you are taking that argument apart this week. ellen: yes, we are saying he is less like mussolini than the former prime minister of italy. over the last 10 years, democracy has waned all over the world after it being on the upswing. if you look at freedoms, freedom is on the downswing as well. more and more, you see leaders describe him as having a blow torch manner. leaders like trump who are a little bit in that mold coming to the fore. david: using the media in the way that berlusconi did. ellen: right. we talk about thailand and turkey, where you have leaders who have been elected and act like -- david: like autocratic, yeah. carol: people say, democracy has not made the situation that much better, so maybe they will try something different. ellen: exactly. the connection between democracy and economic growth, it feels like it is breaking down, even if you look long-term at the numbers. the economy, long-term do better in democracies than totalitarian states. in the short term, people are not necessarily making that connection. they are saying to elected officials, you promised us a better life. where is it? carol: speaking of a better life, you take a look at a test that could determine a better life for kids in china. ellen: they have the high test, a more important sat. it determines where you're going to university or college. students in rural areas are not as ready for these tests as urban areas. they are talking about equalizing it, making it easier for rural kids to go to universities elsewhere. the middle classes is not always so happy about that. the middle class do not want their chances for their children to be diluted. david: an unbelievable amount of pressure before those tests. the work that goes into prepping for those tests. ellen: one kid is studying more than my child has ever studied in her life. she gets up at 6:00, studies, she's in class until 11:00 and then she studies another two hours. i wish my child was tuning in right now. david: in become companies and industries section, you look at sears, the big box retailer who has fallen on tough times. what is it doing? ellen: it is not doing much, and it is actually talking about selling off its better known brands, like kenmore. sears has been this bad -- david: glide path. ellen: right. definitely. pretty much ever since eddie lambert, who owns sears, merged it with kmart, which he also owned, and they have not spent as much on advertising and marketing. it happened at a time when consumers change their habits. they are more interested in going to walmart. the end and going to a mall and seeing the old sears. carol: which is sad, because sears is the old walmart, amazon of years past. ellen: right, they invented catalog shopping. they were amazon before there was amazon. it is where everybody went to the store and looked at the catalog and figured out what they want to buy. carol: the cover story on the takata airbag recall. this is the big story, a sad story, a tragic story. ellen: in the u.s. alone, 60 million cars have been recalled. and the number rises to 100 million if you look at the whole world. we sort of take you back and look at the story about what happened inside the company. david: the history of this is long. ellen: it went on for a long time. david: we talked to one of the reporters on a story. >> the airbag in the cars is in the steering wheel. what scientists have realized, the explosives inside the airbag that allows it to deploy, over time, this explosive has some problems. it can degrade over time. the airbag deploys forcefully. the metal container that has the explosive can shred and send shrapnel into the car and mostly, it has hit drivers in the face and neck and chest. carol: i hear something like this and i say, wait a minute. where was the testing. >> take a step back. propellants have been a tricky thing in coming up with airbags. take a step back and how did we get to this point? susan: yeah. takata started out with a different propellant, which had some problems. they went to another one, which was good, but too expensive. then, they came up with this third one. which was cheaper, very available -- it is ammonium nitrate. it is very powerful. almost as powerful as dynamite. carol: you need to have something powerful. to get that airbag out. susan: it does it does get the airbag out very quickly. but it has to be controlled. this explosive is hard to keep stable over time. takata says it recognizes problems, but it felt it had solved them with engineering. they solved a problem no other automaker could solve. lots of them considered using ammonium nitrate for all of the same reasons and decided not to. carol: you talk about the cost of the propellants. it made them look for something a little bit less expensive. what role did finances play in this in looking at the cost equation? susan: that depends on who you talk to. takata denies cost had anything to do with the switch to ammonium nitrate. i think what is definitely fair to say is the chemicals they were using before that were very limited. to find it in a high enough quality that takata could use was difficult. there were issues with it. ammonium nitrate is widely available. from a supply perspective, that makes sense. david: why did it take so long for regulators to take notice or for the company to take it seriously? and for there to be recalls. susan: yeah. the first accident was in 2004. and it was in alabama. at the time, takata told honda it was an anomaly. don't worry about it. honda settled the case. then, what we now know, over time, there were concerns employees were raising within takata and takata seemed to ignore them. at the same time, they felt confident engineers had solved the problem and could improve the stability of the chemical. the airbags degrade over time. most of these exploding airbags were made in the early 2000's. they began really exploding in bigger numbers, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. if you look, the recalls expanded every year. and it took a while to figure out. because it is pretty unexpected that the device in your car to save your life also can do this. initially, police investigators would come on to accident scenes and they would see metal fragments. i mean, one woman, her neck was so severely gashed, police thought she had been stabbed before the accident. it took a long time to figure out. u.s. regulators, talking to takata and other experts, realized the problem is worse in states where there is a lot of heat and humidity. those are two of the factors that really helped degrade the chemical more quickly. so they concentrated the recalls in those states. carol: robert vargas had to turn the recall into a cover story. here is how he did it. robert: we found a quote from an engineer who tried to warn the company about what could happen. the quote was simply -- "if we go forward with this, someone will be killed." as soon as we saw that, we knew it needed to be on the cover. there is a fine line of wanting to be impactful, but not wanting to be exploitative. we saw images shown in court that were very, very, very powerful. but did not feel appropriate for a newsstand cover. and you know, the general feeling was this quote gives you that appropriate sense of dread without going overboard. david: at the center of the piece is the airbag inflator device. i know you settled upon using a photograph of that. robert: yeah. because none of us are automotive engineers. it is mysterious how this thing actually works and what is exactly in the airbag that is so dangerous. because you think of it as an inflatable thing that is supposed to save your life. that is why it was interesting to show this device that looks like an exploded bomb. carol: the cover is red. as aow from this airbag, result, people lost their lives. is it because you are trying to indicate blood? robert: that was not our explicit intention. we wanted a color that was very strong. we even experimented with other colors that were black and white. there was another story about gm that was simple typography on a black background. we did not quite want to repeat that, but we knew the execution needed to be similar. the red felt appropriate and also different from what we have done before. david: how an unknown group of actors pulled off the biggest cyber heist of all time. carroll: and why her she is getting sweet on be jerky. david: how to throw a $1 million bachelor party. all of that ahead. ♪ ♪ carol: welcome back. i'm carol massar. david: i am david gura. david: you can find us on siriusxm radio, channel 119. carol: the safety of the global system is in question. we talked to a reporter. >> in february, hackers got into the central bank of bangladesh and got the credentials to access the swiss network. this is the network people in banks in to say credit this account, but money there, take money from there. they said messages to the new york fed to send money to the bank in the philippines. they did not get away with all of it. of the billion dollars, they gathered about $81 million before alarms tripped. it is the biggest cyber heist in banking history. $60 million has disappeared in cash somewhere. it is a dramatic heist. it exposed how there are some problems with what had been considered to be a secure network. which was this messaging network called swift vet the banks use to tell each other what to do with the funding. >> what is the significance when you look at these scandals. vietnam, ecuador. what does that say about who is being targeted? >> swift is correct when it says its network is secure. it spends money on security, cyber security. its network is not been breached itself. but swift has 11,000 customers, mostly banks. those banks vary from jpmorgan and hsbc and the megabanks to very small banks in developing countries who have fewer resources and much less money to devote to security. what hackers have realized is they can go to the smaller banks, they have a weaker defenses, they can get in there and start ordering these banks to send money to accounts they control via the swiftest system. it has exposed a weak point and what had been considered to be a strong network. carol: you talk about emerging banks and how it poses a huge liability for larger financial and the duchenne's. why? >> you break into a small bank and you can only steal the money in that bank. with the issue is, in a case with an ecuadorian bank that had about $12 million stolen from it, the ecuadorian bank has filed a lawsuit against wells fargo because they are the correspondent to this ecuadorian bank. what it claims is wells fargo should have known better. when it got these requests to wire money to this account where no money had ever been wired before, it should have stopped it. therefore, this bank says wells is to blame for it. wells fargo has to defend itself in court against this lawsuit. the problem with that, these banks don't make much money on correspondent banking. if it is going to be more trouble than it is worth, they might cut off these banks and that would slow global trade. it puts sand in the gears of global commerce and global finance. that is what people are starting to get worried about. carol: up next, move over kisses. hershey betting on beef jerky. david: can tim and eric the -- go mainstream? ♪ ♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm carol massar. david: i am david gura. carol: up next, why hershey is targeting the beef jerky market. >> there is this iconic chocolate company that makes their money selling chocolate. they are betting big on beef jerky. they see the data, declining chocolate consumption as people try to avoid sugar. hershey acquired a jerky company in 2015, a company that suggests wine pairings for their beef jerky. it's a very premium customer. this is an attempt by hershey to sell stuff besides chocolate. david: it sounds like a fad. could it be a fad? >> the beef jerky fad has been going for a couple of years. it checks a bunch of health boxes for people. it is low sugar, low carbohydrate, high in protein. it has been reimagined as a health food. away from the gas station slim jim being sold to 18-year-olds on a college road trip -- david: been there. [laughter] >> that marketing is still out there with jerky, but it has been reimagined and hershey is trying to get in on that. carol: how do you change a company who relies on chocolate. the bulk of their revenue comes from chocolate. i mean, right, so how do you change it? >> they say snacks can be a $2 billion business. some of it is chocolate reimagined, snack mixes, but the core chocolate business is more than 80% of the revenue for hershey's. that is still their business. they are quick, passionate about the conversation, but quick to remind you that we love our chocolate business and we are still a chocolate company. they say they can still grow and sell hershey's kisses, things like that. joys.s, almond things like that. they are not turning away from that, but they think the snack portfolio will fuel their growth. that includes snack bars, trail mixes, and of course, beef jerky. beef jerky is a big part of where they think growth will come from. david: i read your piece, i was at whole foods this weekend. i saw krave beef jerky before, realized how much i have seen it before. >> they point out people at hershey, our products are in 90% of households. people at whole foods, shopping at whole foods, they are not buying a ton of hershey's bars. krave gives them access to this customer. you talk about the mass premium market. they are things that can sell at target and walmart but are a little more expensive. they have a brand called brookside. if you look at the chocolate numbers, consumption is flat or down. sales are up a little bit. it comes from people buying more stuff. hershey is trying to sell more expensive chocolate as well because americans are saying they are not going to eat a hershey bar, but i will allow myself a couple of pieces of dark chocolate. david: a first-person account of in alberta,ing canada and what it may do for global oil prices. carol: how miami may not be doing its part to help prevent the spread of the zika virus. ♪ ♪ david: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." carol: we are inside the magazine's headquarters. david: still ahead, a ground's eye view of the fires raging in alberta, canada. carol: and the benefits of turning turbines upside down. david: and the growing era of the niche comment. -- niche comics. carol: all of that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪ carol: we are here with editor ellen pollock. i want to focus on transportation and you talk about gondolas. but not the ones in the swiss alps. ellen: we're talking about companies that did make gondolas for ski regions but the business is not so good and they are trying to sell gondolas to cities that have traffic problems. one place that is being looked at is new york city, which would be a great thing. and basically a there are making the point if you are flying to the sky you will have a shorter commute. you will not get stuck in traffic. david: one city mentioned -- la paz. i studied abroad there for a while. a cool city shaped like a bowl. downtown you could take these gondolas. efficiently. they are huge but they work well. carol: they do not carry a lot of people. it is not like having the amount of people you can carry on the subway. ellen: no, subways carry more people and they are faster but it gives you an alternate route. for some people it makes sense. it depends where you live. and whether you are willing to take a different path that could create problems if it breaks down. because one of the issues is when they, break down and things do breakdown they're pretty hard to fix because they are floating in the sky. david: israeli companies have been reacting to push us to boycott them for whatever involvement they might have with what is going on in the palestinian conflict. ellen: there are some sovereign wealth funds, pension funds in the u.s. that are withdrawing your money from various israeli companies or israel itself because they do not want to support israel's role -- david: mostly symbolic. ellen: the truth is the amount of foreign investment in israel is going up. even in the companies being targeted is going up. but overtime, it could have an effect. it could spread. right now they are not feeling it at all. carol: you guys offer, illinois, the state offers a warning for coal and nuclear plants. ellen: some energy companies are going to have to close plants. and basically it is because energy prices have come down. energy has been deregulated. in some states where energy prices have come down you can buy energy from other states. which will sell it to you even cheaper. within their states they are charging a lot. so they can afford to bring the prices down. and also we have alternative energies like gas, and especially solar which have gotten cheaper over time. but that's made the market very complicated. david: an incredible piece in the feature section about the wildfires raging in alberta. we know the effect they have had on oil prices. this piece really humanizes what happens to folk that have been working in canada. ellen: a remarkable story about life. in fort mcmurray and the people who worked in the oil industry and what is happened to them and how their lives have changed since the fires began. david: we talked to the reporter who wrote that piece. charles: this fire which is it israging now, in fact larger than ever now, now some 500,000 square hectares. absolutely massive fire. still out of control. with thousands of firemen, tens of helicopters and water bombers servicing it. it started as a spark. fires do. all the fire season really had not started yet. it was first discovered a fire crew on sunday, the evacuation was on tuesday, may 3. on a sunday, a helicopter fire crew spotted smoke and then fire two hectares, south of the river, which is the river that fort mcmurray the town is based around. and it seemed to that point fairly manageable. they dropped a seal team, into start working around it and create a fire break. carol: this is an area that is used to fires. charles: the forest, the northern pine forests burned. they are burning constantly. there are fires the size of rhode island burning now. there are 14 fires burning in alberta. you usually never hear about those because they are not in such close proximity to humans and facilities. and that's created a policy over time. stepping on those fires as quickly as possible when they do approach a settlement, which creates a forest that is filled with more fuel. and a time bomb when you have a dry, hot season. the season's seemed be getting hotter and drier. david: you describe towns with a gas station and a fast food restaurant. there has been a huge influx of people to these areas. what has drawn them there, and how has this oil from the sands affected these communities? charles: it is often called a boomtown, fort mcmurray. in 1951, there were less than 1000 people there. the first oils sands operation to work the tar north of fort mcmurray, they started their first mega scale mines in 1967. these involve ferris wheel sized extractors with bucket teeth. david: everything is big. charles: everything as big as possible because it is not an efficient means of getting oil. it only makes sense when the price is high enough. that is a lot of work. after a series of oil crises, a lot of money. and people that wanted to work hard and make money could. it was a land of opportunity. and that was a bit of a gold rush. and thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people, flooded the town, creating first of all housing, what we called a bubble. it became the most expensive real estate in alberta. carol: trailers. going for hundreds of millions of dollars charles: half $1 million for a 25-year-old trailer, which only makes sense if you're making -- there is nowhere else in canada where you can go with a high school education and an alarm clock and a work ethic and if you get lucky, make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year and bank it. and in order to do it, you have to be there. david: from fire to water. in the technology section, how to harness a new energy source. ocean currents. carol: we talked about marine turbines. >> he is a wind pioneer. the father of american wind. he has built two wind energy companies. and is now trying to look to harness energy from the oceans, currents in the tide. or in the gulf stream. what is interesting about this is you apply a lot of the design that goes into building a wind turbine into a marine turbine. something that fits in the water and spins with the power of the ocean. either through tides coming in or through currents like the gulf stream which flow all year. the power of the water turns the turbines and you can collect the energy and bring it onshore through wires or use it to power data centers. david: what are the hurdles to doing this? he has this experience in wind. what are the challenges of doing this underwater? ellen: the challenges are, i think it is very early. marine energy is the sort of thing that was thought about theoretically in the 1970's but never really picked up. wind and solar became some of the big renewable energies of that time period in part because they got lots of funding from the government and they have had time to mature as an industry. i think we need talk to people in renewables, in new types of renewables, they say it takes 15 years to 20 years to really have a new source become mature. most importantly become cost-effective. the most important thing, and jim knows this, it's most important that the energy be cost competitive with other sources. if something costs 15 cents a kilowatt hour, you're not going to find people willing to pay for these energy deals. david: up next, the curious case of the california senate primary. where republicans want you to vote for democrats. carol: who is leading the fight against the zika virus? the cities that might be leaving you vulnerable. gone: and bachelor parties wild. the booming business of globetrotting bachelor parties. carol: you know something about that. david: oh, carol. carol: all of that ahead on bloomberg businessweek. ♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." david: you can find us on xirius xm and -- carol: 99.1 f.m. in washington and a.m. 960 in the bay area. in the politics and policy section, a dozen republicans are competing in the california primary. up for grabs, a chance to replace retiring congresswoman barbara boxer. david: it's the republicans in california who want you to vote for democrats. josh: republicans look like they are headed for an unprecedented embarrassment that comes with an awkward but valuable concession prize. this could be the first time we see in many years a ballot in california were senate where there are no republicans on the ballot. but that means voters could be swing voters who could get to decide which democrat makes it into the senate because of the top two primary system where candidates from all parties are on the ballot in the primary season together and the top two make it to the general. it is also because of the poor comparative registration that republicans have in california. the enthusiasm of democrats going to the polls for the presidential race. there is no competitive race for republicans. the democrats signing up to vote against dom trump as well as a vicious cycle for republicans where you have had more difficulty getting competitive candidates, more difficulty getting donors to think of trying to get republicans elected statewide. and meanwhile, a field of u.s. senate candidates, three candidates who are splitting what is already a limited share of the electorate planning to vote for republicans. david: if republican strategist can't have a republican, which candidate would they like to see on there? >> they want loretta sanchez, a moderate congresswoman. from orange county. rather than kamala harris who is running on her record of taking on banks and her endorsement from elizabeth warren. carol: what is this mean for republicans. they had a tough time in the state of california. what can they do differently? so they are not in this situation again? >> what some conservative interest groups and republican strategists have concluded is the thing to do differently is get behind a moderate democrat under this two step top two system because you can advance conservatism by helping conservative democrats get in rather than martyring republican candidates. david: the patchwork of local governments trying to stop the spread of the zika virus. carol: and how they can leave some of us vulnerable. allison: it is the start of mosquito season. we sent one of our reporters down to florida to check out what was going on. she knew that these folks in miami have dealt with consecutive tropical disease invasions. they had a dengue outbreak in 2014. another disease chikungunya, which was very devastating in tropical countries. this is not totally new for them. but what she found is that some places like lee county which is where fort myers is are ready to go. they have a special tax that pays for helicopters and labs and all kinds of advanced testing and spraying mechanisms. then she found places like miami that don't spend very much and are not ready at all. david: the debate rages in congress over what kind of funding the cdc is going to have to fight zika. is this something that is playing out at the local level? allison: puerto rico is the leading edge. and they are in the midst of this. you know, the disease has not come to the continental u.s. yet. all of the cases here have been either people coming back from being abroad or people who are sexual partners of those people. transmitted.ually but there are no vectorborne diseases, which means nobody is getting it through mosquito bites in the u.s. yet. once we see that, that is a game changer because the mosquito that carries this disease is -- goes from person to person and pulls blood and gives it back. that is where you will start to see cases. carol: david mentioned the cdc. president obama has asked for money but a lot of it is for fighting people coming in from other countries, not for local governments? allison: a lot of it is for research into vaccines which is important and for assistance to other countries and to puerto rico where the disease is rampant. you are seeing a ton of cases that started last year. there is not that much much money allocated for local fighting because it supposed to be a local job. this is what we see across the country. i used to live in california. you see this with wildfire prevention. some counties are rich or prepared and they will raise special taxes to be ready for whatever comes. and other places are less prepared and they assume that someone will bail them out from washington. and usually they are right. carol: why it took tv executives so long to warm to tim and eric. david: planning the most expensive bachelor party ever. not mine. all of that ahead on bloomberg businessweek. ♪ carol: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." in the profiles section, a feature on tim and eric. david: their show on the cartoon network kicks off their fourth season. can these comics go mainstream? >> they had this kind of weird comedy show that was late at night on adult swim, which is what cartoon network turns into at night. it is kind of the smoky redeye -- carol: the after dark cartoon network. >> right, that's all right. they had the show called "awesome show," which was demented and loud. tim and eric after 50 episodes decided to make a group that edited and wrote and designed this weird, eccentric, wonderful show, or very upsetting and the -- disturbing show if you don't -- to turn the group that made it into a team and a company. absolutely it is called -- david: two words. >> two words. that would be able to produce show for outsiders. david: you talk about eccentric. it has a particular aesthetic. describe the shows. if you can. carol: can you call it an aesthetic? >> you can definitely call it aesthetic. i thought i was eccentric as a human being but i feel better after watching tim and eric. there are people further out than me. it definitely has the uniform visual aesthetic. it's bright and the editing was jumpy. it looks like it was made on equipment that is falling apart. i think in the piece i say maybe the adults have left the station. the cameras are falling apart. the tape looks like it is disintegrating. although i have to say they are beginning to move away from that. something like tim and eric's bedtime stories. as a business reporter, what is interesting is that they are starting to make some shows that are kind of remarkable. for example, comedy central, ifc, these are sort of the big networks that they are making tv for. carol: i think what is fascinating is you talk about the seismic shift in how television is made that maybe go back a decade. this might not have been so easily done. you've got everybody making content and it's being diced in many different ways. >> 30 years ago these guys would be in a basement in rural pennsylvania making where it -- making weird shows for 36 people. now it is not as if they are making shows for 36 million people. but you're absolutely right. there is something about the way tv is made and disseminated that is perfect for this moment. i talked to matt, an executive producer of "the simpson's" carol: you still watch it. >> i still watch it with my brother -- by he told me was there was no one better positioned than tim and eric for tv is doing right now, because what they do, they are not going to make the next "friends." they make work that has vision and voice and it really speaks to certain groups. nick summer was saying what used to be called a cult hit 15 years ago is called a hit now. the golden ticket in 2016 is to find an audience and be -- have those people adore you. whether it is on tv or the internet. david: sticking with the bro theme. a piece on the growing business of bachelor parties. brett: what we're seeing now is that the bachelor party is extended to a three-day affair. you are going to have to fly somewhere and maybe you'll even have to fly to kiev, one of the hot spots. carol: this sounds expensive. >> we quote people dipping into their savings account to go to these parties. the average price just for lodging and airfare is $850. and there is that awkward thing where you do not want to say no, because you risk hard feelings. carol: and you do not want to miss out. that party could be fun. david: the reasons for this are demographic? bret: mostly. you have got a lot of millennials getting married. and they tend to move away from college, from home after college, which means they have got friends all over the country. david: in kiev, yuri. bret: you cannot say, meet me for a drink at our local bar. you wind up flying somewhere and you try to meet in the middle. or sometimes he now you try to meet in prague. vegas is still the biggest destination for guys. and nashville for women. carol: "bloomberg businessweek" is available on newsstands now. david: and online. and i have to ask, carol -- what was your favorite story? carol: i really enjoyed the story on alberta. they told a personal story and you get an idea of the oil sands industry, how important it has been, and the fires and the impact it has. so huge, you get the idea of the size. remind you they are still burning. they are still having an impact. how about you? david: i liked the story about hershey branching into beef beef jerky. you know, i do a fair amount of shopping -- carol: do you eat beef jerky? david: occasionally. i'm startled. there are billions of dollars that hershey thinks this is going to be worth. carol: i thought the bachelor party was going to be your favorite story. david: my bachelor party was so small in comparison. compared to what these cost, what, six figures? thank you for watching. we will be back next week. ♪ ♪ >> i am cory johnson in for emily chang and this is the best of bloomberg west. coming up, ridesharing startups are duking it out over cooper uber announcing a three and a half billion dollar injection from the saudi find, and we will catch up with lyft's chief business officer. we will take you through mary meeker's predictions of the future of the internet.