in the brussels agreement in 2013, that comes as a bit of a shock. since only 2 weeks ago, he spoke about the fact that on get merkel said that means agreements were only a preparation for the war with russia from, from the agree inside. and that means that the west can be trusted on similar agreements and serves from causing it to this very harshly and bother them. are afraid that now christina will continue their procession of service. and even today, also, police forces were seen walking freely across what's coming through and other cities, which is a violation of the agreements itself. on the 1st day of the barricades were removed regarding the situation in russia. he said that he received a new year's congratulations from fulton, and that that message will be handed over to him by a russian ambassador in so be able to join, cool,

and also spoke about the ties to vmc wagner. because spoke a lot of times about their balance on the barricades and he said they are not the president in serbia and there have nothing to do here. on the other hand, he himself spoke about the agreements thing that she did not agree to form the sort of in municipality, because inconceivable or anything else he just advised the kid for in the international forces to remove the barricade. otherwise they will do it themselves . so these cars are also as something that is rather expected, and it is certain that the current prices will not be solved by the firms. just simply remove the very cave simply. but other than that, that situation because nothing, it led to them bringing those barricades hasn't been resolved so far. well, last all, for me today and this year as a total of the, our now will be with you. i'm,

we're on her mommy was he all and very happy new year. the who's won. whistleblower has had more of an impact on international transportation than any other single person in the last decade. when he disclosed over 100000 documents, showing the dark side of one of the most popular ride share companies in the world . hello, i'm john, curiosity and you're watching the whistleblowers. the. 2 2 2 2 2 2 whistleblower mark began disclosed more than 124000 documents

detailing how over flouted laws in countries across europe. duped police exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments in order to aggressively build its global empire. the 52 year old irishmen served as oberon chief lobbyist for europe, the middle east, and africa from 2014 to 2016, and oversaw government relations and public policy in more than 40 countries. he was responsible for courting governments in more than 40 countries to convince them that over was the next big thing. investment opportunities abounded people around the world wanted to get in on the ground floor. executives threw themselves at the company, hoping to work for what they thought was the next google or apple and over presented itself as a life changing opportunity, especially for low income people with access to a car. they could work for themselves as many hours a day as they wanted. the sky was the limit to what they could accomplish, but it wasn't all that easy. and the picture wasn't really that rosy. the company

began facing pushback, especially from taxi drivers, protest, erupt it in berlin, london, paris, and athens courts in germany, restricted some of movers services, and in greece, the company was banned altogether. mcgann was put in charge of a team that was to confront these challenges. he argued that over was not anti regulation. it was a tech company he said, using data to match supply with demand. but in reality, it was much more than that began later said, quote the mantra that people repeated from one office to the other was the mantra that came from the top. don't ask for permission, just hustle and list drivers. go out, do the marketing and quickly people will wake up and see what a great thing over is, unquote. in reality, over was running, rush shot over the status quo. gig work in many countries offered no benefits, long hours, low pay and grinding work conditions. ober wasn't the great job opportunity at

market itself to be the opportunity that would lift people out of poverty and to make matters worse, the company's leadership knew that from the beginning. finally, earlier this summer, mark began provided 124000 pages of internal documents to the guardian newspaper, which in turn shared them with the international consortium of investigative journalists. and with the most important newspapers in the western world. the documents which cover the period from 2013 to 2017 laid bare the company's tactics to establish footholds and to win market share, even if that meant violating the law. now we want to bring in an over expert who's knowledge of the economics of transport. competition and regulation allowed him to demonstrate that uber is incapable now or in the future of ever earning profits. his super analysis through mid 2017, was incorporated into his transportation law journal article called will the growth of hoover increase economic welfare. i want to welcome hubert her in welcome to the

show. you're an expert on uber and on transportation. tell us, in brief, where you think cooper stands right now as a company in our society. is it something indispensable? and that will be with us for a long time. or is it the type of company with a business model that is out moded or just can't last for very long. goober is phenomenally unsuccessful against any measurable objective criteria. you can think of economic, financial, transportation. it's racked up $31000000000.00 and losses. it took 11 years to produce the very 1st dollar a positive cash flow. no one at goober or following goober can produce a prop, plausible story. how those massive years of losses can suddenly be turned around and become years large and sustainable profits. it's now producing less taxi

service that much higher prices than traditional taxis did. the ones that drove out of business before it started all of its claims that its stock would be highly valuable because it would achieve amazon type, profitable growth in its core business. which is to say urban transport and then profit explained into lots of other businesses have been proven to have been total nonsense ober keeps claiming that we had problems in the past. but those were fixed 4 years ago when we change ceo's. but in those 4 years, hooper has done nothing to fix its awful basic economics are all right, sharing companies operating on this same broken business model list is concentrated in the domestic us in a narrower set of markets newburgh. but it's the identical business model. yes. and it's, it's losing money and has no plausible story. and even better example was

d v in china, which actually achieved the virtual monopoly market dominance that ober was trying set out to achieve 10 years ago. and it still can't make money. so there is no evidence anywhere on the planet that this kind of business model for mr. pier standpoint, finances can, can producing my research, which started 67 years ago, which was basically focused on that question. goobers, underlying business model was always incapable of either improving the transport service in big cities or generating the kinds profits that investors need it. it's claims about technological advances were never demonstrated and we're always

false. it's business model is actually less efficient and higher produces at higher cost. then the, all the traditional taxi business model that it never had the kind of big scale and network economies that allowed other venture capital back. firms to quote, grow into profit ability after initial losses. now the old taxi industry had lots of problems that as everyone knows, but overs business model didn't fix any of the overall business model couldn't profitably produce lots of additional drivers at low fares on saturday night when peak demand hit or when all of ooh, burst early popularity and growth was driven by billions and billions in unsustainable investor substance. it's trying now, those subsidies basically run out and it's raised fairs enormously,

b. but there's no evidence that the mass market that uber and these other companies are pursuing will ever pay the true cost of the service. you could be a tiny, tiny niche serving wealthy people. ah. but the mass market, that was the heart of the business model can't be serv, properly. it's up to extent that it's improved rich reduced its losses. let me not say from profitability. it's almost entirely driven by squeezing driver compensation has nothing to do with scale economies or improved efficiency. it is simply cutting driver pay. what's wrong with the business model, and is there a solution? they've been producing those 31000000000 in losses over time. if there was

a solution, i think they would have found it by now. i think they would have found that years ago, i don't think there's a solution, but i think the evidence that they can't produce money, you know, suddenly make this service profitable? is the real demonstration, ah, a niche high priced taxi service that is limited to the pockets of highest demand in city is not a viable business. they're trying to scale back to that, which again reduces the cash string but doesn't make it a profitable business. if you research goober, you won't find anyone who says, oh yes, here is what i could do to become sustainable. probably no one has made the other than just sort of scratching your belly and announcing wishful thinking. no

one can lay out. here's how they improve the economics, here's how they improve revenue. here's how they improve efficiency and productivity to make it work. and again, if there was a way they would have done it, is it only a matter of time before ober, and these other similar companies just collapse? well, the, the anomaly here is that who berg had an unprecedented level of investor funding in its earliest years. i think it was over the pre i p o funding. i may not get them. remember the number exactly right. was $1600.00 times more funding then amazon, before it's amazon in facebook and companies like that. lost money at 1st, but they quickly got to becoming cash flow positive and they funded their growth

out of huge revenue ober was never able to do that. all of those subsidies, again, were designed to sort of create the impression back in 2014, 2017 o over has found a way that no taxi company had found in a 100 years could to produce service way more service, higher quality service. and it much lower price. that was all part. it was just, there were subsidizing all the trips. they were subsidizing drivers. they were subsidizing everything. they were using those subsidies to fool investors in the thinking that it had amazon type growth economics. and oh, yeah, we lost money last year, but just like amazon noticed, that will, will soon be, you know, spouting more money than we can count the subsidies eliminated competition from all of the prior traditional lexia. so there was no alternative the subsidies

funded all the massive political lobbying and p r programs that, that lead politicians to eliminate all the industry oversight that had protected consumers, you know, enforced labor laws and lead the mainstream media over the greatest thing since sliced bread. my friends all love it, and it's all this technology inefficiency is really wonderful. but those subsidies, the power in the early popular meant the mainstream meeting never actually investigated. and yes, they've all been proven to be complete garbage subsequently. but no one's going back and written. oh, all those stories we told you about ober in 2016, 2018. they were totally wrong. how does zuber squeeze its drivers?

well, step one, you create a kweisi monopoly. and again, think of ober and lift if you're looking at the u. s. situation as a do awfully. that's driven the traditional operators out of business. so we're the only game in ober aggressively lie 2 drivers. it's earlier. there were press releases liberally over press releases saying ober drivers in new york or $90000.00, complete dishonest and, and all sorts of other things in the were f t c, fines for some of the statements. but so all of a sudden these drivers are now work driving for go back 8 years or whatever they're getting. okay. they're getting better pay than the old company because of those subsidies. hooper's now owns the market. it simply turns around

a customer. you know, how much of each customer dollar does the driver get? it's been cut back and cut back and cut back, and the drivers have absolutely no recourse. they, they lied to drivers. oh, you'll have total flexibility as an independent contract. only drive when you feel like, well, no, that was a lie too, because the drivers who didn't respond to the movers demand for driver when they needed them, simply got fire. you know, and you can't operate. it was always a why you can't operate a large scale transportation company or probably any other kind of company. one purely casual workers who show up when they feel like that was always nonsense. and ober knew throughout this that you know, the mainstream media and it's wealthy users who liked it,

the most didn't care what drivers were being paid. they didn't care that, they'd been squeezed down to minimum wage level. they didn't care that lots of them were sleeping in cars in order to make ends, me and wall street. actually think those are wonderful things that kind of transfer of wealth from labor to capital, even if it's the most marginal labor in an urban marketplace to silicon valley investors. that's how capitalism ought to work. they think it's wonderful. so no one was going to push back, you know, when ever, you know, those politicians who were being handled buckets of cash by uber lobbyists and who gutted all of the protections that had existed for decades and decades. went out, you know, the democratic process somehow. wait a minute. this isn't working. when you know minimum wage doesn't cut it. let's put

some basic protections in. let's be fuck goobers exploitation false claims about independent contractors. as you saw with california proposition 22, they spent a limited cashed beat those back. you know, ober had more lobbyists in california than the entire banking. goober had more lobbyists in nevada than the casino industry. this was not free markets at work. this was a silicon valley funded company where the investors were looking for the kind of riches amazon in facebook, a generated going to politicians with lots of cash saying, please paved the way. so we have limited power over workers and consumers. thank you hubert, but don't go away. we're going to

a short break. and when we come back, we answer the question, how vital have martin begins? revelations been the huberts work, analyzing goobers less than transparent business practices. you're watching the whistleblowers. they do. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 ah ah ah ah ah ah and a ah it

ah it's a shift to mediate yet, dickie he will. yes that is the joy graham seems i couldn't judge he was motionless . ah, won't with that sir? the mean, you know, it's why is this vehicle to re splitter whichever some way? i'm what says joe. some we trust the spiritual like, oh man food actual go brazil. krakowski. we need you to whoop, anxious to severe wichmann and walk with me for a short ellsworth in to near from who said it is your literature just upload plan. you were one of our us who knocked tonya science cross science financial wellness. gotcha. and then you were was not at the tip floor, the brother got on a when was on, but usually 3 of them was columnists give me mind barnes. mm hm. mahogany bullock.

ah ah. 2 2 welcome back to the whistle blowers. i'm john kerry. aku, were discussing mark mcgann, the whistleblower who exposed illegality at ober. we want to welcome back. our ober expert hubert, her. an welcome back hubert. were discussing mark mccann's revelations here on this program. how vital were his revelations, to your own work? the guardian series that included mc gans statements were factually accurate. but they were simply reminding the public of stuff that had been widely recorded. 56 years ago. you know, the magnitude and importance of all of those lobby, all those things. i quoted you about the magnitude,

a lobbying in california in nevada that been in the press at the top. and everyone knew that dozens of major politicians had been working actively to help huber in return for those donations. programs like gray ball explicitly designed to obstruct long foresman that had been on the front page in the near guts. ah, open efforts to intimidate critical journalists on it's ongoing programs to pay academic to produce totally indefensible findings. they knew no one would ever critique properly, but it could then incorporate which p r programs that had been reported years ago. so nice to have a reminder of all that stuff. ah, but especially in the us,

it's not going to overcome the magnitude of the lobby in cash and the legal changes. no one cares. what do you know about uber in the developing world? it's position in those kinds of countries is somewhat limited. ah, i'm not sure of, it's how it's south american coverage would really split out between the large wealthier city is the san palos and santiago's, and one was irish is bogota, the ra versus less develop parts of those countries. ah, stuff elsewhere they fail. hooper failed in china, they failed russia. they failed and salvaged asia. so there are other local companies following this ah, with probably

a little more sensitivity to the labor and transport issues in those things. but as i mentioned in terms of didi in china, none of them are well over ever break up urban transport. it has humongous economic problems. that's why the new york city subway in the denver bust system and the services, whether it's in mom, buy or moscow, are not private sector. businesses funded by investors hoping to get fabulously rich their publics, their quasi public services. the benefits produced by urban transport be they expressways or transit buses and taxis has always been small. part of that are fundamentally the economics are awful. and over as i

said over, didn't solve any of those problems. it's urban transport. why anyone thought that goober, after 100 years of every urban transport service being a public sector, operated and funded service, was suddenly away for silicon valley. investors to get rich is incomprehensible. but that's what happened. oh, we have an air. we have technology. technology can solve every problem known to man and everyone in the urban transport industry in every country in the world, in every city. and everyone was too stupid in the last 100 years to see that if you just put it on an app, the economics will be totally transport the totally stupid people were the ober investors who bought that. and all of the politicians and media

observers who swallowed that hook, line, and sinker, without thing to go back and read all the stories about goobers growth. no one ever talked to anyone who knew anything about urban transport. it was all technology stuff. technology is cool, but technology cannot and has not transformed urban transport into something that will spit off returns for speculative investors. we've covered so much here, any final comments to wrap up what we've discussed. i'm, i'm always asked to speculate on the future. and i hate doing that, ah, if people say, well, what's gonna happen? one, if nothing else in the world change the, the investor cash could probably last another for 5 years. there is no political

force anywhere in the more developed world to say this was a mistake. we have to restore the kind of taxi industry we had in 1990. we have to roll back what hubert did, there's to it, there's no support for that. not because it's a bad idea, but politically there's no support for that to the extent. so if everything else there would be muddle along, maybe being cash break even and constantly trying to shrink back with service in cities, continuing deteriorate. prices continue to go up. the issue for ober is the stock price. if it's investor suddenly wake up to morrow and said, this is never going to be worth any. we're not going to ever expect become profitable or not to experience amazon and bail on stock. and i don't think

that again, all these folks have drunk enough coolie to not be able to look think about that critically. but if you look at the collapse of the broader chapel, which is happening, that's caused a lot of people in other contacts to say, oh this technology stuff was not as wonderful as the press release. the sack o these companies that grew fast without any sign of profitability. that was really dumb and none of them turned into successes. no, no, nonsense amazon. 1520 years ago. if there are that and pressured by higher interest rates, an overall decline in stock. the stock market are you no longer have mass, so federal programs basically designed to increase stock market speculation.

inflate those kinds of bubbles if that kinds of bursts from those kinds of external forces. i think that is more likely to be what drives changes and i hear her and thank you so much for joining us. that's all we have for you today. this has been the whistleblowers. i'm john kerry, aka. we'll catch you next time. ah. 2 2 ah oh, when i was so wrong when i just don't whole, i mean you have to see how these days because the advocate and engagement,

it was the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look so common ground with a critical piece deal signed by ukraine 7 years ago was actually used to give key have more time to prepare for war. that's the confession made by former french president of francois, along to help with all to come i often the program today. india's military successfully testifiers an upgraded version of its newest supersonic cruise missile, which it say's will ensure a dominance on future battlefields and palestinian authorities, lachelle it's as well they describe as israel's ethnic cleansing policy.