without mike milken, t.76 and phillips petrolium. >> he said if you really want to take over gulf, it's going to cost you $13 billion. i said, yeah, i get it. and he said, i can get the $13 billion. >> he's the guy that t. boone pickens goes to and most people haven't heard of him. >> that's the way he likes it. he doesn't care about publicity and pride. he just cares about doing deals and having power. >> he was this shadowy howard hughes-like figure that you never saw, you just heard. >> it was milken's genius that created an entire market and fueled this takeover phenomena. >> we romanticize these characters. the fact of the matter, these are fat cats, first cousins to the financial manipulators, the robber barons of the late 19th century. >> they're trying to make a buck by doing nothing and putting people out of work. >> economists agree that some unemployment, some hardship is unavoidable in making the united states lean and mean again. but the takeover specialists call it corporate restructuring. >> c

trading at a discount to break a value that's a whole leveraged buyout revolution going back to mike milken and transform the stock markets forever and we've seen that now for decades why don't the activist hedge funds look at deutsche bank and say oh that derivatives book out there that you carry it a value that's. that is based on your internal calculations giving this derivatives book one hundred cents on the dollar value oh you know what if you did an actual counting of the derivatives book at deutsche bank you would find that that trillion dollar derivatives book because there's no aftermarket there's no one to buy it is worth exactly zero therefore fifteen billion dollars is about fourteen point nine billion dollars over valued for the other piece of garbage you know it's worth basically just ten percent of what jeff bezos is worth so he could literally just buy it with the stocks go up and easily if he felt like if it was genuinely any value there to be extracted i saw some signs as well in the last week or two that germany wants me to maybe merge it with commerce bank which i think

simpson, michael milken and mike tyson. he's the author of the case against impeaching trump. please join me in welcoming alan dershowitz. [applause] joining him will be david kaplan whose books include silicon boys the accidental president and mines bigger. a graduate of cornell and a university school otheuniversite teaches courses in journalism, ethics and nyu in the tradition of the brother in the most dangerous branch inside thehe supreme court assault on the constitution takes us inside the secret world of the supreme court please join me in welcoming david kaplan. [applause] does your book belonged to the right of mine? [laughter] it all depends on one's perspective. this is a great group and my first miami book fair and i am just totally impressed. the lineup of speakers and to see so many readers of books and people who appreciate books is fantastic so thank you to the miami book fair for having us here. we talked a little bit about how to proceed, and i think we are each going to talk for five or six minutes and then argue with each other and go to questions and answ

if you look at what is happening in the american economy in the early 80s, the time of michael milken and jeff bond and leveraged buyouts and feats of financial engineering. it was that more than grand operational things. >> you almost wonder now that sumner is incapacitated if he wasn't watching stock more closely it would be a different solution. >> people wonder that, down by 50% in two years. hard to believe he would have that happen. >> the latest generation, sumner's daughter, to her task, which doesn't mirror eddie, the brother. at one point she was running the theater, very hands-on and expanding russia internationally and publicly criticizing her business acumen and she comes roaring back in a big way. what have we learned about sherry and her drive? >> guest: she is her father's daughter. you should not underestimate her. she watched generations of redstone's fight each other. the way you do it is through lawyers, what to make of sherry's rise, it is challenging. sherry's rise asks the question about sumner's capacity which is an open question even though he communicates at

. >> joining me now is chief economist at the milken institute, bill. thank you for coming in. let's start with the market. we've never had a point gain like this before in the history. what you make of it? >> we can call of the -- recovery. it's safe and we don't have to worry about a change in the fed share. suddenly the markets turned around. despite the fact that it completely floode floods the me. he communicated to the markets that we are ready to pause. the economy may slow and were going to be cautious. he said were on autopilot. >> what didn't scare the market was incredible retail figures. they were very good. i'm wondering to what extent has the market been underplaying the effect of the general economy. >> it's very sound. were expecting above trend growth in the u.s. economy. is fueled by the labor markets the job growth is spectacular. it's giving consumers confidence and they are decreasing their savings rate which is not sustainable. were looking for tax cuts to kick in and boost productivity. that has to come into play. what's uncertain is whether the spat with

the milken institute chief economist, bill lee, and a portfolio manager, harry gibbs joined us later to take up the feds decision, the effect on markets and most importantly, you and me. also ahead, the radical left and their cohorts in the left-wing national media have all but written off the presidents border wall. >> it makes absolutely no sense to build a wall which is limited in its effectiveness. >> the president is becoming increasingly aware the fact that the wall will not be billed. he will not have the funding for this. >> a better use of the money would be on technology. what i like to call the smart wall. >> they will be very unified house democrats are not giving trump any portable funding. >> president trump is decided to go to american taxpayers in order to get $5 billion right now for his wall. >> there just appetite for that in the house of representatives or the senate. >> this is the last best chance to get big funding for that wall. and it's over. >> the wall, they cannot agree to throw in the towel it's over. >> we will take all of the appear to talk with congres

he with answers, chief economist at the milken institute, bill lee.u see recession jon taffer? >> absolutely not. there is two percent better growth, it's a sign that there's economy is pumping on all cylinders. >> why is a stock market freaking out? >> that's a great question. investors are looking for narrative. at the beginning of the year it was corporate america can do no wrong. and it was discounted. use a stock market go up like crazy and innovative companies like amazon, which was the sears of today, it -- every investors looking to disc companies. then the narrative changed. it became much more uncertain. that is where the stock market is, no growth with a bearer narrative. >> by the way we look at gdp growth under donald trump. it is extra narrowly improved from where it was in the obama administration. we have all of this growth but we don't have much inflation. so why is the fed raising rates? >> great question, david. the notion that we have in our heads that the fed i think is on the brake pedal, is a mistake. there in a press conference

right now, some insight from william lee, helping milken institute. vice-chairman, the economy of the chairman. solid is the december word. what is the forecast for a solid economy? william: it means anything above 2%. are staying at 3.5% growth rates. it will slow down. what i'm looking for to remain solid is that investment spending continues to pick up. that is the key to the tax reform package, supplied side efforts -- supply-side efforts. confidence that corporate america can adapt to a real interest rate if not a high interest rate? they adapt, don't they? william: you put your finger on it. they are adapting the wrong way because of uncertainty being thrown at corporate america because of trade wars and the reaction of the chinese. that is causing corporate america to put industrial plans on pause. all of this stimulus and tailwind from tax reform is by thisoffset uncertainty being raised by the international situation. investment matters, so do jobs. what is your prognosis for the job market? market seems to be running high. the research is sh

. >> joining us right now milken institute former u.s.issues around china right now. >> issues have long been there if we are to sum up i would say a little bit of china out of control kudos to president trump calling china out on behavior i think many executives in asia know that is happening, but trump is not afraid one hundred percent i am with him, trying to reset that u.s.-china relationship. >> we had president of microsoft on recently, the former ceo steve ballmer said it cost microsoft alone 10 billion dollars a year in profits the fact that 90% of companies use microsoft operating platform one percent pay for it one example how they steal. >> i think seeing big news that we are seeing breaking news cybertheft from marriott real data the call way back when president trump president xi did a deal supposed to tamp down this cyberwar between the countries, and i think we are seeing that deal has not worked, the chalk that in china in particular government business perhaps more close tlan they like to admit. >> how far do you think pr

asian fellow at the milken institute, served as u.s. ambassador during george w.h and barack obama. david: we will continue the conversation and look at the more nuanced approach of the market reaction, soybean futures surging in chicago and the white house says china will start buying u.s. foreign products. not a lot of details but enough to get markets going pretty we will try to get details and where we go from here next. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is bloomberg. ♪ david: welcome back. let's look at soybeans. --were below $900 commercial a bushel. the white house says china as it pertains to the bigger story between china and the u.s. will immediately start buying u.s. farm products. frome: let's get reaction iowa. the soybean association president is among those welcoming the news. thank you so much for joining us. first tell us the significance between thee truce u.s. and china and to what extent does it eliminate the bearishness in the market? >> it is good. we have been waiting for months for good news to come out of this basically a stalemate between the u.s

has retailers were never designed to have a will the of leverage until jump box came and michael milkenverage started. >> the irony in this whole story is sears, it was sort of the original amazon. it was the threat, right, to every single mom and pop store on main street with the catalog that became so ubiquitous and here we are in a situation where it's being put out of business, almost, at this point almost by the new way of shopping. who benefits is there a beneficiary, at this point, if sears goes out of business >> it's a great question and one might think it would be j.c. penney but j.c. penney hasn't been doing that well either i think one thing that retailers and retail advisors often talk about if a business goes away, does the business shift or evaporate? and what it appears might be if sears goes away, it appears it may evaporate rather than have the business go somewhere else. >> j.c. penney isn't in danger of being removed from the new york stock exchange. there's some real estate value people are watching, as you reported, close many more stores so they're not exposed to

you referenced work that i did when i was at the milken institute. i also while i was there published several papers along with mr. brite, one on my own, on affordable housing. in particular i would summarize in just a general statement, i focused on creating pathways to sustainable home ownership, and i think that this bill gives the foundation for the next congress coming in to add to, to speed limit what is there, to address -- excuse me. the issues that you are raising, but also to do so not in a 1950s or really in a 1990s or 2000s way, but in a go-forward way to create -- to use these dollars that are going to be made available to provide opportunities for home ownership in a more sustainable fashion. i'd be glad to share that research with you and come talk to you. >> happy to do that. let me jump to something we talked about early about the value of the -- or the necessity for a government backstop. is there any way to quantify what the delta might be and -- if we removed the -- what would happen to the interest rate if where -- now that risk