The first 11 months of the year. Thats an average of a hundred and 80000 a month. Then employment rate dropped to 50 year lows and your some minority groups felt the lowest its ever been. Workers have seen the average outing wages increase in healthy pace, by about 3 in the costofliving remains low. The economy continues to chug along at a solid pace, and fears of a reception that we did have earlier in the year have mostly abated. And all of this positive news, there are consumptive concerns. Especially for certain companies. Boeing is one of the countrys major manufacturers had a 737 max played and grounded in march following two deadly overseas crash sprayed the temporaries temporarily suspending production as they block the aircraft them coming back into service. More brickandmortar stores are payless and gymboree, have bankrupt or close locations. As en route let online retailers eat away at their market share. Several companies have once seen as the darlings of a new economy, fell flat on their faces as investors realize their actual profits didnt come anywhere close to the hype that was surrounding them. And today were to look back at the Major Business and financial stories of 2019, and see what might be ahead for 2020. And to do that, im joined by two of the sharpest minds to my colleagues and sharpest for the wallace street journal charts for all. Gerry lets start with you if theres coverage of all of the coverage, theres one overarching story that really you think kocher attention, really drove, gave us a picture of whats going on a corporate america, what was it . s speemac will major fall from grace was rework it was a real estate got an evaluation of 47 billion is on track for and i do on the employer on the finish line. And actually looking back, it should not of been such a surprise. The wall street journal reported two years ago that people were overvaluing this company and looking at is a tech company when it was really a Real Estate Company with the sort of start up cool vibe around it. The Investment Community got enthralled with the founder, and it was journalist and investors giving scrutiny at the end that fell the deal. Gerry what is the lesson from that catastrophe more broadly for investors for people. Groupthink, it was a commons theme are wrong these groups its one person advocating their judgment to another there very, very smart people all around this typing evaluation, when the facts were there. Gerry charles when the markets were different, when they were continuing to very low interestrate environment, people are pushing for the envelope and looking for up to opportunities. What was it for you for 2019. We saw that everywhere we sought across a credit space, and income markets. We work with people who are the a pity me of that. This company was not even close to profitable. And still people were throwing all this money at them. I thought what was fascinated about what happened worth we work. Is it the return. If you think about where we were at the end of 2019 and this will be the work for ipos its a new generations of unicorns were shaken off the dust of the. Com crash in every thing was coming back. It really puts and breaks on it. Because people to completely reconsider, and that have been starting with uber and others earlier, but we work with certainly the one that made us think the tightest turn. Gerry and excitement about these Tech Companies in the ipos dried out. It endeavor was also polled, and a lot of hi ipos, pinterest was the good performing one, and thats pretty much flat at that. A lot of higher profile in one of the best referring ipos was trade wind. It was a market data, bond Trading Platform business that is sort of is far from pinterest and we work as you can get. And this is a company that had profits, paying dividends, paying cash dividends, and that was the real success we had going. Gerry one of the big stories was boeing company and that kind of saga continues. What his gone wrong what went wrong there . Just about everything. And the company did not help matters. Obviously there was a problem and how it designed this plane. And in our reporting, were the key things was that they assumed pilots could handle and they assumed very strong pilots when that is not Human Behavior and four seconds of panic. Gerry was there regulation issued to . People talk about the regulatory catch parade where they able to get away with this, with tragic results partly because regulators were kind of somehow turning a blind iron something . Regulars trust boeing which had worked for many years. And they not only trusted boeing in the design of the plane, but after the first crash, the reassurances that things to be fine, the october crash, and then there was another crash. And it was china was the first country to ground the plane, not the United States. So there has been a lot of scrutiny not only on boeing but on the faa that will continue in 2020. Gerry boeing was the exception this year Many Companies saw big increases in their stock prices, the market overall more than 20 . Whats driving this, continuing bull market which is been going for very long time . It to be totally honest its a low bit of a mystery. One answers the u. S. Economy has remained really fundamentally strong and in you. Out introduction declining unemployment rate, generally Pretty Healthy u. S. Economy, a lot of stuff happening around the world, and global movements in china, and trade, and this is pretty solid American Economy at this. It continues to power a large part of the worlds capitalism. Its very much and america had a good year story. Gerry evaluations looking a little bit pricey right . Yes but thats always a relative question. It depends of your comparing it to. It depends how you think about these sorts of things. It depends what your other options are compared to this bonds have also gotten quite expensive. So its hard to say that we are into some sort of big evaluation because it doesnt have the classic signs of irrational exuberance. Gerry jamie what other countries should be looking at this year were there companies. Shows the wildfires in a been so troublesome in california were quite exacerbated by systemic failures at this company. We did a lot of investigations to reveal that for years they did not upgrade their electric lines. That may be made it more vulnerable to fires. And this company has now been blamed for the campfire that led to the death of 85 people last year. And more that investigated that were not forthcoming with the regulars over the years. Its a very sad story because especially, as a ceo, the new ceo said its going to be at least ten years of blackouts, periodically in california before they can fix the problem. Gerry will come back at a minute work and take a quick break jamie and charles stay with us. Coming up to look at some other stories, stay with us. You dont use this old thing, do you . No or how bout this dinosaur right here . Nope then why are you still using a laser printer . Its got expensive toner cartridges. But this. Is the Epson Ecotank color printer. No more expensive cartridges big ink tanks. Lots of ink. If you dont think this printers right for you, just pick up your phone. chuckling . And give me a call. The Epson Ecotank. Just fill and chill. Available at. Now you can, with shipsticks. Com no more lugging your clubs through the airport or risk having your clubs lost or damaged by the airlines. Sending your own clubs ahead with shipsticks. Com makes it fast easy to get to your golf destination. 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By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com gerry im back with the wall street journals charles and jamie. Charles mr. With you. In september of this year, we saw a kind of very strange moment kind of sort of a panic, to do with their repo market which caused tremendous dislocation and concern and Financial Markets are on the world. Briefly explain what happened. This is something that really came out of the blue parade the repo market is a secured lending market between large institutions. Youre getting 70 a treasury bond or something and similar value of the games impact cash and you swap back and forth. This should be a market that should be common along the circumstances. There is really no reason to suspect something ago im missing something did go to mr. Their people who were unable to borrow the repo market to the. Of the rate spike very high in the industrys clear prayer and part of this is whats lasting thing, that is a topic for 2020 and seven keep an ion is the fed is pumped money into the system to try to alleviate the strain, but we are at a. Where is not entirely clear and poised postcrisis and post Regulatory Framework after the crisis, of how banks should be, how much reserve bank should be holding and what that looks like. It was very clear in 2008 but is not clear now. And that leaves the market vulnerable. Because you dont know how much a bank needs. Gerry they draw down a Balance Sheet theres was to building up. Is that going to ease those particular . It will ease it somewhat but the feds had to put it in for this emergency and they havent been able to pull it back. And so the emergency has extended to a longer time. The longterm question is what should be done to sort of get us out of the permanent emergency . Gerry i want to speak about 2019 was inserted interesting cut by Central Banks the federal reserve. If you turn around a bunch of magistrate hikes in 2018 and 2019, the cuts particular in the context of the unappointed picture in the economic picture there are very few people that see this. Gerry what is driving this summer he thought maybe jay powys feeling under pressure . I think that the tough tough question. I think most of the academic work, and most of the work around looking at that question has settled on not really. But, its definitely true that the trade conflicts, that the worries outside the United States did because the fed to say okay hang on. We need to worry about what the possible impacts might be on the u. S. Economy. We start cutting rates. Gerry it seems to have stopped now. They seem to stop now, they said this is what we are. But still, we are to low level. We are to low level, given how far we are into an expansion, and theres not a lot of people with a ten year yields, if you look at the yield curve it looks steeper than it was earlier in the air. Its still relatively flat and we should ask people dont believe the Interest Rate hikes and normalization is coming. Gerry jamie, one of the other biggest business sources 2019 was streaming. Everybody has the subscription now the go amazon prime, and the whole way in which we consume content is changing dramatically. Tell us a lot about that. Theres a hole reshuffled this year with the major media companies. At t which now owns hbo and disney comcast, deciding they had to be in this game and a big way and thats what has overtaken them an apple ii. Gerry disney kinda going on their own . Absolutely going solo and they launched 699 which netflix Popular Program of 1299 and then apple plus tv came in at 499 even though they have less to offer. Its basically a case study and how do you price . And all the shows are going to do well of the new original content . And how much will people pay . We did a survey, our media team did a survey with harrison we found that people, consumers were willing to pay 44 a month for an average of 3. 6 services thats a people are saying now. We will see when it rolls out, what their appetite is, how Many Services theyll pay for, and will basically turn into another cable subscription . Gerry its kind of a mushrooming of this. People used to say is paying hundred and 20 but now then im almost paying, and now are they gonna pay is the same . I think one of the differences its quite easy to cancel and resubscribe to streaming service much easier than a traditional cable service. So well see how much turnover there is. Gerry in one quick thing that whisks passing this years food delivery. And that has become again part of the sort of Service Oriented economy the way we become so used to. Yep weve seen all the dream shows in everybody sitting at home morning food and watching movies. He comes back to we work to the because these companies, door theyve been fueled by venture money on david able to grow without necessarily being profitable. Hoover eats as well. Theres been a huge grab for market share. But not necessarily profits. And so how those companies shake out in 2020 will be an interesting thing to watch. Gerry thank you both are integral more break, but up next well look ahead to see what might be coming up in 2020. Dont go away. thud crash grunting whistle play it cool and escape heartburn fast with tums chewy bites cooling sensation. Tum tututum tums ugh, another electronic signature. You have to print, walk, sign, scan, recycle, walk, email yourself. Really . More walking, try again, waiting, recycle, walk, email yourself, then get back to your day. Or not. This isnt working. Introducing samsung paperless workflow solutions. With the galaxy tab s6, you can sign Digital Documents onscreen, with a finger or your s pen. Samsung business solutions. Male anchor . An update on the cat who captured our hearts. Female anchor how often should you clean your fridge . Stay tuned to find out. Male anchor beats the odds at the box office to become a rare nonfranchise hit. You can give help and hope to those in need. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. Gerry welcome back charlton jamie for the wall street journal, were looking ahead at 2020 but two very quick questions about 2191st pair jay mejia. One of the things we saw this year was back in the late summer, the business roundtable, group that represents a lot of corporations in this country, came out with a big statement about what the proper objectives of the company should be. No longer simply receiving shareholder value but i what are their obligations . Weve heard a lot about that in recent years. How real, our company is really rethinking their role in the capitalist economy . At this idea they should care more about stakeholders, like employees, customers, community, environment, over profits. Into some people this is just kind of stating the obvious. Its like if you are not in touch with your employees, their concerns, and doing things that people care about, diversity or climate change, then youre not going to be profitable. So in a way people are advocating themselves theyre stating the obvious. But others felt its going down the ray wong path. And even some the things we just talked about, and we were, adam newman, the head of the company was focused on whether meat was going to be served up Company Parties for environmental sustainability and was not paying attention to parties. So even the advocates of the stakeholder model will tell you that its in addition to profits, like you cant just skip profits. Charles o1 quick question the story of the duchess and the baby. Its due to our wonderful tax economist pointed out prince harry and meghan markels child is american and subject to the irs as long rates. And part of the delight in finding this outcome is how much the irs will reach into the lives of overseas citizens, and things like gifts, you have to be careful about gifts. And you can imagine as a royal baby, he might be subject to receiving quite a number of gifts. Which just make sure you keep your eye on that with your taxes. Gerry americans and britons have gone to war on tax in the past, just kind of wondering about taxation without representation for americans. Jamie quick look at 2020 what is your perspective what you think youre going to be the big themes in business in 2020 . Its continuation of 2019 r1 new focus on Something Else cream . Well for boeing, now that theyve halted production, thats going to be a huge economic story. There are 600 stories in this the clyde shane theres really no visibility on when its gonna come back. So thats a huge economic story. The election, you know assessing president trumps record on business and of course his rivals and what they mean will be to big things. Gerry charles, Financial Markets . Its going be a fascinating years can be volatility, we see a couple big episodes of volatility in the markets and part of this is a big shift towards sort of a factor investor in other ways that people think about the markets is not just i what do i want to buy microsoft or apple . But i want to have exposure to these technical factors inside the market. A lot of the step is driven, the behaviors driven at the end of last year end that something to keep an eye on for the coming year. Trade obviously a big concern, the economy broadly speaking is globally speaking a big concern. Theres a lot of things to keep an ion in the Financial Markets i think payments is something were going to see a thing in 2020 facebook had its attempt with the leverage to try to rethink the payment system. And i think that is something to keep an eye on and think theres a bunch of banks who wants it closer to customers and being away from being just pipes. This is can be an area this can be pretty interesting. Gerry thank you very much indeed have a happy new year both of you thank you much for joining me. I want to thank my colleagues at the wall street journal. Coming up next Lessons Learned over the not just the last year but the last decade, and what they might mean for the decadedededede i am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. You may have gingivitis. When you brush, and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly. Tooth loss. Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. Gerry this week weve been looking back at the year, but is of course the end of a decade. The big trends of the last ten years i would argue have been probably twofold. One economic and one political. The 20 tens have been the first decade since records began when there hasnt been a recession and the United States. Now growth has been somewhat slower and previous expansions, but that tenure long expansion is still a remarkable record. And there is no immediate sign of a coming to an end. Now course the new political trend of the decades fashion is populism. Most radically in their election of donald trump and in the british peoples move to leave the union. Economic factors have played their part in this with the effect of globalization and fear of the displacement of traditional jobs by technology for example. But i think these were amplified by a sense of alienation from many people in western democracies. In alienation from their business, political media, and economic elites, who over a long period of time have been denouncing traditional cultural norms on issues such as social issues that we see. They denounce those views is bigoted and the people that hold those views as deplorable. While looking back, its clear now that this was the decade when those derided people found her voice. At any of decade begins and theres no sign that they are losing it. Will that this process week for the latest updates please sure to follow me on twitter, facebook, and signum paired i will back next week when ellie back with Hedge Fund Manager mark lazarus, thats right here on the wall street journal at large. Thank you for joining us and have a very happy new year