carol: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. jason: and i'm jason kelly. we are here at bloomberg global headquarters in new york. carol: coming up, we zero in on conversations from bloomberg's annual the year ahead summit. jason: some of the world's most respected figures in business and politics spoke at this invitation-only event right here at bloomberg. carol we heard from iac's joey leven and also karen weaver in

flint, michigan about the city's aftermath of the water crisis. jason: plus, historian doris kearns goodwin on presidential leadership in the past and what it might tell us about what is ahead. carol: and of course, we have to talk about the year ahead when it comes to investors. that was an essential topic and where we start this week. jason: tgp group's co-ceo jim colter made a presentation on investment opportunities he sees in 2019. it is a dynamic run through, something he recently presented privately to tpg's own investors. we are talking cannabis, the power of influence in big data. jim: we have been talking about big data for a while. but this has gone from hype to reality. this is big, this is big. it is extraordinary. but it is hard to figure out. let me give you the tagline we are using to solidify our thinking. data is the new oil. we have been saying this for a couple of your -- couple of years. it's now being used more broadly. but let me take you through how i'm thinking about the impact of data and where we are in the

cycle. oil and data has been around forever. the first well drilled was in 347 a.d. in china. data is everything all the time. what makes it a new era is our ability to gather it and refine it in huge volumes. when you have a new industry that's this important that shows up, what you get is early consolidation. in the early days of oil, we had massive consolidation. we are seeing massive consolidation in the world of data. you see titans created. mellon, getty, rockefeller are -- and the titans of today. and some interesting things happened. the industry gets shaped by spills and hacks. the exxon-valdez changed the regulations for oil. what we are seeing is hacks changing the regulation for data around the world. both of had testimonies and scandals. when i watched zuckerberg in front of the senate, i flashed back to ron chernow's book "titan."

in 1907, when rockefeller was in front of the courts. at that point the senate did not have the ability to subpoena people. the senate did not lay a glove on rockefeller, just like they didn't lay a glove on zuckerberg. four years later, they broke up standard oil. and there are political scandals in the oil industry -- the teapot dome, and we are in the middle of one right now in the data world. and i think both oil and data will have a disproportionate effect on history. why did pearl harbor happen? because we cut off the oil supply to japan. why did germany invade russia when they shouldn't have? because they needed the oil. we are watching data shape the politics of the world. in the last point -- this is the important one for me -- we tend to focus on the scale of the data. it is all about the products. so the oil industry basically was not about the oil itself, it was the products they enabled. what we are seeing today -- is

google a search engine company? it really monetizes the data. is facebook? no, it is a data company. so the idea of data products are going to dominate the years ahead. we are seeing this everywhere. i love this. it is also a new opportunity. in health care today, you can take your fitbit data and get reductions on your health-care premiums. which has created a whole new job type. there are people now who will take your fitbit for a walk. i have heard of dog walkers, but fitbit walkers. you cannot pay for things with data. there are coffee shops, one outside of brown, where students gather information, they can get free coffee. this info is sold to recruiters. jpmorgan uses this in japan, hired 40% of people through data cafes. and around the world, you are paying for things with data. i would argue that facebook, google, etc., these are not free services. you're just paying with a currency that is denominated

more differently than you think. you are paying with data. what is the value of the data? how much are you paying for those services? do we know? around our portfolio, there is data everywhere. spotify now partners with ancestry, so you can figure out your ancestry music and play it. we're doing taxis in seoul. we run the metering system here. across our companies, thousands of data products are popping up. but as we begin to focus on data, the point i am thinking about a lot is there is a note of caution. because society always catches up with a new technology. it often takes 50 years before we have an faa. we do not have 50 years now. we will see society catch up pretty quickly. jason: so later in the day i sat down with another important figure in the world of investing, john gray, the president and the coo of blackstone. more than $450 billion assets

under management. this past year was his first year at the helm of the presidency of that firm after years of building and running its real estate group. of course, we talked about volatility in the market, what will happen to asset prices, and what will they be buying and selling in the year ahead? jonathan we are certainly in a : world with more volatility, the data would say that. and i do not think we should be shocked by that. we've had a great run in asset prices for a long period of time. volatility had been fairly low. the fed has begun to raise rates. we have got some trade tensions out there. we've had some issues in emerging markets. we have some issues in europe as well. oil prices have come down sharply. i think it is natural that you have this kind of volatility at some point during the cycle. so i don't think that is necessarily bad. for our business, this is generally a good thing. because if asset prices keep grinding higher, that's hard to find opportunity.

if you have a business model like we do, where you have capital tied up for a long periods of time, you have discretion, when you have a price drop you can move quickly, and because you are not short-term financed or the capital can't be called away, you're not forced to sell. so for us we say, wow, there are lots of assets around the world that have been repriced. we've got close to $100 billion of dry powder. this could be more of an interesting investment environment going forward. jason: so they have been repriced already? what was the catalyst there? jonathan: if you look at the global stock market u.s. stock , market is down 10% from where it was. i mentioned oil prices have fallen 30-plus percent in a short period of time. some credit spreads have gone out. so i just think -- and certain asset classes have obviously traded off more than others, the energy sector in particular

. there has seen more displacement there. grown when youe , overlay this decline in prices, multiples have come down a fair amount. so the stock market next year is trading at 15 times earnings. jason: i want to go deeper into each of your lines of business in a minute. but before we get there, help us understand the investing environment vs. the economic environment. because obviously they're interrelated but not necessarily super correlated it feels like right now. jonathan yes. : i'd say on the economic side, people are obviously a little bit nervous given this volatility. i would say if you look at the numbers, they are still pretty good. consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. small business confidence is at an all-time high. unemployment is obviously very low. corporate earnings have been strong. what we are seeing with our companies is generally pretty good, so that is a positive.

i think the issue, back to my earlier comments, is as the labor market tightens, the fed naturally is going to move towards raising rates. and that is going to put pressure on multiples. and that is really the shift we are facing right now. so it is very possible you could see a decoupling, where economic growth continues to be pretty good, but because wages go up, that impacts the companies' bottom lines and because multiples come under pressure, valuations don't grow at maybe the same rate the economy does. less growth in valuation. as an investor you have to become much more selective in how you deploy capital. jason: coming up, ceos discuss what is in store for consumer brands. carol: weight watchers rebranded as ww in 2018. we know that. coming up, the transformation of that company continuing. the ceo on the big relaunch for

2019. jason: more from the year ahead summit. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek," i'm carol massar. jason: and i'm jason kelly. join us every day on the radio from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., wall street time. carol: you can also find us on businessweek.com and our mobile app. consumers and food brands are continuing a wave of consolidation in the face of competition and changing consumer tastes. no one knows that better than our next companies. jason: the president and ceo of dutch food retailer ahold in the chairman and ceo of mandalay's international sat down with bloomberg's editor of global business. simmons, to talk about where they see growth in

the year ahead. >> i think that if you look at moment wheret this the growth is coming from, it is about certain segments to be in. not everything is the same in food, so if you're center of the store and largely north american focused, that's probably not a good place to be in. if you are in snacking, and 75% of our business is outside of north america, you're in a much better place. i think if you focus on the segments that you really want to be in, and those are well growing segments, you will do well. if you are a little all over the place, that is probably a difficult place to be in. i personally am not sure that consolidation is the way to go from a growth perspective, and i believe that we are fine as we are in the snacking space. there's still plenty of opportunity around the world for us to grow, and that is really the direction we are planning to take.

>> what i think is going to happen, those north american, center of the store focused companies that are having more difficulty getting growth, they will need to find other ways to create value. then you can expect that consolidation and cost reduction, could be a way to go. my opinion on that is ok, once you have done that, what do you do then? you are a bigger company that has the same problem of not growing. so where do you go after that? i think there will be a shift coming, and growth in food is going to be recognized as the way to go. >> does it ever make sense for a big retailer like amazon, as opposed to food retailers like yourself, and a brand like yourself to get married? >> i like france but -- we don't know a lot about retail.

it would not be a natural thought. that is what i wanted to say, when we do it online, we do it largely to people who well know how to do that. so i personally do not see easily -- maybe some super premium in a few stores with very high-end chocolate, i could see us do that, but for the rest, i do not the us immediately getting into retail. for you, it is different i guess. >> it's a little different because we have private labels. we run our own brands in the u.s. 28% of our sales. in holland and belgium it was 50%. we try to make the differentiation there as well. when you talk about who is going to survive in these markets, which are very competitive. they're not just about market share but also things about who consumers will trust in the future, how consumers would like to shop. can your technology support and offer a more sufficient journey in a store, more time efficient,

digital supported? are there new assortments in the store with fresh produce today? cookis a different way to and this is nice to see. but the transparency in the supply chain -- we had this whole romaine lettuce scare, and i think a lot of customers will be more conscious about food safety, where is food coming from, how was it produced? not only in a safe way, but also in a social compliance way. i think transparency will also be supported by technology. we have a trusted brand for food safety, but also for example, data privacy. that's another topic, of course. those customers will also earn the trust of consumers and those companies will grow. jason: so those two ceos continue to adapt to their changing marketplaces. we turn to another chief managing some massive changes of her own. what used to be weight watchers is now just ww.

carol: mindy grossman is steering the 55-year-old company through this transition. mindy we currently have a health : solutions business, but just like we have spent a lot of time relaunching our consumer business, we will be relaunching that business in the first quarter of 2019 to really provide the same ecosystem of support, but with a dashboard that can really help those businesses measure efficacy of health care costs, absenteeism, productivity, satisfaction. when we laid out our goals through the end of 2020, we said, here is what is going to happen in 2018. we will start the relaunch in 2019 of our b to b and health solutions business, provider,

etc. we have also been doing a lot of work around the emerging markets. so we don't really currently play in latin america and asia, with the exception of a small business in brazil. we think it is an opportunity, but priority one was relaunch the brand in the markets we are in and have that trajectory, and then enter new markets. those were really the components. the last component was expand our products. so healthy kitchen, wellness, travel, and hospitality, and wellness check. >> so a big launch for the company. it is going to be a big year. mindy it's going to be a big : year. >> you have a marketing campaign coming out with oprah? mindy it is actually our most : comprehensive mobile brand campaign that we have ever done in the history of the company. oprah has been a great partner as we have been developing the strategies around the brand we launch in the campaigns. we have two new influencers that we will be announcing. >> you could announce them here?

mindy no, i want to keep new : suspense. i have a lot of people making great guesses. it really represents health and wellness out of the u.k. and the u.s. but it is also telling real stories. real stories of people's lives and how we have been such a partner in transforming people's lives. that is what we aim to do. >> is that the most effective, -- the most effective brand ambassador? it is hard to beat oprah as a brand ambassador. mindy you know what, we look at : every market as a pyramid of ambassadors. ambassadorsf the are your evangelists whose lives have been transformed by what you provided, and then there are micro influencers. that could be chefs in a particular category. it could be great body-positivity bloggers. we are one of the biggest proponents of body positivity -- what does healthy mean to you? and then yeah, what we call celebrities. but like our partners, we put

them through our purpose filter. do they want to inspire people to lead healthier lives through their actions? and it's not just people who need to lose weight. it's people who represent that want to be healthier, this is how i live my life. we just did a body of qualitative work or we asked thousands of people about their perspectives on health and wellness. if you ask those people, would you like to lead a healthier life? pretty much they're all going to say yes. you ask them what's the first thing to do? over 07% say lose weight or eat better. so we know we are not going to give up our science of so many years of being the best program on the planet, but we know people need more to have it be sustainable, and we know that people want inspiration, not just information and that's what we're trying to give them. carol: mindy came to the company in summer of 2017. this past year, this 2018 year,

has really been about getting into the transformation of the company, offering up new services, and they will put it out in 2019. it is going to be a big year for the company. jason: they have to make it happen now. she's made such big decisions, bold moves, even renaming the company. now we see what happens next. carol: still ahead, the political action group she should run helped a record number of women run for and win office in 2018. is it a one-off or the beginning of a trend? jason: and the energy industry grapples with the threat of climate change. duke energy ceo lynn good speaks frankly about the strategy of -- as we continue with highlights from the bloomberg gearhead summit. -- year ahead summit. carol: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

jason: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm

jason kelly. carol: and i'm carol massar. you can also listen to us on the radio on sirius xm channel 119 and in new york, boston, washington, d.c. jason: am 960 in the bay area, and in london on dab digital and on the bloomberg business app. this week, our focus is looking around the corner with insights from the annual bloomberg "the year ahead" summit. carol: among the a-list ceo's on the program duke energy's lynn , good spoke with joel weber. the conversation very quickly turning to the urgency of climate change. lynn: we take this very seriously, and we have a team actually looking at the report that was issued last friday, and it really continues the conversation that started with the u.n. report a few weeks ago. at duke energy, we have been focused on carbon reduction for over a decade. and the industry is really focused on carbon reduction for the decade because we do see climate change as an issue that is going to be important to our customers and communities and investors. and i think the important thing to recognize -- the u.s. has made great progress.

our greenhouse gas and emission reductions are leading the world. there's always more to do but we're building on a solid foundation. at duke, our carbon emissions are down 30%. >> since? lynn: since 2005. that is a typical year we use in these analyses. and we are on track to meet our commitments around a paris accord-type standard and we'll continue. we have been able to use natural gas and renewables. we are also investing in our grid so it is more flexible and able to take the technologies that will be important as we continue to transform, but it is front and center. i think the focus of our industry remains very high on this issue, and certainly duke as well on carbon energy reduction. joel: let's talk about what that portfolio right now that you have looks like. maybe where it has been, where it is now, and where it might go.

2030 is when you guys look to the future. that is what you are trying to build towards. lynn: sure. joel talk about the progress you : have made, where you are now, and where you want to go. lynn: going back to 2005, 2008, duke would have been primarily coal and nuclear. and today duke is a third coal, a third natural gas, a third with increasing renewable, about 10%. we are one of the largest nuclear operators. located in the southeast, we have 11 reactors located in the southeast. so if you were located in the carolinas, 50% of the power is coming from carbon-free nuclear. maintaining those plants as long as we can is an important part of our strategy to keep carbon emissions low. a portfolio -- joel: nuclear does not get a lot of love. lynn: it gets a lot of love at duke. joel: why do you think this is such an overlooked asset for your portfolio? lynn: it's interesting. for the most part, our industry has been a behind-the-scenes industry. you flip the switch, it works.

there has not been a lot of discussions about how does it work, what is making it work? what works all the time? i think that conversation is beginning and needs to continue. what are the resources that make it possible for a low-carbon future question mark a nuclear plant runs 95% of the time. it produces carbon-free energy and is an incredibly valuable resource. when you think about running a power system that offers 24 hours a day. natural gas is also an important resource. half the carbon emissions of coal and very complementary to renewables. and then you bring in solar and wind and battery technology and energy efficiency, you should be painting a picture of a portfolio. we have never been as a country or a world been dependent on one form of energy. i don't see that being the case as we go forward. jason: coming up, i love this conversation. carlyle group's david rubenstein interviews presidential historian doris kearns goodwin. carol: record numbers of women were inspired to run for office in 2018.

jason we know a record number , won in the u.s. congress. the founder of "she should run" says this is just the beginning. jason: more from the year ahead summit. this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

>> welcome back. >> still to come: more from this week's bloomberg 70 are ahead. to individuals solving big problems. we will hear from the mayor of michigan and the man who is working on saving new york subways. also all things digital. the ceo of iac. we have to talk about politics.

our guest is more of the best-known poetical historians. >> cochairman and cofounder david bruno stein hosted his eponymous show on bloomberg television. sat down to talk about the latest book. leadership in turbulent times. >> explores how presidents lead the nation through crises. in containing some lists for business leaders as well. >> leadership is about human nature and the way a businessman you are politician build a team and makes similarities. are you able to build a teen that has got diverse opinions? people who can argue with you in question your assumptions. bring the team together at critical moments. that is what lincoln did with his team of rivals. what franklin roosevelt did by having eleanor roosevelt on his team. a thorn in his side always willing to question his assumptions and argue with him. speaking truth to power. any teen needs that.

whether in business or not. -- wheneverat she she wanted something done she would bring a person who was not wanting -- he did not want us picked to come because he was tired and that person. invite to a dinner table so she would have to speak to him because he brought an inter -- alternative point of view. he felt that into her. fdr built it in in other ways. he loved to have people who were down in the bureaucracy coming to his office every now and then so that he could question them against their department heads. he put people on rivalry against one another. a little competition does a good thing. gives the same assignment to different people they all had ways getting new opinions and their hands. of course, the cheese of the conversation for great conversation. get more in an upcoming episode of the show. called peer-to-peer conversation. >> here is something that will happen in early 20 19th your 100 women will be sworn into the

u.s. congress. that is following a 20 to 8 -- 20 18 election season. a record number of women running for local state and national office. trend,region for that organizations that spring up for courage and support women candidates. and into bitter of sorts. run of the founder and ceo, as a nonprofit, devoted to helping women pursue public office. of hillary clinton in 2016 set the stage for women in 2018. -- told me why she was inspired to start the company. >> i have been working in politics for a number of years. had justth women who put themselves out there to run and they were at the point of proving viability to the institutional players. we worked our tails off. i look at all of the resources that go in. money that goes in. the outcome of the hours that are spent. you look after the election and see that often, in fact, more often than not, we move backwards in were women's representation.

the overall numbers were changing, incredible individual stories. the research at the same time and still shows this that the number one reason why women don't run is because they are not recruited and encouraged at the same rate as men. it is a natural part of the cycle, if you have majority of men represented, when a position comes open, it is more likely that you will have somebody that looks like you, someone you know. it is hard for women to break into that. so, so, and, in 2011, we wanted to figure out a way to, how, help anyone, men and women alike, to tell us about great women that they know who should be thinking about running for office. so we could build that bench. we want a program. that was our first start in the field. >> how many did you start with? >> sure. when we started it was slow. we learned how many questions you can ask to get somebody to really tell you about somebody that, that you think should run

for office. we started from the beginning and fast forward to where we are today. we have just over 21,000 women who have then asked to run for office through our work and 14,000 of them are actively preparing for run for office. that is significant. that is pretty cool. if hillary clinton had not, in 2016, would you and i be having in this -- this conversation? >> we would not. we would not be having the same conversation. we come a we did a big sweep before the 2016 election, a look at the landscape. seeing where we could add programmatic work that could be helpful to the field. what we found was that nowhere was there a program where it was sort of that logical place for women to start for any woman to start. we filled out the program called earnings paid her. it ist a feel for what like to run for office and learn about the resources that exist in the field.

we built that program and watched of that program just before the 2016 election day. assuming thate hillary clinton was going to be elected and our work was going to get much harder. we had planned for small numbers. we planned for how difficult it was going to be to get people into the program and election day came and went and it went from days of heads of my desk to having to rewrite everything that we were doing to the floodgates opening and us getting thousands of women into the program pretty immediately. we ended the conversation talking about what women might be wanting for president come 2020. the usual suspects came out. elizabeth warning. pamela harris. nikki haley. we will see what happens. >> it will be quite a field, for sure. another prominent speaker, another of the most prominent women in politics and policy over the past year, longtime

justice department official sally h. she was hired by president trump therefusing to defend travel ban in 2017 when she was acting attorney general. >> that was a few days into the administration and the controversy of the mueller probe and many other judicial issues. the independence of the doj is still -- bloomberg editor-in-chief. whether youebate agree with a particular decision by a judge. trying to undermine the very legitimacy of that judge or of our judicial system is something that is not only knew, but i think dangerous. because we can't expect that at the end of this presidency, that, that we are elastic enough to where the public confidence all bounces back to these institutions and for a lot of reasons we're just talking about, these institutions really only function properly if of the

public has confidence in them. the department of justice can only function if the citizens of respect and believe the decisions are being made based on the facts, the law, and nothing else. worst stage the department of justice's reputation from that angle or questions being asked, is it really worth -- worse now than it was during watergate? don't thinkean, i that the justice department took sort of the same hit in watergate. there, you have the justice department at the end there resisting. the president to use the department of justice. i am not suggesting that is the decisions are in fact being made in doj based on political recess. it sure is for lack of trying. for the president's part. >> straight ahead, michigan through the water crisis, does not just want the problem fixed. she wants people who caused it

held accountable. all the way to the governor. of the transitt authority, can he get the subway 2019?pe in > i am crossing my fingers. they both definitely have full plates. this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

>> welcome back. of us forthe two bloomberg businessweek every day on the radio from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. >> find us online at businessweek.com and on our mobile app. >> when you look at the big global issues, some of them can best be understood by looking closely at some local events. >> for instance, lack of access to clean drinking what appeared a problem around -- we see around the world. flint, michigan, continuing to

deal with the aftermath of its water crisis. leading the way is karen weaver who took office as mayor of flint in 2015. she does not miss -- mince words when she talks about what her city has gone through. >> what happened is criminal. when you have kids that have been poisoned and the whole community, we know that kids under the age of six and pregnant and nursing mothers are going to be impacted, some of them, for the rest of their lives, we knew that people have died as a result of legionnaires. what we are looking at now are the high cases of miscarriages and the stillbirths that took place during the time. one of the other things they are looking at now, i am talking about -- are some of the numbers of the deaths that were attributed to pneumonia and they are wondering if that was really legionnaires. what was going on there. when you look at the mental health implications, i was talking with somebody earlier and i was saying it is easy to put a cost on infrastructure and what we need that way, when you

look at the human cost, human factor, we don't know what that is going to be. >> is it a reminder that our society puts values on people differently? >> yes and what happened in the city of flint. other cities in the state of michigan taking over by -- they put cost over the public health and well-being of the people. as cost, something as small $100, the corrosion control. and this would not have happened. >> right. one last question. should he be gone after? >> yes. that is what we said forever -- every level of government from the bottom to the top your we want everybody >> -- that means the governor as well. do we feel at we now know executive what happened? there is still some unknowns. it is interesting.

we don't. i hope people are paying attention to what happens in flint because one of the things i have said is don't let us go through a crisis and don't learn from us. this should never happen again. it should not have happened from the beginning. it really should not have. >> where are we today? fixing pipes. almost there. appeared a most there we had three years in which to fix these pipes. 6000 near over three years. we have until the end of next year to get this accomplished. we are ahead of schedule. we have less than 150 to go. has that been the problem fixed? >> not yet. we are on the right track. after those are fixed, right now, still on bottled and filtered water. the reason is because with the amount of construction going on in the city, the epa has a book health risk. you get all of those pipes removed and replaced. can you feelntees

you -- do you feel like you can give your citizens that will happen again? isyou know what, and that one of the things we have talked about is looking at changing the stands. one of the things we should be able to take water quality standards for granted. we can't we can't. the standards that are in place are old and outdated. they need to be looked at and raised. we have been working on that in the state of michigan. the other thing is i have told them. i am not signing off on this. i have not told anybody to turn water from the tap and i'm not going to until he get all of those lines replaced. and we want to go and check the other one spirit we want to make sure we will do it right. let's do it right and we will get the lead and galvanized lines out. we will check those, the me have to have the medical community signoff. that is when the all clear will be. flint has had troubles for

decades at some of them have been a result of conditions -- for years you might say the same for the new york city transit system. the new york city transit system is massive, old, and come adp in january, 2018, andy was hired to fix it. a u.k. native p.a.d. has turned allnd with that railways around the world. and australia and canada. this looks to be his toughest challenge yet. a service.problem is that is what people want. that is the clamor. obviously, that is the big challenge here. the fact that it has been decades of underinvestment in asnsit and it does not serve progressively declined in many ways. i will caveat that by reminding people that a many people today. most people in most states are not delayed. there has been this slow decline in the service. that is what needs to be done. i think we can harvest that people can mind that. build a frustration to

compelling case of what needs to be done. which i said on day one. it is an all out modernization of transit. >> day one was not that long ago in terms of this. 10 months ago. you had yourry, first day on the job. getting what you're into to some extent. let's be clear, this is not even the oldest system you have worked on. he worked on the tubes even older. what has been your biggest surprise? i think, a number, the biggest be the scale of the task. i had a big job in toronto. the third-largest transit in north america. it had a myriad of problems that needed to be fixed. and has seven busty pose. we have 27 busty pose. 14,000 employees. new york city has 50,000. around 2 million people a day.

we carry 8 million people a day. the scale of the job. and the scale of the challenge. we are dealing with. in some cases, equipment signal frames nearly 100 years old. that is ridiculous. you mentioned earlier that is so old that the manufacturer does not make it anymore. it may not even exist. again, >> are you kidding me, right? >> what it says to me is we must prevail in this conversation that we started almost pretty much on day one. if we want to rebuild this. if we want to get, if new york's transit system did they deserve, we need a plan. careful what you wish for. it was put together within 100 days of my arrival. it is called the fast-forward plan. we don't need tinkering. we have got to modernize transit from top to bottom, every aspect of it. signaling system.

rebuild the stations. the track and other critical infrastructure. get the buses moving again. system fully accessible. it comes at a cost, but it can be done. >> what is the cost? >> it is billions of dollars. around $40 billion over 10 years. up next, i a ceo looks ahead to 2019 in the digital world. better than an trigger. >> this is bloomberg businessweek. ♪

>> welcome back. >> you can also listen to us on on radio on channel 119 and a.m. 11 30 in new york 1061 in boston. 90 91 fm in washington dc. in london on dab digital and on the bloomberg business app. we can't look ahead

to 2019 without checking on two that continue to evolve. digital media and luxury. >> first, digital space. as the year ahead summit jilly dug into the value of online data and the price of privacy, the bloomberg senior deals reporter and havoc. >> when we think about data, we think it is the most important thing is the price to value one that hasoth user consent, but also has the smell test. it can be a tricky thing. we, ass funny because consumers, people who are relatively tech savvy, they don't understand -- >> correct. it is hard to point to somebody in a small set of words what they are giving up. number one, you need people -- consumers, number two, it has to pass the smell test. it is pretty obvious. you know, for example, cambridge

and america, that is huge and some personality test thing that had no real value to the consumer, in exchange for that, their data went a lot of places that the consumer would not have imagined. what everyone realize, that is a big problem. i think the company can know that. i'm not saying that happened intentionally, a lot of those things are reactive. the operators of businesses have to be doing that by the value exchange on a valid basis. they have to be able to look themselves in the mirror. look their colleagues or shareholders or family in the mirror and say we charged a fair price for this thing. that price was the user data. that is ok. people have to understand it. it has to be fair. when it is, that is ok. when it is not, that is a big problem. we generally favor subscription businesses. that is personal fair. pay $20 a month, get access to this. let's say cambridge analytic is a rotting fish.

where does facebook set on the spectrum? >> i think they are figuring that out. , theyt think they were were doing it with bad intentions. i don't think they said let's see how much we can extract. >> there is a responsibility. >> yes. a lot of people were surprised of that including people internally, were surprised by that platform. and the extent to which misdeeds would or could be done and that was a wake-up call for a lot of people. it is perhaps possible that facebook net -- did not even fully understand the press that they were charging. ok, this data value changes ok. when that data can be used and this other weaponize way, then it became you gave up much more. >> what do you make of the gyration? >> i don't.

we where advertisers on facebook. carded on facebook. they're goinghat through. it is hard. everybody is going after them right now. it is a tough spot to be in. they will come through. they have been incredibly -- mark is incredibly innovative. incrediblyt executes well and quickly. this is going to slow them down for sure. i think they will power through that. probably an unpleasant time. everyone loves to pile on. >> last but not least, luxury. >> perfect person to talk about it, ian schrager. he is the guy who shares credit for -- abt coto. washat happened in europe inusually follow, is that london, you have the aristocrats

, you don't have much of a middle class. and then you have a big set in the population. unfortunately, we are heading the same way. which is why think luxury has to be responsive to that. you have the 1%, and you have another big group. what i found in the hotel peoples, is that wealthy , as much as anybody else, want to get a good bargain. if you can stay in a hotel room and get the same kind of feeling and same kind of experience that you get in a much more expensive hotel, the wealthy people would also like to get that bargain. if you can stay in a hotel and pay $200, feel is good and has the same set to entertainment mix and excitement rather than staying in the hotel you pay 10 times more, people will take it, not millennials, not people who

don't have a lot of money, anybody. >> bloomberg businessweek is available on newsstands now. >> also online and our mobile app. >> the summit is on the book what is the most important thing you will take away? the love the chats with investors. setting the stage, giving us that sneak peek of what he told his own investors. and then talking to john gray about volatility. private equity guys love that because that is where they make their money. the lot -- i like all conversation about data and digital and technology. it is all over and all energies. everyone is trying to figure out how fast to put it to work. great stuff. you theed bringing highlights. the year ahead summit. you can watch the entire event start to finish on bloomberg live. you can find more interviews at bloomberg.com as well. our daily business week podcast. available at itunes soundcloud and blue.com. >> recut up with the mayor of

columbus, ohio. >> more bloomberg television starts right now. ♪ ♪ there's no place like home ♪

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