Cause u. S. Central bank to rein them in stabilize the markets by wednesday morning. And while the u. S. Central bank makes their latest policy moves their counterpart in the European Union is marking an official leadership transition on tuesday Christine Legarde officially became the new president of the Europe European Central Bank and the former managing director of the International Monetary fund with 394 votes to confirm her in the European Parliament 206 members of the European Parliament voted against muslim guard and 49 abstained from the vote reuters reports in ms the guards latest financial policy making position she will likely have to decide on whether and how the e. C. B. Takes on a new investigatory role in a years long cascade of scandals at Deutsche Bank reuters reported that e. C. B. Staff are considering opening a formal investigation Deutsche Bank for alleged an authorized purchases of their own securities specifically bonds classes. Wide as 81 and 82. Joining us now to once again orient us to the global event economic events of the day is Richard WolfeProfessor Emeritus of economics at the famed you mass amhurst and author of democracy at work a cure for capitalism Richard Wolffe professor wolf there is so much to get to here since we saw you last but 1st. Lets go to the u. S. Central bank the Federal Reserve which as expected lower the target range on the key federal funds rate by 25. 00 basis points wall street seems to be giving another thumbs down on the rate cut so looking at this lets go to. Lets go to the jay powell explaining the feds choices theyre cutting rates to boost the economy but heres what a poll said recently about the state of the u. S. Economy. So were not forecasting we were expecting a recession as i mentioned incoming data for the United States suggests that the most likely outgoing outcome i would look for the United States economy is still moderate growth a strong labor market and inflation continuing to back up i went through the numbers so the consumer is in good shape and really theres theres. Our main expectation is not at all that theyll be a recession. And weve identified this disconnect before but mr powell says theres no expectation of a recession so then why the rate cuts weve been over this contradiction before but its becoming quite glaring and i have to wonder how much longer can mr powell try to square his takes with the feds actions. Oh heres my suspicion of whats going on mr powell on the fed are under incredible pressure from President Trump he is desperate and hes desperate for a simple reason if he expected recession and let me underscore that the recession is expected our capitalist Economic System for 200 years wherever it is settled it has had an economic downturn on average every 4 to 7 years from the last downturn in the United States its now 9 or 10 years therefore were due and everyone who pays attention knows it if the recession hits over the next 6 to 12 months mr trump can kiss his reelection effort goodbye its over and he knows it so he wants the Federal Reserve to cut Interest Rates drastically which is why he was angry at mr powell today for doing it only a quarter of boeing the reason mr powell. Paul said recently that were not facing a recession is thats as much as hes willing to do for mr trump to join mr trump in saying something that is patently untrue namely that we have no recession to fear we do not only is it the normal pattern of our economy the type we have been has been for 200 years but we have the added problem economic war with china and drone attack in saudi arabia that revs up the risk of war between the United States and the iran the collapse of the negotiations between britain and europe around the brags that question and a decline in Economic Growth in both china and europe those are more than enough complicating factors to make any reasonable economist very worried about recession mr powell statements are to mollify a president squeezing forward much greater costs than mr powell is ready to do and so we sit there with this contradiction as you rightly describe it seems like he mr powell is performing for an audience of one and that one audience member is still not happy with his quarter rate cut but we noted some important concepts for this action the federal funds target rate cut lands after 2 days of irregularity that in the overnight funding market that reportedly required perhaps 50000000000. 00 or 75000000000. 00 of unusual 3rd intervention weve got peter schiff take on this a nominal anomalous pronominal on yesterday but give us your take whats been happening with the overnight Financing Rate and what does this anomaly mean. This is a very serious matter starting on monday and then again yesterday and again this morning the Federal Reserve has now pumped in listen to this 123000000000 dollars 53 the 1st 70 or roughly 70000000000. The 2nd this is serious this is a breakdown in the credit market its a short term credit market overnight borrowing and lending but that is a crucial part of the Financial System of this country and of the world and has been for a long time to see a sudden move in Interest Rates from roughly 2. 2 percent to as high as 10 percent in the course of a day and a half tells you something is wrong the normal planning hasnt happened the normal liquidity that the different players need to have isnt available so the Federal Reserve has to come in and once again bail out the Financial System all the authorities keep telling us is all whats a glitch its a technical issue nothing to worry about that makes me even more frightened because thats the kind of thing they told us late in 2007 and 8. 00 and we all know what happened after that we need much more explanation than weve been given for what this problem is and much more concern at the highest levels of figuring this out before we are going to be in a deep recession again wondering why we didnt Pay Attention to those signs and in retrospect were always there. And back to mr powell is prognosis on the u. S. Economy he may not see a recession in the near future but as you alluded to many people do and apparently that includes a majority of 225 corporate c. F. O. 53 percent of them polled by Duke University said they expect a recession in the u. S. Within a year 67 percent see it starting before the end of 2020 so in soon enough to interfere with the election is mr powell in danger of developing a crisis of personal credibility and systemic Business Confidence based on his prognostication on the economy and also his reasoning for why the fed is doing what its doing when it seems to be. Clearly not credible. Yeah i do want to save and though i find myself ironic about this mr powell is under extraordinary pressure he knows that theres a recession coming he knows on some level that he has to deal with it on the other hand he doesnt want to be seen as the patsy doing what mr trump is doing helping him to get reelected since he like mr dudley who said it publicly knows that mr trump is a big fat problem for the American Economy let me point out that in addition to those c. F. O. As you mention some of the most important Industrial Association the American Grocers Association the American Retail Association publicly yesterday and today excoriated mr trump for the global trade war on china which they say is threatening their business hurting their profits and in that way contributing again to the recession that we all know is coming mr trump is trying to hold it back and putting mr powell in an impossible position so he waffles which mr powell maybe could decide for doing but wow was he under conflicting pressures in terms of wanting to maintain the credibility wanting to do whats right not wanting to appear to be mr trumps willing to will this is a very difficult position for him and reflects the gap between whats actually going on with the American Economy and what the president and people around him keep telling us because they want us to vote for them next fall and we noted also Christine Legarde today formally taking charge at the European Central bank while the question of investigating Deutsche Bank for a monopolist excel for dealing is working its way through the e. C. B. Bureaucracy quickly do you have any insight or expectation about how that process might play out under ms the guards leadership. Well shes been a very pliant and conservative friend of the Banking System if she goes after Deutsche Bank it will be for one of 2 reasons either the behavior of Deutsche Bank is so much worse than what other banks are doing that it has to be done because of the risk of what it will look like if that bank folds which some people think it will and she will have not done something about it on the other hand she has to be very careful because if she goes after Deutsche Bank for a whole list of misbehaviors you have to understand that many other banks do dollars things also and then the question will be raised by her subordinates if not by her if were going after the bad guy what about all the others waiting in the wings how do we justify not going after them and that this point in a fragile global Financial System major exposure of misbehavior by banks could be the famous straw that breaks the bank or the back of our Economic System fascinating dilemma professor Richard Wolffe thanks as always for your time. Thank you. And in International Sanctions news the president of the United States claims that he has tighten the screws once again on iran the u. S. President who earlier this week suggested he was waiting for directions from saudi arabia on how to respond to suspected drone attacks on major Oil Facilities tweeted that he has directed treasury secretary Steven Nugent to quote substantially increase u. S. Sanctions on iran though President Trump cited no specifics white house officials declined to clarify what if any specific measures have been approved experts suggest there may not be much space left for tightening the current punishing us economic pressure methods being deployed against iran. President notably did not cite in his tweets the recent attacks on saudi Oil Facilities which is a ministration have tried to blame on iran. Time now for. Because one return. Algorithm is under the spotlight today as recent reports allege the companys Search Engine favors their own products author and tech executive joined the show today to give us insight into what he has been up to and what could happen in the coming months and as we go to break here are those opposing market numbers. From. Big country big positions and gold thats an exit. Because we know that over the past 300 years no body house. Thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the countrys military and the decision. Every song came to a complete. You know told to kill me and i see how destroyed my life any screamed at me in. My own. Right means birthing if you take into account that women dont report because of the extreme retaliation and its probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military is a very very traumatizing. But ive never seen trauma like. Women who are veterans who suffered military sexual trauma rape is more. Likely to get the victim punished in the offender and almost 10 year career which i was very invested in and i gave a sex offender who was not even going to justice or put on the registry this is simply an hour in violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there whether thats a man or woman. Theres. Going to be the false so. You can sleep. With someone thats the most. Youre going to do with the book you just wrote. Down a soft spot will not keep you down at this time but you dont. Need to promote. The feet to the police if you use of the Police Reports for the way. Welcome back catching up with the corporate crime beat Brazilian Police reportedly are such a veil the 1st formal criminal accusations in the case of the collapse of a mining waste damn created near the valley by the mining valley Mining Company near the town of burma deano prosecutors would have to forward the accusations as formal charges but more bundles of formal accusations by the police are expected in a long investigation they collapse of the pile of waters. Soil and toxic mining tailings at bruma deano is believed to have killed at least 240. 00 people multiple outlets now reports that the charges against 8. 00 to 12. 00 individuals will center on alleged false vacation and safety certificates by a paid safety auditor previous reporting by the wall street journal in 2 major stories documented apparent awareness of the risks among Valley Management and contractors including direct urgent warning by valley warden. And any announced a ban on east cigarettes on one say citing the need to prevent a Health Epidemic among younger citizens the countrys finance minister amala said thora man said the executive order will ban the manufacturing import export transport sale distribution storage and advertising. Products and the country adding quote its use has increased exponentially and has acquired epidemic deportment proportions in developed countries especially among the youth and children violators of the new law could face up to a year in prison and or a fine of 100000. 00 rupees on the 1st offense with up to 3 years in prison and a 500000 rupee fine for additional infractions it is not yet known if there will be a penalty for simple use of the products in the u. S. The debate over cigarettes is still heating up this week it was reported that a 7th person has died from being related a long illness individual states have also taken varying measures including the state of new york which banned flavored cigarettes and while the vaporing death reports certainly demand attention from u. S. Public Health Officials cigarettes the nicotine delivery devices that they were supposed to displace account 4480000 deaths annually in the United States india for their part is the worlds 2nd Largest Consumer of Tobacco Products behind china according to the ward World Health Organization nearly 29 percent of the mean adults use tobacco. The w. H. O. Report also states that 1000000. 00 any ins die every year from tobacco use. An economist in commerce giant amazon has been accused of adjusting their product search results to feature listings of amazons own brands and products from other sellers that may and from other sellers that make the greatest contribution to amazons take according to a report from the wall street journal amazon optimize a secret algorithm to push products that are more profitable for the company in favor of more relevant or popular items the journal reports the move was internally contested by teams working on the project more than 60 percent of purchases on amazon come from the 1st page of search results according to Analytics Firm jumpshot with this type of drastic change in the algorithm it could have a massive negative effect on those pushed off the 1st results page joining us now its a break the Technology Executive and bestselling author of the driver in the driverless car recently out in paperback alex welcome to the show alex thanks for having me on i appreciate it now 1st of all just lay out for those of us nonexperts what is this algorithm why is so important and how is amazon accused of monopoly. Stickley skewing the results here. So any time you type in a product search and amazon ok youre talking to its algorithm youre saying i am looking for this its almost the same as google when it spits back results to you its algorithm on the back and is saying oh this person types Nike Air Jordan sneakers and it will send you back a list of results that it thinks matches most closely your query. It amazon theres literally hundreds of millions of products so because of that it can only send back a limited number of queries. That will fit on the 1st page and in fact on your phone or on your app itll be even smaller because the window smaller you know why this is so controversial which you alluded to in the Opening Statement is because the 1st page results tend to disproportionately capture more of the clicks and buys. And getting into the details of journals reporting they say that one rejected proposal for altering it went even farther and was rejected by lawyers with an amazon is creating too much risk of antitrust issues the change to the algorithm that was approved was rejected by amazons internal search team called a 9 on the basis that they said it conflicted with the companys own stated principle of what is doing best doing what is best for the company so i understand its Legal Standard and this internal corporate standard are not identical but does that statement by amazons own employees that they thought the customer was not well served create a significant additional legal risk for amazon in terms of building an antitrust case so im not an attorney 1st want to caution that i think though that that admission internally implies that the team thats building search is worried that the best interests of the customer which is the essence of antitrust cases are not necessarily being served if the algorithm is skewed to have only now lets be clear there are skewed algorithms or skewed choices all over the economy any time you walk into a Grocery Store people pay or Companies Pay what are called stocking fees to get in on the 1st shelf or the top shelf so its not like this is an unheard of practice its about trying to strike a balance and in particular because amazon own such a large percentage of online searches for products by some estimates 50 percent of 1st product search of the land on amazon people worry or the company worries and maybe the u. S. Government worries that this constitutes antitrust and i can tell you for sure that authorities in europe are watching this very closely theyve already gone after google for what they alleged. Similar behaviors in its maps in and search results. Right and you know youre very apt to note the context here of the u. S. And europe diverging on exactly how we should regulate big tech and but doesnt that point doesnt the mystery around this key element of the amazon apparatus the search rhythm doesnt that secrecy starkly illuminate just how one regulated big tech and online commerce are we saw some definite awakening in interest in the u. S. Congress on Search Engines and european regulators are obviously gearing up to take that issue on and have a reckoning regulatory reckoning with big tech and so its becoming obviously as well a white house versus europe conflict but how does this latest report play out into that tangled transatlantic flight over profits and power. So i think this latest report as it gets digested on the other side of the pond in europe will become more fodder for any trust activities over there i think amazon is wise to be considering this internally and start to think about the implications of whats happening in terms of the secrecy of the algorithm i dont necessarily see that is the issue because googles algorithm is secret almost all these companies when they have search algorithms or facebooks algorithms those are secret theyre considered trade secrets so theyre not going to publish them theyre not going to the public know what the how they work but if they disperse results which are you know really skewed one way or the other then yes theyre going to come under and to trust scrutiny and i would also say that under g. D. P. Our which is the European Data law Data ProtectionRegulation Companies are mandated to be able to explain algorithms in clear terms if they are questioned by users or by authorities so this may force amazon or google or others to give more clear or more transparent explanation of exactly how they are making these type of selections interesting and getting specific. As side from the algorithm theres also the issue of amazon competing with their own vendors with their own Branded Products is it possible the any regulatory crackdown could go as far as making amazon get out of this socalled private label business of their own Branded Products. I think thats a much harder one to push i think its possible but around that for example you dont see supermarkets being forced to get out of the private label product lines in fact theyre growing that wal marts which is one of the largest retailers in the u. S. Could be viewed as amazon like and terms of its market share it has a lot of private label things and it also squeezes its vendors so im not as concerned about that for amazon i see some of the ways that they behave theres sometimes a bit of bait and switch or sometimes maybe its really tough on the vendors on the other hand its very different than serving up search results to consumers which may not at all d reflect the best interest of the of the consumers themselves right so youre saying they may very well be able to stay in the private label business but theyll probably have to tweak the algorithm. Yes i think much more of the question is separating search from commerce if its possible to do that because it was you dont have search right people walk into a store they want to buy something and theres private label products and you see that there really limits im sorry and you see it there physically and you see it there physically thats right search you dont know what you dont know and even more so as we move into voice platforms like alexa the number of search results returned to you will probably go down and so d in that case the top results there may be through results become even more valuable and more clickable. Brave new world alex author of driver in the driverless car just out on paperback thanks for joining us thank you. And turning from amazons ecommerce business to their streaming Service Amazon studio. Has announced that they will shoot their new lord of the rings Television Show in new zealand the country was also the setting for middle earth in Peter Jacksons epic lord of the rings movie trilogy which was released from 2001 to 2003 the t. V. Show is expected to be the most expensive ever produced with the budget to be more than 1000000000. 00 new zealand is hoping the program will boost their economy once again as filming of this nature creates jobs and the initial films greatly boast of tourism to the country the series is expected to fall the characters of the films prior to the events featured in the movies the production was eyeing the beautiful countryside of scotland for this for the series but reports of uncertainty over that caused the studio to decide to stick with new zealand and thats it for this time you can always catch boom bust on direct t. V. Channel 321 dish Network Channel 2 or streaming 247 on. Channel 279 or. Again we stand on the brink of war we should not be surprised official washington was quick to blame iran for the attack on saudi Energy Assets iran has denied involvement. Of claimed responsibility. Take. On fire. Thats an exit from. The. Syrian conflict mediation spoke with one voice. Simply disagreements between russia turkey and iran has become so still good not even the leaders try to hide it as the program run its course or is the friction really a sign that its working. As a tense situation in venezuela is still all over the news the problem in venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been faced only implement from the inside venezuela things look different were going to announce sanctions against. Venezuela associates. Have a supplement to. Them but. Move the. Focus of the who story isnt new makes him cold in Henry Kissinger to tell him that it would not be tolerated in latin america an alternative economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make. Economy scream so wants to make the economy of venezuela screed. Saudi arabia says saturdays drone attacks on its Oil Facilities were unquestionably sponsored by iran to missile components were made there. Israel is on course for yet another election stalemate and with Prime Minister netanyahu lacking one seat behind rival benny gantz lengthy Coalition Talks and neither have enough for a majority in parliament in the coming days will convene negotiations to assemble a strong zionist government and i intend to speak with everyone starting tonight we will work to form a broad unity government. And the New York Times publishes an extract from a forthcoming book about the alleged Sexual Misconduct of u. S. Supreme Court JusticeBrett Kavanaugh box leaves outs