welcome to bloomberg businessweek. i am keller massar. taylor: i am 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. taylor: 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 kind of get this. >> i love ancient history. carol: we have been here before. >> 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, big, old stone coins. 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 in 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 actually buying land, but then having the orange grove serviced by someone. or the script case in the 1970's and 1980's, where people with babysitters were able to horde. >> lawyers from washington, and people were exchanging fake money for babysitting service. >> all of which 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 in 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, a bad actors around the globe. he ended up as the digital davos, and found a lot of amazing things about facebook. also affiliate marketing. tell us about the story. >> 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. >> there's always this financial twist or business twist. carol: this has a facebook twist. >> this is especially relevant

one because of the facebook twist. that conference is what are called digital affiliates. say you make a pill, you want to call it elon musk brain boosting pill. now you want to sell that pill. and 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. and that's what took zeke to this conference. carol: it is a great story that zeke fox wrote. 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 had his face on the cover of

polish business magazine painted gold. he is an interesting character. this claim to fame was that she started out as an affiliate marketer. then he developed a software program to enable other affiliate marketers to track their advertising and so forth. and also it did something else, it enabled them to cloak their ads, because 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, the creator of the program, it enables you when a facebook reviewer clicks on the ad, you get a perfectly innocuous looking landing page. but when an ordinary person clicks on the ad, there is elon musk's face staring at them

saying i endorse this product. carol: affiliate marketing. they are middlemen. robert: they are middlemen, a perfectly legitimate business. they are people who buy clicks and views from facebook and sell them to people who are marketing various products. they could be amazon, a big user of affiliate marketing. it could be uber. a lot of people use it. perfectly legal. but the scammers realized 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. it finds people for you. actually the scammers came first. they were able to come in using

facebook's algorithm, 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 aren't going to respond to your product. facebook helps you find the suckers. carol: it is really targeted. robert: yeah, it's targeted. and it gets better with each click. they know that this is appealing to women over 65, or people in iowa, whatever it is. they will start targeting. the algorithm does this automatically for you. it takes all of the hard work that marketers in used to have to do in finding their marketing target 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. so give me an idea of how this 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. so that is 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 and things you are not supposed to do and if they catch you, they will kick you off the platform. the scammers are so good they have multiple other facebook accounts. so if you close one down, five more well pop up. carol: and history has shown us that 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

rob south african entrepreneur , a in this business. they brought him in to try to clean up the act. he has taken pretty aggressive steps. he claims they are beginning to use artificial intelligence to catch these guys. they fired some people at facebook who were getting too close to the shady affiliate marketers. but the ads are still appearing. so it is a cat and mouse game. they are taking it more seriously. they hired more people. they are beginning to crack down in the past year, but i don' thk they have a long ways to go. carol: what would you do if you found yourself on russia's kill list? taylor: how wanted as turned desperate in germany. carol: this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

♪ carol: welcome back to bloomberg businessweek. i'm carol massar. taylor: i'm taylor riggs.

you can find us at businessweek.com. carol: and or on our mobile app. in the politics section, some alarming reporting out of bloomberg's moscow bureau. taylor: yeah, we go to russia. their 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 salisbury the u.k.d 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 essentially has been that the british government has not cracked down on this out of fear of putting at risk the large flows of

russian money going to the united kingdom. carol: tell us about some of the individuals, the russian exiles, living in the u.k. and 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. latvia, but was working for 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 back in 1998. so this guy has been in the u.k. ever since and has twice suffered what he describes as attacks on him, which happened when he was in new zealand. he has had eight death threats. and the latest one came on his

birthday, february 12, three weeks before the attack on the house in salisbury. he received a phone call from an old colleague of his who is still working for the russian secret service, posted in western europe, 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 even though the expulsions are welcome and a is seen as forceful action by britain and its allies, that is actually not going to be enough. because ultimately 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 for theresa may, whether she cracks down on it. carol: always follow the money. we are also worried about the same kind of assassinations happening in the united states. some lawmakers in the senate have been concerned about this. >> there was a case of a former putin aide, and 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. but 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. inol: moving over to europe our economics session. germany is seeing their unemployment rate dropped and job openings rise. they are competing for workers. that has companies offering perks. here is reporter david rock. david: companies are having a hard time finding workers. unemployment is down to record lows. so they are giving people all kinds of great stuff to sign up. we found a kid who got a free trip to new york, or at least the promise of a free trip to new york after a year and he got it. he went. you know, 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 per? k? david:, hey german 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 that germany doesn't want to see wage growth go up too much, too fast. this country is a very successful, wealthy, prosperous place. at the same time, they are definitely concerned about growing competition from china, especially in their core industries. think about all the machine tools, the companies 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.

long. carol: but david, i think jn brings 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 here kind of backed off of demands for 6%. we will take, ok, a more modest wage increase in exchange for the right to work a 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, and i feel like we keep doing different stories in the united states, that the labor pool is tight. we are not necessarily seeing wages going 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 who are coming in, wages are going up there. the czech republic is seeing dramatic wage increases and labor shortage there. and so, it used to be people would come and move west from these places. when they start saying home, than germany has got a problem. carol: up next, how volkswagen is preparing for a global trade war. taylor: 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 channel 119, 106.1 1 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 for us free trade. i think it's also a major part of the success of all relevant parties. and we take it very serious and hope that at the negotiating table that 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 quite a bit of capacity left in chattanooga, but down the road we see it like a fixed part 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 full portfolio of electric cars? >> i think there were a couple of obstacles we needed to overcome. first of all, cost and price is obviously one of them. charging infrastructure. but also, the range was very important for the customers. i think for those who started too early, they obviously had a hard time finding enough customers. but i think overall the environment has changed. we are very positive about the opportunities we have with the

new models starting in 2020. volkswagen, skoda, audi. 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? model s or a model x? >> we certainly with audi and porsche are thinking the luxury arena. we're taking more electrification. with volkswagen, skoda, and fiat, 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 to do that? >> i think until the early 20's,

we are going to spend $34 billion on electrification, digitalization, and autonomous driving. so you can see that we are serious about it. we think it is what the customers will increasingly look for, but we will also continue to invest in this optimization of our combustion engine portfolio. because for the foreseeable future, combustion engines 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's a difficult one. i think we were quite courageous with our four cars. sales5, a fourth of our by then my be fully electrified vehicles. that's already one of the most courageous forecasts out there. so it will take a long, long time before that will take

place. 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 like 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's a combination. we are spending $2 billion as part of the settlement in the united states, as part of our electrify america initiative. and we have a joint venture for europe together with ford, mercedes, and bmw, which we build up around 400 charging points at highways across europe. so that's part of it. but we will see something certainly municipals to help increasing, improving the situation. i think once there's a bill, there will be more investors

looking into those facilities. taylor: up next, new pickup numbers shed light on a global problem. carol: this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪ retail.

under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver.

taylor: welcome back. i'm taylor riggs. carol: a new report confirms what most women already knew when it comes to pay. taylor: we're looking at a chinese phone makers that fund bridges in africa. carol: and an inside world at the art world dream factory. taylor: all of this ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ? >> we're back with joel weber. joel, we got a takeover on the gender pay gap.

tell us the thinking behind going so big. joel: it's a really important topic. when we find things like this that are part of the zeitgeist, we kind of double down and spend more time than we would otherwise to really help people understand what is going on. why here? why pay gap? why now? joel: it's a bigger conversation happening. women in the workplace, #metoo, how that is all becoming manages in our culture is what we are trying to put the finger on the pulse of. specifically with this pay gap section, what's happening is a u.k. moment. big companies in the u.k. are having to put data into the open that is unadulterated. they have to show how women get paid versus how many get paid. carol: it's revealing data. i was like, what?

the differences are stunning. >> it does seem like we are not only is there the will to start thinking about these things, but the data is out there. and really being able to pull it all together is a conversation that can't easily be set aside. the headlines keep coming, the companies keep revealing their numbers. joel: there's a deadline. it is a tight deadline. you cannot miss it. you start accruing massive fines in the u.k. if you do. what we're watching is as the data starts to come out company by company, it shows how stark the differences are. and what's maybe on the coming for many companies, microsoft for instance, they claim they have done this before. and when they did their version, we talked to professors who looked at that data, that was all before the real data that

has been coming out. they've been fudging it. that really, really is a complicated story. it affects all of these u.k. companies. and once this light is on the u.k., we think the switch is going to come on around the world. >> it's interesting to have claire look at this. she looked at leave in five years ago. when we look at this broader social, also corporate, context, is a really interesting thing. joel: that's why it's a big part of the zeitgeist is that when we see moments like this that really need a spotlight, we are going to double down and "bloomberg businessweek" is going to take a look at this. carol: when you look at that magazine, you have the story, but you also have the data. joel: that's what makes bloomberg bloomberg. we bring our data to the forefront, let that drive the conversation and the way we tell

the story. also, we love some shirts. carol: reporter claire has been looking into this issue. we got more from herbal he sat down with her. claire: i looked at the pay gap figures coming out in the u.k. by april 4, all companies that have at least 250 people working in the u.k., they just have to have an office in britain with that many people, will have to report their salary data broken down by gender. so how much man are paid versus how much women are paid on average. carol: for all jobs? for all positions. claire: for all positions, all of their employees. the figures are not looking good. companies are not enjoined the publicity they are getting. >> i understand it was voluntary a few years ago. nobody did it and now it's mandatory. claire: yeah, so britain nationally has a pay gap of

about 18%. it's on par with the u.s., we are about 20%. all women and men make about 20% less than men. but it's across the economy. and britain has been trying to fix that essentially. and they passed this law in 2011 urging voluntary reporting. but that pretty much failed, only five companies did it. >> five. claire: so they tried again in 2015, they said we are going to make you do this. they passed it in 2015, 2018 is when it goes into effect. companies already have this data available, so they just need to publicly report it. carol: let's get to the numbers. they were eye-popping when they came out, the differences between what men and women were paid. claire: across the economy, you would expect something like that happening if it is 18%. instead, you are seeing figures in the 40's, 50's, the

difference in the men's versus the women. >> when you say 60%, you mean women are making 40% of what men are making? claire: yes. they are collectively making 40%. >> $.40 on the dollar? claire: yes. that's the most extreme example. most of them are in the 20's to 40's. the reason for that is at companies, women are generally in the lower pay positions. most companies don't really have many female executives. and so when you run the numbers on aggregate averages, they are really big. carol: that's why you say collectively area and the point is there are not a lot of women in these high positions as these financial firms in the u.k. that's why the money comes out so skewed. claire: exactly. one of the other things they have to report is they divide their salaries into quartiles, fourth, middle, bottom, and what

percentage they are of men versus women. and you are just seeing you're getting about 70% of people at the highest paid positions are men. >> and what are the companies saying? whether it's big banks or big corporations, how are they explaining it? is there a lot of vehicle but? claire: they encourage companies to explain their numbers, not just report and say anything. a lot of them have statements, they made documents explaining what was going on. a lot of them have said we don't have women in senior positions. i think when i talked to people, even though the company's new -- knew that, obviously, they know who is holding their senior positions. they didn't really think about it in this way. a lot of them have come forward know who is holding their senior and said we are going to do better about promoting women. >> at this moment, social media is relentless on these issues. are we at a moment where this may change? or is that too optimistic? claire: expecting quick change

is too optimistic. what you'll end up seeing is these companies are going to have to report this every year. this is not a one-time thing. this is an annual thing going forward. if you're not seeing change in a few years, i think there will be. one company is going to get called out for not being proactive, while hopefully other people have taken action. taylor: up next, a threat to china's mobile dominance in africa. taylor: and a robot that can detect lung cancer. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ?

? taylor: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm taylor riggs. carol: and i'm carol massar. you can also find us online at businessweek.com. taylor: and on our mobile app. in the technology section, chinese mobile company

transient. carol: quite a powerhouse. now the company is facing a downside. we talked to editor jeff must guess. jeff: it controls among other things, tech. it's a company that has ridden the wave of a chinese checkbook diplomacy. some $60 billion in infrastructure interest capital flowing into africa since 2016. techno particularly has become the king brand of africa. as far as phone makers it has gone from nothing, to 30% of shipments around the economy in a few years. carol: not a brand we know here, not like apple or samsung. but in africa it is the brand. >> it doesn't sell in europe or the u.s. at all.

it's barely known, even in china, or the other ones are the kingpin. in africa, it's the clear market leader with the 30% share coming in at about 19%. carol: that's a good sign. you can tap into a market that is undeveloped, doesn't have a lot of players. you can quickly gain a lot of market shares. you mentioned the checkbook diplomacy. china has looked at africa and said wow, there's a lot of opportunity here and they've been funneling billions of dollars into various areas. jeff: the money is basically flown in on the heels of partnerships with established regimes where these countries are operating. so as activists and leaders of opposition parties will tell you that it can pose risks down the line when things get less stable

for the people in charge. carol: talk about what happened in mid-february. right? the ruling coalition declared a state of emergency. things change. the government became unstable. and this is the folks this chinese telecom company have in -- have been working with. jeff: transsion and its brand have used it as their shed in africa for the past eight years. to the point where their first "factory" on the continent of africa was in the middle of town there. it was sort of a three-story villa where five guys formed a makeshift assembly line. now they are scaling up to the point where they are trying to build a 280 square foot factory. on the outskirts of the capital silly -- capital city. carol: as long as the government is stable, they can do this. jeff: the problem is with this repressive government now, it rocked back on its heels a little bit. for the surprise resignation of the prime minister, work stopped for a wild.

this company is not going to hit their sort of january expected deadline of opening the factory. carol: also in the technology section, i love this story, it is a look at the future of robot driven surgery. taylor: he profiled intuitive surgical. they say their robots can detect cancer. >> dr. fred moll was a practicing surgeon, a surgical resident in the early he had a 1980's. life-changing experience. during a surgery, he got a look through a laproscope, a thin lung device that allows you to see inside the body and perform what is known as a keyhole surgery. that sent him down the path that made him a medical device entrepreneur. he started this large company called intuitive surgical systems. they make the da vinci surgical system, which is the main robot used in these surgeries in thousands of hospitals around the world. >> tell us what it is.

max: it's called the monarch, let me try to describe it. it's two arms with a snake that comes out of the robot and goes into your body, into your lungs. yeah, they want to use it for all sorts of thing. the idea is minimally invasive surgeries. a doctor controls this robotic snake using a videogame controller, which is a new thing that i think is going to be a big part of how they market it. carol: it can go in deeper, getting areas that maybe a hand cannot. max: lung cancer has a high fatality rate, it is the deadliest cancer. and one of the reasons is that it's super hard to diagnose. there are a lot of nuances, one problem is the scopes they used to diagnose lung cancer can't reach to the back of your lungs. so depending on where the tumor

is, you can be under anesthesia for a biopsy, wake up, and the doctor says we don't know yet, if you have cancer or not. which is horrible. it's something they are hoping to fix. >> it sounds like it's set up to actually learn. it's taking, it's using gps, artificial intelligence, it's an amazing thing. max: when i was spending time with the company a couple of weeks ago, i was struck by how similar it looks to a driverless car. on the screen the doctor is using is a navigation system. turn right, turn left. i assume that was just my dumb thought, but in fact there are a lot of similarities between creating a driverless car and creating a surgical robot. and in fact, they are using the same kind of system. they create a map of the long then use the visual from the camera at the end of the probe

and feed it into an algorithm. the idea is to be a smarter so -- is to get smarter and smarter so that they are able to first help the doctor navigate towards suspected tumors, but in the long run the computer can do some of it. >> what is the grander ambition here? max: when you talk to them, their ambition is to have much more minimally invasive surgery. the fda said it is only ok for lungs, but they are thinking about it for other scoping type procedures. colonoscopies, that sort of thing. i think in the long run, the idea from believers of this surgery is it can be used for all sorts of operations. and that you can have different attachments on the arms and everything. one thing that was really interesting is that surgery really still comes down to the fine motor skills of these doctors. and if you have one of the best surgeons in the world for a particular procedure, you are

going to want that person to use their hands. but not everybody is the best in the world. and the hope is that these tools can bring your average surgeon to a world-class level. carol: up next, inside them -- the madrid studio where top artists build their greatest works. taylor: square is the new round, at least when it comes to watches. we'll explain. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ?

? carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm carol massar. taylor: and i'm taylor riggs. you can listen to us on radio, and a.m. 960 in the bay area. 106.1 and boston, 91 fm and

washington, d.c. carol: and in london, on emulex three and in asia, on the bloomberg radio plus app. in the pursuits section, adam lowe has created a new studio for artists to create the next work. taylor: it's a factory for million-dollar art. here is james tarmy. james: it's on the outskirts of madrid. it's a block long of different factories. it's a place where contemporary artists go to have their work made and make their work. carol: so the factory is in the look of andy warhol. a little bit. james: yes, in the sense they are making additions, reproductions, they are also milling sculptures, they are using incredibly sophisticated technologies to make things that previously would be impossible to make. and it's really quite amazing. i went there. there's a massive 15 foot-high sculpture next to the most detailed glass busts people are kind of polishing and painting. there is the three-dimensional

printer, a printer that prints cement objects. it's incredible. >> like with andy warhol's factory, there is one guy at the center. james: he's this man named adam lowe. he's incredibly knowledgeable, a very voluble, charismatic guy. he has repertoire with all these artists around the globe. and they come and sit with him, and talk and shoot ideas around. i was there with the performance artist who was there to make art for her show at the world academy in 2020. she will be the first woman ever in the royal academy to have it. >> no kidding. james: yeah, so it's a really big deal. she was there, she first met him a while ago, after she did her 2010 performance which she sat for something like 700 hours.

they didn't know what to do with me. carol: in the moment, she stared at everyone. james: she stared at everyone. and people waited for hours to be able to sit across from her. carol: so she is out there in terms of what she does. james: totally focused on interest. she's probably one of the most important figures in the world and performance art. >> how does he get connected with them? how did he build this election of people even? james: he started as an artist. he was relatively successful in the late 1980's and early 1990's. he has this relentless intellect let's say. he couldn't just be an artist and make art. he was constantly trying to experiment with new technologies and methodologies. he began to work for other artists and famous people. eventually, he turned this into a business.

and then drew on other people's knowledge of technology to do spectacular things. carol: there are other fabricators out there, right? but what is unique about him? james: there are a lot of really interesting fabricators around the world and technically sophisticated people. but the thing about adam is that they like to work with him. he has such a knowledge base that he is able to draw on that he is able to speak the language of these artists and turn them into something concrete. carol: also in pursuits, chris rovzar loves watches, he knows watches, he tells us about the latest trend. chris: a trend i like is a lot of brands are selling square watches. i know that sounds simple, but the square watch was one of the very first wristwatches. that was the shape they came in. they switched to round the does the technology inside watches his round, it is easier to read the hands. military watches had to be round.

a lot of brands are going back to these old-fashioned shapes. and they look really nice. carol: i was thinking about the cartier tank watch. it has been around forever. so i always think spare watches have been around forever. chris: the tank, the cartier have been square for years. the collection is named after the very first wristwatch, which was given to one of the pioneers in aviation who needed to have a watch on him at all times so he can see because time is very important when you are in the air. >> you really are a watch nerd. it's impressive. chris: yeah, the very first wristwatch was square. we've all from that. >> you are wearing an apple watch, you are wearing a fitbit. this feels like an analog moment in a digital time. chris: we are having an analog moment in watches. for sure. smart watches took an initial dent out of the mechanical watch market, but that was also because they came around at the time of the financial crisis.

for a lot of people, there is an they use page for the watch that they need. for smaller communities like athletes, we use them. we like the running and tracking functions. but a lot of people want the classicism of a mechanical watches and these square watches fall into that it looks good, it looks mature, they fall into that category of sort of handsome, elegant watches. >> it also looks like a way where you can say i have some money. chris: that has always been a part of it. the square watches are $3000-$5,000. but cartier especially, you can get once that go up a lot higher. >> what's after square? chris: that's interesting question. what's happening now is different individual brands that have communities follow them are figuring out what people want with smart watches. a company has a hybrid smart watch the is a mechanical watch,

too. it does tracking in notifications. and their community wants that. they have a travelers smart watch, which has special traveling functions. that's a big part of their lives. carol: "bloomberg businessweek" is available on newsstands. taylor: and online at businessweek.com and on our mobile app. what was your favorite story? carol: i liked claire's story. her story digs deeper into the story of men and women being paid the same for the same job. it's just about women not being able to achieve top-tier jobs. and that's why you see tremendous pay gaps. how about you, what's your story? taylor: getting into the sea is hard to begin with. carol: what about you? taylor: all of this news with facebook, the story with

facebook hit home for me. that is something i am focused on. carol: we're learning more about social media. taylor: more bloomberg television starts now. ? . . this wi-fi is fast.

i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's.

♪ nejra: exchange acquisition, we speak to the ceo as they take over the irish stock exchange. is it a bet on dublin as a financial center? ii? does he make of mifid brexit and regulation. the one-year countdown to brexit begins. a stop on the mark zuckerberg apology tour. the facebook ceo snubs u.k. parliament, but testifies on capitol hill. the company announces new privacy measures. what new rules will that social network have to abide by?