i brought in the very best, bill cohen.se says cuba has one of the lowest internet penetrations in the world, less than 5% of 11 million citizens are connected. i want to bring back alec ross a developer andion fellow at columbia university. what does the internet mean to cuba? >> i don't think cubans will tweet their way to a butersonian democracy, allowing communication on an island has to change the way that people in cuba see themselves and the outside world. this is a decision made by a couple of old men, fidel and who are seeing the end of their lives before them, and are taking this measure to hopefully open the island a little and leave their people was something before their own demise. >> do you think hillary clinton would have liked to have been the one to open cuba? was that something important to her? >> it was very important to her. the credit needs to go to a lot of people, including barack obama. president obama, to his credit, you have to give him credit for this that see -- for this gutsy policy move. i kn

contestant is bill cohen.heing me out at all hours, bloomberg contributing editor, welcome. >> great to have you here. >> i am no replacement for stephanie, but i will try. >> i know you will. the top stories out of business and finance, let us begin with oil prices. the lowest level in 12 years, brent crude is at its lowest level. also -- already facing the highest capital surcharge under international rules and the bank may have to than 20 billion in additional capital because of new regulations proposed by the federal reserve. the capital boost would not be due until 2019. wellgan says they are capitalized and intends to meet the requirements, whatever they are. shares of yum are trading lower. forecastp their profit for the year. yum was hurt via food scare in china, a huge source of its profits. kfc is very popular there. in july they were investigated for altering expiration dates on their meet, not what you want. beat posted earnings that estimates, plus sales growth that beat rivals from walmart. 7%, w

but those like bill cohen or bill bradley john warner, republicans and democrats the list goes on it and maybe the last one to leave because of frustration was olympia snowe. so you have most could have been reelected for ever who left in disgust because they cannot get anything done. that is especially worrying. but despite my frustrations or even by a anger at the congress, the reality is i've got a lot of things done. most of my predecessors if they were lucky cut two or 30 or four procurements canceled that were overdue are not relevant to i cut three dozen it got congressional approval with all of them. i cut almost $200 billion in to to have the congress support me on that. is the veto threat behind me it was also working across the aisle with members of congress to figure out how to move the agenda for word pro so i argue we have these institutional problems that i consider the weakening of the role of congress because of the bt of the committee chairs that the end of the day you can address the paralysis, not polarization but by people in the white house and congress to liste

bill cohen was here. -- was going to say you just made a fat joke. i was going to say i did miss you and i had an exciting week. >> i missed you too. but because i had help i wasn't lonely. >> it is great to be back. today. a lot to cover let's start with the global business stories of the morning. firmup led by the british bc partners has agreed to officially by petsmart. the deal is valued at a whopping $8.3 billion. out apollo beat global management. petsmart has been hurt by competition from amazon and other retailers. still boomingis in the u.s. economy. industrial production rose by the most since may of 2010. reduction of consumer goods did even better, rising by the most in over 16 years. and a dubious record for the ruble. the russian currency was trading more than 60 to the dollar. this month it has fallen 18% against the u.s. dollar. the central bank is under an enormous amount of pressure to do something to stem the default. and sony is in serious damage control mode over those leaked e-mails and documents. the company is warning news out

these bridge builders as far as i was concerned for people like bill cohen, bill bradley, jack danforth, john warner, david boren, sam nunn, nancy kassebaum, republicans or democrats, and the list goes on. and maybe the last one to leave because of frustrations was olympia snowe. so you've got this large number of people, most of them could've been reelected for ever, who left in disgust because they couldn't get anything done. and i think that's the new phenomenon over the last couple of decades that is especially worrying. now the other theme though in this book and i think this as an important point to make, to spite my frustrations and even my anger at the congress, the reality is i got a lot of things done with the congress. most of my predecessors did they were lucky to get two or three or four big military procurement programs canceled that were over cost, overdue, or no longer relevant. i cut nearly three dozen and ended up getting congressional approval, or acquiescence come in all of them. i cut almost $200 billion out of the pentagon's overhead, and even eliminated a combatan

do this, a bottom-up review, and then there were criticismed that it wasn't good enough and so bill cohen convened the national defense panel in 1997 to review the qdr and then a dozen years later was mandated there be an official relook at american strategy on a regular basis and hence the panel to achieve this goal of an actual bipartisan independent review of the u.s. strategy. the most recent report issued in july of which fortunately our panelists have copies here. i have a printed-out copy in any bag. and after the pentagon -- it's qdr and some of the fundmentams was to end budget cuts in return to sort of normal financial order and secretary gates under the 2012 budget that secretary gates originally proposed, retain a construct that ambassador describes as the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time, which i think is an important thing for us to be able to do. immediately reversed readiness cuts that are gravely damaging war-fighting capabilities-especially once you get through all the tricks that have been used before and try to minimize impacts and that the 2014 forces wer

you see, when he was first elected to the senate in 1978, the same year as maine senator bill cohen, for whom i was working at the time, both of them served on what was then known as the senate governmental affairs committee and also on the same subcommittee, oversight of government management, for which i was first the minority staff director and then the majority staff director. so i have known and worked with senator levin for the entire time that he has been a member of this chamber. from the very start, senator levin's diligence as a watchdog for the american people impressed me. ten years after i left the committee, i returned as senator cohen's successor and sought a seat on the governmental affairs committee precisely because, thanks to the example of senator levin and senator cohen, i saw the importance of accountability in government and business practices. as the chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations, it was my honor to begin my senate service with senator levin as our ranking member and as a far more experienced senator than i was at the time. so i've s

. >> it was bill cohen.s encampment located in this western state. >> california. >> california is correct. confirmed by the senate this week the new ambassador to hungary was a television producer of what daytime soap opera bold and the beautiful. >> correct. >> during oral arguments, lyrics for an eminem song were quoted by this member of the supreme court. >> joe? >> closet -- >> incorrect, asking for the member of the supreme court. >> we'll call time. >> john roberts. quoted eminem. this week this southern university became the first school to shutdown a major college football program since 19 -- >> brian? >> university of alabama birmingham. >> yes, the birmingham is key there. thursday night allison williams performed as peter pan she is the daughter of who -- >> of me, brian williams. >> robin williams. >> daughter of brian williams who took over as nbc nightly news anchor from whom? >> tom brokaw. >> jackie? >> tom brokaw. >> it is not enough to topple brian who wins the game with 1500 points. congr

william cohen served as secretary of defense for four years under president bill clinton and is liveith us now from our washington studios. nice to see you again. thank you. >> good to be with you. >> ever seen a tougher lanz scape? >> i really haven't in my years. this is probably the most complicated geopolitical landscape i've ever seen and a very dangerous one, given all that's going on, certainly in the middle east, also in iraq and syria and elsewhere, not to mention the shift in power over in the asia-pacific region, so a lot going on. >> where do you start? >> well, the first thing i think is assuming he's confirmed, i believe that we'll see ash carter confirmed quickly, the first thing he has to do is make the case to president obama and to congress to eliminate sequestration. sequestration across-the-board cuts has had a pretty devastating impact upon the military and its capability and readiness. i would start there by saying, let's get strong, again, to make sure we're going to make these kind of commitments overseas we have the capacity to carry them out. i would make su

. >> is he of billy mark cohen, got in fights with the owners? >> another example is bill parcells. to go on to the next one. the first was in san diego and then stanford and now here, it might not be longer than two for 4 years and michigan is looking for someone long-term. john: breaking news on the sony had, fbi releasing a statement moments ago blaming north korea for the cyber attacks. adam shapiro has more. adam: it is north korea. technical analysis of the data malware used builds links to other malware that the fbi knows north korea and actors previously deployed to. there were similarities in specific lines of code, and christian algorithms, dated deletion methods and comprised net works. they go on to say the fbi observed overlap from the infrastructure used in the attack and other malicious cyberactivity. the government has previously linked directly to north korea. so this is the first official declarations that was north korea behind the hack attack at sony. john: some of the tech people we had on this show and others, talked about the fact it could take a long time bef

, as we know in the legislative process, this went by regular order which is how ll bills should proceed. and mr. cohen, who was then my subcommittee ranking member and then mr. johnson, were both very cooperative. we also know that good legislation has to have a good staff, and on the subcommittee e were blessed by three fine individuals and their support staffs, anthony grossy and daniel flores on the majority side and sitting over there next to mr. conyers is susan jensen and they worked together. they worked for what was best. i saw no partisanship, no gangsmanship. it was a group effort. they were also backed by the national conference of -- national bankruptcy conference, administrative office of courts, the bankruptcy judicial conference as well as the attorney's bar both for creditors and debtors. both for consumers and for the institutions. they all came together. we had many people from the academic world, experts in bankruptcy, and they pretty much identified how we ought to go. and the history of all this really is the financial crisis of 2008 which none of us want to go through again. now,

are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? mr. cohen: i move to suspend the rules and pass senate bill 229. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 229, an act to designate the medical center of the department of veterans' affairs located at 3900 woodland avenue in philadelphia, pennsylvania, as the corporal crescenz department of veterans' affairs medical center. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. roe and the gentlewoman, ms. bustos, each will control 20 minutes. mr. roe: i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend on s. 229. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. roe: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. roe: i rise in support of senate bill 229 which would name the v.a. medical center located at 3900 woodland avenue in philadelphia, pennsylvania, as crescenzral michael j. department of veteran affairs medical center. corporal crescenz was the