fornia mudslide but first let's get to a few of the business and financial headlines. recent bank earnings statements paint a surprisingly didn't pitch or for some of the biggest names in the sector heads turned yesterday when citi group the noun to bigger its quarterly loss ever eighteen point three billion dollars city took a onetime hit of twenty two billion dollars from changes to the tax law of the last came out to seven dollars and fifteen cents per share about three billion of that twenty two billion came from the newly enacted changes related to companies overseas earnings city executives are bullish however about future profits meanwhile goldman sachs announced their biggest quarterly loss in six years the tax changes resulted in a four point four billion dollars hit to goldman's bottom line on seven point eight three billion dollars in revenue the bottom line for goldman a one point nine three billion dollars loss and bank of america also shared the temporary pain for that from the tax bill change two point nine billion dollars

worth in q four the fourth quarter and bank of a big bank of america rather still posted a profit of two point three seven billion even given that loss and they take it as a sign from analysts that the bank has gotten past a fairly rough period. ten. market watchers are buzzing over news that general electric's leadership is considering a breakup of the iconic u.s. mega-corporation c.e.o. john flannery had floated the idea before and said tuesday that g.e. is quote looking aggressively at many permutations the story is big if true and as they say we'll keep an eye on it but to give you a sense of how big it is archie's ashley banks joins us to explain what a breakup of this mega corporation would mean and how all these pieces of the puzzle could be put together or apart actually well barred wall street is now scrambling to evaluate the standalone value of g.e.'s visit says now over the last

year the company's stock has been the worst performing on the dow jones industrial average according to fact that that's more than a forty percent decline g.e. owns a slew of businesses g.e. capital g. capital evasions services g.e. energy financial services g.e. real estate g.e. oil and gas and many others although industrial analysts brian ilagan berg says the g.e.'s healthcare and aviation units are doing well in general electric will likely break up as a business as starting as early as the spring there's a porsche l. shareholder returns and the past year now a recent review i found g.e. is looking to take a six point two billion dollar after tax charge for the fourth quarter of twenty seventeen now the company's c.e.o. john flannery said we are looking aggressively as the best structure or structures

for our portfolio to maximize the potential of our businesses the company is also expected to contribute fifteen billion dollars over the next seven years to shore up the portfolios rather reserves excuse me j.p. morgan comment at saying this to us is not about. sense of value creation and more an acknowledgement that the problems for crude the company from moving forward as previously planned even a few months ago and cohen analysts guatamala khana said quote there is no quick fix for g.e. and the stock remains biased to the downside and legan bird says it would take g.e. c.e.o. philander eight by the years to turn the company around after cutting g.e.'s dividends and restructuring its unit bart. thank you ashley our to you america correspondent actually banks and we'll have more on this coming up to the great big story thomas edison started this company so lots to get to thank you actually look i'm.

two weeks into the new year now is about the time that people all around the country are coming down from their christmas or isn't returning their post holiday to their post holiday live this also includes returning or exchanging some gifts they received but to the dismay of many they will find that their gift word fact counterfeit goods the military digs a little deeper into that manila each year countries trade goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars a small fraction of that are counterfeit across the globe two and a half percent are counterfeit or pirated material that's according to the organization for economic cooperation and development in the u.s. that amounts to about four hundred sixty billion dollars and with the surge of online shopping many consumers are inadvertently clicking on the costs and says why industry experts and professionals call this

a borderless crime i spoke with customs and border protection officials about this problem and they issued me this statement it read in part trade and counterfeit and pirated goods threatens america's innovation economy the competitiveness of our businesses the livelihood of u.s. workers and in some cases national security and the health and safety of consumers . every day americans shop online through e-commerce and purchase products from international sellers many international sellers are legitimate but there are those that market everything from fake handbags to counterfeit medicine sometimes selling the counterfeit products at comparable prices to the brand names leading consumers to believe they're buying authentic items at a slightly lower price now that's a grim warning for those who think of buying counterfeit products is not really harmful c.b.p. says there are deaths resulting from knock off goods anywhere from children being killed from illegitimate car seats to negative health effects from fake medicine

that's why c.b.p. sees around two hundred fifty billion dollars annually in counterfeit goods some of the most common knockoffs are in footwear merchandise electronics even eyewear and many women can attest to the knockoff quality and high end name brand handbags like louisville ton or prada some people receiving these items as gifts may never be the wiser the overwhelming producer to counterfeit goods as you may have guessed originate out of china to the tune of about sixty five percent of the counterfeit black market legislators and law enforcement are actively working to better stem the flow of these fakes from entering the american marketplace. thanks for that report i mean boy it's horrific i mean people dying and things but which which would be a pretty surprising thing but absent that what are the most surprising things you found in covering this story that i was absolutely stunned to make it really make me realize that people do die from these things counterfeit goods can actually risk

people's lives so that of course was the most shocking element to this the next shocking element of you think well why can't officials or law enforcement just stop the tide of all of this coming in you just you know stop them at the ports right that's what you think but as the official told me they said well nowadays people are shipping parts of counterfeit goods so that fake louis the time handbag that you might buy you know along twenty third avenue in new york might be assembled in the u.s. parts flown in through different ports of call like argentina or other other soft or lenient ports and they've been together in the u.s. and they put them together here so you can't just seize the products so interesting well it's so amazing that this is occurring manila that i think we want to do a little bit more dig a little bit deeper into it and in that regard we are super fortunate to have with us laura miller lara is the director of strategic planning for the international

anti-counterfeiting color should c.c. laura thank you for joining us it's a pleasure to have you with us i mean what are some of these knockoffs is the bill is reporting like the michael kors bags the fake michael kors they're pretty convincing right absolutely and thank you so much for having me yes it's very true that we are seeing a trend in fact in seemingly higher quality knockoffs at more close to retail price point so we're used to always have situations where the consumer probably knew what they were getting when they saw a five hundred dollars handbag or thirty dollars we're now seeing very well crafted websites with customer service lines and elaborate explanations about how they got the goods wholesale and leading people to. believe they might just be getting a very good deal so how do you tell if you're getting a fake i mean. if you're buying a michael kors bag for twenty five bucks you know you you know it didn't come from the store but other than that i mean manila talked about the pieces being brought

in and peter neale and there are so many of you know i mean how do you know if you are paying sort of a full boat price but not getting the whole boat it really is all about the distribution mechanism i mean first of all the quality never will be as good as the original if you have suspicions then you probably have a counterfeit in addition you know you can look to the labrat explanations on the website or in the store won't be set up like that particular brand would want a retail outlet to look like for that brand you can try calling those customer service lines you can also look at labeling you can look at packaging it might look a little bit different it might not be complete it might seem a little bit different than what you would see on a legitimate website or even. on the internet when things aren't spelled the right way or the right. things to look at and you don't ask for it go ahead you know as i spoke with some c.b.p. people they advised me that you know they're charging higher prices on sites that are like amazon it's not necessarily going to a chinese retailer where you might be suspect that you're getting

a fake item but if you're buying something from like amazon and they're charging close to retail how do you how does a consumer protect themselves there are a lot of issues with e-commerce platforms and the fact that it's more difficult to tell exactly what you're getting that's why the i.c.c. doesn't work so closely with intermediaries to help to clean up that problem looking at customer reviews taking advantage of the return policy if you do get a counterfeit item those are all really important other web sites will take advantage as well of people's different or standing of what happens in different countries so one thing that's very close to my heart for example is these purported canadian pharmaceutical websites these online pharmacies i get the. the popular belief that they're just given away like candy out there and as a result there's all these web sites that sell very counterfeit medications that can be extremely harmful or at the very least ineffective because they slapped if you made a lease on it in a model and it's white jacket and people think that it's legitimate what it what

about. you purchased one of these things is there is there some liability on the person who purchases is the consumer in trouble. well started however so there is no liability for purchasing or owning a counterfeit good for personal use however there really isn't a victimless it's not a victimless crime while you may not have legal liability the consumer really does need to think about the harm that they're causing out there we talked about economic harm i mean ip crime generate a tremendous amount of revenue for criminals criminal networks terrorist networks globally over half a trillion dollars per year which to give you a better perspective is over a billion dollars greater than the economic impact of drug trafficking and account for about two point five percent of global imports so there's a lot of economic harm there's a hump innovation you were mentioning child labor and every high of all these things i mean quandary physical harm with the safety issues with these items it's

a tremendous problem thank you so much want to have you back and talk about this a little bit more alarm miller director of strategic planning for the c.d.c. thanks very much for joining us thank you so much. time now for a super quick timeout but hang with us because when we return we'll talk about crypto currencies cratering and what will it take to make digital currencies usable in commerce what's the toughest week reports on the economic and human toll being inflicted as a result of those horrible california mud slide and if we go to break the dow jones industrial average which shot past twenty six thousand yesterday remains near that level as we went to air and here are those numbers at the closing bell.

that's right the san. carlos. hopeful on what. i know that i know there are a lot of these there are rather you know it sounds like on the floor for them because of that. i'm going to let them but i don't touch them let me cut them until. i don't lose a child truffle that it. was. my michelle that tells a lot of. the hey how do you want to do it. and get this whole food place choice here you have them and hey i think i'm going to terry has said. somewhere else farther and then after that it will fuck

around mr hates it for jim and then oil the whole food off at him in the course. of the. elon musk going to fit into steve jobs is coming up with innovative products you know the electronic gadgets market is a little bit different than the car business because the car business is in a kind of bound by the highway system and you're bound by the whole infrastructure that is the automotive industry and the lobbying of the automotive industry so it's a bit difficult to be disruptive in that industry in a way he's going to open up his charging stations with the one nine hundred fifty style burger and shake joints with servers on roller skates ok that's that's an idea that might take off that might be a new like starbucks like. place that people go to to have an experience that might work.

earlier today that point price had fallen below ten thousand dollars the digital currency was approaching twenty thousand dollars just a month and a day ago on december sixteenth and bitcoins fellow digital currencies ripple and the theory are also losing value by double digit percentages and the sector as a whole is deflating an analyst at a virtual currency watcher coined suggested this afternoon that point could soon fall eight thousand dollars to eight thousand dollars analysts say the moving average for bitcoin over the past one hundred days is ten thousand dollars by the same afternoon the price had rebounded somewhat however it is still not clear if

the floor has been found some of the even suggested that there may be even a greater price collapse of several thousand dollars. time for more on digital currency is and the big kahuna bitcoin we're joined by jeffrey tucker editorial director for the american institute for economic research thanks for your time geoffrey do you think that there is a way to ultimately incorporate bitcoin into the country's mainstream currency system. i don't think it needs to be done as a matter of policy but i tell you what crypto currency is got a future maybe not from the treasury department of the federal reserve or something like that but in terms of just regular people discovering it and using it i think it definitely have a future you know how i agree with you by the way but how how is it going to happen you know i sort of said you got to be able to use it in daily commerce it's got to be honored but do you agree and how will that actually happen well so like if you

had asked that question three years ago two years ago i would have said oh everybody is going to have big coin you're going to be paying for your coffee and your hamburgers with it and that kind of stuff but that is not how history is unfolded and the reason is the transaction fees are so high and the processing time is so slow and that's because the network is clogged and bitcoin right now the protocols designed to scale anywhere near something like be the master card or or even a c h e n o's so it can't happen in the current conditions but this is precisely why we've seen such diverse occasion taking place within the crypto asset sector you know because it's tough is down to something like going to bed at and check in this morning but something like maybe thirty two percent of the overall crypto assets sector so it's kind of a. not as big a player as it used to be now we're seeing other currencies really being used like like coin and dash i got a announcement this morning from

a conference and said when you come here you can always been that so yes interesting that that is sort of like when it was an arrow and all these other things we miss you know if you can reasonably good point here sorry sorry jeff or you bring so many good points i don't want to lose them so when you talk about the processing time that is a huge deal i mean i know you can purchase bed and breakfast except for a with bitcoin but you know it's not like your credit card so it. takes ten minutes or so and then there is a transaction sense of you've articulated the big things but how do we get over that i noticed that ripple was there was a report maybe two weeks ago or less that ripple was in some discussion with american express is that going to be the ultimate thing where a digital currency actually works in tandem with a discover an amex or these or master card. that's exactly how it's going to work or going to move into a competitive money system and

a competitive system for prepayment what makes what makes crypto different from something like visa master card or the dollar is that big client wraps together the money i should say blocked and write the rest together the money with the payment system the one in the same that's that's very difficult for people to understand because because for fifty years i have a long it's been sixty years they've been very separate actually for all time they've been separate we've had a money and a payment system that's one of the great innovations that's taking place within the in the blocks and sector is the unity of these of these two great systems into into one apparatus into one machinery what that means is that dramatically reduces counterparty risk so in the conventional payment systems you know your pain but they're trusting you they're trusting the payer the trust in the bank who has got to trust everybody else until the final thought of that happens two three days later with crypto asset exchange it's really is like exchanging physical property

once the payment is confirmed then it is done there's no charge backs you're completed so the current kind of party risk of reduced to virtually nothing which is why i think wall street's going to get more and more interested in this technology and i think that's what happens it's going to happen because it's going to outperform the old fashioned systems little by little well i. i do agree with you i think you know maybe thirty forty years from now or our grandkids will think how quaint it was we carry pieces of paper you know around in our in our wallets. and you can see it now i don't know if you follow the demographics of crypto adoption but i think it's just hilarious you know i live in atlanta we now have eighteen big client because in cash a.t.m.'s all over town and you can go to any of there's a long line all young people. big stacks of cash pushing them into the machine

to buy because and and these people you know sometimes i think i think you can have a condescending attitude towards young people and their vestments because older people are going to be sorry because of them because i was going to go ben a price for gold is i mean the fact is young people want to take the risk everybody is excited about it it's a way they can get into the markets i can play the markets a little bit i mean i have friends of mine that buy every kind of coin you can imagine you know and there are thousand of these things now and they know that a lot of them are going to zero but it's an adventure for people this is the way adoption is happening so it's a demographic i mean older people i've noticed this are for the most part terrified of the sector they think it's just kind of crazy young people are very adaptable you know this past christmas a lot of people got becoming cash because bash like went for christmas because they asked for it from their parents yeah well it's not a big bed gift although we talked about dog calling here the you know sort of the

the jokey thing based upon mean that it had grown to a half billion bucks and that's a funny story but that's a funny story because congress was created to troll the crypto community where crypto community trolled back. then has for years kept being a pretty darn valuable coin it's also fun to mind i have friends of my mind it's you know there's there's a lot of. funny things going on the sector things that i would've expected. because i've been involved since about two thousand and thirteen and back in those days i really did expect that the clinton's become going to become a real competitor to the dollar and i was wrong about that because i didn't anticipate these scaling problems but i was wrong and other things like i didn't expect an affair am application called crypto cats it would become a big deal in late two thousand and seventeen where pictures of kiddies reselling

for five and ten thousand dollars on the block champ of homes there's a lot of unexpected things that are going to happen which is why i don't think that government should have anything to do with the script occurrences i think we should have leave them to the private sector we should liberalize them need to deregulate them keep keep government hands out of it and just let it develop on its own so they become can become amazing just like roads are just like like electricity or flight or any other great technology and this is a truly great technology it is nice to evolve and develop through a process of discovery experimentation and gradual adoption i agree that it needs to evolve that way but as a former regulator you might understand that i have a little different viewpoint you know we'd like to have you back some time jeffrey to talk about that again we really appreciate you being with us today it was geoffrey talker editorial director for the american institute for economic research thanks for your time. those her rent is california mudslides have not only cost

lives they continue to create devastating problems for businesses and for families with more here is the tosh a suite with the latest. sure you can see a part of highway one hundred one is underwater and this is the way that most force travel into mind if you go downtown santa barbara and also their wine country and you know that you can imagine not as many people are able to get through it which of course is hurting business collectively we have p.t.s.d. shock trauma and dissociation the name weimer lives and want to see you know and remembers today's massive mudslides all too well we thought it was the fire again also with the massive rain. wind and hundred mile an ira our boulders rushing by can imagine the sound her husband went driving around and in warmer photos of all the devastation he would text me everywhere i would just see

the tax i was like putting a pillow over my head thinking i can't deal with this her husband was unable to get back into town to they've been separated for more than a week with no cash running water or electricity while most says she's grateful for patrick braid it's the smallest things that often have the biggest impact brady is giving free food and drinks to first responders and the few residents who decided not to evacuate he did the same thing during the thomas fire taking over the business after his father john patrick who passed in two thousand and sixteen parade says he feels it's his duty to give back to the community who so dearly loved his father these are our people we've got forty three year history. with all the families you know with all the children braid says he's fortunate local stores like trader joe's are donating food and supplies but the lack of business is hurting everyone now just as it did back in december when the thomas fire hit after that thomas fire. we lost a week and

a half of business this business bank account got down to seven hundred dollars that's scary right and to help his fellow businesses and residents out he's in the process of putting together a nonprofit to help rebuild want to see joe and i was sore. turning in. the day that the disaster happened santa barbara merrick happy morello says her first day on the job was one she'll never forget photographs and even video cannot tell the story she's those committees were working on ways to help their economy bounce back from the thomas fire just before the month slides hit we have lost of sales tax. people being employed they're not getting paid. bad taxes when people come to visit us and stay on our hotels even the day trippers can't get up here so now the main hope is to get the one on one freeway back open to visitors from the north and south can begin contributing to the economy once again jim shivers spokesperson for count trances crews are working at nextel are

a good pace hoping to reopen the one to one by next week so the locals may look at us one a one as kind of a local road and you could make the argument that it is but on the greater scale this is a major artery for the movement of goods and services and is directly related to the health of many businesses so now officials say it will take months for things to resume normal thing and only time will tell exactly what kind of financial impact. on that day and market on the coffee party. horrific that's all for now thanks for watching be sure to catch a boom bust on you tube you tube dot com slash boom bust arctic kitchenette. the new economic war is unfolding in the realm of education the right to education is being supplanted by the right to access education alone high education is

becoming just another product that can be bought and sold and it's not just about education anymore it's also about running a business and when you. look at this also. in the final economy. want is the place of students in this business model for college i was born now i'm an extremely more higher education the new global economic war. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. prescribed medication is widespread on the us market and a frequent cause of death at that point in my life i just felt like everything was ashes my family was literally coming unglued i had actually planned. to commit some

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president trump says it's very possible the north korean crisis kwan be resolved peacefully despite the two koreas agreeing to compete under one for i get the upcoming winter olympics. the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees slams america's decision to cut the organizations funding calling it the worst crisis in its history plus. right there on. russian agent is very hard on this right now says it lies and lies and lies are being told throughout europe and we hear the same story over and over again talk about russia dominates in the european parliament's with members clashing over.