let's get started. and we begin on historic day which no matter how you feel about it right here in washington d.c. this is that historic day as the house debates articles of impeachment and we look at how the market is reacting because both republicans and democrats they are fighting and on the day that you would expect the markets to react in a dramatic way well they didn't take a look the dow is basically flat just slightly up on this day is this largely because despite the cable news obsession the truth is this is all actually just political theater the markets know that the house will impeach it's going to happen they've known it for months they also know the senate will acquit and there is virtually 0 chance that the president will be removed from office and so the markets again have not responded to the negative way they haven't really responded at all look at that and while politicians might lie chrystia numbers do not exactly and this is exactly what happened last friday when apparently a trader on trade deal was announced everybody expected the market to react as he

said like i love the word to use political theater because that's what exactly what it is just like before us trade theater that's right we know we know what the outcome is going to be today there's not going to be any surprise and we know what the outcome will be one of the ultimate moves of the senate so the markets as you've said have already priced all of this and have a not exactly so it's i actually don't understand why we have so much coverage when really it's going to be a moot point all of this is just going to be thrown out ultimately that's where it goes so again we know that even as they debate this will ultimately by thursday will have an impeachment and it will go anywhere from there not really market moving is that right. french government and unions are facing up wednesday over the highly controversial pension reforms we are now 14 days into a crippling transport strike that has left businesses damaged and commuters frustrated massive numbers of protesters took to the streets again on tuesday over the issue of french president emanuel macron pushing for

a sweeping revamp of the pension system french workers and unions do not want the change boom bust correspondent charlet dubinsky is in paris with the latest. now into its 3rd week france's public transport strike continues to paralyze paris and parts of the country unions claim that $1800000.00 people headed out to the streets of france on tuesday in another day of nationwide strikes official government figures though suggest that it was far fewer they say around $615000.00 what is clear though is that the proposed changes to pensions in france has put up many people's backs and in addition to fears that pensions may be with less in the future retailers are telling woos currently as a result of that strike action the union of hotel and restaurants are warning of a poor 2nd year running in the lead up to christmas it says that in parts of paris

hotel bookings are down by around 60 percent compared to this time last year while restaurants are also being squeezed with a drop of around 30 to 50 percent in takings and as. christmas shoppers like straw going to get into paris with only skeleton services operational at peak times retailers are feeling the pinch as well the retail federation protocol says its members have reported an average decline in sales of 25 to 30 percent the french government is determined to press ahead with its reforms to the pension systems what it wants to do is to consolidate 42 different pensions many with some special benefits down into one universal system it says that this will be fairer and it will be more transparent now it also controversially wants to raise

the age over time and from 62 to 64 unions argue that these changes will leave people working for longer and perhaps they'll end up with even less money now despite the can to. we need strikes the government says it won't back down no i say that the unions say we'll say it looks like it's a waiting to see who. all the while businesses and families are suffering. from boom bust in paris. and joining us now to go deeper is the host of economic update richard wolffe richard thank you for being here so let's begin with this what do you make of the effort here by the french government to completely overhaul the pension system you know the question the share that asked who will blink 1st will it be the government or will it be the unions. well in terms of what the government is trying to do calling it a reform or calling it updating or of simplifying that's that's just p.r.

what this is about is reducing the pensions of the french working class they are among the best in the world they have been for decades and mr mugg crowell thinks that he can get the support of the business community in france which he may well be able to do by cutting the pensions in order to cut taxes on business the usual right wing proposals and that's why the workers are out in strike it was only a matter of simplifying or putting $42.00 systems into one and there were guarantees that it wouldn't hurt the people then they wouldn't be going out on the streets so what you see is an attempt by the mass of people not to permit and this is the important point not to permit the reduction of pensions for people who have finished a lifetime of work remember pensions have come down in the united states in the last 20 years they've come down in britain they've come down in

a number of other countries the french know exactly what you get is being planned my mark crawl for them and like the french do they're not having it. now the french government constantly claims that this new system will actually be fairer than the current system and it seems like it's a big claim to win popular approval but it's not working hard until all the these protests why is that. i believe there and you put your finger on it there you've got a problem we've just had over a year of the yellow vest movement a massive movement of the french people not the french unions demanding that the inequality they're suffering and the for the same feeling they have it's the best word i can think of that their being screwed by this government in a systematic way has meant that the government is not believed so when the government speaks even if it is saying in the particular case something that's true

they're lost they have lost this struggle that despite all of the inconveniences that your reporter spoke about in transport the reality is that the polls are crystal clear the majority of people even the majority of people who say they've been inconvenienced understand why this is being done and are on the sides of people who don't want to see their pensions cut into the point you know you brought up the yellow bus of the yellow of us movement which seems to be somewhat in some ways of coalescing with this movement by the unions a lot of the yellow issues began with higher taxes and people were angry about that mace basically meaning we're having to pay more meanwhile on the pension side you're getting less and it's not that you're getting less government handouts you're getting less of your own money that's been set aside your own labor that you've put in right so it seems like the overwhelming kind of feeling coming from

the french president microphone is that on one side you're going to pay more you're going to get less and you should just be happy about it because ultimately it's better for everyone how is he so. out of touch do you think with the french people on this. again i think he doesn't understand that unlike in britain then unlike in the united states the crash of the capitalist system back in 2809 turned the french people who are naturally critical of the government and of big business into a solid group of people who don't believe what the people running the society tell them you're absolutely right to go back to the beginning of yellow vests let me remind everyone mr mccraw said i'm raising taxes on fuel because i'm committed to improving the ecology and the french people said there's $800.00 ways to improve the ecology you're not making us pay for it we have

a very rich upper class in this country go get the money from them since mr micro bases himself politically on those people he didn't but he lost the people there and now that the unions and the yellow vests have come together he is in no position to regain the trust he's lost and millions continue to go out into the streets to protest richard wolffe host of economic update thank you for your insight. thank you. we work is struggling to stay alive and reduce its massive cash burn operations in light of its epic failed i.p.o. and managed to arrange a $1750000000.00 letter of credit with goldman sachs that is in the process of being syndicated this quite a lifeline as part of soft banks $9500000000.00 bailout which is not expected to be finished until the 1st quarter of 2020 until then we work will have to reduce its $700000000.00 per quarter cash burn rate in order to stretch funds and free up

restricted cash now in light of we work failure that too many people signaled the peak of the unicorn i.p.o. bubble chinese competitor you commune formally known as your work is gearing up for a new york i.p.o. you commun is trying to biggest co-working company and seeks to raise $100000000.00 with a valuation at $2600000000.00 while bankers are questioning its decision to file so soon after we works disaster you come in claims to have monetize the business better than we work this remains to be seen as you commune is still profitable and burns about $47000000.00 in operating cost per quarter you communist trying for the 1st all chinese i.p.o. process in the us after credit suisse citi group and bank of america also are said to have defected over concerns regarding valuations instead the lead underwriters for this i.p.o. targeted for january of 2020 includes high toll international securities and china renaissance securities. where the drug administration is finalizing

a set of rules to limit exports of sophisticated technology to china these include products like quantum computing 3 d. printing technologies and transistor technology used to manufacture semiconductors the rules are said to address specific national security issues as the administration continues to accuse china of purchasing sensitive u.s. technologies with quote clear military applications china has issued its stance on this. firmly. does the u.s. generalizing the concept of national security and abusing export control measures to meddle in obstruct normal business cooperation exchanges between enterprises we urge the u.s. to do something conducive to china us mutual trust and cooperation instead of the other way around the united states may think that by restricting the export of cutting edge technology to china they can thwart chinese scientific and technological innovation and contain china's development and progress which. was

tensions on the surface of the trade war seem to normalize the real war the technology war continues to escalate just beneath the surface the us continues to battle on multiple fronts in this brewing war with china in addition to limiting purchases it continues to pressure germany to bar while away from its telecom network but germany is not really interested in doing that they have delayed until next year a decision on security rules that would essentially shut while way out if it goes into effect that's a big if benny wall way would add years of delays and billions of dollars and cost a lot in 5 g. networks for that country that's why it's probably very unlikely that's going to happen time now for a quick break but hang in there because when we come back a bankruptcy judge has agreed when a $4000000000.00 settlement for p.g. any what it means for the victims of california's northern wildfires as we go to break here the numbers at the close.

being in some ways similar. to. the traditional. we're also acting sin other words if i'm a doing it is a bug being urban mobile occupation the flexible physically for studious and articulate and so on then jews were the 1st modern schools that was their specialization.

i had a spiritual experience. and i had the little girl that died in the fire cynthia collins. a 5 year old son. are looking for a cure and reaching. 54 years old and 21 years old go through all heart of. a crime i didn't commit. i only knew that he was innocent doesn't read rumors that nobody will listen. you know your. trial was pretty much a farce. we already had him guilty before the trial. you know why. because. i've. not people who will. approve through to me has room for different himself or something. i knew she

was in there and i knew exactly what i was doing. people life. and sometimes there's no explanation. chrysler has signed a merger agreeing that with p.s.a. a deal that would potentially create the world's 4th largest automaker some analysts say the $47000000000.00 deal has the potential to reshape the global auto industry when tomorrow we're joined by. in toronto so alex tell us about this

matter. we have the tally of american automaker fiat chrysler joining up with p.s. a better known for their brands such as peugeot and citroen of course it's a french company this is for a few reasons that these 2 companies are merging together they hope that the merger will help them deal with the global industry needs at this point which include making more fuel efficient cars as well as making electric cars moving away from gasoline as well as the challenge of just simply that there's a downturn in car sales so putting these 2 forces together should give them a little bit more strength moving forward now the combined goal of the 2 companies is to sell 8 point $7000000.00 vehicles annually that's pretty much what they're doing now when you take the 2 companies and put them together they could have the capacity to build $14000000.00 cars but just under $9000000.00 mark is what they're looking at if they do manage to get that they will be the 4th largest automaker

maker in the world after volkswagen toyota and renault nissan and now their marked advantages for this merger are as bent should 1st of all demanding a new emissions rules that are coming out they can move that forward and 2nd of all just basically the technology so that these 2 things are actually what he is hoping to gain from p.s.a. as for p.s.a. the big thing that they're going to get here is the fact that they get into the american market with iconic brands like jeep so it's a win win situation for both. you know you can sell a lot of dodge ram pickup and sarah in the us and they can pay for a lot of stuff with that you know a lot of folks are obviously excited about this deal but one of the problems with this is when you do merge 2 companies like this obviously the goal right is to eliminate redundancy and so that could be a sticking point here right. well that's one sticking point there's a couple of sticking points here we're going to go to the finance minister here's a quote from him i think is pretty much sums up the real major concerns here so the

government while comes this alliance and will continue to closely monitor the impact in terms of development investment and employment now employment is really the big one here so as you can imagine here we have an italian american company so rome is concerned about this paris is concerned because of p.s.a. which is a french company and obviously auto workers unions are concerned as well when you take this combined workforce we're looking at 400000 jobs on the line here so obviously there's a lot of people that are involved in this and a job cuts are something that somebody is all of the companies are always concerned about government's even more so so that's a big deal also we have to look at the development side of things so this is one of those situations where they're thinking you know what 2 minds or 2 heads are better than one putting this all this effort and all those power into one place from these 2 baths of companies is a good thing in the sense that they could tackle the green vehicle thing they could tackle the autonomy vehicle issues that we have right now as well as comic 70 we know that more and more vehicles are becoming connected to

a grid for traffic patterns etc just for the autonomous vehicle aspect of it all as well now this process of attaining 1st of all getting through regulatory requirements and then shareholder approvals are going to take place between 12 and 15 months according to people on the inside also they have to pick a new name for this company and that should be coming up within the next few months as well all right our team correspondent allison hell of it thank you very much. thank you. federal bankruptcy judge has approved 2 settlements totaling $24500000000.00 offered by california p.g. and e. that settlement will go to victims of northern california wildfires and to insurance companies that have already paid out damage claims a settlement of 13500000000 is designated to compensate the wildfire victims another 11000000000 or so will go to the insurers but there is a bigger issue here for p.g. and e. because the action by the judge improves the utilities bid to exit bankruptcy proceedings before a june 30th 2020 deadline that deadline is when the utility will become eligible

for a state financed wildfire fund the judge also a lot of civil suit to move forward this suit is being brought by the victims of the december 2016 ghost ship fire which killed 36 people the trial was when we determine though who is a fault here p.g. and e.'s bankruptcy plan still faces opposition from california governor gavin newsome who wants the company to be restructured he also wants a whole new board of directors so separately p.g. and e. has also reached a proposed one point $7000000000.00 settlement with state regulators over wildfires are you confused that it's a lot of money being handed out it started by its equipment in 201728000 the wildfires did they killed more than $100.00 people well under the terms of this settlement the company would be required to spend the amount of the penalty on steps to prevent future wildfires. choice u.s. spending bill passed tuesday fell way short of what wind and solar developers had hoped for under that bill when companies will get just one more year to land

a subsidy and some other companies lost out on the bid to extend another key tax credit as the industries are still in their early stages they were hoping for significant credits to help get the sector off the ground with more we bring in tyson slocum director of public citizens energy program good to have you here with us and it is great to be here so the house just passed as $1.00 trillion dollars spending the old one another government shutdown we know that but it looks like this clean energy deal pretty much got shafted is what it looks like at this point where what happens with these funds well it was a compromise right the democrat. it's who've been very progressive on clean energy and climate change issues or only control the house of representatives the republicans which have largely been hostile to a lot of these climate change and clean energy initiatives control the senate an obviously the white house so treasury secretary steve who was the lead negotiator from the white house on this spending and tax bill made very clear that they were going to limit or eliminate solar and electric vehicle credits and so democrats in

the house understanding that they had to compromise on some things in order to get some of their other priorities through signed off on this deal so not everyone got what they needed but i think given the circumstances given the fact that trump is in the white house this isn't a bad deal for clean energy advocates. right now it looks like the clean energy sector as a whole in the u.s. is actually lagging many that of many other developed countries and not let's not even talk about developed countries even developing countries such as china china is now leading the entire new plus that energy sector in terms of solar power in terms of wind power so we decided the u.s. is actually losing out on innovation and furthering the technology now it definitely hurts that we're lacking leadership in the white house on issues like climate change and clean energy policy we saw that in the recent madrid climate change. conference where the united states was blocking a lot of progressive action that's why a lot of the positive activity on clean energy in the united states has been at the

state level rather than at the federal level states like california new york washington maine new jersey massachusetts or all passing you know 100 percent clean energy bills and so a lot of the policies to try and promote that are going on at the state level however as you accurately point out you really need federal action in order to see this sort of sweeping comprehensive policy that we need and right now the federal government just isn't in a leadership position and why why do you think it is that the renewable energy sector has not played out here in the u.s. i mean when you look at countries like sweden and they're pretty much almost entirely carbon neutral at this point i think you alluded to it before that part of it seems to be political there does seem to be interest from the american public in moving in this direction is it just politicians that hold us back at this point i think so polls always show very strong support for investments in clean energy there was just a poll that came out this week that showed most homeowners want to have solar

panels on their roof and sometimes it's regulations or politics that inhibit that and so i think you know as long as donald trump is in the white house the united states isn't going to be in a position to lead on some of these climate change issues now granted. it is a little easier for smaller countries like sweden. to go carbon neutral you mean sweden has a population of $10000000.00 and we're seeing in some states like california there are times when 70 percent of the electricity at certain hours is all renewable on the california grid and so we have seen success stories at the municipal and state level we just need to bridge that to the federal level of the united states doesn't slocum of public citizens energy program thank you so much for your time thank you . and finally there is a fat chance in this hyper connected social media world that you have not heard of b.t.s. this boy band is taking the world by storm being the 1st group to have 3 us number

one albums in a year since the beatles and their music video for boy with love smash the record for the most watched you tube video in 24 hours when it was released in april they are now attaining a status and boy band superstardom that has never been achieved by in sync backstreet boys boys or even one direction they've been number one on i tunes in over 65 countries with over 12000000 subscribers on you tube and $13.00 on instagram b.t.s. is now the highest paying to group earning 57000000 dollars last year according to forbes and they also secure huge endorsement deals with brands such as coca-cola. and now while they only make $57000000.00 they are worth more than $3600000000.00 to the south korean economy every year which is the equivalent of $26.00 mid-sized companies more than 1000000000 dollars in branded consumer exports such as clothes cosmetics and food are associated with them well. it's

absolutely that's why we're going to see pants. salut lee incredible when you talk about these numbers and you did mention a list of boy that she said bigger than in seeing and backstreet boys and then it was the other boys are running around without ever ever heard of boys or what. that one direction my kids know that but yeah it's pretty incredible right there like a little what they've done to me of themselves $26.00 midsize companies they're more about well than all of them the yeah we're in the wrong business for sure that that by this time you can catch a boom bust on direct t.v. channel 321 dish network talent to 80. minute t.v. the free t.v. app talented or as always it's got a pop but you can hit us up at youtube dot com slash boom bust see we'll see about here next time.

what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want to. have to go right to the press it's like them before 3 of them or 10 people. i'm interested always in the water. they sit. in the troubled 19 seventies a group of killers rampage 3 parts of northern ireland that was coordinated loyalist attacks to take the only population tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes come up with strike and put these attacks was that the are you see the police actually took part in the attacks so instead of preventing them they were active participants in the burning of the streets in belfast i think more than a 100 innocent civilians with that as their if you can see in yours i mean found

out more i was surprised about the extent and the take rates which the solution was involved in some of those cases they killers would lead to be named said to then we're getting i think it went to the. airy fairy top i think it is. the water where all the taste and you thought was going on and give the go ahead. argentina love it this country is phantasmagorical the people are extraordinary the government and the central bank maybe not so much the central bank but let's get into this a little bit more detail. during the great depression which i'm old must remember there was and most of my family were unemployed working . there wasn't it was bed you know much worse objective listen today but there was

an expectation of the things were going to get better. there was a real sense of hopefulness there isn't today today's america where shaped by the 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power. reduced democracy attack solidarity engineer elections manufacture consent and other principles according to no i'm chaunced one set of rules for the rich officer said. that's what happens when you put her into the hands of the narrow sector of wilf which will is dedicated to increasing power for chills just as you'd expect one of the most influential intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of america.

from. the russian president vladimir. hootin is about to have his brains picked on just about every topic imaginable as he holds his traditional end of year q. and a with journalists from both home and abroad a record number of whom will be hoping to put their questions to him to sheer will be crossing live to the mega press or just about. oh well can you watching r.t. international we do expect the russian president to start his annual media conference any moment now when he does of course across live to the house venue moscow's world trade center on your q. and a bonanza will with local and international.