as shira said, not fully disclosing.t wasn't the felony that people thought, but there was certainly something here that apple didn't communicate properly. cory: brad, always a pleasure. thank you very much, brad stone, and shira ovide, back in new york, thanks a lot. 2017, a rocky year for bloomberg. eric newcomer looks at the company's past, present, and potential future problems. uber 2017 -- the year that probably wants to forget. embattled ceo travis kalanick resigned. dozens of executives left. allegations surfaced of sexual harassment by the company -- by company employees. uber's top rival, lyft, continued the eat away at market share, riding the coattails of the #deleteuber movement. one of its competitors is suing over alleged trade secrets. to round out the year, uber lost its london license, was ruled a transportation service rather than a digital one in the eu, and continues to face mounting legal battles from all over the globe. but uber is trying to turn the corner with new ceo dara cautious shockey bringi

gadfly columnist shira ovide joins us now.he tax rate is a lower effective rate, but the rate is already low. how much of an impact will this have? shira: every business wants lower taxes, that has been clear. companies in tech and outside of tech are very happy to have a lower tax rate. even as you said, a lot of these companies are not paying the 35% statutory rate because of tax breaks and other reasons. emily: what about repatriation? how much will this bring back -- $4 trillion as donald trump said? shira: i am not sure where he got that number. there is several trillion dollars that are permanently invested overseas. but companies like apple have done stealth repatriation. apple has $250 billion or so parked overseas. they also borrowed $100 billion in the last few years to do things like buying back their shares, issuing dividends. you can look at that as a way to repatriate money without paying tax, which is what apple might be able to do under this proposed bill. emily: there was concern over stock option legislation

shira: i mean, look, every business wants lower taxes. think that has been clear in all of the debate about the tax legislation this year. that companies in tech and outside of tech are very happy to have a lower tax rate, even as -- as you said -- a lot of companies are not paying the 35% statutory rate because of tax breaks and other reasons. emily: so what about repatriation? how much money is this actually going to bring back? $4 trillion? shira: i'm not sure where he got the $4 trillion number. there are several million parked offshore that are considered permanently reinvested. therefore not taxed at 35%. but you have seen the ways companies like apple have basically done self repatriation. apple has $250 billion parked overseas, but they have also borrowed $100 billion in the last few years to do things like buying back their shares, issuing dividends, things like that. and you can look at that as a way to repatriate money without paying the tax, which is what apple might be able to do under this proposed legislation. emily: now th

judge shira scheindlin is former u.s. district judge for the southern district of new york or she served 22 years. this is democracy now! back with her, then we will be speaking with the first latino city council speaker of new york city who is ending her term. we will try to also find out where she is headed, melissa mark-viverito. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: the groups longtime dj hip-hop high near -- high near died last friday the age of 51. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest is the former district shira scheindlin is a former is district judge. i wanted ask about something else. in january 2014, bill de blasio announced the city would drop its appeal of a ruling by a u.s. district court that found the controversial police policy of stop-and-frisk unconstitutional and settle an ongoing lawsuit. mayor de blasio delivered the news at a community center in brownsville, brooklyn, a predominantly african-american community that's had more

shira joining u.s. as well.hira, this deal took quite a while for these guys to put together but also really suggests that uber is not what it used to be to the tunes of tens of billions of dollars. >> yeah. think you can't escape the fact that uber is essentially less valuable than years ago,uple of when it was valued at $69 billion, in the stock transaction, and now we're talking about a 30% haircut. and yeah, you can make all kinds excuses that this is a transaction not from the company from its existing shareholders. but obviously it's been a bad uber.lus for and it's clear that that's hurt the valuation of the company. really shocking, when you look at that chart by our producers here of the show. know, this also took a while to do. who were the sellers in this deal? i like the $69 $40.on but i'll take get me out. >> we don't know everyone who has sold. benchmark, an early investor. venture capital firm. we don't know yet about travis who still owns 10%. but i want to add one thing to what shira said. a yea

shira: basically a startup community's worst nightmare.red wilson from union square basically spoke out and said this was a version in both houses for a while that looked like it was going to force start up companies to pay taxes on tax options and restricted stock effective immediately, even before they were able to sell those shares. that certainly would have put an undue burden on a lot of corporate workers here in silicon valley. emily: what you make of the deal apple has made with ireland? they have come to terms on an agreement, the terms of an escrow fund to pay back taxes they say they owe. shira: this dispute over irish taxes with apple is going to carry on for many, many more months. basically, if you remember last year, the e.u. antitrust authorities said to ireland, you have improperly given apple a tax break that has allowed the company to avoid something like $15 billion worth of taxes over the years, and you have to go get that back, ireland, from apple. and there is basically a dispute about what to do with the $15 billion

shira: when they bought whole foods, people looked at amazon in a new way.t certainly seemed there was no industry that did not have to worry about amazon coming directly on their turf. you saw that when they got into the drugstore, the pharmaceutical business. you saw shares of the pharma company dropped. dissenting in groceries. any company at all related to food took a nosedive. that will keep happening because it seems like their ambitions know no bounds. so, will we see the promise of those rumors realized? the grocery think of everything that was whispered about has not materialized. shira: the other whispered categories, furniture -- mass -- amazon isall places making bets. you can see from the purchase of whole foods amazon could not do groceries on its own. to maked whole phones it -- whole foods to make a foray into that category, and the other trends are just as scary. the stories not predicting technology, the #metoo movement. within tech, there was talk about it, but not perhaps as much as some expected. shira: i think you are right. media seem

shira: it will be in litigation for a long time.ven if apple has to pay $15 billion, for a company of apple's scale, $15 billion is not a big burden. emily: this week, prominent tech investor shervin pishevar has been accused of sexual misconduct said he is taking a , leave of absence from his responsibility. five women who met him in a professional context said they were a sexually assaulted or harassed by him. current and former colleagues of a sixth woman say he groped her at an uber holiday party. he has sued the definers, a research firm founded by republicans, for spreading false information about him. they have responded to the suit, saying they have nothing to do with his accusations and the suit should be dismissed. in a statement, he wrote "as the legal case progresses, it is my response -- it is my priority to ensure the family is not adversely affected. i am confident i will be vindicated." google won dismissal of the california action lawsuit saying the company systematically paid male employees more than females. san f

shira: it is hard to imagine uber can be sold at the valuation it has now. be a public company in a few years and i think the only question is how big is it going to be? david: we will wrap this up with amazon because it ties it together. one of the questions is in the one trillion, what do regulators do? the president of the united states has come out with a tweet asking, why is the united states post office, charging so little to amazon, making amazon richer? they should be charging much more. amazon, you are getting a free ride off of the post office and you have to pay more money. what is coming around the bend from european regulators and even in asia? ship? first, do the even they do. it is definitely true. david: but it is a larger point. the government is saying, you are growing fast on our backs. thea: i think this has been theme of the year, basically the growing attention and scrutiny on the technology companies and their products. we saw that in congress with some of the hearings about misinformation spread, russian propaganda spread on facebook,