First interview with an International News outlet since taking office. Jason the brewing battle for dominance in the video industry. Why 2020 will be the hunger games of the media industry. We began with joel weber. How do you put an issue like this together . Joel our goal was to program conversations at backyard barbecues. Streaming will be a conversation that unfolds over the next year. Media and Tech Companies will go to the mattresses and spend billions warring with each other. Other. Taylor another big story, walk me through that. Joel victorias secret, a huge business rising for years, and now it is starting to fall. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to unfold, so we step back and say epstein aside, this business is about to go through a lot of changes. Jason Lance Armstrong is back. Joel this inspired me for the Tour De France season. Lance is not a name we hear much anymore, he was brought down by another scandal. Is there a chance at redemption . He has amassed a huge audience in podcasts. The question is, what happens to a name that gets tarnished, and is there a chance at a second act . Jason lance took us inside his head, and interesting place. Joel weber, thank you so much. Taylor i want to take a look at the democratic debates. Politics editor joins us. Give us your key takeaway. We saw both nights tuesday and wednesday, it was the moderates versus the progressives. The progressives getting more attention in the election cycle, and some folks making a last ditch attempt to get into the race. Jason the first night it was progressives, progressives. Everybody else on the wings trying to get the attention away from Bernie Sanders and elizabeth warren. They were together in the middle of the stage, they are each others chief rivals. They teamed up and beat back these moderate arguments against what some would say are their extreme policies. Taylor joe biden, all eyes were on him, but then he said take it easy on me, kid. What was that . That was an eyebrow raiser. Things he has going against him, race relations. He said this to kamala harris, a black woman. And his age. He has struggled with that. It did not look at for him to say that right away. Jason a great story by josh green online that everyone should check out. Thank you so much. President trumps current policy is hard to get a handle on. Taylor sending mixed messages on a strong dollar policy last week, President Trump told reporters is a beautiful thing, but he would not rule out taking action to weaken the currency. President trump the dollar is strong, the country is strong. The dollar makes it harder to compete. I did not say i would not do something. Taylor he did not get what he wanted after jay powell sent the dollar stronger on wednesday. Jason we were watching it on realtime. Heres a reporter on what trump wants for the dollar. Mixed signals is how i would describe it. The past few weeks he has had secretary mnuchin say we have a strong dollar policy. Larry kudlow said we will not intervene. Trump said he had not ruled out that option. It is a confusing time, a lot of people are raising the question, is the u. S. Committed to the strong dollar policy. Taylor to understand why this is so important, take us back to the 1990s where this began when we instituted a strong dollar policy . The u. S. Is unique in that it is the only nation that prefers to have its currency be strong. That was the policy put in place in 1995 by then secretary treasury rubin. The dollar policy has been left to the treasury. That is not the case now. It was introduced as a commitment that the u. S. Would not devalue its currency, and that in turn boosted demand for u. S. Treasuries, which has been important the way the u. S. Finances itself. Jason also important to the rest of the world. Something the rest of the world can look to, that investors can look to, an area of certainty in a volatile world. Absolutely. We have a deep liquid bond market where Foreign Investors can rest assured that the country is not going to debase its currency. That is why we have seen the dollar emerges the haven currency of choice and is the worlds haven asset. Taylor we talk about dollar policy, rates, and then you fall that over into a much discussed topic, foreign inflows, and how a strong dollar does attract foreign inflows. Title dynamics together for us. Is a bad time for everyone if the u. S. Shifts away from a strong dollar policy. You have the u. S. Borrowing a record amount of treasuries to plug its deficit. For investors, in a world where 13 trillion of debt is negative yielding, they do not have a lot of options. Foreign holdings are at a record high. We have not seen demand yet. The u. S. Is more dependent than ever on foreign inflows, it is a crucial time. Taylor up next, bloombergs exclusive interview with mexican president lopezobrador. Jason he set down with John Micklethwait for his first interview with an International News outfit since taking office. Taylor this is Bloomberg Businessweek. Taylor welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. I am taylor riggs. Jason i am jason kelly. Join us every day on the radio and catch up on our daily show on podcast, get that at itunes or soundcloud. Taylor you can find us online at business week. Com. Now bloombergs exclusive interview with mexicos president Andres ManuelLopez Obrador. Jason he set down with editorinchief John Micklethwait in mexico city, his first interview with an International News outlet since taking office. They began with a discussion about their neighbor to the north. President Lopez Obrador we are neighbors, and this neighbor makes it mandatory for us to understand each other. John as you know, guatemala agreed to a third country agreement to do what you were talking about. People from honduras or salvador they have to seek asylum in guatemala rather than going to america. Would you let mexico agree to the same . . President Lopez Obrador we would not. We are enforcing a program to reduce the number of migrants. With protection to those coming into mexico, migrants have been murdered. We have had some cases like that. That is something we do not want, and yet we have mobilized the National Guard because it was a necessity. We already had that plan since before the threat of tariffs, and the results have been good. Look into the causes of this. John when you were interviewed by bloomberg in 2017, you accused donald trump, the quotation was, having a campaign of hatred against immigrants. He does not want mexican immigrants in america. Do you still believe that . President Lopez Obrador i think as we normally say, he has been doing a lot less of that now. When i was in the United States, this was a different discourse. It was more of an antimexican discourse, but now President Trump is more moderate. John more moderate with mexican roots . President Lopez Obrador yes, this is something noteworthy. We are grateful to him for that. John when we look at the mexican economy, you are hoping for it to grow 4 , and this week there are worries it may go into recession. Consumer spending is not high and industrial output is not high. Do you think mexico will go into recession this year . President Lopez Obrador no, no. We are doing fine. We are doing fine and doing well. The economy is not growing as we would want it to grow, but on the other hand, there are no risks of recession. We are saying 4 in this sixyear administration. And technicians may say, how can you go from 2 to 4 in mexico . Before the neoliberal period, before 1983, since the mexican revolution, until 1983 we grew 6 per year. There was a period which growth was 6 with no devaluation, without inflation. The mexican miracle in the economy, that is what we want. John can you have a mexican miracle with Interest Rates at 8. 25 . I know you have been good at not interfering in the central bank. President Lopez Obrador it is important to lower the rates to encourage growth. This is an issue i am leaving for the central bank to decide. Because we trust we are not just going to be able to grow, but also to develop. Jason for more on that interview, behind the scenes, we caught up with John Micklethwait while he was in mexico. John the last time we spoke to him in 2017, he complained that trump was creating an atmosphere of hatred towards mexicans. Ever since he has become president , he has been remarkably calm no matter what trump says. He sometimes stands up to trump, but even in our studio he talked about trump becoming more moderate, which i am relatively surprised. He sits there and takes it. He does fight back on some things. He probably will not agree to do the safe third country status, which is where you say, anyone looking for asylum has to get asylum from me first. The rhetoric is incredibly calm. Whether that survives the issue of the freetrade bill, someone plowed on the horizon, there is a possibility the democrats might hold that up, and mexico is counting on that going through. Jason he notably did not attend the g20 summit, and has not been as engaged with the broader cadre of World Leaders. What do you make of that, and what does that say about his stature in the world . John he is clear he wants to focus on mexico and does not want to travel. We talked about if he would meet trump, but he would rather trump goes to meet him. He has told the mexican people he will spend the year here focusing on what he needs to do for the country. That is his style. You could see from the interview that he talks slowly and delivery lead. On the campaign trail he does rallies a little like trump but with a different style. He goes to all corners of mexico and says he is fighting for them. It is a big change from his predecessor, a much more technocratic person, and more involved in the corruption scandals circling his regime. Jason put him in the pantheon of World Leaders that you have talked to over the last couple of years, putin, erdogan, may, merkel where does he fit in . How does he compare to his peers around the world . John he has one similarity with erdogan, he believes in unorthodox economics. He has a theory everything will be fine. There are bits where he lashes out at neoliberals. He does point out that the gdp number is not what he hoped. It is a different style than erdogan, more subtle. Imagine you spent all your life waiting to become Prime Minister of ireland or president of america, and through that time you sat on the leftwing, then come into power and do the opposite. You clamp down on spending because you think there is too much corruption, and you want to be clear mexico will not be badly run. That is a novel way of looking at it, a different thing. Whether he can keep pulling it off, we will see. Taylor up next, a troubling reality at victorias secret. Jason raising capital and raising standards. This is Bloomberg Businessweek. Jason welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. I am jason kelly. Taylor i am taylor riggs. You can also listen to us on the radio. Jason in london on dab digital. Taylor time is not being kind to victorias secret. Jason Jeffrey Epsteins decadelong relationship is weighing on the company, but not the only issue for the lingerie brand. Victoria secret has struggled in a changing consumer environment. Taylor that is exactly what i wanted to look at, taking a look at annual revenue. There are two ways to look at this. It is off its highs from 2017. It is still above 7 billion in annual revenue. Taylor here is bloomberg retail reporter. Is not a great moment for victorias secret. Their ceo, who also runs bath and body works, he has a long time friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. At one point Jeffrey Epstein was the power of attorney for him. They severed ties a dozen years ago, but the skeletons in that closet caused more issues for the company in terms of their modeling agencies and responding to consumer demand. Jason beyond the relationship between these two men, it is safe to say, more to come on that. It feels like there is more to be revealed. This is coming at a time when victorias secret does not feel very 2019. Not at all. Victorias secret has gotten a lot o criticism for not being body positive. They have had a lot of competitors come ic and say, we want to make lingerie for women and not just men to look at. Victorias secret has not quickly shifted to that trend. Jason it is fair to say, no one has essentially used sex and more specifically sexiness to better effect or more profitable effect than victorias secret. The word sexy finds itself into the names of the products. Literally dozens of products with the name sexy in it. Some history, it was founded by a man who went into a store to buy lingerie, did not love the experience, and said, i will create a store were men are comfortable buying womens underwear. They were founded with men in mind. Taylor it is not just businesses behind the time. We turned to Venture Capital in silicon valley. Jason Sequoia Capital had its first female partner, she had a reputation for a superstar. She knew how to close a deal, but still faced challenges. She is the first u. S. Investing partner at Sequoia Capital who is a woman. The firm was founded in 1972, and four decades were no women partners in the u. S. Then a couple of years ago the firm hired the former product manager at google, and ceo of a startup. It was a big deal, and everybody was looking to see how she did, especially since sequoia had been in the news a couple times over things partners had done that people thought were not female friendly. There was a lot riding on her shoulders. Jason specifically on this network, i am quoting here, he said, we are not prepared to lower our standards, when asked about bringing in women partners. She persevered, takes a partnership, what has her experience been like . A lot of people thought she was brought in as a direct result of those comments. They had been trying to recruit her before that, but the timing was unfortunate. She told me this crazy experience she had after she joined sequoia. Normally partners from big Prestigious Firm have to be careful when they go out into the world, they get mobbed. Every entrepreneur wants to pitch them thier startup idea. There were lots of entrepreneurs and people who normally would have getting their eye teeth to talk to Sequoia Capital. People did not know who she was, but she described Walking Around the room and people look at her, saw a young face, an asian woman, and did not look at her name tag to see who she was. They assumed she was in marketing or not an important person. They did not need to look at her name tag. That would not happen now because she is a more recognizable figure. That was a devastating anecdote that shows the subconscious mindset that people in technology have. Taylor ahead on Bloomberg Businessweek, taking on netflix and why try 20 will be the hunger games in the tech industry. This is Bloomberg Businessweek. Jason welcome back to jason welcome back to Bloomberg Businessweek. Taylor still ahead, the hottest podcast during the year and in all of sports from a former cyclist Lance Armstrong. Banned from sports, he is the comeback kid. Jason plus, our interview with nasdaq ceo on moving the company and beyond trading. Taylor and the 20 million car for sale. Jason but first, joel weber is back with us with this weeks global cover story. Ive got to say, i love this cover. Joel this is a really expensive war that is about to unfold. This Time Next Year basically we will have a lot of different streaming platforms backed by the biggest media and Tech Companies out there. Think netflix, hulu, disney apple, everybody is in this game. Taylor so expensive, you have netflix alone spending 45,000,000,000 dollars waiting for these old media titans to catch up. Are they willing to spend that much as well . Joel they kind of have to come and that is the takeaway. Nobody is going to walk out of this whole. Everybody will be tarnished. My favorite netflix takeaway is that the Marketing Budget is as big as hbos programming budget. We are talking lots of money. Jason and there are great details in the interview and the story about how they are spending that money. Joel weber, thank you so much. Taylor and for more on these streaming services, here is the reporter who wrote this weeks remarks. It is this incredible showdown. Next year, it is going to get even more fierce and brutal for all of these tech and media companies. Jason we have talked to you before about this collision course these companies have been on. It has been looming for a while, but this is where it comes to bear. Netflix does not have this to themselves anymore. Netflix and amazon, i guess i should say, and disney seems to be disney is leading the charge. Disney plus arrives in november and will be huge. Next spring, we will have hbo max. Nbc is putting together their streaming subscription service. For a long time, it was netflix, a little amazon, maybe check out cbs all access, all of a sudden, it is this wide open field. Taylor and