carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. julia: and i'm julia chatterly, and we're inside the magazine's headquarters in new york. carol: in this week's issue, what happened to america's most iconic company, ge? julia: the dangerous -- in the caribbean. carol: and taylor swift takes on the scalpers. julia: all that and more on "businessweek." ♪ carol: we are here with the editor-in-chief of bloomberg businessweek, joel weber, talking about the olympics getting underway. this story looks at the unification front between north

and south korea because of the games. >> north korea is making the most of this little opportunity. if there were an olympic medal for freestyle propaganda, they are getting it. julia: what are the south koreans getting out of this? they will march their sports stars under a unified flag with the north. that is a big statement. >> that is what this story is about. why would you be willing to do this? that was the question we posed because we think this is going to be short-lived. the games are going to happen and we will be right back to a different mood. carol: you have to think about it too, because it is a great sports story. everyone likes to watch the olympic games, but it is also a financial story. south korea has paid billions in getting ready for these games.

>> how do we make this a business story? there was a lot of business opportunity in this, and they are willing to put it all on the line with this decision. carol: it is kind of shocking, though. go back a month. thinking about the conversations going back and forth. >> a completely different tone. it came as a surprise to a lot of people and shows how strategic the north koreans are being in putting a little wedge between the americans and south koreans. julia: but there is also strategy here for the south koreans. the north koreans have managed to damage big events in south korea, we can go back to 1988 and 2002. ticket sales have risen as a result of this and he would surely rather have some level of unity rather than the fear the north koreans could disrupt it. >> absolutely. we will wait to see what happens. julia: right, they still could. carol: i also wonder about the

north korean leader and if he is playing around with washington here. >> i think that is absolutely true. he has the olympics on his doorstep and is using that as a moment to get what he wants, which is more publicity. julia: and he really is. it is still expensive for the president. an incredibly popular president in south korea and he is seeing his popularity in the polls heavily damaged by this. 90% to 60%? >> which shows the uncertainty around it from at home. i think it is a fascinating story. it is why we put it in the issue right now because it is the most important thing people should be talking about. maybe other than the games. carol: going back to the financial story, we have seen north korea in the past, the 1998 olympic games in seoul and the shooting down of a plane and the athletes were killed.

south korea knows what north korea can do. joel: we can hope nothing happens, but they are doing this under a unified flag and that is something to watch. julia: from a global perspective, you mentioned the united states, but the chinese are saying don't react to anything here, so it is a global problem. joel: many more geopolitical players involved. julia: from a global challenge to a globally challenged company, and that is ge. our cover story this week. joel: it really encapsulates what ge stands for right now. this was a bastion of american corporate earnings and through a lot of euros in, that confidence

has disappeared. if you look at the dow over the past year, it is the bottom. that was hard to believe not that long ago. we really got into the culture of the management as being part of what is at stake here. this is a management factory that people came out of here left and right and lead other amazing american companies and yet, that is sort of at risk because what will ge become? carol: this is what the story digs into. there are so many details, so much about the history. we got more about what is to come from this 126-year-old company. >> if you look at this handful of inventions that changed life for people in the 20th century, the vast majority were invented or commercialized at ge, whether the lightbulb, the jet engine, it was a company making television shows and movies.

it has been in honestly important and innovative. but over the past few years, and especially the last year, the company seems to have been on the verge of falling apart and what i was trying to do was figure out what happened. carol: you say over the last year, and it does feel everything has started to come apart in the last year, but it has not necessarily been 12 months in the making. take us back. drake: the thing i think people are always really impressed by with ge is it was an old-fashioned manufacturing company that managed to outlive the golden era of manufacturing, partly by jack welch ruthlessly making it more efficient and adaptable, but also moved it heavily into financial services. after welch stepped down with the financial crisis, it became

especially clear that was not a sustainable strategy. carol: how did we go from this company that has been around for 100 26 years that was so revered, we respected their leaders, they were examples of everything going on in the economy, to a company we are thinking, do we break it up? that is a big turn. drake: part of the reason it is so dramatic is ge was a company associated with things like the light bulb or the refrigerator, but the product that may be was most iconic was its managers. it was the famed factory for producing these elite, killer managers. in a way, that may have insulated the company a little from a certain kind of scrutiny and allowed it to not be as transparent as other companies. now, i think some of that is coming home to roost. julia: turning ge's troubles into a cover image was the job of the art director.

chris: we had this idea that ge is the great american garage and this iconic company that people think of from the lightbulb to the jet engine, is kind of an illusion. julia: life-changing, things they developed or were part of distributing. joel was very excited about the title and you say the great ge mirage, but you have used a pretty great image in order to detect that. chris: we didn't want to use the lightbulb because it is overused, but we thought the refrigerator represented this american monolith. carol: and for such a long time, going back to its beginnings. julia: one of the other big things is the circling vultures around the fridge. i thought was pretty smart. chris: a nice foreshadowing of the darker side of the story.

carol: next, the memo that pits republicans against republicans and democrats and has washington on edge. julia: and growing crisis from trump's crackdown on illegal immigrants. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm julia massar. julia: i'm julia chatterley. you can find us. carol: the fbi fight over the release of a memo that by the head of the house intelligence committee. it is a complicated story and we got more from editor matthew philips. matthew: this is a memo put together by republican staffers on the house intelligence committee that worked for devin

nunes, a republican from california and a longtime trump supporter. it contains classified information that looks at ways in which the fbi sock approval for a surveillance warrant of a trump associate, carter page, a well-known figure in this back-and-forth of the russian investigation. the white house thinks that by releasing this memo, it will provide evidence that the fbi acted politically, improperly, in getting the wires tapped of a trump associate. our story starts aboard air force one on the way to davos and the president gets furious when staffers tell him about the latest wrinkle in the pressure investigation, which is that stephen boyd, a name we have not heard before, the associate attorney general, comes out and

says it would be extremely reckless to release this memo, in a letter to devin nunes. trump gets angry about this and to him, it is further evidence the department of justice is trying to undermine his and gop efforts to look at the rationale for the russia probe. what ensued was a back-and-forth between white house officials and doj staffers. in the end, it didn't matter because nunes and his colleagues on the house intelligence committee voted on party lines to release this. certain republicans say it will provide evidence that the fbi acted improperly, democrats say it is simply a partisan show and the republicans are playing this dangerous game in releasing this classified information. julia: to what extent has the white house contributed, we think, to the production of this memo or the contents?

matthew: that is a super important question and one that is being asked. we don't really have a clear answer to that. remember, devin nunes was someone who came to light early on in the russia investigation in the spring of 2017 when he reportedly went to the white house in a late-night visit and shared with them some information that his intelligence committee had uncovered in its investigation of the white house in the russia probe. there is a relationship there. asked specifically if the white house had assisted nunes and his staff in producing this memo, press secretary sarah sanders said she did not know, she could not answer that question but if there was any sort of cooperation there, that would raise all kinds of big questions about why the white house, which itself is kind of under

investigation, why they are helping the investigator. carol: staying with politics, president trump's crackdown on illegal immigrants is creating a cloud of uncertainty over some sanctuary cities. >> in 2018, we have diverging sanctuary laws in the united states and two of the country's biggest states, texas and california, two varying rules. in california, the governor has declared california a sanctuary state, meaning any law-enforcement agency that enforces most immigration directives, including detaining undocumented immigrants charged for a crime, art in violation of the law and the attorney general has promised to prosecute anyone who complies, whereas in texas, a the governor has done the opposite and banned the

enforcement of sanctuary rules. their county sheriffs will be jailed if they don't comply with these detainer requests. we have created an environment between these two states where immigration rules are being enforced in varying directions that creates conflict with the way law enforcement are able to do their job. it creates inconsistencies, affect the social climate, the economy and the political divergence that is further polarizing on the basis of immigration. julia: to me, this was fascinating. america is clearly a big country and the state's individual within it, but you have described a patchwork of local rules. what does the federal law say here. you point out you have to go back five years or so to a supreme court decision to even get a sense of that.

just explain. kartikay: so the federal law states that detainer requests -- requests to turn over undocumented immigrants must be complied with. enforcement of that is sort of the question, as are states rights. there was, indeed, a supreme court order in 2014 related to the state of arizona that sort of allow them to enforce their own rules, but it created -- this is what opened the door to states passing their own laws, and now effectively, law enforcement officials that were earlier declining to comply with these detainer requests because they didn't want to create an environment where undocumented immigrants lived in fear in their own communities, now have to.

so they are having to straddle this political fence between what they believe is best for their communities versus what the federal government and state is requiring. carol: that is a good point because you writing your story how this confusion and fear by immigrants is having a chilling affecting communities. you talk about that specifically in texas where women aren't reporting rapes, maybe aren't taking their kids in for vaccinations. it is already impacting immunities. kartikay: that's right. the mayor of austin said exactly that. while he doesn't think the california solution is necessarily the way to go, a little too far left for his taste, in texas, there is a culture of fear and many analysts call it psychological terrorism where you are creating an environment where people don't want to stick their neck out in society. julia: next, the radical rethink being considered at the federal reserve. carol: and the uber of the middle east has its own radical

rethink of the role of women. julia: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm julia chatterley. carol: i'm carol massar. you can listen to us on radio on sirius xm channel 119, and on am 1130 in new york, 106.1 in boston, 99.1 fm in washington, d.c. and am 960 in the bay area. julia: in london on dab mux 3 and in asia on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the economic section, the federal reserve may be considering new policy options as jerome powell succeeds janet yellen as fed chair. carol: more on this story with editor cristina lindblad. cristina: we have new leadership to consider the framework the

fed uses to guide interest rates and since january 2012, 2% inflation has been the target. which would barely ever hit. so that has started this debate, which has been gathering steam and in january, the brookings institution held a panel questioning the 2% target. they found a lot of former fed chairmen and economists to talk about that. the time seems right to kick this debate into the open. carol: the concern is -- because the fed can't seem to -- the economy can't seem to hit the 2% mark. the fed is being very slow in terms of raising rates. the concern is when we go into an economic downturn, they won't have the ammunition to juice the economy. there is not much lower they can go. cristina: there is still a historic low level even though he have the cycle of tightening. that is a concern.

we evaluated four different ideas out there. it is interesting because several of the regional fed presidents are backing some of these different options, some former fed presidents have also lined up behind some of these different ideas. the most basic and easy to understand is, let's pick a new inflation target, a higher one. by telling the public what the target is, the idea is it is almost manifest destiny. it sends out a price signal to the markets, companies feel more room to price their products higher. we will psychologically engineered this. carol: managing inflation expectation. julia: the first country that comes to mind is japan. you can say you have a new inflation target, but if inflation doesn't get there come you have a credibility problem.

cristina: its true, there were time in the last years where if you look at inflation, it was flatlining. but we are creeping closer, so the possibility of hitting 2% is not as outlandish as it would have been a year ago. maybe the time is right to say, maybe let's move it higher, people will understand. but every time you move the goalposts, there is a credibility issue for the central bank. this is a debate that will take a long time to come to fruition because you don't do this lightly. carol: now to a different sort of policy change in the technology section. kareem, the uber of the middle east and it has built much of its business on transporting women who aren't allowed to drive. julia: now the company is rethinking its business as the laws is in saudi arabia, which could one day mean female drivers. jack: it is the leading

ride-hailing service in about a dozen countries from north africa to pakistan. julia: how long has it been around? jack: going on six years now. just under six, it operates in about 80 cities in a dozen or so countries. it is valued as $1.2 billion on the strength of a 500 million dollar cash infusion from kingdom holding co., one of the big players in saudi arabia. carol: the company's's ceo, and you put this in the story, one of its goals is to "provide a safe, worry free ride for women, especially in saudi arabia." jeff: they built that valuation in large part on supplying a cheaper and in many cases, relatively safer alternative to scant public transportation options or a sea of

unrecognizable cap companies in places where there isn't a ton of other options available to people who can't or don't drive. carol: women particularly in the middle east. they are not allowed to drive and in terms of getting around, there are rules and restrictions. julia: for now. jeff: in the case of saudi arabia, which you point out is careem's most important market, the country is preparing in june to issue its first driver's licenses to women in order to raise the employment in the country. julia: does this mean there will be less passengers, and the other thing that hit me here is what about potential drivers for careem's cars. jeff: as our reporter started reporting the story, it was pretty unclear whether the loosened restrictions on female drivers in saudi arabia would

extend to professional driving, chauffeurs, but now it seems that is the intent. that careem and lesser player in this market uber are rapidly trying to train thousands of women to drive their cars to be ready when the first licenses go out in june. carol: pakistan, a lot of their drivers are actually women. jeff: pakistan, i would say, is near the number two most market for careem right now. they have been using women as drivers there for about a year, egypt and jordan another example. julia: next, the most dangerous stretch of water in the western hemisphere. carol: and taylor swift's plan to capture all the money from her upcoming tour. julia: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

julia: i'm julia chatterley. carol: i'm carol massar. steve makes a comeback on wall street. at pirates of the caribbean. julia: all that still to come on bloomberg businessweek. ♪ julia: we are back with editor in chief joe weber and we're talking in the features section about emily chang's new book. it looks at the culture in

silicon valley and white so few women work there. it wasn't all the case. >> there were a couple details from this chapter that we accepted that i was excited -- excerpted that i was excited about. the original jpeg was a "playboy" centerfold. that sets a tone. that was the opening anecdote that emily so gracefully starts the story with. carol: the original sin. >> how can you talk to a woman when you have that? the glorification of that sets an interesting tone. the other thing i didn't know was how many women were once in this field. julia: making advancements in the field, as well. >> the date she also talks about is 1984, which happens to be the most iconic super bowl commercial of all time, which shows a woman with a sledgehammer breaking the

monotony of the idea of the world. that happened to be an 84, the highest percentage of women ever receiving science degrees. and it has been downhill ever since, which is a crazy irony. you think about these things together and that sets are really interesting conversation that emily's book is about. julia: is that about the culture? if you look at finance, that drew people from both sectors because it was a money generating is this. why does silicon valley turn women off? >> part of it is how the table was set. i think there is a cultural challenge that the community has and it is wrestling with it and we see that at google now. julia: it was something there were looking for, wasn't it? >> and that's part of the story. carol: who knew these two psychologists who did this research, mostly men and

determining who would be the best programmers? >> and they totally skewed who they were looking for based off that. not a great way to come to a conclusion. the whole game was rigged. julia: there was something flattering about that somewhere around the line. carol: there are prominent women who have been successful and still are within silicon valley. sheryl sandberg. >> absolutely. especially with lean in and me too, we need more women like that. in positions of management and we need to, and emily explores this, we need to celebrate that and make sure they are able to advance. julia: you mentioned two very well-known women in silicon valley. what about them?

how they seen as something different? >> especially then, they were externally proactive in sort of challenging the convention. they get a lot of credit for that, but google still remains a very sensitive one as some recent news has a brought to light. it's not like you could ever not keep advancing. that's part of the narrative. carol: it's pretty amazing since women were the first computer programmers to see where the industry has gone and a think of silicon valley as being innovative and for thinking, but you look at the statistics and it's not that way at all in terms of women. >> and we are so tickled to have emily here and also in the magazine because just to talk about this issue, you can't talk about it enough. carol: there will be lots of conversations about this book. also lots of conversations office other feature, at 10 mile stretch between venezuela and

also the island of trinidad. >> which is basically the most lawless market in the world. it's so lawless some interesting things have happened. venezuela is falling apart. trinidad is wrote of a stable. there are stories about the interesting trade that happens when the two coasts. there's a coast guard station, but no boats. it's a free-for-all. the things that are most needed there are things like diapers. julia: a bar of gold. >> diapers are basically gold there, which is horrifying and a sad when you think about that. we wanted to explore what that look like on the ground. that was an extremely dangerous assignment and why it's absolutely worth a read. it feels like a frontline. julia: one of the things i love is that we take fresh angles on well-known storylines like and venezuela. here is dan for error with that

story. dan: the point is that venezuela is in chaos and venezuelans have always had a lot of commerce, the nature has changed a great deal. the thing to think about is that venezuela's fishermen no longer fish because they don't have customers. they don't have industry back on. the have a bunch of people that are unemployed that have boats and a need to feed their families. fishermen are becoming smugglers and smugglers attract pirates, innocent people attack pirates. so there is a madness and chaos and lack of law on this stretch of water. carol: an amazing trade going back and forth. tell us about the reporter he sent down there because it was a risky situation that this reporter was going into. dan: jonathan franklin is an american who lived in chile for

several years and he wanted to go to venezuela and, everybody was aware of what was happening in the larger cities. jonathan wanted to go to the coast into the coastal villages and see the fishing parts of northeastern venezuela. and see what was going on there. we just determined as time went by that it wasn't safe. he moved his locale a mere 10 miles across the water and saw the same situation from the other side, and many of the people he spoke with interest were venezuelans. if you have a fast boat, you can get across that 10 miles rapidly. julia: reporters have been detained for illegal reporting. >> he had been detained on a couple of instances and the photographer on this piece, whose work is really lovely, had been recently detained and eaten

in caracas in a street demonstration. the risks are high. carol: we are loving this story. there's a line that talks about an arbitrage of foods, diapers, weapons, and peoples. there is a trade going back-and-forth. dan: constantly. what venezuelans have to offer is gasoline is a very big thing because it is still supported by the state and it's very inexpensive and people bring gasoline in volumes from a couple of gallons to 250 barrels. they execute sales at sea, one boat will offload guest: to another. that's a big one. they mention of exotic animals are a trade. drugs, guns, what they take back in other directions are things you can no longer reliably get in venezuela, prominently diapers. julia: you can get three times

the value in venezuela that they would be bought for in trinidad. bars of gold. dan: toothpaste. supermarkets are empty. the boulevard is worthless. things that hold value our necessities. carol: it really talks to the plight of what's going on in venezuela. the demand for basic necessities and as a result, you have this arbitrage of desperate and profit minded and is will we are seeing go back and forth. dan: there are desperate on both sides, primarily in venezuelans. definitely robin minded people on both sides. there's a lengthy package -- passage with a smuggler who says business is great. carol: goes by chivo. dan: primarily english-speaking. he knows venezuela, it's 10 miles away, likes the country now.

has to perceive it as a business opportunity and he says in the end, the place has gone contraband and that's good for him. carol: up next, steve cohen finds new investors in the second act. julia: why manhattan's wealthiest are having trouble selling some of new york's nicest homes. carol: this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

♪ julia: i'm julia charlie. carol: i'm carol massar. you can also find us online at is as week.com. julia: steve was banned from managing other people's money. carol: but that's over now and we talked to kathy burton about new investors. >> they are operating out of the same space they are always operating from, which is

a building in stamford, connecticut, close to long island sound. i have seen jeff koons pieces in there. i've been there over the years. i been there a bunch of times. this huge trading floor, that's really cold. keep everyone awake. so that's all the same, but the people are different. carol: steve cohen, we talk like everyone knows who he is. billionaire art collector, well-known runner of a hedge fund who got into trouble. kathy: exactly, and a lot of trouble. the government spent almost a decade trying to get him for insider trading, and they pretty much failed. his firm did plead guilty to insider trading, but he did not. they paid a record fine of $1.8 billion.

there were six people who either pled guilty or were convicted of insider trading at the firm. but he only got banned for two years and the government had initially wanted to ban him for life. carol: he had to give his client money back. kathy: right, and nothing can go. julia: regulators never thought this moment would come. kathy: they thought they would be able to ban him forever. julia: it's exactly the same as it was. talk about what's a different because one of the most at sending things we talked about was the amount of compliance and oversight in the environment he's created. kathy: it's a different place. they have a 50 member team, twice as many as the past. and in the past, they never actually dinged anyone for compliance. but now they have a 50 member

team that sits on the trading floor and they -- carol: they are on the trading floor. they are there with him. kathy: they monitor email traffic, phone conversations in real-time. carol: was that his choice or did he have to do that? kathy: i think they did that as a way of showing the government there were serious about changing. carol: speaking of the lives of the rich and the richest, white big mansions aren't selling in manhattan. julia: here is our reporter. >> you have to decide what the market is and it really, it's of the above $10 million. below that, for mere mortals, who have large families or just want to live in a penthouse like many of us do, sub $10 million is really accessible for a lot of new york nationals.

lawyers, doctors. definitely not journalists. [laughter] carol: really successful journalists. write a book that gets turned into a movie. >> fair enough. but below $2 million is within the realm of stability for a lot of people. once you get above $10 million, $15 million, you have to be truly wealthy to afford these things. carol: the single homes that are six floors. >> even more actually, oftentimes seven with a subbasement. these are huge. they are oftentimes more than 10,000 square feet. you have to want that. ultimately, a lot of people don't and this is a real problem for the market. julia: to what extent is it about demand is changing and people don't want these big houses or perhaps a department

-- an apartment with a can entertain more -- where they can entertain more easily? >> a lot of the people who are selling these do not need to sell them. if you can live in one already, you are not desperate to unload. you have certain perceptions as to the worth of this house and you look around and say, these new glassy condominiums are nothing close to the original details. it should absolutely be worth more. and that's a that aspirational pricing that comes in. the other part of it is that people have fewer children than they used to and also, dealing with the mansion is dealing then with a condo or a co-op. carol: maintenance is your responsibility. james: not just maintenance. receiving packages, some of has to be there constantly. for a lot of people who are that wealthy, not new york nationals,

these are people who have three or four houses and they want to arrive in their apartment or their home or wherever it may be and have everything waiting for them. julia: it's not a financial thing. it's the upkeep of the house. some have several of these houses and you want to treat it like a hotel. james: and then there's the final part of it which is totally intuitive but a release -- a real stumbling block, or some people don't like their home spread over several floors. all of these things have conspired to really make the manhattan super luxury townhouse market fit. julia: taylor swift risks her reputation to get millions of dollars act. carol: and -- makers get inspired by the bourbon industry. julia: this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

♪

carol: i'm carol massar. julia: i'm julia chatterley and you can listen to us on the radio. you can also listen to us in new york, boston, washington, d.c., and in the bay area. carol: and in london and asia on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the business section, taylor swift is changing the way tickets are sold and scalpers are not happy. >> for her upcoming gravitation to her, the same name as her most recent album, taylor swift and ticketmaster have come up with a plan to try to ensure that they keep all of the money pretty much from the ticket sales. the last time taylor swift went on to work for 1989, she thinks she lost maybe $85 million to scalpers based on rough estimates of how much tickets

usually go to scalpers and how much average ticket prices was. this time, if you are a big fan, you sign up for a program, which is part of an initiative taylor swift has. you bought an album and watched newsletters and for each one of those interactions, you have a boost that lets you take part in a presale, we can get tickets for a little bit less than you might normally. you have to prove you are a real fan. if you are part of the regular, not a huge taylor swift fan, the prices for the general sale is much higher than your normal ticket price. most of them are several hundred dollars, especially if you want to be close to the stage. the idea is the super fans get good tickets for not that much and everybody else has to pay a fortune. that will stop scalpers from

buying up these tickets really early on. >> how is it working? lucas: so far, it depends on who you ask. some think it's a disaster, others think it's a success. it's hard to gauge because the behavior is different. normally, when a big concert goes on sale, it sells out in five minutes. a lot of people probably can empathize with knowing that the tickets can be on sale at 10:00, they do the everything right and still don't get tickets. this has been pretty much the opposite. none of her shows are sold out. you can get tickets right now, whether glendale arizona, new jersey, as edina, you can probably get floor seats, but you have to pay a lot for them. ticketmaster says it will sell out and it will be a long process and people have to get used to it because it's new. it's hard to gauge if you're a journalist or fan.

julia: you can argue both ways. the reason is so that before was you have the odd rhythms and the bots that scoop out all the tickets that allow them to resell later. we'll be are saying is that those guys have been priced out, so it's ordinary individuals that have to buy tickets, even if it's at an astronomical price. lucas: that's what ticketmaster would like us to believe. there are still tickets available for resale. it's hard for me to know how many are by scalpers who are just convinced that even if a bottom at a higher price, -- bought them at a higher price, they would want them even more. and then if they decide i don't want to go. that's the argument they are making that it will stop scalping. it's been one of the big problems in the music business for years. scalping has been going on for decades, but especially since tickets went online. there has been a huge problem with people buying a lot of the

tickets and profiting off the backs of artists and concert promoters. julia: in the pursuits section, demands for tequila and the very best tequila heavy industry involving to keep up. carol: here is editor chris rovzar. chris: the big companies are like shoot, we have to speed up production, but you can't. the agave plants and the heart of the agave takes 12 years to return. the brands that hone the bigger companies, they have been finding other ways to speed it up so they use pressure cooker's to cook the agape, they use science to speed up the way they grow, and as a result -- carol: not as good? chris: they produce agave flavoring.

carol: you talk about aged tequila and a new marketplace for this or away for tequila makers to go after a new segment of the market. what is aged tequila without technology? chris: it's aged either in metal casks or barrels. it's a way for them to make more money on the product as the quality is declined. that's fine. a lot of people are doing shots of tequila, but if you want to sit there and have something special, it takes a lot of work and aging tequila is not like bourbon or other kinds of whiskey. when you aged whiskey, you want it to take on the flavor of the arrow it's in. tequila, you wanted to take -- taste like tequila. it's a precision game and hard to get right. julia: favorite tequila? chris: tequila excellencia.

i didn't know it was a thing so what it was a thing -- julia: what's of the george clooney one? chris: casamigos. patron makes an aged tequila. julia: favorite story this week? carol: that's the story about the pirates between the stretch of land between venezuela and trinidad. it's like an arbitrage of diapers, weapons, between desperate people and people looking to make a profit. julia: this used to be a vibrant fishing village. now it's become a haven for pirates. it's a destabilizing mix and a different angle on an important story in venezuela.

carol: our reporter took risks to tell the story. julia: more bloomberg television up next.

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