this manufacture can be sentenced to public will. when the ruling classes protect themselves. but the claim is clear you go read this and be the one percent. in the middle of the room six. rooms in the. room. it's the beginning of the weekend this is boom bust broadcasting around the world and covering the world the business of finance and the impact upon all of us i'm mark shields in washington and we could not feed more please if you are on board

thank you for joining us coming up today we delve deeper into the crisis in venezuela and how the move from south america can shoot shockwave the global over especially in the oil market we'll be joined by bill hemmer amid a senior fellow at the university of pennsylvania's climate center for energy policy and a former official at the u.s. government's total energy regulatory commission and later steve small for going to tell us the hill that joined us to discuss the aaa earnings that amazon alphabet and all the follow all of that directly ahead but first let's get some headlines let's go. escalating and very protest in both hemispheres leads our global report today is the yellow best demonstrations continue for a twelfth week in france and copycat action spread to greece germany and argentina on saturday more than ten thousand stalwarts of the protest against high living cost an austerity. paris marches with at least

a few thousand participants took place in a handful of other cities in the first cycle of protest since president mccrone began a purported national conversation on economics there was a notable shift of emphasis this past week and towards the repressive response from police and authorities mr mccrone is now rumored to be preparing a national referendum vote on economic issues for late may in greece farmers have blocked roads across the country in protest over lowering fuel cost and taxes and stuck guard hundreds of german protesters appropriated the symbol of the yellow vest for a protest against bans on driving diesel cars the limits on diesel driving we told you about before were imposed due to the euro five emission standards and in argentina a yellow bester becoming a fashionable accessory to the more traditional pots and pans of the so-called cancer although protested the accident as a casserole in english and banging pots and pans against narrowing economic margins

for most argentines under president receive mockery and his financing deal with the international monetary fund that people are speaking or yelling or well they're certainly making noise about inequality. u.k. prime minister theresa may is set to travel to northern ireland to pledge she were fused to allow the imposition of the hard border between northern ireland still officially part of the u.k. and the republic of ireland ms may is attempting to settle or manage for now the so-called backstop issues we've spoken about many times on the program as the u.k. remains on a path to leave the european union on march twenty ninth in that scenario ireland a member of the e.u. and the related customs union would border a non issue you member northern ireland but a hard border would violate the good friday peace agreement that have managed to bring some peace to northern ireland and all players to bret's it talks a the in agreement must be. left in place the solution being demanded from the e.u.

side is the backstop the u.k. and northern ireland would stay in the e.u. customs union and abide by its rules after brecht's it but that would defeat the point of the process for many brits to tears leaving ms may with a seemingly unsolvable problem especially after parliament voted last week to direct the prime minister to meant to demand a reopening of negotiations with the new and insist upon a date for expiration of the backstop. and turning to the ongoing turmoil in venezuela president nicolas maduro has defied an ultimatum from former imperial powers of europe notably led by spain along with france germany and the u.k. demanding that mr mature abrogate the venezuelan constitution and call new elections on sunday mr moore oh said in a television interview quote we don't accept ultimatums from anyone it's as if i went to the e.u. and said i give you seven days to recognize the republic of catalonia or if not

we'll take measures after my duros defiance of the european union carried through this on the threat to join the united states to recognize as president vice president mike pence is favored appointee one would go meanwhile barely two thousand twitter accounts sympathetic to the bolivian bull bolivarian revolution and the elected government had been disabled with seven hundred sixty four of them deleted according to a news site and then away at venezuela analysis dot com twitter claim when pressed on the band's quote we are unable to definitively tie the account located in venezuela to information operations of a foreign government against another country. and checking in on oil markets west texas intermediate oil traded at nymex in new york was above fifty five dollars per barrel today it hasn't been that high since third week of november and brant crude futures traded at ice futures europe in london rally briefly earlier

today to two month highs but fell back closing just north of sixty two dollars per barrel the average price of a gallon of gasoline by the way the united states is currently at two dollars and twenty five cents that's thirty five cents less than this time a year ago. and speaking of oil we now take a closer look at the oil rich but all of our bear country of venezuela as the energy sector and their energy attributes and try to put those into perspective we're pleased to be joined by bill hemmer ben. he's a senior fellow at university of pennsylvania's climate center for energy policy he was a former official at the united states government federal energy regulatory commission bill thank you so much for being here are we talking on the phone and i can't be more excited to have you thank you for being. so let's start with venezuela that we know they've got all these rich resources but they haven't really made that much of it they've had some fits and starts tell us a little bit about that you know if you go back you have been started worrying

about that as well and while. that is well it was the first. western hemisphere countries to join open and that was. a major move we. were bother but yet of course they will you know more and we have been well it's the safest or the you know to me it was always strange when people talk about opec bill they they always think that it's just these middle eastern countries and so they go through the list and they talk about saudi arabia and u.a.e. eccentrics and i don't think people realize that venezuela is not just a member but a big an important member right yes i mean one of the founders and the we then

turned to western hemisphere partners canada of course and then venezuela for oil supplies that would be less at risk than the arab supplies and that worked well for a long time paid if they said the patrol is to venezuela. which is the state oil company was a world class player the i was like when in the ninety's yeah eighty. the ninety's and they were they were real players real partners everybody looked at them seriously and everything they had all these reserves and they were doing the right things where are they now in terms of i mean we know that they've decreased in their production but has the infrastructure which of course takes money has the infrastructure can't kept pace i don't you're telling me earlier about the rigs yeah so the infrastructure has not kept pace. i think it's the flat of of the

production numbers as well everything began declining about a decade or two ago and they haven't been able to turn that around flaw there was a real flood of talent out of paid a vespa both from people being fired and then people saying well let me get out i've got a lot of other opportunity if i'm willing to leave my home country and people sadly i think in most cases elected to do that and the production really just dropped after after that they haven't put the money in so now we have this really bizarre circumstance where the people have been. majority and seem to be doing a good job but now they have this other circumstance where different countries are recognising one good dog or some are staying like china and russia are saying no should stay there china of course has made the oil for money loans and

also ross neff the russian oil state oil company has main loans for oil to the venezuelan state energy company and i guess they've made a seven billion dollar loan they've got about two and a half of it out there still so this seems like a big mess to me. it's hard i don't know being in this town you and i both worked for government i guess it's easy to be cynical but this is a small about the money all about oil bill yeah i don't think so certainly oil and geopolitics are always mixing together that actually oil is becoming less of the core part of the geo political energy picture it's certainly a major part but what we're seeing i think i think china and russia are very wise to set up deals where they were getting paid in oil and if they were getting paid in ball advise they'd be very disappointed broker yeah absolutely but

a couple of other players i think there india is actually the u.s. is the primary he said in venezuelan exports but next is india and china is number three the us india and china right now i know. india is still trying at least they were effort to get oil from iran still too so they really need lots of it i mean how important is that as well an oil to the us if we are the major. importer of it and how much how important is the u.s. to venezuela yeah i think. very fair question we're pretty important to that as well but frankly oil is the oil a valuable commodity i'm sure someone will step up and take what the u.s. is not going to take in the other direction. the same sort of thing for our

country venezuela provides about seven percent of imports and we've got seven that's about point seven million barrels per day and we have seven hundred million barrels per day in our strategic petroleum reserve and you get into interesting. issues because the oil in the in the strategic petroleum reserve is light and sweet and there's well in oil it's had the power fineries in the gulf of mexico is set up to get a good part of this supply from this stuff so that will affect their you know does not the same stuff but it might all come out in the wash we're a global market place so it's not going to kill us if they stop the bigot's bill hemmer but thank you so much bill for to be very well very informative for all of

us thank you. and time now for a quick break but hang here because when we return we discussed the trip away earnings and competition will look at amazon alphabet and ali baba with steve malzberg and alex mahela bij and later i'll tell you why the unemployment numbers matter and not just those headline numbers as we go to break here the daily new york number that the closing bell will be back in a flash. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race move this on off and spearing dramatic developments only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful

very critical time time to sit down and talk. i think is later just. getting an error. and there's a number on she knew not. can if you had a way out all of them ok if the ball was not going to match the finale aired on larry king about a day away for the last three of a garage i don't know that i'm going to be. the one that having.

given people. who give the nightly. what the how do we slow our d. i assume alice are. not those jane mean the whole corn dog before. why do men are well known asia or so on are going. to. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you there. welcome back turning to india we reported to you last week on a scandal over alleged suppression of employment statistics that the government of

prime minister narendra modi seems to have found inconvenient ahead of expected elections in april and may now a body within the government is the bending the government says testicle integrity the policy making or gorgon chair chaired by mr modi the national institution for transforming india now says that the official findings on employment rates for the twelve months ending in march of twenty eight team has been delayed only to ensure the numbers are accurate and not for political reasons i think i've seen that movie to two members of the statistical commission resigned last week and frustration over delays in releasing the findings that indian unemployment was at a forty five year high of six point one percent. and jumping over the bay of bengali and and into oceana and to australia the financial sector is reeling from an officially commission report on financial misconduct after nearly

a year of hearings the anxiously anticipated report of the royal commission has arrived carrying seventy six recommendations that include creation of a new regulatory body for the australian finance sector the commission was appointed to survey and a sensibly remedy widespread malfeasance and fraud in australian finance and initial reviews of the report largely panned it as a disappointment many critics found fault with the commission because it did not recommend to require that any big banks be restructured or broken up and it didn't name any individuals it found to deserve to be charged with any crimes prime minister scott morrison may be able for now to cite his responsibilities to manage responses to environmental cause after fees in queensland and tasmania to avoid taking hold of this. right out of the u. of an but perhaps not for long stages. and today we look at some of the biggest of the big global companies and check in to see how they are doing we call it our aaa analysis and we'll look at amazon ali baba and alphabet to lend us

a hand we're joined by conservative commentators steve malzberg an r.t. correspondent alex mahela bij from toronto and steve let's start with you on which reported earnings the other day they beat expectations that it seems largely based upon some really huge holiday sales right. yeah they had they had a much better than expected fourth quarter report they beat on earnings per share coming in at six dollars and four cents the street was expecting five sixty eight they beat on revenue coming in seventy two point four billion dollars the street was expecting seventy one point nine and on sales sales rose nineteen percent which sounds really good you got to remember though that quarter to quarter that's the lowest quarterly increase though since the first quarter of two thousand and fifteen web services soared forty five percent and really their advertising business is really skyrocketing and taking off actually taking business away from

google in large numbers they grew ninety five percent year over year from four and a half billion to about ten billion which seems like a little more than that ninety five percent but those are the numbers so that's very encouraging but the stockton do so well because the guidance was discouraging whereas in two thousand and eighteen they made a conscious effort not to spend so much they said hey guess what we're going to have to spend in two thousand and nineteen we have two new campuses opening up in new york and d.c. wiring fifty thousand more employees so that's problematic and revenue estimates are now at about six fifty six to sixty billion for this year when the street expected sixty one you also have of course the whole foods of business which is down eighty two would growth is that. an eighteen percent from forty two percent a year ago even though sales rose six percent you also have abba's on in the business of video but they're not like netflix or hulu you can't go there and get

original content and various programs you subscribe to h.b.o. cinemax showtime and others through the amazon channel and you have to be a member of prime but that's moving along quite nicely too and they might expand on that by the way steve i know you're going to be down here the next couple of days in d.c. but this of the amazon headquarters are right down it's literally you know a mile from where i'm sitting in the studio here and interestingly for our viewers it is i don't know a quarter mile from the pentagon it's a really interesting space and they are already starting to to build it you'll you'll see it tomorrow when you when you come down yeah. let's let's let's get you on ali baba the chinese multinational conglomerate which focuses upon well they do a lot of things but they really are big into e-commerce retail they're twenty years old this year after having been started by c.e.o. jack ma and seventeen of his buddies with an initial investment of twenty five

million dollars from goldman sachs and japan's softbank many of us remember back in two thousand and fourteen when they had that largest ever initial offering to go national public offering is twenty five billion bucks it is worked out for the company as they now have a market capitalization of more hundred more than three hundred fifty billion dollars alex they reported their numbers and they beat expectations give us some of the deeper details. look revenue growth was about forty forty one percent year over year and when you look at those people are like oh my gosh what's happening alibaba used to be fifty percent year over year but now so this is the big drop which but what we're seeing here is actual growth so they outperform what analysts thought was going to happen also another significant part here of growth is the monthly active users using the mobile service with its reach six hundred ninety nine million from breezing by thirty three million which is huge also strong profits

they have the cash flow this is a pretty strong company and as i meant so much of the winning streak of fifty plus percent it's down to forty one. jack was crying that a lot of people are blaming you know there is an economic slowdown in china so that could be a factor there also there's other factors like the dealings between china and the u.s. but look at this graph of this kind of tells you just how dominant ali baba is so as of june two thousand and eighteen alibaba basic rule e-commerce when it comes to china over fifty eight percent of market share the competitor in line is j.d. dot com at seventeen percent there's also optimism that the stock it was pretty hit pretty hard in the profitable months of rebound it optimism that is going to go up again simply because the china and u.s. trade deal could happen and people are optimistic about that. i want to get to alphabet the owner of google we don't have much time steve and i know this just

came out while we're doing the program but they reported they beat expectations a thirty nine point two eight billion in revenues that stock value of twelve dollars and seventy seven cents what about also that state. forgive me for reading because it did just come out as you mentioned they beat with thirty nine point twenty eight billion the street was expecting thirty eight point nine three earnings per share they was free. was expecting ten dollars in eighty two they came in at twelve seventy seven but i will say the stock is down three percent last i looked after hours because of the fact that traffic acquisitions the money the fees that they paid to companies like apple to gain access to their platforms was higher than expected seven point four four billion and compared to seven point zero two billion that was expected so that's what's got it going down a little bit after hours thank you so much steve wallace we're going to alex mahela

bitch thanks for your time guys and you. every month on the broadcast we bring you the numbers on american on employment and many times we discussed numbers around the world we did it the other day well for the past one hundred month one hundred month that streak of job creation in the u.s. has been soaring gangbusters aside from a few bumps in the road the u.s. economy has been cruising and gaining steam but just the headline numbers dominating the discourse isn't doing average folks much good we need to look further the issue of income inequality that we speak about all the time spoke about earlier with the various protests around the world are rooted in the reality of those numbers and as we are fond of saying the numbers matter so here are some data details you won't get anywhere else let's look further at the u.s.

jobs numbers while all unemployment is a good thing for those seeking work and more americans are working than in the recent past but what about the quality of those jobs according to a new report from the u.k.'s guardian analyst at federal reserve banker animals and federal reserve bankers and knowledge many of the new jobs being created are overwhelmingly either high skill and high wage or more often low skill low wage jobs there's a definitive divide average paying jobs or vanishing jobs that once dominated the middle class in the states are gone with the loss of those jobs has come a decrease in average living standards and the wage growth for those that do have jobs is fairly stagnant the other day we told you that in assembler wages grew at three point two percent from a year earlier which seems like that's pretty good right but according to the economic policy institute wages would have had to grow at a rate of three point four to three point five to four percent for average workers

to feel any impact plus a bank rate survey uncovered that sixty two. center of workers say they did not receive an increase in salary last year and that's up by ten percent from the year before and twenty seventeen plus forty percent of households in the us the wealthiest nation to ever exist forty percent can't afford a one thousand dollars emergency all of this is happening as the most significant piece of economic legislation passed in recent years was a two trillion dollars corporate tax cut for the richest among us most of which did not trickle down to workers as promised the rising tide has not lifted all boats in the united states and these are the numbers we should keep our eyes upon in the u.s. and around the world and that's why here on this broadcast on boom bust we'll continue to work to do better will break the numbers down and look at what it might mean for all of us not just the wealthiest at the tough but average individuals and families the numbers do matter. and that's it for this time thanks for being with us and

speaking of numbers that for that matter you can catch boom bust on direct t.v. channel number three twenty one dish network channel number two waiting for streaming twenty four seven on pluto t.v. the free t.v.'s channel number one thirty two ers always hit us up at youtube dot com slash boom bust archie so long for now see an extra. year thank you for finally changing. your stand you're tired of networks learn new with you. you know me i'm famous for my views. and. yours truly scottie nell hughes. do you know what you've got in your head you

might think it's a phone but in the news we see it as t.v. with blue t.v. the free and unlimited t.v. you get t.v. everywhere for free and since t.v. is everywhere so is artsy streaming on all your favorite devices outdoors or inside any time of day or night catch all of our award winning shows news and cutting edge analysis everywhere you look and where ever you go question. with little make us manufacture to be sentenced to public wealth. when the ruling class is protect themselves. with the finest larry go around lifts and be the one percent.

we can all middle of the room sick. believe me the real news is really. exists is a sticker from the water bottle found in the stomach of a fish the brand is part of the coca-cola company which sells millions of bottles of soda every day the idea was that let's tell consumers there are the bad ones there the litter bugs are throwing this away industry should be blamed for all of this waste the company has long promised to reuse the plastic. that's. a special kind of funding me. on the. phone now the mountains of waste only grow higher.

top headlines here on our international pressure building on the venezuelan president nicolas maduro as more nations come forward and their backing of the country's opposition leader a report on the man behind one why dose rising problem. the borders seems the pentagon claim islamic state will resurface in the middle east if

and do you think u.s. leaders.