this is boom bust broadcasting around the world and covering the world of business of finance and the impact on all of us i'm sorry children in washington we're sure glad you're on for coming up today we talk commodities and agriculture i may squeeze a boil in there if we have time and how they tied into trade andrew heck independent commodity analyst joins us to discuss is standing by in las vegas plus we take a look at some of the biggest stocks and how they are fairing in the midst of a slowing market adam s. c.e.o. of adam ash trading group will be with us to break it all down plus the world economic forum in davos switzerland has had some major speeches from national leaders we'll tell you about that and later perception professor of economics americans richard wolfe is back to talk about world economic health all that directly had but first to some headlines let's go. bad news for great britain on

the edge of brecht's that leads our global report today is the united kingdom's main business savvy the group warns of waiting optimism and sony corp in sandton their bank both announced plans to move jobs out of the u.k. the confederation of british industry or c.b.i. reports that in their latest survey of three hundred twenty six manufacturing firms that manufacturing expectations fell in q four to their lowest point since july of two thousand and sixteen in a summary of the results c.b.i. said business optimism in the quarter to january fell sharply with sentiment regarding export prospects dropping at the fastest pace since the financial crisis the c.b.i. as head of economic intelligence and a leech addressed the elephant in the room saying quote the manufacturing sector is currently feeling the pinch of brecht's it uncertainty. meanwhile electronics major sony says they will officially declare their european headquarters is no longer located in london. and instead registering their corporate residence in the

netherlands due to the ongoing brecht's that debacle a sony spokesperson said we are moving the location of our european headquarters registration to the netherlands making sony a company based in the e.u. in an optimistic perspective i suppose somebody could say that sony's move does seem to bring more insult than industry in that job totals and functions in london will remain unchanged. at the same time a company with greater emotional ties to the u.k. dies and those famous yellow vacuum cleaners is also officially moving their headquarters from england to singapore dyson c.e.o. sir james dyson who is a prominent supporter of the u.k. leaving the european union denied the move was related to bricks. and randy rounding out the bad news today spade sent tend their bank will close one hundred forty six hundred branches in the u.k. over twelve hundred employees are purley work at those locations and the bank has indicated that roughly two thirds of those jobs will be eliminated though they will

consult with labor leaders to minimize the pain santander officials said the location closings were due to moving away from traditional banking and towards online money management. and we now take a look at commodities and how they have been impacted by a few factors to do so we are pleased to be joined by andy hack a top contributor at seeking alpha and he does a weekly commodity to report it seeking alpha's marketplace channel i know andy from is a former radio show where i was pleased to join him a few years ago and i'm so thankful i could be more excited to have with us today from las vegas hey andy how are you. hey bart thank you so much for having me how are you i'm great and all the boom busters are going to be big beneficiaries of your insight and intelligence on this so you know commodities have had a really tough row to hoe in the last year and let's take a look at a couple of the factors that have been impacting them and importantly their price

for instance among them of course is the tit for tread trade war with china and how they've been impacted and what do you make of the current circumstances andy. well you know china is the demand side of the fundamental equation for commodities i mean they're the most populous nation in the world they're certainly the fastest growing major nation in the world with the second largest g.d.p. the the treated for tat trade war really affects china more than it affects the u.s. because we as the u.s. expect but that china exports more to the u.s. than we export to china but what i've been watching is the copper price because the commodities are on the front lines in the trade war because they flow around the world so i've been watching the price of copper as a barometer for what's going on with china these days and while oil has rebounded from its christmas eve eve low. gold has been doing better copper is kind of

just sitting and stagnating at to sixty five a pound and that's telling me that you know it's really filtering through to the chinese economy and we saw that with the latest g.d.p. data but the one thing i want to point out about china is bart very important to remember china's nominal g.d.p. is around fourteen trillion so even though they're not true growing a double digit percentage rate today the nominal growth is still greater than it was when it was growing at double digit rate so the chinese are eating more hamburgers every day they're consuming more products every day and that's underpins commodity demand in the world so and eventually i think that we will find a way out of this tit for tat trade war you know at the end of the day china has the benefit of patients because of their political system u.s.

is under a little bit more pressure although there is some bipartisan support for what we're doing with the with in terms of tightening. a noose on trade let me ask you to course when you talk about copper in the you know they call it dr copper because a centrally think that copper is a forecaster of economic. future and with the fastest growing economy in the in the world china you know of course that is a great indicator copper that is let me ask you about the government shutdown the partial government shutdown another factor increase impacting commodities particularly agriculture commodities how are they being dealt with during this time indeed. sure just to tie that into the the china thing for a minute so china traditionally buys one quarter of the u.s. soybean crop and the fact that china cancelled all their purchases for two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen cause the price of soybeans to go down

dramatically now soybeans are now trading at about nine fifteen a bushel nine dollars fifteen cents a bushel which is approximately a dollar below where they were last year so it's farmers are getting ready to plant their crops and making their planting decisions they're looking at much lower prices but this three issues i think bart that the government shutdown is really important for the agricultural markets first it's going to start to hit the economy hard you know the fed it could cause the fed to pause they're tightening and when it comes to commodities there's two schools of thought if the fed pauses the dollar might go down which tends to be bullish for commodities but we could also see some recessionary pressures and a risk or if environment like we saw in q four now when it comes to specifically to the big agricultural commodities like corn soybeans and wheat there is no u.s.d.a. was the reports that's the world agricultural supply and demand estimates report

which is really the gold standard for the fundamentals of those market and ended and then are quick to interrupt me and those reports are reports that are really particularly important at this time of year when farmers producers are getting ready to make some planting decisions where do they invest do they buy into they buy soybeans and what are they put in the ground and they can't make those decisions because of the partial government shutdown we're out of time now and the i'm so sorry but i hope you'll come back soon because we've got lots more to get to that's andy act thank you so much great to see oh sorry we're short on time andy. thanks bart pre-shared it. there is earnings and more news from some major companies out until we take a closer look and we help get the help of adam mesh of adam mesh trading adam with so great to have you first of all let's take a look at comcast they beat expectations by

a little in their fourth quarter earnings with more than twenty seven point eight billion bucks in revenues and the company i was reading owns universal only they've got a big studios the hollywood studios and they got a big bump from the grinch over the holidays but i didn't read much more than that house comcast doing adam. the grinch who saved christmas for. comcast was up eight point nine percent the stock is looking great today and they also announced they're going to have their own streaming network available in the first half of two thousand and twenty which is big news and it will have ads on it so be more like hulu the netflix and what about their subscribers you know comcast we you know i know it from back in the day is pretty much a cable program cable company i mean how are they doing with all the cord cutters out there. you know they've been holding their own comcast looked good in all of

its numbers across the board and they responded well to earnings so they're definitely on the uptick all right let's move to another one and this is a great barometer we were talking in a moment ago with andy hack about copper being a barometer of economic health but let's look at johnson and johnson and you know that's one of the reason i want to look at them is they are sort of looked at as a bellwether for some related companies or there's some new news today that they may try to require this some surgical robotic sperm or a stealth i think it is so first out of how is j. and j. doing and are they and do they really set the tone for some related companies and markets. is positive on comcast given j. and j. they had a down the year and they have a lot of things that are going to serve as anchors to their stock price so the stock hasn't been performing well and earnings didn't help them at all and what

you're looking at now is some of their biggest drugs are going to have their patents expire which means they're going to be susceptible to generic drugs replacing some of their business so not very high in johnson and johnson right now there are a c.e.o. alex said that you know they're pretty much he didn't even anticipate that they're going to be really profitable in and growing until till twenty twenty do you know anything about this or is health or whether or not that really would help them fuel inject not now you're say you're down on them but in the future is it too early to tell well it will help in robotics which is a really hot area and it's good that they're getting involved so like amazon the kind of involved in everything when it comes to health sciences but. that's only a two billion dollar deal and johnson and johnson's a three hundred forty five billion dollar company so it doesn't move the needle in terms of what they need to turn the ship all right and the last one i want to get

to big blue i.b.m. . i saw that they beat expectations and i didn't follow the stock all day but i shot i saw that shot up almost seven percent this morning what's going on with i.b.m. and what's the future hold of what do you think about them as an investment. even more of i.b.m. today than i did yesterday i've been a bear on i.b.m. for years starting from when i was one sixty continued up to one eighty my bold prediction of two thousand and eighteen was that it would hit one hundred when i was at one eighty eight got to one o five so i didn't make it there but i came real close and then i kind of stepped aside i'm not i don't have an opinion on i.b.m. fortunately because i only lean in one direction but after their earnings that stock shot up and whenever you have a stock that's mr earning so many quarters in a row that finally beats are going to see an extreme reaction so we saw that extreme reaction today and i was looking around to see were there any naysayers anyone doubt in the move everybody was positive which is

a good thing and it looks like they're actually doing a better job than i anticipated in incorporating redhat their recent acquisition into their business model so i definitely wouldn't get in the way of i.b.m. i think it has some room to go up which feels weird coming out of my mouth i'm still not going to buy it i don't believe in the company long term but. i definitely wouldn't short it here so i.b.m. right now is on the move up if you do it if you say that five years and unless and every time since and you'd be right to it's been down we appreciate you looking at these hot stocks today adam as c.e.o. of adam mesh trading thank you so much adam thank you so much. and speaking of hot hot on the heels of a major victory for striking teachers in los angeles which we told you about yesterday teachers in denver colorado have voted to authorize their union leaders to call a strike that could be good as early as monday the strike proposal received overwhelming support of ninety three percent in the vote among the five thousand six hundred

educators represented by the denver classroom teachers association the group has been rigaud sheeting with denver public schools for higher base pay instead of bonuses tied to standardized test results for over a year but the school district has refused to budge the denver action is just the latest in a series of labor actions by. u.s. teachers which notably began last year and repeatedly conservative red states including arizona and west virginia the wave is now reaching work or progressive areas of the u.s. in cases that we talked about in los angeles and now in denver. and time now for a quick break here because when we return there's been some major speeches of the world economic forum in davos switzerland from national leaders will tell you about that and later professor of economics americas richard walt is back to talk about the world economic health a little break here the numbers at the closing bell we'll be back in a flash. in

twenty four to you know bloody revolution to the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be increasingly violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you know lloyd i mean you know i was put in the. new school in the middle of the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty four. those who took part in this today over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these an article that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. led. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront

a shouldn't let it be an arms race. here in dramatic development only. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. you know where you are. doesn't want to know most of those who put in your years and years it was not observed. not like. we used the phrase the ways of the idea but destruction that's the way. the. needs any of. these. suits and there you.

welcome back their heads and some key speeches in switzerland at the world economic forum even bano from you tube was on a sustainability panel today and prince british prince william spoke about mental health but we focus on a few of the national leaders speeches we start with brazilian president are by also narrow who made his debut at the world economic forum there just as this family has been linked to a death squad suspected in a prominent assassination in a notably brief speech to attendees mr balsam narrows promise a new brazil and encourage businesses to move to his country he also reciting very familiar pledges about ending brazilian corruption mr balsam near also attended a dinner with apple and microsoft c.e.o.'s but back home in rio de janeiro a bombshell local report links the president's son slave you'll balsa nero and

a righteous in a rights death squad suspected in the killing of local count a local council member and a human rights activist mariel franco meanwhile the bow best stock index that we speak about so often on the program hit an all time high this path. friday and has continued to keep pace. and president simon ramaphosa of south africa is in davos for his first time since attending the world record i meant for it since he assumed the presidency rather mr ramaphosa spokes person made clear even before his arrival that the president would discuss the issue of official corruption that the davos audience was anxious for him to address in remarks mr ramaphosa touted management changes at state owned companies and a four hundred forty percent increase in direct foreign investment in south africa to africa to over seven billion dollars. and german chancellor angela merkel also spoke fighting back against insurgent populist movements around the

world saying quote there is a new approach that we see in the world today an approach that harbors doubts as to the the living the international systems i have my grave doubts that this is the right way to go the chancellor went on to say we should always remember that others have vested interest factor them in and then shape a win win situation. even before the world economic forum officially kicked off a cohort of investors executives in a fish elected officials who attend davos we're already buzzing about a remarkable letter a letter from a person well known to them but virtually unknown outside of their circles billionaire investors seth klarman well regarded for his management of twenty seven billion dollars at the group wrote a twenty two page letter to his investors warning quote it can't be business as usual amid constant protests riots shutdown and escalating social tensions here

discuss this i catching up to the world's global leaders richard wolffe professor of economics americas at the university of massachusetts amherst professor welcome again i suspect there is a significant overlap between. your perspective of mr clairmont first off he wrote social cohesion is essential for those who have a capital too and who have capital invest it is he right to warn that unrest may begin to develop in real threats to the current system what do you think. one hundred percent correct is absolutely you know it's an old truism that most reasonable people understand you cannot have an economy functioning any kind of economy but a capitalist one for sure in a society that is literally falling apart you can't rely on your workers to show up you can't rely on what they will do if they do show up you can't rely on the

relationships between them and their families in terms of what they will buy and what work they will do and what political movements they will support and all of those things are now up for grabs which is why this famous investor and manager wrote that letter and look let's look around the world the yellow vests in france are making it impossible for that society to function because they've had it with an economic system that makes a few people very rich and the mass of people having a harder and harder time we're seeing it here we've had more strikes of public schoolteachers in the united states in the last twelve months than we had in the preceding twenty five years you'd have to be blind and deaf and dumb not to see that this is a society that is being wrenched apart by the inequality that is being produced here and by the instability the bubble bursting of the dot com bubble in two thousand the income and mortgage crisis of two thousand and eight and so on and so

he's saying pay attention to these social consequences because if you don't they will come back and undo the economic wealth you've created so i wonder professor at me you know how do we deal with it so at that the facts are you know we've you've helped us speak about them on the program before the whole. you know income inequality issue that we want to talk about we do talk about so here you have this known guy mr. clairmont who you know is part of sort of the system the capitalist system and you know i just wonder how we deal with fixing things you know if you're that famous saying professor if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem how do you go about changing things in a realistic manner not just you know bomb throwing what do you think. but i think there are both short term and long term responses that ought to be made you might

call them reform in the one hand and more basic change on the other here some reforms including those that mr carmine himself has endorsed in various forums you could change the tax structure we have decreased the level of taxation on wealthy people and on corporations for the last thirty years it's one of the major reasons we have this inequality we ought to change that and i don't mean doing something we haven't done before i mean going back say to the tax structures in the united states of the one nine hundred fifty s. and sixty's and seventy's when the highest income people paid a much higher percentage of their income in taxes than they do today they've had a tax cut beyond anything average americans have seen and that can be and should be reversed because that would put resources into the hands of the government that can

provide services jobs and so on to the mass of people who needed let me give you even more stark example at the davos meetings the most important institution in the world that measures inequality oxfam in britain presented a report and the bombshell of the report was this the richest twenty six individuals in the world people like buffet and gates and folks like that jeff bezos the richest twenty six have more wealth than the. bottom half of the population of this planet three point eight billion people and just follow me with this if we took half the wealth of those twenty six people by a tax they would still be the twenty six richest people on this earth but we would have an enormous improvement in the standards of living of three point eight

billion people so that they don't have to die early that they can do for their children what they hope to be able to do that they can live decent lives i don't know of anyone with a serious ethical or moral commitment religious or otherwise who wouldn't see in this a better way to go but in the longer run. in the longer run we've got to do something about a system that delivers this kind of inequality we don't hire have a system that distributes the output that we have goods and services in a way that is fair to everybody we deliver to a few people in that enormous part of it and to the rest of us we're worried about the meal next week we're worried about giving our kids a college education this is not the way to organize the distribution of the goods and services we all help to produce in our different ways and that's the basic change though that we won't have this kind of inequality disrupting our societies

in the future yeah boy i couldn't agree with you more and whether or not it's at the ballot box or other other means but trying to get some of these changes would be very helpful i did note just finally in closing professor that mr clairmont warned about the the debt in britain canada spain and france saying that quote the seeds of the next major financial crisis are the one after that may well be found in today's sovereign debt levels and we were pleased to have you on not too long ago and and talk exactly about that issue and so we were ahead of it and i'm glad you mentioned that oxfam report we talked touched on it the other day but you added a lot of more texture to it so we appreciate you for that and we hope you'll come back to continue to help educate us professor richard how all the resurrected omelets of marriages the university of massachusetts thanks professor thank you will be glad to talk with you again. and when we say our goodbye we often mention

pluto t.v. well news today is that pluto t.v. where you can catch boom bust on channel one thirty two has been acquired by media conglomerate viacom for three hundred forty million dollars and that is all the time we have for today thanks for being on board in addition to pluto t.v. you can catch us. on direct t.v. channel three twenty one dish network channel two eighty or as always hit us up at youtube dot com slash boom bust r.t. so long for now see you next time.

we setup the face of the years from pics and if these islands off today but the reality is there may still be a show and. have it in this fine lair of micro plastics why see you bury. the biggest thing and show these that we've never had an empty. plate to the contents of the something of an albatross. people obviously come in they just throw them into the water as disposal it may not be harmful for that little fish that eats one fragment of plastic but once it makes its way up to us in the food chain it's getting to levels that are harmful. i don't know president c.c.u. personally to tell you if he's a sociopath who enjoys brutality i can't tell you that he's probably not that he

probably thinks that he's doing the right thing that this is a necessary evil that he needs to eliminate. other differing political points of view and that he needs to crack down on people for having stopped thinks that he's doing it for the best interests of egypt she thinks that he's doing your for the best interests of egyptians but it's definitely not the cure. us veterans who come back from war often tell the same stories. were going after the people who were killing civilians they were not interested in the wellbeing of their own soldiers either they're already several generations of them so i just got this memo from the search for answers officers were going to attack and destroy their governments and seven countries in five years americans pay for the wars with their money others with their lives if we were willing to go into harm's way and

willing to risk being killed for a war surely we can risk some discomfort for an easy for. a. cause. we would like a sobering anything but all options are on the day donald trump recognizes venezuela's opposition leader as the country's interim leader prompting elected president nicholas my daughter to break diplomatic relations with the u.s. accusing washington of an attempted coup. promo doro i'm anti government demonstrations erupted across venezuela where the opposition supporters are police clashing. the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe so.