carol: i'm carol massar. taylor: i'm taylor riggs. carol: bitcoin, we have talked a lot about it. there is a story about how to regulate it. taylor: facebook and the online scamming business. carol: why pay equality is still out of reach. all of that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." carol: we're here with the editor-in-chief of bloomberg businessweek joe weber. we start in the finance section. cryptocurrencies have captured our imagination this year.

but you guys take a story and say maybe it is not the new thing out there. we have been here before. >> i love ancient history. i think this is a fascinating story. crypto and bitcoin really caught the public's imagination at the end of 2017. it stayed there at the beginning of 2018. then sort of maybe gravity took hold. it is a big dvd of where this space goes. peter coy, who wrote the story, did a really interesting job of stepping back and trying to put everything in context and make sense of it. one of the things i am proud of is is this -- that is implied is it going to be something else? currencies have been around forever. we used to trade beads, beaver

pelts, stone points, we have a long cultural history of what currencies mean. now we are looking at bitcoin, there has been recent statements from people on the fed who still don't understand it. >> which is scary in some ways. we don't have government officials and regulators. through this historical journey, we talk about ancient syria, we talk about babysitting and washington, d.c., literal oranges and figurative lemons when it comes to cars. give some sense of how this fits together. joel: what peter is able to look around at these various things that have been considered versions of money or collateral. at some point, with all of those cases, he goes over the past 100 years. looking at a case in florida where people were buying land but then having the orange grove service by someone.

or the script case in the 1970's and 1980's, where people with babysitters were able to afford -- to board scripts. >> lawyers from washington, and people were exchanging fake money for babysitting service. >> it ended with regulation. the ultimate thing here right now is this base is not really regulated. a lot of investors have been hurt by that. and i think in general, there will become a moment in time where somebody says this is not how financial markets are. carol: you need to weed out the bad actors. right? you have confidence in this currency and regulations will get rid of the bad guys. >> the orange groves peter talked about, that was pre-1940. that was like 1938 and florida. then the security exchange people came along and said we now have an agency that looks out for people and we are going to regulate this where before

there wasn't. it was the wild west. >> when we think about bad we think about -- bad actors, we think about fox chronicler of bad actors around the globe. he ended up as the digital davos, and found a lot of amazing things about facebook. joe: not only is it the digital davos, it was called stacked up money, to give you a sense of what the space was like. fox is an amazing bloomberg reporter. he specializes in what i think of as the underbelly story. and he really gets into spaces of culture that no one else bothers to look. >> especially as it relates to money. joel: there's always this financial twist or business twist. carol: this has a facebook twist. joel: it is especially relevant because of the facebook twist. that conference is a digital affiliate.

say you make a pill, you want to call it elon musk brain boosting pill. now you want to sell that pill. maybe it doesn't do what it says, but you can sell it for $100. and the power of facebook is you can sell that and promote it via facebook. that's what took zeke to this conference. carol: it is a great story. we talked to robert friedman about it. robert: he was in his early 30's at the time. he had made a significant fortune, he was ranked 57th richest in poland. by forbes magazine. based on the money he made in affiliate marketing. he speaks english fluently. he has a face on the cover of polish business magazine. painted gold.

he is an interesting character. his claim to fame was he started out as an affiliate marketer. then he developed a software program to enable other affiliate marketers to track their advertising. and so forth. it also did something else. it enabled them to cloak their ads. they knew facebook has a policy against these kinds of things. so they wanted to hide the ads from facebook reviewers. and they did it so they created a program it enables you when a facebook reviewer clicks on the ad, you get a perfectly innocuous looking landing page. when an ordinary person clicks on the ad, there is elon musk face staring at them saying i endorse this product. carol: affiliate marketing. they are middlemen. robert: they are middlemen, a

legitimate business. they are people who buy clicks and views from facebook and sell them to people who are marketing various products. it could be amazon, uber, a lot of people use it. perfectly legal. but the scammers realize that they can make money, too. facebook was looking the other way for many years. >> tie this in with other things that are in the news around facebook, most notably the election-meddling. robert: so, facebook built this incredibly powerful algorithm which targets it's 2.2 billion users in very sophisticated ways. and finds people for you. actually the scammers came first. they were able to use the facebook algorithm and find the suckers who would buy these things.

normally when you are an advertiser, you would buy a page in the newspaper or time on television, but it is going to people who are not going to respond to your product. facebook helps you find the suckers. carol: it is really targeted. robert: yeah, it's targeted. he gets better with each click. they know this is being appealing to women over 65, or people in iowa, whatever it is. then they start targeting. it takes all of the hard work that marketers in used to have to do in finding their marketing audience. so in the same way scammers did this, russians figured out they could use the same targeting algorithm to find people they wanted to target. and it's a very similar process. using something that was built for good purposes to evil ends. carol: size and scope is important to me. give me an idea of how this much -- how much of this is going through facebook and how active facebook is. robert: google shut down the

software, they refused to let anybody on their platform who used it. facebook did not do that. he says something like $400 million of advertising a year of people using the platform go on to facebook. that's a pretty significant amount of money. and facebook for many years was turning the other way because it was a good source of revenue for them. and they have certain standards and policies you are not supposed to do and if they catch you, they will kick you off. the scammers are so good they have multiple facebook accounts. so if you close one down, five more well pop up. carol: facebook is not good at keeping up. have they gotten more aggressive with it? robert: about a year ago, they realized they had a problem. they hired another guy named robert letterman, a south african entrepreneur in this business.

they brought him in to try to clean it up. he has taken pretty aggressive steps. they claim they are beginning to use artificial intelligence. they fired some people at facebook who were getting too close to the shady marketers. but the ads are still appearing. it's a cat and mouse game. they are taking it more seriously. they hired more people. they are beginning to crack down i think they have a long ways to go. what would you do if you found yourself on russia's kill list? carol: how wanted as turned desperate in germany. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," and i'm carol massar.

tracy: i'm taylor riggs. you can find us at businessweek.com. carol: or on our mobile app. in the politics section, some alarming reporting out of bloomberg's moscow bureau. tracy: the deadly spy game is claiming more victims. carol: we have more. >> since the nerve agent attack on the former russian double agent that happened at the beginning of march in england, is that the u.k. government has decided to review 14 cases of suspicious deaths which have been accused in the past of not investigating properly. >> and what was it about this particular case that has spurred what feels like a much more ferocious response and deeper examination as you'd described? >> the accusation has been that the british government has not cracked down on this bout of fear of putting at risk the large flow of russian money going to the united kingdom. carol: tell us about some of the

individuals, the russian exiles, living in the u.k. in fear. you mentioned one individual who got a telephone call on his 50 next birthday. what happened? >> this is a guy who used to work for the kgb. he rose to the rank of major. he was in latvia. for he started to work independent latvia in 1991 but was still feeding his handlers in moscow some information. then he started working for the cia. he got into trouble and ended up leaving, fleeing to the united kingdom in 1998. but this guy has been in the u.k. ever since. he has twice suffered what he describes as attacks on him, which happened when he was in new zealand. he's had eight death threats. and the latest one came on his birthday, february 12, three

weeks before the attack in in salisbury. he received a phone call from an old colleague of his who is still working for the russian secret service. warning him his life was at risk and seven other people. >> does this show any signs of slowing down? and what's the next step? >> the sense i got from the russian exile i was speaking to is that expulsions are welcome and a seen as forceful action by britain and its allies, that is actually not going to be enough. if you really want to stop this type of behavior, you have to crack down on the money flows. and the money flows, you are talking about billionaires who are close to putin. you are talking about russian officials who are moving funds through london. london was described to us by a labour member of the upper house of parliament as the capital of

money laundering. and that's ultimately going to be the test that theresa may, whether she cracks down on it. carol: we are also worried about the same kind of assassinations happening in the u.s. some lawmakers in the senate have been concerned about this. >> there was a case of a former putin aide, a couple of years ago he died in very mysterious circumstances in washington, d.c. he had marks to his head. the police said he looked as though he had been drinking heavily in the previous days and had injured himself. a lot of people don't believe that. one of the hallmarks of assassinations carried out by the russian security service is their ability to disguise a homicide as something that turns out as an accident or suicide.

there are cases which came up. some of the 14. for example, five people who all knew each other committed suicide, who were all involved in the same business deal. carol: moving over to europe, and our economics session. germany is seeing their unemployment rate dropped and job openings rise. carol: they are competing for workers. that has companies offering a smorgasbord of perks. here is reporter david rock. david: companies are having a hard time finding workers. unemployment is down to record lows. they are giving people all kinds of great stuff to sign up. we found a kid who got a free trip to new york, a promise of a free trip to new york after a year and he got it. he went. sausage platters, free housing, all kinds of stuff. carol: wait a minute, wait a minute. you have to stop there. a sausage platter? when i read that, that is considered a perk?

david: sausage is good here. carol: fair enough. >> one of the interesting things is a lot of this is nonmonetary. this isn't really playing through as much as straight up wage growth, as more kind of quality of life. is that cultural? is that of the moment? why is that? david: i think it's more of the moment. there are a lot of reasons germany doesn't want to see wage go up too fast. this country is a very successful, prosperous place. they are concerned about growing competition from china, especially in their core industry. the company's that really are the heart of the german economy. china is figuring out how to do a lot of the stuff this country has been so good at for so long.

carol: but david, i think jason rings up a good point. in your story, you talk about the role of labor unions, especially who are giving up wage increases because of the quality of life they are demanding at this point. david: that's clearly another factor. no doubt about it. in the most recent negotiation, the biggest union backed off of demands for 6%. they said we will take a more modest wage increase in exchange for the right to work a few more -- fewer hours if we want. so people are thinking about how do i make my life more pleasant, not just how do i get more money? carol: what i like about these -- this story david, we keep doing different stories in the united states, the labor pool is tight. we are not necessarily seeing wages go up, but countries, cities, companies are scrambling to get workers.

david: exactly. and the danger for germany is that in eastern europe, most of the people coming in, wages are going up. the czech republic is seeing dramatic wage increases and labor shortages. and so, it used to be people would come and move west from these places. when they start saying home, then germany has a problem. carol: up next, how volkswagen is preparing for a global trade war. tracy: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

taylor: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm taylor rigg. carol: and i'm carol massar. you can listen to us on radio, on sirius xm.

91 fm in washington, d.c., a m 960 in the bay area. taylor: and in london on dba and the bloomberg radio plus app. this week's cover story on volkswagen's come back after the diesel emissions scandal. carol: matt miller had an exclusive interview with the chief financial officer. they began by talking about tariffs. >> at the end of the day, we support and clearly ask for free trade. that to be an important requisite. it is also a major part of the success of all relevant hearties. and we take it very serious and hope that as the negotiating table equitable solutions will be found. matt: one of the things on tap since donald trump started banging the drum is you have announced a bigger investment in your facility. do you plan on building more cars in the u.s. in the future?

>> i think for the moment we have a bit of capacity. down the road we see it like a fixation of all portfolios. we consider very strongly in building electric vehicles in the united states, possibly chattanooga. but those decisions are still to be made. matt: when it comes to building electric vehicles, i wonder why carmakers haven't gotten there faster. is it the cost of investment that has held them back from producing a portfolio of electric cars? >> i think there were a couple of obstacles we needed to overcome. also for cost and price is one of them. charging infrastructure. but also, the range was very important. i think for those who started to -- started too early, they obviously had a hard time finding enough customers. i think the environment has changed. we are very positive about the opportunities we have with the new models starting in 2020.

i think it would be very effective as a product. we think the time is right. matt: tesla has gotten the range issue dealt with to some extent. their biggest problem is production capacity. they can't seem to ramp up quickly enough. do you expect to be able to play in that price class? against the model s or the model x? >> we certainly with audi and porsche are thinking the luxury arena. we're taking more electrification. with volkswagen, we think we have the right answer. and the pricing level comparative to diesel cars. matt: how much are you going to invest in this? we heard a massive figure last week from bmw. clearly everybody wants to get a head start and control the market. how much is volkswagen willing to spend? >> i think until the early 20's, we are going to spend $34 billion on electrification,

digitalization, and autonomous driving. we are serious, we think it is what the customers will look for. but we will also continue to invest in this optimization of our combustion engine portfolio. because for the foreseeable future, combustion engines made -- will make up the majority of the market. a growing number of customers are going to consider electric cars. matt: how long do you think it will be until it electric cars or hybrids take sales of straight up combustion engines? >> i think that is a very difficult we were courageous one. with our four cars. our sales may be fully electrified vehicles. that's already one of the most courageous forecasts out there. so it will take a long, long time. matt: you mentioned the infrastructure. it's not quite there yet, as far as charging stations are

concerned. neither in the u.s. or germany. although in germany it's rapidly growing. how does the problem get solved? you build your own network of charging stations as elon musk has? do you count on the state to do it for the public good? how does that problem get solved? >> >> i think it will be combination. we are spending $2 million as our electrify america initiative. we have a joint venture with europe. which we built up round about charging points at highways across europe. it.'s part of but we will seek to keep situation.he i think once it's a business, there will be more investors into those facilities. >> up next, new pickup numbers problem.t on a global

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with xfinity mobile. plus ask how to keep your current phone. visit your local xfinity store today. >> welcome back to bloomberg businessweek. still ahead in this week's report out confirms what most women already knew when it comes to pay. >> we're looking at a phone maker. they find riches in africa. look at the art world's dream factory. onall of this still ahead bloomberg businessweek. >> we're back with editor in chief, joel weber. joel got a takeover of a section gender pay gap. tell us the thinking behind

going to big on this issue. >> so this is our business section this week. it's really important topic. when we find things like this that are part of the zeitgeist, little bito spend a more time than probably we would otherwise to, like, actually help people understand what's going on here. >> why now? >> i think it's a bigger happening.n that's women in the workplace, me too is all part of this. how that's all becoming manifested in our culture, with sort of whats we're trying to put our finger on the pulse of. specifically with this pay gap what's happened is really a u.k. moment, right? areig companies in the u.k. having to actually put data out into the open that's unadulterated. have to literally turn it all over and show how women get versus how men get paid. >> it's revealing data. these lines have crossed over weeks.t couple of i've been like, what?

because the differences are stunning. >> it does seem like we are at where not only is there the will to start thinking about these things but the data out there. >> to back it up. >> really being able to pull it all together is spurring a conversation that can't easily be set aside, because as you headlines keep coming. the companies keep revealing their numbers. can't dismiss it. >> and this deadline is a tight deadline. it.cannot miss you start accruing massive fines if you do in the u.k. we're watching is, as this data starts to come out, company by company, it really shows how stark the differences are. a littles maybe unbecoming -- really unbecoming companies, microsoft, for instance, claims that they have done this before. their version of it, and then we talked to some professors who kind of looked at and that was all before the real data has been

coming out now, they've been fudging. that really, really is a complicated story. that's why the writer really did this deep dive into this topic, thesee it affects all u.k. companies. once this light is on the u.k., we just think this light switch start coming on around the world. >> well, and it's interesting to have claire look at this too, as we know, a few weeks ago, she looks at these things also. putting this in this broader social but also corporate interesting really way to do it. >> that's why it's such a part of the zeitgeist. like thise moments that really need to have a spotlight on it, we're going to double down and bloomberg businessweek is going to take a really hard look at these things. >> you've got the story that claire wrote but also a bunch of data. >> i love the data. things thatof the makes bloomberg. we're going to let the data drive the conversation. we tell the story, right?

also, we love charts. >> all right. claire has been looking into this issue for years. we got more from her. the pay gapat figures coming out in the u.k. by april 4, all companies that have at least 250 people working in the u.k., they don't have to be british companies. have to have an office in britain with that many people. to report their salary data, broken down by gender. so how much men at the company make on average versus how much women at the company make on average. >> for all positions? all positions, all of their employees. and the figures are not looking good. companies are not enjoying the publicity they're getting surrounding this. bit of thea little history of why this is happening. this is, as i understand it -- few yearsuntary a ago. nobody did it. now it's mandatory. >> yeah. britain nationally has a pay gap of about 18%. so we're about 20%. that means that all women and

makeen -- you know, women about 20% less than men. that doesn't mean in your you're making 20% less, but it's across the economy. trying to fixen that essentially. they passed this law in 2011 voluntary reporting. but that pretty much failed. only five companies did it. >> five? >> five. not thrilled. >> thanks, guys. >> so they tried again in 2015 okay, well, we're just going to make you do this. they passed it in 2015. in 2018, this year, is when it's going into effect. and companies have already had available, so they just have to publicly report it. >> so let's get to the numbers. you know, it's funny. when they came out, they just were eye-popping, the differences between men and they were paid. can you walk us through some of them? company, ife whole it's 18%, you would expect something like that. but instead you're seeing the 40's, 50's. one is even close to 60%, the

theerence in the men versus women. >> when you say 60%, you mean that women are making 40% of men are making? >> yeah. they're collectively making 40% of -- >> 40 cents on the dollar? >> yeah. but that's the most extreme example. are in the 20's to 40's, i guess you could say. and the reason for that is essentially, you know, at companies, women are generally in the lower paid positions. companies don't have very many female executives and so justyou run the numbers, mien aggregate, averages, median, they're really big. >> the point is, there aren't a women in these high positions at these physical these financial firms. >> exactly. one of the other things they report, they divide their salaries, so the top middle, bottom fourth and what percentage of those people are men versus women.

70% ofjust seeing about people at the highest paid positions are men. >> what are the companies saying? if they're putting these figures out, whether it's big banks or how are theyons, explaining it? is there a lot of mea culpa? saying? they >> britain encouraged companies to explain their numbers essentially, not just report and not say anything. so a lot of them have statements,released made little documents explaining what's going on. a lot of them have said, you don't have women in senior positions. i think, when i've talked to people, even though the knew that obviously, they know who is holding their senior positions, they didn't about it in this kind of way. and so a lot of them have come well, we'resay, going to do better about promoting women. >> at this moment where social media is relentless on these issues, are we at a moment where too may change, or is that optimistic?

>> expecting quick change is a bit too optimistic. end up what you will seeing, these companies are going to have to report this year after year after year. interesting. >> this is not a one-time thing. this is annually. change, inot seeing think in a few years, there's gonna be -- i don't know who but a company is going to probably get called out and forbeing proactive having the same numbers, while hopefully other people have taken action. threat to china's mobile dominance in africa. >> and a robot that can detect lung cancer. this is bloomberg businessweek.

>> welcome back to bloomberg businessweek. i'm taylor. >> and i'm carol. online atso find us businessweek.com. >> and on our mobile app. over to the technology sector, we're looking at a

company.obile >> quite a powerhouse. now the company is facing a downside. talked to editor jeff. >> the brand is a chinese of riddenat has sort the weave of what writer lula chinese checkbook eithercy, some $60 in infrastructure or just business capital floating into africa, since 2016. techno is becoming really the africans.ng brand of smartphone makers have gone from nothing to 30% of shipments the continent in a little over a few years. >> it's not a brand we know but in africa, it's the brand of mobile phones? >> right. or then't sell in europe u.s. at all.

of china,e country where others are the kingpins. the clearica, it's market leader with 30% share 19%, 20% for about number two, samsung and 2% for apple. beingt's the good side of in an emerging market. you can tap into a market that is undeveloped, doesn't have a of players and quickly gain a lot of market share. that's the good news. mentioned the checkbook diplomacy. china has looked at autistic and looked at africa and said, wow, there's a lot of potential here. >> yes. side is that, you know, hasmoney is basically -- flown in sort of on the heels of pippartnerships with established regimes in countries where these companies are operating. and leaders of opposition parties there will tell you, that can pose risks down the line when things get less stable for the people in

charge. >> talk about what happened in mid-february. ethiopia declared a state of emergency. things changed. unstable.ment became this is the folks that this chinese tech company has been working with. >> yes. they used ethiopia, particularly of headtal, as the sort in africa for the past eight years to the point where, you their first, quote/unquote, factory on the theinent of africa was in middle of town, sort of a three-story villa where five make shift a assembly line. now they're trying to build a 280-square-foot factory. with thee problem is, sort of repressive government on its heels a bit, the in february -- work stopped for a while and the company is not going to hit its

january expected deadline for pump outhe factory, to 200 and change cell phones a month. >> also, i love this story. look at the future of robot-driven surgery. robot cany their new detect cancer. >> dr. mall was a surgical resident in the early 80's. and he had a kind of life-changing experience which was during a surgery. through a got a look laparoscope, which is a very thin wand device that allows you to see inside the body and perform what's known as a keyhole surgery. that sent him down a path that him a medical device entrepreneur. he started this now very large called intuitive surgical system. they make the da vinci, the main robot used in laparoscopic surgeries and thousands of hospitals. monarch.ed the

it has a clever name. i'm going to try to paint a picture. two little arms, two sort of industrial arms with comes outat kind of of the robot and goes into your body. your lungs. and in the long run, they want ofuse it for all sorts things. the idea is minimally innovative surgeries. controls this robotic snake, using a video game sort of a, which is new thing. >> this device can go in deeper and get to areas that maybe a doctor's hand cannot? >> yes. so with lung cancer, lung cancer very high fatality rates. i think it's the deadliest cancer. reason is it's super hard to diagnosis. there are a lot of nuances here. problem is that the scopes that they use to diagnose lung cancer can't really reach of your lungs, so depending on where the tumor is, underrancee -- be

for a -- be under anesthesia for biopsies and the doctor says, sorry, we don't know yet whether you have cancer or not, which is horrible. something they're hoping to fix. >> sounds like it's set up so it right?ually learn, it's using g.p.s. and artificial intelligence. it's just amazing. >> yeah. when i was spending time with the company a couple weeks ago, you know, i was struck by how it looks to a sort of driverless car. there's actual, on the screen is athe doctor is using sort of navigation system. it's like turn right, left. that wasknow, i assume just sort of my, you know, dumb thought. lot offact, there are a similarities, as fred exchanged, between creating a driverless car and creating a surgical robot. in fact, they're using the same kind of system. they create a map of the lung. then they use the visual input from the camera that's on the it of this probe and feed back into an algorithm.

the idea is, as you said, to get so they're able to first help the doctor navigate towards suspected tumors but in the long run, the computer can do some of that navigation. ambition is that, when you talk to them, their ambition is to have much more minimally invasive surgery so that this could be used -- now, affect, the f.d.a. has said it's but they'rer lungs definitely thinking about it for other scoping type procedures. the long run, the idea is, from these people, believers of surgery, that this could be used for all sorts of operations and that you could have different attachments on the arms. the one thing that was really know,sting is that, you surgery is this, you know -- it thely still comes down to fine motor skills of these doctors. and if you have one of the best for ans in the world particular procedure, you're almost always -- you're gonna

want, you know, that person to hands but not everybody is the best in the world. and the hope is that these bring, youls can know, your average surgeon up to a kind of world class level. inside the madrid studio where top artists build their greatest works. square is the new round, at least when it comes to watches. we'll explain. >> this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

>> welcome back to bloomberg businessweek. i'm carol. >> and i'm taylor. us on thesten to 119, alsoius, channel and am 960 in, the bay area. asia on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the pursuit section this

week, painter lowe has created a new studio. it's become something like a factory for million dollar art. here is james. madrid, and it's differentlock long, factories. it's a place where some of the contemporary artists go to make their work. ofso factory, in the ilk warhol a little bit? >> yes. they're also milling sculptures, bationer, using incredibly makesticated technology to things that would be previously impossible to make. it's really quite amazing. there?went >> i went there. there's, you know, massive, sculptures, kind of next to, like, the most detailed people are poll polishing and painting. three-dimensional

printer, 40 feet high, incredible in like andy warhol's there's really one guy at the center. >> he's actually british but he in madrid.ives he's incredibly knowledgeable, kind of a charismatic guy. allas this rapport with these artists and they come and kind of sit with him and talk ideas around. and i was actually there with who wasormance artist, there to make art for her show royal academy in 2020, the first women ever in the 250 years to's have retrospective, so it's a really big deal. >> wow! >> she was there. she kind of first met him a while ago, after she did her performance where she sat for something like 700 hours. and afters like --

that, they didn't know what to do with me. what were they going to do, off?on her >> so she just kind of stared at everybody? >> she stared at everyone. people waited for hours to be able to sit across from her. people would kind of weep openly. >> she's kind of out there in terms of what she does. >> totally focused on endurance, the mostone of important figures in the world of performance art. >> so how does he get connected of these? >> how did he build this selection of people even? >> he started as an artist. he was a relatively successful artist in the late 90's.early but he has this kind of relentless intellect where he couldn't just be an artist and make art. trying totly was experiment with new methodology. otheran to work for artists, quite famous people. and eventually, he kind of business.s into a and then drew on other people's knowledge of technology to do

really spectacular things. >> james, there are other fabricators out there, right? unique about adam lowe and what he's doing? >> the thing is, you know, there are a lot of really interesting fabricators around the world and a lot of technically sophisticated fabricators. peopleng that adam, really like to work with him and make art with him, because he has such a knowledge base that he's able to draw on, that he's actually able to speak the language of these artists and them into something actually concrete. >> also in pursuits, editor rouzer, he knows watches and he tells us about the latest trend. >> a trend i like that's coming is that a lot of brands are selling square watches. simple but sounds the square watch was one of the very first-ever wrist watches, came in. it originally they switched to more round watches because the technology inside a watch is actually round. easier to read the hands on a round dial and military watches actually had to be round. but a lot of brands are going back to, like, really heritage

back theseging square shapes. >> i always think about the around watch, been forever. i always think square watches have been around forever. >> yes. the tank. the santos collections have been square for years. and the santos collection is after that very first wristwatch, which was given by the pioneerse of of aviation who needed to have a watch that was on him at all could see, you know, because timing is very thertant when you're in air. >> you really are a watch nerd. impressive. >> how many watches do you have? >> actually, we evolved from that. ofput this in the context you're wearing an apple watch. i'm wearing a fitbit. watch.as got her apple this feels like an analog moment in digital time. an analoghaving moment. smart watches took an initial mechanical watch market. they came around at the time of

the financial crisis or shortly after. for a lot of, people, there just isn't a use for a smartwatch that they about.need and care for small communities like you guys, you wear your smart watches. like running,we tracking functions, but a lot of people just want the classic and the squareh watches fall into that. it looks good with a suit, elegant. grown up. you look mature when you wear it. they fall into that category of handment, elegant -- handsome, elegant watches. way to say,so is a i've got some money? >> that has always been a part of this. the square watches in this story are sort of 3,000 to 5,000. especially, you can get ones that go up a lot higher than that. square?s after >> that's a good question. i think what's happening now is different individual brands that have communities that follow them. they are sort of figuring out want with smart watches. so a company has a hybrid smart

a mechanical watch too. it does a certain amount of that -- their community wants that. mont blanc has traveling functions. a big part of their lives. >> bloomberg businessweek is available on newsstands now. >> and online at businessweek.com and our mobile app. was your favorite story? >> i like claire's story. we keep talking about pay parity, between men and women. her story kind of digs deeper issue, iftory and the you will. and it's just about really women not being able to achieve those jobs.er that's why you're seeing tremendous pay gaps. >> getting into that to begin with. >> just about access. how about you? >> with all the news about facebook and potential storytion, that was a with facebook that really hit home for me this week, something i'm focused on. and morelearning more about social media. that's for sure. >> and more of bloomberg

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