and how might that impact consumers how might it impact you we'll drill into it with tyson slocum plus we'll examine how sexual harassment allegations are affecting the entertainment industry then the u.s. securities and exchange commission's new cyber unit jumps into action its first target and initial claims offering by a canadian company we'll talk to alex mchale of veggies about the latest but first let's check out the new stories topping the headlines. jay powell is on track to be the next chair of the federal reserve after being approved by the senate banking committee vote today by twenty two to one with only one democrat democrat senator elizabeth warren opposing the nomination the full it senate is expected to occur firm in the not too distant future mr powell who has received bipartisan support in the past he's sort of the federal reserve governor since two thousand and twelve mr powell also is set to replace he said to replace chairwoman janet yellen who's term expires in february and that same senate banking panel today also consider

legislation to scale back some of the wall street reform and consumer protection act of two thousand and ten provisions known as dodd frank as the regulations relate to small and medium sized banks it's one of the areas where even a few democrats agree the law may have gone too far. under a proposal offered by chair might create though the threshold at which banks are considered too big to fail would be increased from fifty billion dollars to two hundred fifty billion recall the government bailed out many banks with hundreds of millions of dollars in the wake of the two thousand and eight financial collapse chief among those were the bank of america and wells fargo both fed chair yellen and gov powell have voiced their support for the idea. bitcoins rise to the top is not over yet as the london markets opened on tuesday morning bitcoin posted another record high with each coin in the upper eleven thousand dollar area the

rise comes as more and more investors and financial companies are showing growing interest in crypto currencies bit coins rise however has not been easy and the volatility has been a rock n roll roller coaster help pushing confidence and bitcoin and perhaps the price was the recent announcement from the chicago mercantile exchange group c m a group that the world's largest most diverse futures exchange would offer a bit coin futures contract on december eighteenth not to be outdone the chicago board options exchange announce their own bitcoin futures that will be starting on december eleventh and even nasdaq is jumping into the digital pool they say they will offer a bit coin futures contract some time next year. the organization patrolling expert in countries and other oil producing nations importantly russia have agreed to extend their one point eight million dollar

barrel day cut through the end of next year those cuts which were agreed to at this time last year have a had any real impact on raising oil prices and what does the future hold for us in global oil and how might that impact you and businesses which really rely on a. horrible fuel costs let's drill baby drill sorry into this issue with tyson quote cloke i'm the director of public citizens energy program tyson thank you again for being with us it's always my pleasure so tell me how has this impacted this cut opec in the other countries how has it really impacted prices or has it since they agreed to it about a year ago you know not much it's really just a couple dollars a barrel and you know last night we saw oil prices go down two percent after going up a couple dollars right after the announcement the fact is that opec isn't as big of a deal anymore yes they can announce taking one and a half million barrels of oil off the market but the real drivers right now are

what's going on with consumption and the biggest question marks there are what's going on with the chinese economy is it going to grow or is it going to contract and of course replacing gasoline powered transportation with electric vehicles and other alternative forms of transit that's really what is threatening prices more of an opec cuts you know what used to be that every gotten tiddle that opec did anything that they did really did move prices but do so many other large energy producers in this space the u.s. of course and russia and russia as part of this deal with opec i mean how key are they as part of keeping the production flow down a little i mean without russia opec would be completely irrelevant and it's really important to note that there's two countries on the monitoring committee for these production cuts it's russia and the saudis so opec is kind of this ragtag group of

countries there's a lot of countries with some economic and political upheaval going on and so there's questions about whether or not there's going to be integrity with some of these pitches and goals on the production cuts and even within russia there's disagreement there are some russian oil producers. you know i don't want to see these cuts because they want to make money as much as possible so. you know and since one thousand nine hundred two. opec has had a ninety six percent cheating rate on its stated production targets and so there's a lot of opportunities here for countries within opec to cheat on these targets and i know for that that first year you know this this year that we're currently in here there were these issues because you know iran was still below production because of the sanctions and they wanted they did one of the stinking caps and other nations were also wait give us time to ramp up but now at least theoretically

they're all supposed to be with with within these caps so oil just closed today at fifty seven fifty seven sixty right so it was about a year ago when this agreement was put into place it was something like fifty two bucks so it's really only up five dollars and we've just been north of fifty five i don't know if six weeks or something like that it hasn't been met that long what does this production cut this one point eight million barrels mean for u.s. energy i mean are we essentially just filling the void created by this reduction by opec and russia and others i think so i mean there's no question that the fracking boom in the united states since two thousand and seven has been revolutionary you know it's turn the united states into a oil superpower and then in two thousand and fifteen when the republicans and president obama lifted the oil export ban we're now seeing record levels of oil exports and refined product x.

we're now it's a net exporter of oil as of the last several years until before that we had been right right right and so there's no question that some of these u.s. dynamics are a big part of this but make no mistake the big thing that's going on with global oil markets is issues with. replacing the gasoline fire fueled internal combustion engine with electric vehicles and with mass transit in the meantime though improving fuel economy standards are a huge knock on on growing oil consumption we estimate that over the next decade or so more than eleven million barrels of oil are going to be taken off the market due to commitments that countries like china of the united of a million a day right through because of improve fuel economy stand what eleven million a day is a huge number when you consider i don't know the exact figure but that we produce

about ten million barrels per day so essentially you're saying the amount that we produce every day would be taken off the market by electric vehicles would globally globally but still mean that the comparison is still key so we should have you back to talk about some of this in more detail but let's talk a little bit more about the dynamics in the u.s. energy industry right now what's going on in the aggregate i know in the balkans where we're we're drilling there are more and all these new and innovative ways but you know how is the u.s. energy sector doing i mean it's doing pretty well i mean we're we're going to see continued mergers and acquisitions you know low oil prices don't just hurt the national economies of russia and saudi arabia they hurt the bottom line of major oil producers in the united states so what you're seeing is a wave of mergers and consolidations so you're going to have even fewer major players operating in the bokken up in north dakota and the eagle ford down in texas and that's going to make them financially more secure going forward to weather what

might be a rocky road for oil prices so if we say that opec and russia and others are cutting we're filling that gap if the supply and demand equilibrium is roughly remained the same nothing should happen but will the demand it. increase next year one of the experts over in paris the other place saying about demand going forward i still see demand as is being relatively flat but i think that the big question mark is china you know china several years ago was the reason that we had huge speculative driven increases in oil prices as the chinese economy was growing at more than ten percent a year and gobbling up lots of oil the brakes have been put on the chinese economy and export only growing at six percent right right. take it exactly and so it's really unclear we need to get more information about how the chinese economy is going and see how that's going to impact oil prices so how it's going to ask

a two part question how are these prices which are relatively affordable in the u.s. impacting u.s. businesses and then i want to ask about consumers and families so businesses rely on this to what extent oh it's still huge you know the average regular gasoline price united states is around two dollars and sixty five cents a gallon and for most consumers and business is that's a bargain and so when you've got low fuel cost inputs on your household on your business you know it's like a big giant tax cut and so. cheap energy not just in the transportation sector but the electric power sector right yesterday the wall street journal had a great article about how the u.s. electric power prices are at record lows being driven by cheap frac natural gas and renewables and so americans are enjoying a bounty of access to cheap and increasingly sustainable energy which is

a big change from years past and these businesses and i mean whether or not it's delivery services or people moving goods to consumer goods all across the country or even airline tickets for those about to make a trip during the holiday season these affordable gas prices are a good thing where are the cheap prices cheapest in the u.s. and where are they most expensive. well the cheapest for gasoline is in the gulf coast the united states so from texas to louisiana to mrs where they really find a lot of the problems actually most expensive is california and that's really even though california is still a big oil producing state with a lot of oil refineries but they've got a lot of environmental standards and clean car standards that raise the price. of gas so in the gulf coast it's around two dollars and thirty five cents on average in california it's about three dollars and ten cents it all has to do doesn't it with how far you are away from where the oil is produced oklahoma which is always low cost because that's where cushing is where the congress has delivered

and then state and local taxes so that that can impact the price a lot for consumers tyson slocum director of public citizens energy policy thank you again for being here really informative always helpful great thank you. time now for a quick break but stick around because when we return we'll find out why depend may be benefiting from the g.o.p.'s new tax bill plus securities and exchange commission's new cyber unit is investigating a multi-billion dollar dam alex mahela visual joins us from toronto with the latest . go to break here are the numbers at the closing bell. thank. you.

join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest in the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. please other than some of the knots is not adequate place is not a good country and. true to the city but showed me this there but i'm not as well above the storm. as you can that's but this is. the statement that the flagellum say. ok let's share it with me i'm checking out

the city is calling in just for the embrace from the moment of on some of the beating that i'm. the scale of the slow slow. play almost anything from the members of the bass to not a second hour ride that john said i'm based on my show last night no one can i do not do that i will just write this from that make matter how many kids. cannot. change the fucking on that can i lose you some honest you are now with the fuckin on the. let's do this or turn this on enough i was going to show you go to sleep i don't want to go to the snooze and then i can. courses in the city do whatever the sleep. sassy snowmobiler got the you know that was is. the c.e.o. this was about.

the united states isn't the only country paying attention to the u.s. senate's tax reform bill companies such as tokyo marine holdings one of the japan's largest and oldest insurers is looking to cash in on the potential overhaul of the u.s. tax code or the past few years the company has spent billions of dollars acquiring various u.s. insurance assets which now ranks the company among the top ten non-life insurers in japan tokyo marina holdings also announced recently that they. they have a deal to buy a i g's medical stop loss insurance business with the us tax bill set to set to cut corporate rates from thirty five percent to twenty two maybe twenty percent to kyle marine could lower their tax burden by more than two hundred seventy million dollars this is expected to help them offset more than five hundred sixty seven million dollars in losses from their u.s.

sanity's due to the hurricanes that hit florida and the caribbean earlier this year . and speaking of hurricanes well hurricane maria left devastation in its wake in puerto rico and other caribbean islands the caribbean real estate market is still active while many deals have been delayed in the areas hit hardest by the hurricane and the commercial and residential property has been recovering much faster than it dissipated many investigate and best years are headed back to the caribbean islands due to their lure of low prices sellers are cutting prices across the board attracting buyers looking for cheap deals according to a local real estate broker a house that once sold for three point five million dollars this summer is now up for sale per one point nine million others are hoping that disaster aid will spark an economic boom which will help the region that said there's still significant risk while you has to seen its real estate market recover puerto rican property has remained low due to the virus scares her cambridge of course and the government's

latest the fault on its billions of dollars of debt. it seems every week we're hearing about yet another sex scandal involving a high profile man in power without a doubt these scandals have rocked the media entertainment politics and technology industries and while this type of behavior isn't anything new in the country the outcome in swift results in many cases are definitely a turning point r.t. correspondent ashley banks is here with the details according to a twenty six thousand report by the equal employment opportunity commission eighty five for. when a women have reported being sexually harassed at work whether these women worked in media entertainment politics task or something else they've either quit or left the industry because of the abuse they faced but that's beginning to change let's take a look at a couple of examples where accusers were fired from their positions today show host matt lauer was paid over one hundred million dollars by n.b.c.

news over the course of his career before he was fired for an appropriate sexual behavior in the workplace lauer was among one of the highest paid a host on television pulling in twenty five million dollars annually before he was terminated his germination comes at a time when the today show has been the top rated morning news show among twenty five to fifty four year olds for the past two years however that is starting to the client according to nielsen total viewership for the program is down ten percent however the today show is generating a lot of revenue just last year the show generated five hundred eight million dollars in advertising and allow our case it's not known if his removal will financially and past the network at this time and b.c. is tasked with finding every placement for lauer to ensure the network doesn't lose viewership to its competitors. recently in that floods house of cards star kevin spacey was accused of sexually assaulting several people shortly after the

allegations surfaced a media rights camp at all which produces the show in baltimore maryland for netflix and then also will be filming its six and final season without speed c. spacey will be replaced by robin wright this season will only feature eight episodes which is much shorter than the thirteen episodes the series usually and klute now flicks plans to use original content in the last season costing the company between seven and eight billion dollars that's of billions of dollars from the previous seasons now according to the maryland film office first season one the company received a tax credit of eleven point six million dollars eight hundred maryland businesses were involved in close to twenty two hundred marylanders were higher the economic impact was estimated at one hundred thirty eight million dollars first season two the company received a tax credit the fifteen million dollars two thousand businesses benefited from the

production then more than thirty five hundred marylanders were higher the economic impact was estimated at one hundred twenty million dollars and for season three of the company qualified for a tax credit of up to fifteen million dollars the estimated cost and economic impact were similar to season two now that spacey has been fired for sexual allegations will cost the company billions of dollars to film its final season and d.c. and the flicks are among the many companies like fox news and p.r. with felt the financial impact as a result of key players being accused of sexual allegations. actually that's so such a great report thank you and you know it makes me think about the when you mentioned executive travis kalanick you know when these leaders of these companies leave they have to have what we call in government a coop plan which is continuity of operations mean you need

a plan to figure this stuff out otherwise as you say it could cost them a lot of money and do you know in provinces case it's because he there were a lot of sexual harassment allegations against him and forced him to resign earlier this year and experts are saying the value of labor is not the same now that he's gone now according to experts places like the rowe price and other mutual funds they have slashed the value of their stocks and when it comes to our vanguard vanguard had seven point five billion dollars u.s. growth fund that owns shares in hoover and they've selassie their socks by at least fifteen percent now experts are saying you know while some investors they haven't touched their stocks others have but this is as a direct result of travis's resignation you know. i like to see these folks go down but i want to see some of these businesses survive and join robin wright who do a great job she she won a golden globe for this role and even though it's

a shorter season it'll be fantastic actually banks thank you so much you're welcome . the u.s. a series exchange commission's new cyber units jumped into action for the first time charging in a parking in a national coin offering an ice c.e.o. by a canadian company the company has reportedly raised fifteen million dollars from the thousands of investors they have solicited promising big bucks and less than twenty nine days but the f.c.c. is calling it a scam artist alex mahela ventures and toronto with the latest alex tell us all you know when it comes to financial tell technology right now i see those are one of the hottest topics out there what happened in this case to get the f.c.c. involved you know we've all heard of big codes but have you heard of plex coins because i sure as heck haven't until now but fifty million dollars worth of people

did there and so they were investing in this thing called plex coins a guy by the name of dominic lacross he was having a company called plex core out of call back canada and he got some people to invest obviously well the f.c.c. jumped on that very quickly and they realized something was happening here that wasn't one hundred percent kosher so they took this and filed it and courts in brooklyn new york you can be sure that the canadian government cooperating with this quite tightly but so this is basically what happened so they say that this is just a major scam they're alleging that look quiet plex court that is the sole securities called plex coins on the internet to investors in the u.s. and elsewhere now this is very important security so we know that the f.c.c. basically took this type of crypto currency back in july and made it official that these can be looked at as securities so this is where this all comes into play now here's the scam this guy was saying that within twenty nine days that you could get a one thousand three hundred and fifty four percent profit from your investment

that's very precise but that's what he. promising this is what the f.c.c. had to say though about this whole ordeal there's robert cohen he's the chief of the cyber unit at the f.t.c. saying that this first cyber unit case hits all of the characteristics of a full fledged cyber scam it is exactly the kind of misconduct the unit will be pursuing we acted quickly to protect retail investors from the initial court offerings false promises so merchants a court order against the founder and flex core brand as well as the founder of girlfriend who is involved in this. bank accounts are frozen what that c.c. is hoping to do that a lot of these transactions were done through credit card so they're hoping to get some of the money back to the people. also another big player here was pay pal pay pal three hundred eighty thousand dollars worth of the transactions went through that company and they were able to stop a lot of these transactions to from happening they smelt

a rat and they were right. you know alex when you when you talk about you know they they promise this precise amount of income and in a certain amount of days i i wrote a book several years ago when i was in government puns ammonium how scam artists are ripping off america which which you can get online it's free it's not something i make money off of but one of the things that i tell people is if there's some time constraint where you field and do you feel unduly pressured be very careful and nothing is without risk and there are good i see those going on out there and there are bad i see so just be careful about any promises but elegy we haven't spoken about bitcoin but i'm curious could you give me your thoughts from from up north on what you think is happening with bitcoin and your feelings on it oh i'm angry about bitcoin because somebody told me a couple of years ago to buy it at three hundred fifty dollars and i didn't so i could be a one wealthy man so look now we're sitting at just under twelve thousand dollars

per bitcoin it's really one of those things where you're getting two very polar opposite ideas about what bitcoin is and what bitcoin is going to be. professionals or i should say experts out there that are saying it's just a scam it's a pump and dump situation just like what we saw here with with this crypto currency that we're talking about even if it's gathered so much momentum it's still there is a possibility something rises so quickly it could come crashing down but on the other side of the printer spectrum you're seeing people getting involved you talked about earlier in the show about two exchanges saying that they want to do something with this and move it forward to to create to make it more solid in the whole financial scheme of things so that's a possibility there's countries in this world that actually look at bitcoin and they've made it into a currency that they have made as a currency on par with anything else on the face of the planet but still this is something that an tangible bitcoin is being used for purchases like buying this crypto currency that we're talking about today if you don't see it really being

used to buy cars or or houses. anything at that level yet but if that happens well you know what bitcoin might be here to stay and these other ones well they just kind of go away especially when you have a scam situation with the one we're talking about today thank you alex r.t. correspondent alex mahela vision thanks for joining us that's all for now be sure to catch boom bust on you tube you tube dot com slash boom bust r.t. see you next time. stein is getting international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos and to miss it like you know. this is my cousin

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god. the russian flag will be absent from the twenty eighteen winter olympics the ban was hounded by the international olympic committee after a two year long doping scandal however there remains no concrete evidence to claims it was state sponsored. between the individual or team competition under the name olympic else leads from russia. dismay and disappointment was visible along the russia not the i.o.c. .