the who's the this is boom, but the one be the show you can't afford to mit i'm branch of bore. and i'm rachel blevins in washington, coming up to later cyber attack, targeting us businesses as adding to concerns from the highest level of the nation's government. straight ahead, we dive into the ransomware trend and the response we could see from the viking and ministration. moving forward, that the federal reserve reveals and significant split between officials who say not enough progress has been made. and those who say it's time to start pulling

back on 10 gamut policy. and later we take you to iceland where the country has run a trial of a 4 day work week with positive results. we'll take a look at the labor experiment and what ripples that could have around the globe. the facts are today. flip dive, right? and there's been a major development in the fight over the pentagon's $10000000000.00 jet cloud computing contract. the d o. d has announced that it will end the contract with microsoft and we'll reopen bidding on the proposal. boom, bust co host an investigative journalist, ben swan, looking into the story or brand. remember that for the past 2 years, the department of defense has really been unable to move forward with this jet. i cloud computing contract because of a lawsuit that was brought by amazon's a w s. essentially claiming that they were discriminated against when the contract was awarded. to microsoft, according to the lawsuit, 8 of us claimed that then president donald trump had directed the pentagon to offer that contract to microsoft because of his dislike for jeff bezos,

who also owns the washington post. the pentagon chief information officer john chairman, told reporters on tuesday that during the link, the legal fight with amazon quote, the landscape has evolved with new possibilities for large scale cloud computing services. they therefore decided he said to start over and to seek multiple vendors, those vendors appear to be not just microsoft and amazon, but also google, ibm, and oracle, and just one other note here. the news of this rebuilding of the contract was good, not just for microsoft and for amazon, who both saw shares right on the day. but also it was personally very good for jeff bezos himself, his personal wealth now reaching a new all time high of $211000000000.00 for boom bust. i'm been one minutes from the latest federal open market committee are in and the consensus seems to be that there isn't one while some officials say they are worried that not enough progress has been made and the ongoing economic recovery. others say it's

time to start pulling back on bon purchases sooner rather than later. so joining us now to go further and jump on this is danielle de martino, theo, and chief strategist for quill intelligence. i'll see. now, danielle, what is your main take away from these comments? i mean, have there been any significant changes this month? no, you know the fed definitely acknowledge that there's been improvement in the labor force, which is something that we've seen play out in the data. and, and we've known that there are divisions in terms of the individuals on the federal open market committee who would prefer to start capering sooner. prefer to start tightening policy sooner than the ones who would be considered the more davis on that committee. so a lot of no known but it was, it was someone encouraging to see the, the fact that what president tripp, how mentioned in his press briefing,

weeks ago that the discussion had begun about about tapering. it was good to see that in writing it as we talk about daniel as we talk about these dissenting voices, amid officials who are saying it's past the time that we should start to, you know, ease off this easy policy. is that actually going to make it a movement, or are we still looking at that? you know, 2023 for flat rate increases. what is that? can that move the chair and some of the other folks in the fat? so i think that, that the devilish members and we're talking about j. powell well brainer, rich clarity. i think that they and john williams, of course, from, from the new york that i think that they are going to do everything in their power to push the discussion until jackson hole at the very tail end of august. i think that that's a high risk proposition. and that the opportunity should be taken at the fmc meeting at the end of this month at the end of july to say that, you know, we're ready to go there. we've seen that mortgage backed securities purchases are

harming the housing market. and we certainly don't want to have policy that is harming entry level home buyers and trickling through into higher rental inflation as well. i'm not so sure that we're going to get that kind of humility and acknowledgement from beneficial as soon as just a few 3 weeks from now. now i know there's been a lot of talk about inflation and we've talked about the increase of home prices. but what about car prices? i mean, right now, the average price of a car is nearly $40000.00. what point does that start to eat into sales? and when does it become so much of a luxury that it keeps consumers from buying altogether? you know, that's a really good question and there are a lot of conflicting signals coming out of the auto sector. but what we do know is that the 2nd quarter, which ended in the month of june, ended in a very much weaker note than what, where it started. in april, in april,

we had an $18300000.00 units, annualized sales run rate that had come down to 16 plus 1000000 in in june. so i realize that the auto industry would prefer that the only explanation would be a lack of supply. but the fact that, as you mentioned, the average new car price in america is pushing $40000.00 also suggested some of the weakness that we're seeing in sales could be individual buyers reaching their, their, their praying, their price pain threshold. if you will. the sticker shock is just too much whether you're talking about cars or houses. the 2 most interest rate, sec sensitive sectors of the us economy. and even though the americans who have had the opportunity to save in the last year now, ready to spend, if they're concerned that this continued inflation is having more than just the transitory inquire pack on american spending power at that point about cart overall, are we seeing that was spending you know, i certainly think that's the case as

a mother for i can tell you that the price of bees, something that we consume every friday night, my house that, that it's doubled here in the last few months. i'm sure that i'm not alone in seeing my grocery bill rising. these are, these are factors that very much the very much play into how much americans can afford to consume. we fail to speak about the fact that there is no stimulus for point. oh check. and that those stimulus checks have gone a good ways towards towards helping us households be able to spend a little bit more on discretionary items. but it's looking increasingly like because of the inflation that we're seeing, that many us how sorts are going to have to cut back on that discretionary spending . that's why you're starting to hear rumblings about peak growth in the united states. you're starting to hear rumblings about the specter of potential stagflation instead of just inflation. that's what we're seeing,

playing out today. and certainly be interesting to see what the fed decides to do moving forward. and if those officials who are speaking out will make a difference on their policy. great insight as always, danielle dean martino booth. thank you so much for your time. thank you. the now for a follow up on their ransomware attack on software vendor could say that has affected as many as 1500 companies and at least 17 nations worldwide security researchers say the attack may have been carried out by our evil russian cyber criminal group. that the f b i has said was behind the hacking of the world's largest meet processor j b. s. back in may us president joe biden, who signed an executive order on improving the nation cybersecurity in may after the recent wave of cyber attacks address the situation. on tuesday i received an update from a national security team this morning. it appears to have caused minimal damage to

us businesses, but we're still gathering information to the full extent of the attack. and i feel good about our ability to the dealership and there's plenty to talk about here. so to do so, let's bring in the cybersecurity expert and president of dark intel, todd shipley, todd, always the pleasure to have you on thank you so much. how does this library attack differ from the other recent high profile hacks of the colonial pipeline or j b s? while the unfortunate thing is, it doesn't differ. the attackers use the same kinds of methods to get into a business, but what was different than as they got into a business that sold software is a service. and they were able to infect the software that this company provided. companies all over the world in when and then forced to download of an update. and when that download was updated and all the computers and these businesses across

the world, they all got infected and something similar. what happened was solar winds and how solar winds attack occurred. a bunch of companies got affected by one attack on one company. yeah, and now i want to take a look at sort of who is behind this attacker who is being accused of it. now we heard from white house spokeswoman gen saki who said earlier on tuesday that us officials would meet with their russian counterparts to discuss ransomware, attack thing, quote, if the russian government cannot or will not take action against criminal actors residing in russia, we will take action or reserve the right to take action on our own. what can the u . s. government due to the shadowy group like the so called our evil? well, i mean, this is a difficult situation for any country to be in, because obviously this is going to be virtually stepping into a different country and trying to do policing actions in

a different country. the russians aren't gonna be happy about it if and when we do this attack back on the systems. but we've been looking at them for a long time. this is not something to say, you know, ca and n, s a and all the international intelligence agencies haven't been looking at, they've been trying to figure out how to get back with these guys. and they've been very good at what they do. eventually they'll, most of them get caught because they make some kind of mistake. and that's how we catch them. you just gotta stay on top of these people and figure out if, when they make a mistake so that we can identify who they are and get back and take back bitcoin or whatever they've stolen from these companies. and todd, we had another cybersecurity analyst on just a few weeks ago when we were talking about the j b. s hack. and he basically said the only way to stop these is not necessarily governmental executive orders, but it's just to get ahead of ransomware as a whole. but technology changes very fast. so the only people can really keep up with it. are these big tech companies and the hackers?

so is that the right way to go about it? is that even possible? well, i mean, our reliance on technology is the problem. and we look and we've tied everything together. how these companies get attacked is because their reliance on tying everything together, your email to your production line facilities are all tied on the same computer system. i think we need to look at going back to old school techniques of separating some of this stuff. we need to put an air gap in between things so that 11 system is attacked, other systems can be effected. and so we gotta do some old school looking at how we do this because our ever reliance on the technology is our problem. now what about the curb to currency aspect? we heard that the attackers reportedly demanded a $70000000.00 bitcoin payment. i mean, we keep hearing this criticism that it can be used for nefarious purposes like this one. so it is taken crypto out of the equation make cyber attacks was likely well,

i mean, if we could do that. sure. but we can't do that because crypto currency, by its very nature, is decentralized and not owned by anyone. a country doesn't own it. the users own it, and so unless you stop using it, everyone stops using it. there is no way for us to stop crypt currency from being an effective part of the ransomware problem. so we're stuck with that right now. cybersecurity expert, todd shipley. thank you so much for letting your expertise. thank you. i'm now for a quick greg, but when we come back, i flew, says a 4 day work week is the way to go. we'll discuss the pros and cons behind the idea and why it may not work for everyone. next. and as we go to break here, the numbers out to close the

ah, ah, ah, join me every thursday on the alex simon show. and i'll be speaking to guess in the world, the politic sport business. i'm show business. i'll see you then me we're used to hearing. he will lead messaging about the importance of values. not everyone in the block agrees, in fact, a growing number of conservative and populous forces are speaking out against what someone called brussels, colonial outlook conservatives and populous talk. the language of family and culture leaks talk a value to create a european superstate. ah,

to don't leave you. this notion, we knew she was she who it's rented to will love. ah me. as she knew she wouldn't be a little girl for the study, especially if you could totally traditional movies. but she's she's actually, she quoted you. she was doing the best for me was over. she said for meeting lasted with metro. okay, sure. yeah. so i love this, and this is what i need from the new new new new which is

what is the new executable football once it, when i pull that up for me, i got it up on that. got me the british and american governments have often in accused of destroying lives in their own interest. while you see in this, these techniques is the state devising message to end essentially destroy personality of an individual lifetime. means this is how one doctors, theories were allegedly used in psychological warfare against the prisoners deemed a danger to the state. that was the foundation for the method of psychological interrogation, psychological torture,

disseminated within the us intelligence community, and worldwide among allies for the next 30 years, to the victim say they still with the consequences today. the visa just revealed that it's crypto link cards were used for more than $1000000000.00 in transactions in the 1st half of 2021. the company says this is just the beginning of its mission to create an ecosystem that makes crypto as available as any other currency. in a statement visa cfo said quote, people are exploring ways in which they can use crypto currencies for things they would use. normal currency is for. he added that while there are concerns about volatility, that's for the owners of the crypto to manage on their end. visa has referred to with crypto currency integration as a way to eventually build the bridge between your crypto wallet and more than

70000000 merchants worldwide. it, rachel, it appears that more and more payment processors are getting involved in this space . what else is be doing to make crypto more mainstream? so we've watch visa partner with more than 50 different crypto firms in coin base or bit pay. and what they're doing is they're trying to give a more tangible way for the consumer to actually use their crypto. whether that's having that car getting to swipe it and then have their crypto directly converted to the currency or whether that's actually getting to work with the stable point and using that directly. but on top of that now they're also moving to use credit cards that actually give you cash back using crypto. so you're going, you're using your credit card for your regular purchases, and now you're getting one to 2 percent cash back in fit coin and getting the added up funds. so it really is fascinating to see how they've seen that gap in the market for people who maybe want to get into crypto. don't know how it works or

even for businesses who maybe want to use crypto, but aren't really too sure about getting on the block chain and how that work. and i mean $1000000000.00 transactions it must be working well when a company like visa is involved, you know, it's a big deal that's for sure. absolutely. and trials of a 4 day work week in iceland were quote, an overwhelming success with productivity remaining the same or even improved in some cases, according to a study published earlier this week by u. k thing take autonomy and explains association for sustainable democracy. the test for a shorter work week run by the reykjavik city council and the national government taking place between 20152019. the trials include more than $2500.00 workers or roughly one percent of the nation's workforce and involve workplaces like offices, social service providers, and hospital hours were generally pare down from 40 hours per week to 35 or 36 hours per week for the for day schedule while receiving the same pay. there's

a lot to dig into this one as well. the studies finding with professor richard wolf is the host of economic update and author of the sick. this is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemic or itself, professor wolf, always a pleasure. what do you make of this is the 40 hour, 5 day work week and outdated practice at this point. knowledge been something that working people well. i say you and me have dreamed for a long time being able to get more or less the same pay, but doing fewer hours of work. what's not like about that profit? let's take a look. the i need government was responding to the men and women, and kimberly, who says that a 40 hour week made life at home, the personal part of life to why that was a simple argument. and they said if they had more time with their families, if they had more time off, they would be more productive. and that's only with the same amount of work done.

but more work would be done and it wouldn't be done better. so they decided to make a real experiment and they did it as you said, 2000 to 2019. and they came up with the conclusion that 10 percent cut in hours, roughly from $40.00 to $36.00, would give you the same out of service in people, the working people. the majority of the people in the office are working. people give them a significant increase in time off. they may be experiment, they found the results. and my feeling is this is long overdue. we shouldn't long mo, rationally working spaces, make a determination why in the world stay longer, you're just upset about it. you're not productive about it. we've all experienced that looks learn from it. and i think this is a step in the right direction. now,

professor, when it comes to the dream of a 4 day work week, i mean, it seems like it would only benefit white color worker says retail food services and manufacturing job productivity is generally measured by how long you are working to make or so you need to, i mean, imagine needing snow removal and you don't have the staff. so what do you make of that aspect? i don't think there's too much whole water really well. you know, snowstorms are perfectly good example. if you want to be sure that you have enough people in a snowstorm, you have that backup buys a week or a 4 day week. if you're stuck with something, you call your backup. to enable you to get the necessary job done that have been shorter. in lots of other kinds of work. and let me be honest with you. i'm a professor, i've been a professional all my life we have in the united states. somebody call this bad

a year. every 7 years we are entitled to take us a year. if we can get some ester off, we usually get full day if we take a year off. and we have done that, we've been doing it for many, many years, on the theory that the teacher is better able to be gone. teacher if he or she can keep up with some time off, do research, it's never been done away with except under budgetary pressures because it works because it's something that we use professors have tried and found to be very valuable. and i think it would be very good for everybody else to and should never have been limited to just those professors in the 1st place. and professor, well, i know you alluded to this is, are you actually talked about it in the 1st question, but that research showed how the 4 day work week improved that work life balance and reduce stress and burn out. and they also mentioned how it gave these workers

more time with their families and an opportunity to explore hobbies. i mean, obviously that is crucial to just the human experience and being able to see the world and enjoy it. but how does that affect productivity? is that helpful? i mean, you just mentioned it, but i mean expound on that. i think the proof is in the pudding. i mean they made the experiment. they took 4 years, they worked it out. they ask themselves, did the output of the services in the hospitals in these offices, did they decline in quantity or in quality? and the bottom line answer is they didn't. and i don't think anyone has ever demonstrated that the sabbaticals we get as teachers has made us less effective. it's really the opposite. most of need more on the would be able to have a good life. we shouldn't be sacrificing our life for the work. that's

a bit upside down in the 1st place. now, before we go, i also want to bring japan into this because they recently and build their annual economic policy guidelines, recommending companies allow staff to often to afford a work week. so i mean, can this work elsewhere or is iceland just a unique case? no, i think it is being looked at in the number of countries around europe that i know about. i'm sure many other states, a few places have been trying it. i think one of the emphasis, but this is also the problem of unemployment. if you reduce the work week from 5 to 44 days, it doesn't mean the work that gets done is shrink. it means that people who work 5 days now work for as you might be able to give the unemployed people the work done on that day by those who for where we and that could be a job creator. and i think that's an important stimulus in places like japan.

professor richard, well, thank you for your insight. as always. thank you. artificial intelligence is being used in a new and inventive way in belgium, thanks to one artist who was sick and tired of lawmakers, always looking at their phones during important legislative sessions, entered the flemish rollers. it's a new twitter account dedicated to the distracted politician. it post the findings from the a i software that uses a public live stream to give each lawmaker a score based on how much time they have spent looking at their phones while in parliament. the creator says he plans to make the code open source, which means it could some day be used on c span here in the us. yes, that means we're just as your teacher tells you to get off your phone in class, your favorite or least favorite members of congress, could be called out on twitter because they won't stop scrolling, won't they're supposed to be paying attention on the house floor. all right,

rachel, i think this is fantastic. it's fun. i love calling out congressional members on what they're doing here. i do have one problem with it. ok, and i usually don't go slippery slope here on the show night, but i do have to say what happens if a business starts putting cameras up in their office isn't going. if we do, you look at your phone, you're going to get dr. we're going to write you up. i mean, this could be concerning situation, and that's true. i mean, it could lead to a whole new world of surveillance that only started in congress. well, let's, let's hope at least we can get it on c span here in the united states. there are a few of them. so you see doing that and in the middle of very important meetings, as you said, and that's it for this time. you can catch boom bus on demand on the portable tv app, which is available on smartphones and tablets, google play, and the apple app store by searching portable tv. portable tv can also be downloaded on samsung, smart tv, and roku devices, or simply check it out at portable dot tv will see you next time. mm

. the ah, to the industry preferred to millions of euro's in the regulations will be all about making money. i think it's about the corporation international markets export. do you imagine the number of the diseases are in every family today? it's, you know, due to new viruses or new microbes, not true. so it is due to environment. you know, i can take either the momentum much to accumulate got on the come in today. they don't allow us to plug the food industry is successful, it will create more jobs, it will create more value added,

it will create more so i don't see why we shouldn't also fight for the interests of the industry that we have regulation. we want the regulation of industry and if we don't be a specialty that's fine. especially summer solutions where we look at the solutions. i'm here with stacy herbert and we've got a special guest, stacy right out there, mcloud of gold money dot com. he writes amazing pieces over there are lots of blog posts, research, and all sorts of stuff. i recommend you check it out, your latest pieces out there called too much liquidity and inflation access and consumer prices. so this is definitely the biggest theme of 2021, and that is inflation. the, the news

the headlines are all things and it can be a nation of height. he imposes martial law for twisting date. solve for the short fascination of the president and home. the suspect that assassins are reportedly in custody. a leading scientific john on the u. k. cooled russia support and job safe and effective for lack of severe thought. in fact, such as a legend lot lot linked to other vaccine we hear from german, red cross member who's raising the alarm over a growing number of those, getting their appointment for a 2nd, corrode of ours jam, other co would hesitancy, friend continue to spread worldwide. the.