makers out of europe and asia to provide them with the tools to build these devices and sell them on their own in the coming years. carol: and that's the point. you are not going to see virtual reality glasses and things like that because these people are hunting for those components

that they can make their own devices, whether apple, facebook, pick your name. mark: that's right, you will see these technologies from smaller companies that you and i have not really heard of, but you are going to see the apples of the world, google, samsung, hunting down these component makers to strike deals with them to buy the lenses, the chips, the software they need to make the next range of ai devices. ar glasses and a vr glasses. julia: you described this as a make or break year for virtual reality because it has struggled to get down to size and keep it mainstream. how are they going to achieve that and what do you think they learned from getting everybody together this year this time around? mark: that is absolutely right. it is a make it or break it year because what we have seen so far from htc, oculus, google, is that vr is a niche type of platform in terms of the next wave of technology. ar is where it's at.

you see oculus came out with oculus go, a $200 the are -- vr headset that doesn't require anything. you don't need a phone, you don't need to connect it to a $1000 computer. so, we are going to be banking on that standalone vr headset. to see if it has potential. apple is on the back burner. that's the big shadow. apple makes tons of money they , sell tons of phones. they really dictate the technology industry. so if apple says we are not going to do a vr headset, we are going to do an ar headset, that that is really going to mess up the plans to the other companies. julia: if you are not able to get to las vegas, we have you covered. carol: we talked to editor nikki eckstein about when and where to travel in 2018. nikki: we always look at the kind of entire year ahead, hotels we are excited about, cultural events we can't wait to get to, museums, institutions about to open and change the landscapes of the destinations.

we are looking for places that are sort of in evolution. places where it will be right here, right now. julia: but i love the fact you make a calendar and say this is the best time to go to these places. that's one of the critical choices, where to go where. nikki: 100%, so we know everybody has limited vacation days and we want to optimize all your time at home and we want to help you do that. if you look at the story in print or online, we have pulled data from travel specialist who are experts in each of the destinations we have chosen. they have given us a sense of when is the peak season, the shoulder season is what we call it in our industry. times that are not as crowded and when the value is good, the right time to be here and prices from google. julia: talk mexico. nikki: so cabo san lucas, everybody thinks of it as a kind of party spring break destination.

if you've been, you know it is also the lap of luxury. it's one of my favorite places on earth. why 2018? $1 billion of new hotel rooms. carol: there's that much demand? nikki: there's that much demand. this is the year when st. barts is off-line. people are worried about zika in latin america so, is , benefiting by not being in the eye of those storms. but it really has the perfect world scenario where these beautiful new properties, a ritz-carlton resort is opening later this year. any brands you can imagine, four seasons, they are all going to be there in 2018. julia: a little differently to the high end luxury. jumping on the moon. nikki: incredible, right? there are these bubble domes in the middle of the desert in jordan. maybe you have never heard of

that place. it literally looks like the moon and these bubbles have formed eco-camps. the eco-camps are made up of bubbles, where there are clear ceilings. you can look up at the sky after hiking and see stars from your bed, wake up in the morning, get on a camel, explore the desert. it's really quite magical. julia: this is a 400 mile expedition. it's quite the destination. nikki: this is absolutely correct. there is a 400 mile trail. think of it as the appalachian trail of the middle east. you can break it apart by sections or do the whole thing if you want to. julia: if you are thinking of going on a holiday to europe, perhaps not georgia would be the top of your list and yet you've chosen this. talk us through it. nikki: the republic of georgia, it's definitely not on everybody's list, but this year it should be. if you think of berlin, germany, maybe mid-2000's, people were just starting to catch on to the

edgy cool nightlife vibes. that is what is happening in the capital of georgia right now and there are some really young up-and-coming hotels that are doing really cool things. carol: great list, so much information. go online, get the magazine. nikki, thank you so much. bloomberg is available on newsstands now. julia: and online and our mobile map. carol, i know what star you are going to pick. carol: the cover story about peter wallman. peter continues to investigate the dark places in the united states. in this case, he is looking at the meatpacking industry and the cleanup workers that work the third shift. julia: a lot of them are undocumented immigrants. they are getting injured and they don't have the incentive to whistle blow and talk about the conditions they are working in. there are also a lot of risk shifting in the big companies and the sanitation companies. a lot of aspects to this, never more critical given we have congress deciding how to tackle immigration reform going

forward. carol: right, a very important part of our workforce. julia: more bloomberg television is up next. ♪ retail.

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♪ >> president trump declares he is open to talks with north korea, saying tuesday's planned meeting with the south may be great for humanity. president's allies flood u.s. airways defending him against claims he is not mentally fit for office. markets and the president fed aa disappointing u.s. jobs report. australia's slump in mining investment is bottoming out.