Carol we are here with the editor in chief joel weber. And joel, we will start in the finance section. We have to talk about the markets because we all started off the week with a crazy stock market. Joel it has been a wild week. Backdrop here really starts last friday with the jobs report. Markets come back on monday and there happens to be a new fed chair. That backdrop is a really interesting thing that ends with this major selloff on monday. Right . And then on tuesday, it goes the other way. I think everybody has been a little whiplashed by that. A bigger conversation nine years into this epic bull market. A lot of Retail Investors have only ever seen green and this is their first time seeing red. Carol a lot of millennials, right . Joel the youngs. And its so easy to trade now. If you think about what it was like nine years ago to where it is at now, you can do this on the smartphone with a touch of a button and that is a free thing, right . A free transaction. That builds in really bad behavior. Thats part of what we read about this week. Even as it is becoming incredibly easy, that behavioral bad behavioral decisions get baked into that as well. Julia we talked about the complacency in the market and you pointed out a run that has been on for years now. Volatility has been so low. Thats not just equities. Its everywhere. We have been lulled into this false sense of security. A huge shift higher. It caught everybody off guard. Carol and that is why the inverse vix worked for so long. Then it was back in the market. Joel big time, and the backdrop to all this is the new fed chair. We have had the era of easy money, speculation that there will be a rate hike. That builds in all of that weird anxiety into the market and the marketplace is showing that. Julia the perfect backdrop to all of this and something clearly on investors minds as was the fact that we had an important transition this week. Jay powell, the new fed chair, what a first day on the job. Joel i mean, could you imagine . We wanted to pose that question, how did your first day go . [laughter] joel and for the most part, he is not really responsible for what is happening in the markets, right . Hes the ultimate backdrop to all of this. He is now the most important person in charge of Monetary Policy in the world. Julia inflation, jobs, that is their mandate. Asset prices come to the floor. Joel something we also talk about is the gigantic punch bowl that has been out there. Now the market is starting to feel anxious that the punch bowl gets taken away bigger than anybody wanted. A lot of what we have seen this i think week is based on that anxiety. Carol it may be a political play, as well. Joel that is the other attention to this is you have a trump thing. The yellen thing never came to a head. They had a peaceful coexistence. But if there is a change in Monetary Policy from the fed, you just have to start to wonder what this trumppowell dynamic will look like. Thats what peter coy talked about. Carol interesting first day and first week for the fed chairman. We have more from peter coy. Peter he turned 65 on february 4. Assumed the chairmanship on february 5. \february 5. And on february 5, the market went down by the biggest point drop in history. Julia welcome to the job. Peter so yeah, the point of my story, i started working on this before the market took its big break. I was kind of thinking, donald trump has been bragging about the stock market since he took office. It has been a good line for him because the market keeps going up and up. He is telling people, check your 401 k s. And i was thinking, the fed has said it wants to raise Interest Rates and at some point it wants to make those industries pinch. When janet yellen was raising rates, she was doing the right thing, but it was not pinching. You know, the financial conditions overall were very easy because the stock market kept going up, bond yields, long end of the curve, were low. That has to change at some point because the only way you can stave off inflation is by making financial conditions tighter. Which is never going to be good for stocks. It is obviously intended to keep the economy, the job growth from going to extreme levels. So you knew a collision was going to happen. I didnt think it would happen on powells first day in office. Carol we had a story on the bloomberg early saying he comes in and the economy is doing great, maybe getting a little heated up, and bam. The market comes undone. And now he is in an interesting situation potentially. Peter because he obviously, nobody wants to get into a twitter war with the president of the united states. Im sure he wont. I dont think he has a twitter account. Another thing, he cannot back off and avoid conflict with the white house because the fed has a dual mandate to keep full employment, but also to keep the value of money stable, which means avoiding excess inflation. Carol what about the markets . The Financial Markets are not part of that mandate, but we know from fed testimony and speeches that they are always looking at what is going on in terms of the Financial Market conditions. Peter right, so the logic would be, if you are strictly focused on the dual mandate, well if the market takes a big goes up a lot, that would cause people to overspend. It goes down a lot, the opposite would chill the economy. That would be a reason, not because you are trying to protect any particular persons gains in the markets. Julia what we saw the week before last was a reset as far as Interest Rates were concerned. We saw a dramatic steepening. So back end yields coming up doubledigits. Throughout the back end of the Interest Rate curve, which i think had a lot of people wondering, whats going on here . The question is, how much tightening effectively can the Financial Markets and stocks withstand, and how much tightening can President Trump withstand . Because there are two themes in your story. Weather Current Events overtook perhaps the initial theme. Peter i think they will turn the knob a little bit, see how the economy reacts. If its not crashing anything, turn a little more, because they do believe that rates are below the equilibrium level. Now thats a tricky process, though, because very often, tightening cycles end in tears. They end in recession. Not intended, but the federal funds are a blunt instrument and its hard to calibrate scalpel like precision. Julia up next, who is on the receiving end when china tightens the screws on stimulus . Carol and some revisionist history threatens poland. Julia this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Carol welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Im carol massar. Julia and im julia chatterley. You can find us online. Carol in the economic section, a credit squeeze is on in china just like other parts of the global economy. Julia but in china specifically, the corporate titans are feeling the pinch. Carol here is editor christina lindblad. Christina in china, authorities have been particularly worried about debt in the corporate sector. Rather than use benchmark Interest Rates, rather than use them, they are using targeted measures so as to not compromise growth. So, i think the alarm bells started sounding in 2016 when Chinese Companies went on a huge m a binge that wilted them to number two in the global m a. Behind the u. S. That was a wakeup to chinese policymakers. A lot of these deals were happening abroad. And a lot of them were debt funded. Carol talk to us about the levels of debt. We have had shortsellers come on and talk about the chinese debt. Put it into perspective for us. Cristina there is a mind blowing number. Between 2008 and 2016, chinese debt increased by 22. 4 trillion. That is bigger than the economic output of the u. S. Carol huge. Cristina yeah. The debt to gdp, which is a common looked at ratio, went from 159 to 260 in 2016. And despite this current campaign, its probably going to surpass 300 by 2020 is what Bloomberg Economics team julia that debt keeps rolling over and at some point there isnt that the ability to roll over. And then come up to get some kind of crunch . Cristina whats happening is the Chinese Government is forcing some of the big conglomerates there is a crash diet. Youre told you have to sell off some of these assets at hna, which is a company that has received a lot of attention, which some people have compared to ing because of the level of, you know, relationships getting hot. Nothing becomes quite clear until things get bad. So, they are definitely on a huge push to sell assets. They basically disposed of real estate projects like they have in london and australia. They were in the middle of this big Luxury Real Estate push. Julia and they have stakes in really wellknown companies. Deutsche bank, hilton, 3rd avenue and park avenue. In terms of the assets they have got here, the fingers in the pie are wellknown, large, and have Global Implications if there is a problem. Cristina its true. The question always remains, how far would the Chinese Government go . We saw in europe and the u. S. , governments went quite far in ensuring that companies would not collapse entirely. Julia there is an implicit backstop. These guys think the Chinese Company will not let the company go because they dont want the ripple effect. That seems to be a backstop assumption. Do you think that mentality is changing as a result of what we are seeing in the tightening, the shift from xi jinping . Cristina no, i think it is a pretty good bet that no large Chinese Company will be allowed to fail. And also, we have to remember, this is an economy that is very different from others. Capital controls mean hot money is not an issue, really. So we dont have the sudden swish out when people see problems. That punishes everybody. And domestic savings are really high. I have said personally that i could see a scenario in which the government, if it had to, would confiscate money from those savings to mop up a crisis. Julia in the politics section, the nationalist government in poland continues to break ties with both nato and the eu. Carol we got more on this from our editor,. Matthew there has been a nationalist fervor sweeping across eastern and Central Europe for a couple years now. In poland, the most recent example of that is a new law they have just signed that makes it a crime, punishable up to three years, to imply that poland was complicit in any sort of crimes related to the holocaust. Their point is they are trying to clean up the countrys image abroad, but it is doing the exact opposite among allies. Israel is not pleased with this. The u. S. Is not pleased with this. This is a time when poland is arguably more reliant on aid from the eu and security from the u. S. Than ever before, and they are testing that relationship on both fronts. Julia its also upset the eu, who has been wrangling with poland over the power grab we have seen with the judicial system, the suppression of the media here, too. As you point out the financial linkages and dependency, yet domestically they are very popular. Matthew thats right. Their popularity has soared recently. Probably a lot of that has to do with this nationalist fervor they have taken hold of. Transfer payments are up. They have increased the social welfare system for their citizens. You are paid something on the order of 148 per month. If you have more than one child per child. Their economy is doing pretty well, it is growing. A lot of this is on the back of this consumer demand that is fueled by welfare payments. But its been two years since the law and Justice Party has taken over. They have done this grab on the media and the courts, and they are upsetting the Budget Centers in brussels who will start looking at next years budget of the eu, and countries like germany and france are thinking of ways to tie payments the eu will be making to poland to measure rule of law and democratic freedoms. Carol take a step back, because i had no idea this law that was put forth and signed by polands president , making it a criminal offense to suggest poland had any responsibility for the holocaust. Whats the origin of this and the momentum it has created within poland . Matthew well, look, a lot of the atrocities that happened in the holocaust happened in poland. That was where auschwitz was. A lot of the jews killed were polish. A lot of the heroes that israel has gone to Great Lengths to recognize were polish. They did a lot to get some of these people out. But there were also a lot of people who outed the jews who were in hiding, and that is what they are trying to put a stop to. Whether you can say this is part of a broader Antisemitic Movement that is gaining momentum in eastern europe, i dont know that you can necessarily go that far. But its eerily similar to some of the sentiment and nationalist fervor we saw 70, 80 years ago. Carol up next, the governments gamble with a fragile yet devoted homecare industry. Julia and the investing Machine Learning to find a cure for cancer. Carol this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Julia welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Im julia chatterley. Carol and im carol massar. You can also listen to us on radio on sirius xm radio and am 1130 in new york, 106. 1 in boston, and a. M. 960 and the bay area. Julia and in london on dab and in asia on the Bloomberg Radio plus app. In the futures section this week, we take a sobering look at the homecare industry in the united states. Carol the countrys three million home aides are underworked, underfunded, and some are working for free. She is a homecare worker. Its not her real name. I should say that. Many of the workers i spoke with fear retaliation, so on the condition of anonymity, she spoke with me. She let me follow her around for about a year on and off. She is someone who works overnight shifts, 24 hours in a row, and in the case of right now, she works 48 hours in a row in the home of someone who is elderly and disabled. She tends to them in bed, helping them go to the bathroom, cooking for them, cleaning for them. Really all the activities of daily living. Julia her shift begins at 8 00 a. M. And ends at 8 00 a. M. The next day. How much sleep is she getting . Tammy right, the point of the story is a lot of night hours are unaccounted for and unpaid. She works a 48 hours shift and told me she rarely sleeps more than two to three hours, but is not paid for the night. Carol how is that possible . Tammy so, the homecare system, there is a lot of unpaid hours, as you might guess. Carol but shes told to be there . Tammy right, she is told to be there by her employer and the medicaid system. There are contracts that basically say, we are going to assume that workers are eating and sleeping for 11 hours a day, so we are going to pull that out of their paycheck. Julia she gets paid for 13 hours a day, 26 hours out of 48. Tammy thats correct in the case of her shift. The assumption of meal and sleep breaks are unrealistic. I spoke with 20 workers in the course of the year, and nobody said they were ever educated as to how to log hours they were off or say to employers they didnt sleep. Julia how much does she get paid per hour to do this . Tammy right now, she is making 13. When i first met her, she was making 10. Like most Homecare Workers in the medicaid system, they are making the minimum wage plus a few benefits. Julia whats the law surrounding this . You mentioned this idea of a split shift, so in theory, you would have two people working 12 hours each and its more manageable. Tammy the unpaid nights are the dirty secret of our system. And the law knows that it happens. But again, the presumption is written into contracts that workers have a hard time rebutting. Carol there is a nurse that comes and checks the situation. What did that supervisor tell her . Tammy when you are paid to the medicaid system, there is a nurse that checks in. There really isnt a supervisor. The agency has a representative that sort of looks over her. Theres also an Agency Representative from her union but when she made reports to both, there isnt money in the system and you need to hush, and you need to be there. Julia what about unions . Are there any kind of union protections for women and men in this situation . Tammy so, the main union is a very large Workers Union and they have done an extraordinary job of leading the fight for 15 and organizing lowwage workers. Most Homecare Workers in this space for medicaid in states like new york, progressive states are unionized, but the contracts still write in the possession of taking the breaks. Carol now to a potentially brighter side in the health industry. Julia he is using Venture Capital and Machine Learning to find a cure for cancer. Manus here is reporter carol here is reporter sarah mcbride. Vijay pande is an investor, but unlike a lot of investors, he worked for years as an academic. He is a bit of a polymat. He has a background in several different disciplines, including chemistry and biology, and has he has done a lot of time in Computer Science. That particular combination makes him an unusual venture investor. Carol he has two degrees in civics and he is a coder at the same time. He can bring he sees across disciplines. Although hes only been there for a few years, he is already applying crossthinking to his investment strategy. And its making him a very different, unusual type of investor when it comes to medicine and biosciences. Carol and lets dig a little bit into that in terms of what kind of investor he is in terms of how it comes to the community. We should point out that bloomberg lp is an investor in the firm he works with. Talk to us now about his approach when it comes to biotech. Well, his theory is that Machine Learning, which he knows a lot about in his background in Computer Science and a project he did he thinks Machine Learning has the potential to really transform medical research. A lot of traditional investors agree to a degree, but he just thinks its going to be exponentially transformative. A lot of people have heard this type of thing before about computers and medicine, and he really thinks this time, the types of advancements we will be able to make by running things like genomic sequences are going to enable all kinds of discoveries in medicine and how our bodies react to medicine. Julia up next, the consequences of Prime Minister modis retrenching in india. Carol and a day in the life of north koreas army of hackers. Julia this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. We use so why do we pay touterst and cthave a phone connected. When were already paying for internet . Shouldnt it all just be one thing . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You can get 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. Choose by the gig or unlimited. And now, get a 200 prepaid card when you buy an iphone. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfnitymobile. Com. Julia welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Im julia kerley. Carol im julia chatterley. Carol and im carol massar. Still ahead, why india needs more of what Prime Minister modi promised. Julia the industrial hacking in north korea. All that still ahead on Bloomberg Businessweek. Julia we are back with Bloomberg Businessweek editor in chief joel weber. And joel, in the remarks section this week, we are honing in on india and posing the question, are they ready to be a regional stabilizer, a global power . Joel there has been a lot of optimism about india. There is also this other narrative of china and india. India is basically viewed as it could eventually overtake china as the big Growth Engine of the world. And actually, so far, that has not proven to be true. And that is what we explored. Carol i feel like we have been talking about this happening for an awfully long time, expecting india to take over. And yet, the reform process is taking longer than anyone has expected. There are other issues at play. Joel yep, and thats the big question mark. Can they find real growth that the rest of the world values . Not just india. Carol they are growing, lets be fair. But its not living up to the expectation. Joel exactly. There are big meta institutional issues that modi has been wrestling with and yet it still hasnt done it. Julia but why has he struggled so much . We were talking two years ago with such expectations. Reforming this country has been a real problem and the labor force in particular, some shocking stats about the sheer quantity of people joining the labor force. The problem is they cant find jobs. Joel totally, and how do you wrestle with that . That is why it has not been solved yet. There have been massive advances on the technology side. We think of india, we think of technology. There are so many people there, though. How do you spool up that labor force . Carol if you go to india, some places are much more developed. Some places are still not. And there is a lot of deep divisions within the country. And thats still here. The younger generation. Joel and a class thing that is unlike anything in the world. Carol its holding them back. Joel and that is what the world sees. We havent seen that growth like everyone has expected. From an International Investor perspective, you start to wonder what is going on and why is this taking so long . Julia one of the huge limitations is also the decentralization of power. The region has so much control. Being the Prime Minister doesnt necessarily mean you can make the changes you want to make. Joel a clunky country to deal with. Thats why we have not seen the growth that we thought. Carol exactly, lets go to another part of asia, around the world, and this is the International Cover story. We love this story. You talk about the army of north korean hackers that has been built up over the years. Joel yeah, so this story is incredible. Another reason why we are doing this is the olympics is happening right now. The story is about a defector who left north korea, and we got the tellall about his story, being part of this north korean hacking army. North korea we know sanctioned up the wazoo, embargoes, all kinds of stuff. Yet they still have money because they are able to get it somehow. There has been this question mark about how this is happened. How thats happened. There is a secret hacking army that north korea has trained within the country over the past decade and change, and they have actually spooled that into the world. And part of the mission of the hackers is to bring that money back to the country. Its an incredible story. And no one else has covered it like this before, and to have this firsthand knowledge of it just is sensational. Its a mustread. Julia brad stone has the story. Brad this story starts a couple months ago, when my colleague in seoul, south korea set out a mission. And the mission was to find a defector who had been a participant in the very much feared hacker corps of the north korean government. Now as you know, north korea has gotten a lot of credit, a lot of blame for some very highprofile hacks. The Wannacry Ransomware attack last year, the attack on sony service a couple years ago after the seth rogan movie the interview came out. North korea sends these hackers sam new out into these neighboring countries where they create havoc and raise money for a company or a country that is under very heavy sanctions. He was talking to sources and got connected with a local fixer whose trust he had to earn, and the fixer put him in touch with a couple defectors. There are 30,000 defectors from north korea living and south korea. And he put sam in touch with a couple defectors who have remained anonymous. One of them is the person whose story sam based his article this week on, and he had this extraordinary life story. Carol so, ok, tell us a little bit about how this hacker army got created and the work they were doing. Because it goes back a few years. Brad it really does, but i think what we have seen under the particular leadership of the north korean government is a steady ramp up. And you know, we got the hacking prowess of north korea like a wing of its military. What surprised me about the story is it is not completely the case. This is a way for the north korean government to make money, to evade, to circumvent some of these incredibly restrictive sanctions. He described his life story, it was very tragic. He grew up in pyongyang, he wanted to be a doctor. The government put him in a Computer Security program, and as he was starting his career said go do your duty for the country. He was basically sent to a border city in china, where obviously they have Internet Access and unfettered Internet Access. He lived in a threestory house with a bunch of other male north korean hackers and was told, do what you have to do to make money. So its representative of the kind of thing these hackers are being asked to do. He was cracking computer programs, selling them on the open market. He was creating characters to play in games to make money in the games so they could sell those characters on the open market. Then my favorite one from sams story is they would hack Online Gambling sites. They would look at the players cards and send the information to another player. He said he was making almost 100,000 a year. Sending most of that money back onto the government. Carol up next, a Political Campaign funded with bitcoin. Julia and tesla gets some fierce competition in china. Carol this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Julia welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Im julia chatterley. Carol and im carol massar. You can also find us online at businessweek. Com. Julia and on our mobile app. In the politics section, some cryptocurrency investors are getting a little political. Carol supporting a firsttime Democratic Congressional candidate. Julia brian ford is funding his campaign in part with bitcoin. Carol here is reporter josh green. Josh brian ford is a young, former Senior Adviser for technology in Barack Obamas white house who has returned to his hometown in orange county, california. He is running for an important seat there held by a republican. What is interesting about his candidacy is that almost all of the marquee donors and enthusiasts have piled in to support him because after he left the white house, he became the head of the Digital Currency initiative at mits media lab. So he is currently a cryptocurrency evangelist. If you look at all that has been going on with cryptocurrencies and the fact that washington regulators are becoming increasingly important, the Bitcoin Community is very eager to have someone who understands their issue in congress, where most people are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and perhaps not uptodate on cuttingedge technologies. Carol if you google him, a lot of videos come up and he is espousing various matters when it comes to Digital Currencies. Koran blockchain. Hes out there talking it up. Josh his Campaign Pitch could essentially double as a ted talk on the benefits of centralization. Here in washington where i live and work, Technology Issues are often very difficult for congress to grapple with. There was a bill introduced in december that sent a scare through the cryptocurrency community. It was introduced by two 84yearold senators that appeared as if it would outlaw owning concealed cryptocurrency. And so theres a real thirst among people who are serious about this technology to get someone into congress who understands what it is and wont inadvertently squelch what looks to be a growing and emerging u. S. Industry. Julia one thing we have to point out is the sheer volatility we have seen in bitcoin. We are talking about really big names. The winkle lost brothers, of course. They are wellknown in this sector. Has the sheer volatility impacted the support they are providing him, or has it made the support all the more necessary . Josh i think very much the latter. All of these candidates, and i list 10 in the story, have maxed out to ford. They have given the federal maximum limit. 2700 to his general election campaign. Whats interesting as a side point here is that some of them have donated actual bitcoins. There is a part in my piece about how the federal Election Commission doesnt know how to grapple with this. Because its not like dollars, like you said. Its something that has changed in value quite a bit. I think the bursting of the bitcoin bubble has added urgency to the group of people who have got a lot of people wrapped up in this technology. And you take someone like the winklevoss brothers who have been pushing for a couple years to get the fec to give them permission to open a bitcoin etf. The prices plummeted since december and caused a scare in some regulators who believe that a lot of Retail Investors could get hurt by this, we dont really know what it is. We need to jump and and start issuing regulations. Although its not clear that a lot of people in washington understand the technology or that regulators are in lockstep on what to do with it. We have seen very different movements from the cftc on the one hand, which have allowed for Bitcoin Futures to start trading in december, and the fec on the other hand, whose chief jay clayton was described last week as washingtons chief cryptocurrency skeptic. Theres a real difference in so opinion on what should be done about cryptocurrency. At the same time, theres increasing urgency to do something about it as the price falls. Carol and the technology section, why every electric vehicle supplier should hear catl. Julia and we are not talking cows. Here is editor jeff muskas. Julia tell us about the city of ningde. Things are changing. Explain. Jeff for the past seven years or so, it is a metro area of about 4 million people, it has been home to catl, a spinoff of a Japanese Consumer Electronics battery maker that has become the dominant capacity wise electric vehicle battery maker thats now become in china. Its now setting its sights on the rest of the world. Carol how dominant are they in china . How aggressive are they trying to take over in the rest of the world when it comes to batteries . Jeff in the city proper, from an existing headquarters, it takes a half hour to get across by shuttle bus or bmw powered by catl battery cells. That the company has on offer. Julia this is the sheer size of their facility. Its huge. Jeff so, across the way from that, on this moss flat next door, there is a 1. 3 billion facility set to open in 2020. By itself would be the number two largest battery facility on earth, next to elon musks giga factory. But combined with the companys other production capacities, it will make it a company to be feared by anybody, elon included. Carol wow, so the company is catl. Tell us about the background of the company. Im always interested when it comes to a Chinese Company looking to be dominant globally. How much are they getting from the government, which has been on an initiative to improve and grow Chinese Industries . Jeff thats definitely a piece of this. The firm has become the anointed representative of chinese interests in the dealings abroad, as far as electric vehicle batteries go. There is a good deal of state support alongside another prominent banker. But yeah, the Company Seems to be aiming for an ipo sometime in the next year and change, valuing at about 21 billion. They are opening at about 10 . Julia they have got their eyes on the u. S. They have their eyes on europe i guess, as well. But you point out that 99 of their business is done domestically. Even with all the subsidies we are talking about from the Chinese Government, how good is the product they are producing . Jeff right, this is the classic problem with any Chinese Company trying to make a bigger name for itself on the world stage. They are unproven in other markets. Thats a fair question that the analysts would tell you that catl is a few years behind the world leaders, the panasonics and lgs of the world. But they say, by the same token, given the resources behind it and the incredible math it is pouring into research and development, they are likely to catch up. Julia how much are they investing in r d . Jeff at this point, as of our last financials, about 11 of total available cash. Carol about 100 million. Jeff thats right. Carol thats a lot of money so they can create a better product. Jeff in contrast, the typical points ratio is 3 , 4 . Julia up next, the company that wants to be the stockbroker for the 99 . Carol plus, dont call it used. Call it archival. The latest runway trends. Julia this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Carol welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Im carol massar. Julia and im julia chatterley. And you can listen to us on the radio on sirius xm channel 119 and also on a. M. 1130 in new york, 90. 1 in washington dc, and a. M. 960 in the bay area. Carol and in london and asia on the Bloomberg Radio plus app. In the features section, robinhood is a stock trading at that caters to millennials. Julia and a lets be clear. The companys ambitions do not stop there. Robinhood is a venture, it is a palo altobased, appbased online brokerage. They target people under 30 and the twist, the thing that has made them grow really quickly they are almost as big as e trade in terms of accounts, is that trades are free. Typically between 5 and 50. Robinhood does it with zero cost. Its what Silicon Valley did for music or for media or a bunch of industries. They are trying to do it to financial services, which is a pretty interesting development. Julia who is they . Mark robinhood are these two cofounders. They are exacademic types. They have masters degrees in math, one from stanford, one from ucla. Whats sort of interesting and fun about this story is that they were Hedge Fund Guys and they got swept up in the occupy movement. They started to think the work they were doing, which is around highfrequency trading, was part of the problem. So they decided to start this thing. To correct that. Stealing from the rich, giving to the poor. They are the stockbroker for the 99 . That is the sales pitch. It has been very effective thus far. Carol how effective . Max so, as i said, 3 million accounts. In terms of the number of accounts, it is almost as big as e trade. The caveat is their investors are investing small amounts of money because they are people who are basically in their 20s. And its growing very quickly. Julia how do you invest . If they are targeting millennials, how do they go about investing with these guys or trading with these guys . Carol its kind of tinderesque. Max yes, the first time i met them, they were pitching the fact they just got a website. They were trading on their mobile app, which was basically the only way they could do it. You create an account on your smart phone and it is a few taps and a swipe. You swipe up to buy and the feeling is almost like you are watching a movie or you are swiping on tinder. And thats like part of the appeal. Over the last 10 years or so, even tiny improvements in kind of convenience can be disruptive. Its also, you could argue may be problematic. Its causing people to think about investing as if they are dating on tinder, and this is real money we are talking about. Julia what is the average trade we are talking about . Max off the top of my head, i dont know the exact figures. The average age is 28. I think half the people who are investing in robin hood have never invested before. We are talking small, small amounts of money. Julia in pursuits, the fashion industry has decided what is old can be new again. Carol but dont dare call it old. Here is editor chris rouse her. Chris the latest trend in fashion isnt vintage, it is archival, which is a new buzzword. Its when big fashion brands rerelease old designs from their archives and sell them as new. Versace, for example, is sending a lot of old trends down the runway. Julia is it playing to that in some ways . Chris yes, so the clothing Retail Business is an 18 million business. More than 2 billion is trendy new startups, which are sending expensive vintage clothing online. This is stuff people are searching after. Its a total millennial thing because you are finding objects people dont have and a lot of people have a story behind it already. This is a growing business. Fashion brands are looking at this and seeing, someone is buying a versace dress for 200 online, they are already a versace customer. So they are getting them on the purchase that way. Carol think about the celebrities that have often been bringing out old chanel on the red carpet. You see this trend. Dbf is doing it, bringing back their original designs. Who else is doing it . Chris the way it was led by bags and jewelry. Before regular clothes were popular to wear in a vintage way, they were always being carried around. Coach is doing this with their bags, gap is doing it with clothing, ralph lauren is releasing a line that was made famous by a wu tang video. In the 1990s. Julia that is a lot of older products coming back to the market. Chris totally. They are bringing back full patterns, prints, they are rereleasing shoes that are 30 years old. Julia these brands are trying to play to their strengths, but isnt this a tough retail environment . Unfortunately if you cannot beat them, you go with them. Chris you look at j. Crew and they are releasing their rugby shirts. Things that are what j. Crew was. They are realizing that trying new things in this uncertain time maybe isnt the best thing. Maybe they should retreat to their core strength. Carol Bloomberg Businessweek is available on news stands now. Julia and online and the mobile app. Carol, a whole array of stories this week, what is your favorite story . Carol we talked a lot about the north korean army of hackers. Our reporter was able to track one of these guys down who works for the north korean hacker army. Hes now defected from the country, but we get an inside look at how they operated. Julia he was operating in china, but they are also in other countries to, like india, cambodia as well. While he was very successful sending money back home, others werent and their conditions were shocking. Carol pretty tough conditions and you said it, it is all about sending money home to north korea. Julia plenty more Bloomberg Television coming up next. Bankers lobby lawmakers how successful will they be . Prebrexit warning. The house of lords warns against fragmentation of European Regulation when it comes to the city. The crypto skeptics in chief has elevated Digital Currencies to the top of his agenda. What regulatory action could he take . Welcome to bloomberg market, rules and returns. Delves the show where we