that prompted a sharp response from the second in command at ubs americas. "we will not print and give them our stress analysis. we are not going public." he was even more direct the next morning. "the request is absurd and you should know that." ferrer declined to comment. how many of your former colleagues from ubs are in the same boat as you are? >> all of them. >> reporter: jorge and teresa bravo are a brother and sister team who say ubs recruited them in 2011. in the beginning, all seemed to be going well as the bravos sold the bond funds to 200 clients. teresa invested $200,000 of her own money. today they say they're reputation is ruined. how many complaints did you have before ubs? >> one. >> only one. >> reporter: how many now? >> 13, 14. >> all because of the product. the product exploded, basically. >> reporter: they say that product, the funds filled with puerto rican bonds, destroyed brokers like the bravos and their clients. >> it's basically a disaster, because right now clients blame you. we lost over 50% of our clients. so our personal lives

that prompted a sharp response from the second in command at ubs americas we will not print and givegoing public. he was even more direct the next morning. the request, he wrote, he is absurd and you should know that. ferrara dough clieeclined to cot >> ubs declined to make anyone available for an interview, but a spokesman wrote in a statement to cnbc that concerns about the puerto rico economy and its prospects have been the subject of wide public debate and press coverage for many years. no ratings agencies or analysts predicted anything like the drop in bond prices that occurred in august and september 2013. he added, there were no undisclosed issues with the funds and that the funds generated tax free returns greater than 12% in 2010, 2011, and 2012 guys >> i think that's kind of telling, though, the idea that they thought it would be absurd to have a risk analysis of the bond portfolio >> exactly they were very redicent about sharing details with the brokers who were raising their hands as early on as 2011 saying we're concerned about selling these funds to you are on clients.

equity strategist for ubs wealth management americas and mike lippert from the baron opportunity fund chair but what may be more important is what we're hearing out of washington in terms of a tax deal looking like it is a more likely scenario they have agreed in principle and if you start looking at next year, you can say one thing in terms of what you may expect you may not look at market multiples to expand but what will happen to earnings if this tax plan passes? >> it's a clear positive the bulk case for equities for 2018 is we get tax reform, corporate tax rates fall from 35% to the low 20s, looks like a 21% rate that should boost corporate profits for s&p 500 companies in the 6% to 10% range. so without tax reform earnings were likely to be up in the mid to high single digits anyway so we could be looking at a 15% to 20% earnings growth. >> how much of that has been baked in and how much is something that needs to be processed? >> that's always the million dollar question. if you asked me six weeks ago i would have said very little was priced in for tax reform passing. clearly

america's 3rd largest investor in infrastructure. we don't just help power the american dream... we're part of it. maria: ubs, where do they put that money, how do they advise clients. we are back with chairman axel weber. this is a special time we are seeing. we have synchronized growth around the world and that helped markets. let's talk bitcoin. the market cap near's mastercard, $171 billion. are you planning to start trading bitcoin? >> no, we are not. i have been sceptical about the construction of bitcoin. the block chain and distributed ledger. that will have a big impact on the financial industry and it will transform trading. people talk about it as a currency. it isn't. there is nobody that controls the supply of it. when you look beyond that, it's not a currency in the sense it's an accepted means of payment by everyone. it's accepted by a few but you cannot generally use it. it has been too small to matter. now it's too big to ignore. i'm pretty sure the regulators would have to have a look at it. there are retail investors flocking into it and the regulators have to look at it and say is that an

america competitive again. will companies' do things differently with a maria: talk of tax policy has dominated 2017. and talk of rewriting the volcker rule. we are back with the chairman of ubsaxel weber. this president has made energy a focus, a priority. is that an infrastructure play? when you look at the energy space, we can drill and be an incredible producer. that will and job creator. >> as we are seeing infrastructure investment start taking hold and energy investment normalize, that will contribute to growth. what does energy consumption and non-tree newable energies do to climate. in the short term there are some risks from basically exploiting all the biological sources of energy. but as an economic stimulus it will take hold. and you must see the key issue of what caused weakness two or three years ago was the massive drop in oil price. it's normalizing. what we are talking about is a world economy that is coming out of a crisis that is normalizing. even if the fed goes to 2 1/2, 3/4 percent, that's a normal average interest rate. the feds will not go as far as restrictive. if you look at what drives growth in the u.s. it's people and unemployment at all-time low

ubs. where is potential gdp for western society? where is potential gdp for the united states of america? the answer is low, isn't it?ial gdp for the states, 2.25%, 2.5%. steve: i would agree with that. nejra: you agree on something! [laughter] , jpmorgan is sub -2%. this is critical. that is politically an acceptable to politicians in a democracy. in a democracy, politicians cannot go out and sell hopes and dreams on a numeral 2% potential gdp, can they? steve: they can to some extent if you have a low level of population growth. it is not how workers work, it is how good the machines are they are working with. that is still in 2% real level of increase in income. they will change their narrative to make it justifiable. i don't think we will reach 2%. tom: go ahead, paul. paul: the other issue is that there is enormous amount of imprecision with gdp. tom: agreed. paul: if you look at the revisions, they are massive, they come two or three years later. with the technological changes we have seen, the blurring of private and public an investment and consumer spending, i'm not sure we're looking at the right indicator

americas with david westin and alix steel. david: one of the things we are excited about is the cbs aetna -- cvs aetna merger. jim barnes is the vice-chairman of ubsut that and we will talk about the tax overhaul and what it's going to mean for his business and m&a. the tax that striving markets higher. thank you, david westin with daybreak america's coming up shortly. brexit andday for theresa may. she will have lunch with european commission president jean-claude euchre -- jean-claude euchre -- john claude juncker. let's get straight to nejra in brussels. they still haven't agreed on the irish border on -- or eu nationals. >> that's right. we did see the pound actually rise when that headline broke. barney's office actually declined to comment on that. heard that today it is seen more of a staging post from the eu summit. with the aim of moving the talks on to trade at the summit on december 14. big questions over whether that is actually going to happen. there are still challenges particularly the irish border and the european court of justice and the rights of eu citizens. that actually came up as more of an issue over the weekend. we were hea