Lets start with politics. Cannot wait to see how the magazine covers everything in the world of politics this year. Front, t in our home domestic, member of the trump team, mike pompeo. Hes had a good year. He has. Usually you pick out people who years. D you have nikki haley and you have mike pompeo, director of cia. Both of those names have been entioned as potentially successor as Rex Tillerson as secretary of state who has not year. Good while talk about his departure has cooled, theres a widespread feeling that his relationship with the president is not stable long term. His circle is very very small. One of these things that have come out. How normal is it for the cia director to meet the president day basis . Its more than that. Ow would they break down the information with the president. I think theres two things about mike pompeo. Is ideological. Hes been out in defending the about nt in charges whether theres potential collusion with russia during the election, whether its his stance on iran, the middle east, syria, north korea. This is a guy who is a west oint graduate, harvard law graduate. This is someone who wears the coat of arms, as i call it, that those kind t likes of people. He likes people with a military background. Cover story, the domestic cover story. Subject whichking i think we simply either dont know about or talk about. In some ats going on of the late night shifts in Meat Processing factories in the United States. Since i have been editor of the magazine weve fought hard o expose the sort of horrors that are under exposed labor orce sometimes illegal immigrants, sometimes White Working Class have been marginalized. Support their to families on 8 an hour, 12. His story goes into this third shift. It shows the life and death on the lines of this third shift, risking ple are everything for an average of 12 bucks an hour and standing vats of chicken fat and what theyre willing to go hrough as sanitation workers hosing down slaughterhouses. Very important story. Weve got more from peter waldman, his investigation and what he says points to a very history. Ce in u. S. The third shift is the graveyard shift. It begins around 11 p. M. Maybe sometimes around midnight. In its the folks who come and clean these poultry plants. These people use high powered hoses. Use all kinds of chemical cleansers. They generally clean these meat packing machines while theyre blades andso theres blenders spinning and paddles. Steam is wafting everywhere. These are the folks who come in and clean. Immigrants. Theyre this is not a desirable job. It is sort of the bottom of the united dder in the states. Even more often, theyre undocumented immigrants. Vain, talk to us about Martha Torres and her experience. Story about what happened to her. Sure. Just call her martha because torres was only one of the sur names given to her by several documents that we reviewed. The reason for that is that she undocumented person. We dont know if shes still in the United States or not cause couldnt track her down. Which is sort of part of the tory, and thats why we begin with the mystery surrounding her. She was working at a tyson plant in kansas. And she was cleaning conveyor point and her glove got caught and the Conveyor Belt in like ay reeled her fish. And it cracked her forearm in two places. Bones were literally sticking out of her skin. She was taken to the hospital, emergency surgery and so forth. And where the story gets interesting essentially, unfortunately, there are lots of factory accidents all the time in the United States, but her was a Sanitation Company called packers wisconsin. Out of and they were in charge her. Ntially of helping they did cover her medical expenses. But when it came time for her to workers comp to account for the months and of lost wages and some perhaps cushion for her future isability, because she was permanently impaired in the nerves in her hand, they refused. They refuse to cover her, they fired her. Not an urns out thats untypical response to workers in perhaps stry and others. In this case yer could prove to a workers comp accident was marthas fault. Basedsas there is a fault workers comp system. Packers and their insurer convinced the judge that she shouldnt have put her arm where it was and that cracking it in two place was her fault cleaning the machine, and they gave her nothing and fired her. Theres third shift, often a lot of undocumented workers so if they are injured, unfortunately, its like they have no recourse. One to speak for them. These individuals are afraid to come forward. Theyre afraid to whistle blow. We have little picture of what they do. Anecdotal evidence here and there such as what happened to martha. Another case where an employee, undocumented employee sanitation made a claim for injuries in arkansas. Claim. Workers comp packers fought them under the reasoning that they were not a legitimate authorized worker. And in that case, the state Appeals Court of arkansas decision and kers told packers, hey, you have to pay for that persons workers comp, whether or not they were a documented worker. But this is just little snap shots we have. In general, these people melt into our society if theyre still able to work, perhaps they go to another place and work. Not, perhaps they head back south over the border. We dont know what happened to martha. Next, why the latest uprising in iran is different from the last. Whats most at stake for the middle east, europe and the United States. This is Bloomberg Business week. Welcome back to Bloomberg Business week. You can find us online at businessweek. Com. Mobile app. In the politics section, the wave of antigovernment protests in iran. The men and women who are taking to the streets there are areas. From rural eres our editor matthew phillips. The Green Movement which came reelection puted of the then president. Ou saw millions take to the streets. It was concentrated in the capital of tehran. And large being led by the upper class, the ntelligence who were reform minded. They wanted political reforms. What were seeing right now, seeing fewer people in the street, it is more dispersed and it is concentrated the outskirts of iran, not necessarily in tehran. Of the en in kind smaller midsize towned in the rural parts of the country. Really about the economy the ow, you know, after nuclear deal was signed, a lot was promised in terms of hasnt success and it necessarily been delivered. People are feeling it in their pockets and theyre taking to the streets. Ab what weve seen. Weve all seen headlines, agricultural prices. You point out a 50 rise in the price of eggs, for example. Thats crippling for ordinary iranians. Whats going on . Whats driving this . Expect to see some kind of reaction. It. We see thats right. Ou know, the economy is not doing very well. I mean, unemployment is at 12 . Inflation though down still 10 . You are seeing a big spike in for things rices like eggs and agricultural goods. Concerns have broadened to a much wider demonstration about essence of irans political establishment, which theocracy and the iranian republic that is led by the that have ultimate control over the country. Lets talk about this. Is a second term for irans president. Inflation was as high as 40 . Down to 10 . T it one thing that has been slow to come back to the country, and foreign investment. That is what many see as helping out the economy there. Right. Ts that was part of his of the deal he sold the iranian people 2015 nuclear deal. That it was going to remove and ions from world powers lead to a Huge Investment from foreign companies, multinationals in government. It hasnt really played out like that. And the degree that it has, hasnt really impacted the average iranian. Of that, theres also a banking crisis. Prices are still pretty cheap, below 60. Concern and ith strife even among his supporters, who are by and large of moderate reform. By ertainly being opposed your hard line conservative, many among them, you know, the clerics. You have to feel that nuclear deal, when that was agreed, it try and enacte to reforms that he was reforms th about as a moderate. He was consistently fighting the he has raised about going to whether this rewritten and sanctions should be reimposed. That has a direct impact aopb confidence that Foreign Investors have of investing in iran. That in turn in london on dabnux3 and in asia app. He bloomberg plus in the economic section, that social trends in 2017 may help us predict whats going to happen in the economy in 2018. Heres gina smilic. There are a couple of things to us. Ally stuck out really social trends. Me, i was talking to a party. We are talking about is economic. Called up some of my favorite economists and chatted with them bout what happened that struck them similarly as odd. What they came up with . With . I couldnt. Its interesting. Google it. Lot of pink and purple and blue. People bought it. Bucks or t like 5 something . What struck me about this. Its 5 a pop. A really expensive drink. People were just buying them like crazy. Of this treat yourself phenomenon that we to. Lly have come Kim Kardashian drinking it maybe. I think its also part and to this entire sort of small extravagances that weve seen among younger consumers. Or her its avacado toast unicorn cappachino. One hand its consumer confidence. N the other hand, it could be worrying if people dont move on to bigger purchases. Spending 5 on unicorn consistently and not saving up buy that house. Another story in the economy is vacations. They are surging. So one thing that i really travel spending is it really moves off and falls off a recession. Sometimes its a leading indicator. What were seeing is travel is going gang busters. People are traveling abroad. E saw a Record Number of out bound trips in 2016. Then we saw really high travel essentially means americans spending on travel abroad and travel products abroad. Surged in the first ten months of 2017 which is what we for so far. I thought that struck me as interesting. We are seeing the wage gains that we were expecting in the cycle. It is pointing to at least a growing confidence rather than reward, response. Absolutely. We have pretty much seen wages 2 , 2. 5 , long at hich is keeping up slightly over inflation. Now, some people are hoping happen in 2017. Or 2018. A what we saw in 2017 was lot of nonwage benefits. The collection of anecdotal the country around really speaks to employers at ring things like perks work. In your ut things pantry, benefits. These nonwage compensation as a gains. Get around wage so it will be really interesting to see whether that holds in 018 or whether employers have to start spending a little more. Staying in economics. Both the u. S. Treasury yield phillips curve are flattening and that makes it a tough job for Federal Reserve decide when and how to raise rates. Explain. Let peter coy the yield curve and the phillips curve is very different. The only thing that unifies them in my story is that people, some eople looking at these two are saying that the Federal Reserve and other Central Banks as well not worry so much about inflation and still keep growth s on getting going. And in my article im kind of saying not really sure. I think we still do need to that about the fact inflation could start accelerating in 2018. Okay. Take a step back. Talking aboutere here. What is the split curve and what s it saying to us at this moment t relationship between the factors . A new named after zealand economist, a. W. Phillip, 1958. Its a very y simple idea. Theres a tradeoff between unemployment. You have high inflation, tends to be associated with low and vice versa. Now, Milton Freeman and some 1960s sort of poked holes in the phillips in the longing that run, theres no free lunch. Central banks cant buy stronger growth and lower unemployment on permanent basis by low inflation. Hort term there is at least in theory this sort of, theres a slope, if you imagine inflation unemployment and on the other. The problem is that it hasnt proven out in the real world. He curve instead of being sloped has been flat. U. S. Economy is increasing job handover this. We havent seen inflation. Janet yellen said, even to the year maybe you can explain it. Now were confused. Where is inflation and why getting wage growth. It remains below the fed target. Measure is a our 1. 5 opinion or 1. 7 . Even as the Unemployment Rate as november reading is down to 4. 1 . So there are people who are phillips curve is broken and we can ignore it. Article aying in this is, i think the under lying sensible, right . You would think, economy heats up, at some point workers will demand. Demand higher wages. Wages go up and translates into price overall. Youve written about this over the last year. Whether its globalization, not having as much power. Technology having a factor. Workers are satisfied with where they are. There are all these reasons. A point where for all the excuses and explanation e come up with, at some point you would think we would start to fight. Are we just impatient and it start . I do think over the coming year, hasnt happened yet, but it never will happen. I dont want to leave a yield this. Out of bring that in. Just look at the shape of the economy. About its essly been the flattest its been in a decade. If people are expecting stronger inflation, the back end of the curve will be higher. Thats the other conundrum. The yield curve just to back it up is the idea that if you look of say aturities treasury bonds, the short ones, overnight onth whatever have the lowest interest rate. And then the curve goes up like the long term tenyear note, 30year bond have higher yields. To be people want rewarded for tying up their money for longer periods of time. Thats a normal shape of the field curve. Every time the yield curve tips say the ten year note is less than two year, pick your strong its pretty precursor of a recession. There are people who are arning now that because it is flattening, we need to get out of recession. Is if we were indeed inverted. If the yield curve had tipped i would be worried. Inverted. We have a positively sloping yield curve. Theres no guarantee that we invert. R we may stay like this for a long time. Will it take to undo the damage in zimbabwe. What would it be like to camp on the moon . Its the 2018 travel guide. This is Bloomberg Business week. Welcome back. Still ahead in this weeks issue, zimbabwe looks for way to resurrect itself in a post mugabe era. And a billion dollar upgrade. All that still ahead on Bloomberg Business week. We are back with the editor in chief of Bloomberg Business chief. Must read section, great feature here that political turmoil in zimbabwe future of change . You focus on some of the companies that have struggled in face of all the economic challenges in the country. This is a great piece by matt campbell. With all the other turmoil thats engulfing the world, mugabes nd robert downfall has drifted off into again. De shows be what is so important, why this piece really stands out is the economic devastation thats not only through the companies that have struggled as the company tries to get back its economic bearing, but the reasons why exists. Its not as simple as people think which is exploitation and of natural resources. They have a lot of lithium, resources r bad government corruption. Its also a very specific currency issue that is crippling these countries, these companies, who longer pay for much needed, whether thats sort of to move their goods abroad, pay equipment they need to harvest their crops to make a ort of 21st century go of things. It is a system attic look at all of the problems that have this ed together to make economic devastation so real there. You see a real problem. Liquidity for Even Companies that are financially viable, heyre having problems accessing money to run their businesses. The 100body knows about trillion dollar zimbabwe notes hat existed and issues like inflation that was running at 98 per day. People know less about is this creation of what is called the zollar. Parallel currency. Now, much of the audience may its economy runs on u. S. Dollars because it frankly lost the ability to rint money during the hyper inflation in the mid 2000s, late 2000s. That. Do they pegged it to a virtual currency. Making thathose and viable for these companies that need access to liquidity, need cash, whether its to buy supply, buy farming, keep over season to season to season has become virtually impossible for them. Is o easy segue except this another feature. We want to talk about a sneaker by warren ts owned buffet. No easy segue here. This story. I dont know if you are runners, but this is who runs. N a person neither. This is a company very niche in the running world. Youre a runner, you know them. Run, you probably dont wear the shoes. Great tale of how a company reinvents itself. It is now looking to the people who hate to do what its shoes do. Great story. Are you a runner . Runner . Look like a no. One of the things that i when i ally interesting was working on this story, there are sports and athletic Industry Associations who track this sort of stuff. Since 2001, about 13 million running, e taken up which is sort of the equivalent of the entire state of illinois. Talk about why you are writing about this company. I told you before i got started it. Ad never heard of my husband had a foot injury. Bought one of these. Its been around for a long time. Give us a history. Had some troubles but its come back strong. Yeah. Around since n 1914. Its been owned by many different people over the years. Private equity, right . Yeah, yeah yeah. Think arted making i baseball cleats and these like slippers era bathing is what they call them. The shoeious wear to the beach. Running markethe in the 70s when jogging took off. They had a shoe that was popular. Bouncey. Made with this springy foam. Ll these people started buying it. At the time they were manufactured in puerto rico and really facturer didnt know how to handle that size orders so they ended up shipping defective shoes and people returned brooks. There were some other issues company. It went bankrupt in 1