14/02/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News, with Jamie Robertson

Yesterday he financed superhero movies, today he's

the new US Treasury Secretary, but has Steven Mnuchin got what it

takes to balance the books of the world's biggest economy?

Live from London, that's our top story.

He's rejected claims he profiteered from the financial crash and vows

to do everything he can to boost the US economy.

Also in the programme, Toshiba shocks investors

It says it's "not ready" to unveil financial results,

as the mystery over its nuclear division gets even murkier.

The biggest mover in the market so far is the Footsie.

Tired of cramped legs and aching backs after

We'll meet the company aiming to put the luxury back into flying,

At the other end of the scale, Dubai has just tested its first

Today we want to know, how comfortable would you feel

being whizzed about in the air without a pilot on board?

In the last few hours, former banker Steven Mnuchin has

been confirmed as the new Treasury Secretary.

As jobs go, it's a very important one.

Besides serving as the nation's banker, paying its bills, collecting

taxes and managing its debt, the Secretary is also one

of the leading regulators of banks and Wall Street.

So how well do we think he'll perform in this new role?

He's been criticised as a Wall Street insider,

having spent 17 years working for Goldman Sachs, and also setting

This has enabled him to finance dozens of high-profile Hollywood

films, including titles like Suicide Squad and

Last April he joined the Trump campaign when the organisation's

Now he's deeply involved in developing the President's tax

proposals, which could deliver as much as $6 trillion in tax

Most controversially, he's been accused of profiting

In 2009, Mnuchin assembled a group of investors to buy

He renamed it OneWest and turned it around,

selling it for a large profit in 2014.

Housing-advocacy groups claim OneWest foreclosed

on more than 36,000 homeowners in California.

Here's how Steven Mnuchin responded to the criticism.

Since I was first nominated to serve as Treasury Secretary I have been

maligned as taking advantage of others' hardship

Nothing could be further from the truth.

During the summer of 2008 I saw the devastation that was caused

by the housing crisis, when I watched people line up

to get their life's savings out of IndyMac bank.

It was the middle of the financial crisis, and despite the global panic

Professor Inderjeet Parmar, International Politics,

First, let me finish my Twitter question. How would you feel about

jumping into a pilotless drone? Would you fly? Let us know, use the

hashtag. Let's get stuck into this story. What is going on with Donald

Trump? You can never guess, but he said he is going to clean up the

swamp, stop Wall Street from ruling, and one of the most important jobs

he has placed a long term big Wall Street man. Absolutely, he has gone

everything -- against everything he stood for in the election, he

Clinton for Goldman Sachs, but this Clinton for Goldman Sachs, but this

is a heavy accent on the power of Wall Street in American Government

this time, because Barack Obama in the wake of the financial crisis

also appointed somebody straight from the New York Federal reserve

and a former central banker. So this is nothing new in that sense. The

revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, DC continues to

operate. Mottram has not changed it, but he is going to have a go at some

of the regulation that was introduced in the various laws after

Barack Obama was elected. What do you think... Will he be determined

as president Trump is to rein them in, and will Congress go along with

Trump is. It separated Rigoletto is Trump is. It separated Rigoletto is

from the regulated somewhat, protected through the kitchen

production financial bureau some consumers, and those regulations

will be stripped back. Progress is done on it by Republicans. Some of

them may have reservations, but most of them will be looking forward to a

bonfire of regulations in general. The Treasury Secretary also has

control over sanctions. It will be very interesting. With Russia,

right? The United States has imposed

sanctions on Venezuela's Vice-President, accusing him

of involvement in drug trafficking. The Americans say Tareck El Aissami

facilitated huge shipments of narcotics from Venezuela by air

and sea, and protected There was no immediate

reaction from Mr El Aissami, Inflation in China reached 2.5%

in January, the highest since May 2014, and faster

than analysts had predicted. Inflation expectations are rising

in most major economies as the recovery in commodities

provides a boost to prices. Markets now believe that a Chinese

interest rate rise is more likely, though inflation still remain

within the central Japanese electronics giant Toshiba

has seen shares plunge as the firm delayed a crucial announcement

expected to detail Rupert Wingfield Hayes

is in Tokyo for us. Who have got the latest news that

they might have been a resignation? It is a roller-coaster here today,

first they were going to announce their free quarterly results,

Toshiba was not expected to announce a huge net loss, but then they

cancelled the announcement. In the last half an hour the chairman of

Toshiba came onto the stage at the headquarters to say he is resigning,

to take responsibility for the mess that the company is in. Although he

says he will stay on until the June shareholder meeting. He is

definitely going, but not quite yet, perhaps. On the Japanese news agency

in the last few seconds, they have said estimated losses for the last

three quarters of 5 billion US dollars for Toshiba. That is more

than was expected. That is not from the company, that is from the news

agency. That they could look at the Asian

markets. Guess why dedicate is down, maybe something to do with Toshiba.

European markets have all opened pretty mixed at the moment, just

waiting to see what happens. " Things coming up.

Lawrence Gosling, editor-in-chief of Investment Week.

Always good to see you. I was mentioning China's inflation

numbers, we are getting inflation in the UK. We are expecting 1.9%, an

increase. Still relatively low, but the direction of travel is what

concerns economists. Will it keep increasing? On a global scale, do we

like inflation? We like a little bit. Central banks like it if they

can control it. They wanted to gently rise and then stop when they

want. Businesses can put their prices up and nobody notices.

Exactly. We like it as employees, because we might get more of a pay

rise. It is an illusion. Not if you work for the BBC!

Janet Yellen is speaking in the state.

The boss of America's Central bank. She is before the Senate committee,

economy, she is in the last few economy, she is in the last few

months of her term in the Federal Reserve, so she will not say

anything outlandish, we don't think. When Trump was coming in to power,

we always thought they were going to butt heads,...

They are waiting. There will come a point where they will go

head-to-head, especially when her successor begins to be mooted. A

quick word on corporate news. Quite a lot of bad news around, we have

heard about Toshiba, Rolls-Royce, what is the mood in the market in

the way about corporate score? We heard about a lot of corporate news

with in the regional companies that had problems building up. A binary

market, good companies are doing well and about companies are getting

the bad news out quite early in the year, so it is no cover incidents.

Tired of getting off long-haul flights feeling achy and cranky?

We'll get the science and secrets of designing

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Engine maker Rolls-Royce has reported a ?4.6 billion loss

It follows a tough few years for the British firm,

which has been fined ?671 million for bribery, faced challenging

market conditions and struggled with the recent fall in the pound.

Joining us now from the Newsroom is independent aerospace

It is a staggering number. Is it mostly due to the currency? To have

a loss of 4.6 billion, is it mostly the drop in the pound? It is. This

is a company that manufactures its aero engines in the UK and in

Singapore and a few in the states. But it sells everything in dollars.

If your costs are in sterling and sterling falls in the way it has,

and these contracts are arranged several years in advance, you get an

order and the delivery stage maybe six or seven years as head before it

is completed, you have to take your hedging at the start, so you have to

think where your currency might be five or six years before, that is

the problem for them, nobody anticipated sterling could fall in

the way it has, because we did not expect Brexit.

They are going to say the worst is behind them, drawing a line in the

sand, is that true? The worst is behind them in terms of hedging, I

hope. It is behind them in terms of the deferred prosecution agreement,

the cash is yet to come out, but there is one further straw in the

wind, the change of accounting standards, which will fit them next

year. It will be some years before we see really decent profits. The

underlying profits will be there, and they will get better because of

the cost efficiencies, but there are some straws in the wind yet. But

Rolls-Royce is a strong company, it will get through this, and it is

managing its way through all of its problems extreme you well with a

very good team. You are such a creep! I'm joking.

Our top story, there's a new man in charge

Wall Street executive and Hollywood movie financier,

Steven Mnuchin has been appointed US Treasury Secretary.

A quick look at how markets are faring.

A fairly mixed picture. The FTSE down. It is not mixed at all, it is

all down, isn't it? There is the pound and dollar. It

has been at 125, 130 all week. It is pretty stable. It is not going

anywhere. That's perhaps because there is no big news to shake the

pound, dollar rate. Have you ever touched down

after a long-haul flight Well, our next guest

is on a mission to make those days He's the boss of Acumen Design

Associates which specialises in putting the luxury back

into travel through The firm was founded in 1981

and focuses on transport Acumen made its name in the aviation

industry by designing the British Airways bed in the sky,

the world's first flat bed aboard More recently Acumen has

designed the next level in super-luxury commercial flight

with the Etihad Airways Residence which includes a living room

and separate bedroom with en suite Ian Dryburgh is CEO and Founder

of Acumen Design Associates Ian, it is great to have you with us

onth programme. I love this area. The first flat bed. Then and you're

dealing with 35 different airlines. So yeah, my question would be, if I

am he an airline, and I want you to make a seat, how are you going to

make it any different for me when you've done 35 others? Clearly, they

weren't all simultaneously. With every airline and every culture, an

airline is almost a flag carrier effectively and so each airline

generates its own brief. It generates new opportunities. So

where did the ideas come from? Is it the airline who say, "This is what

we want." Do you come up? Where is we want." Do you come up? Where is

the creativity? Acumen is an inowe Environment Agency'ses company as

much as waiting for a brief to come in. We've developed our own IP, I

might come up with a new super efficient layout for Business Class

as we've done for United Airlines so I would licence that IP to them.

Other times someone like another airline would come and say, "We want

the best first class in the world. Can you help us?" United's new

product, you designed that where? The idea came to me on the way home

on the train! On a train? You were sitting there... I was scribbling an

idea. Halfs it? What made you think about it? I was thinking it would be

the Holy Grail for airlines and customers in terms of efficiency and

by coming up with this new layout which nests the seats in line and

her ring bone we managed to create a super efficient lay-out. Is this

where you come up with your ideas, on the train? Quite often. Really?

Not exclusively. We have a very good team at Acumen which I'm very proud

of and it is very much a team effort. I'm wondering if you're part

of the some of the problem now for the airlines, I'm jesting, but a lot

of the airlines are getting rid of their first class product and it is

becoming a business or top of their range executive product. It is hard

to different ate between a first class seat now and the business

class seats are first class seats, aren't they? Very true. When you

look at what we created for BA, the bed in the sky, that was first class

and that's business class now. With the airlines reducing the size of

the first class cabins, most of them anyway, they often go down to our

dual class or try class. The battle ground shifted to economy and

business class moving forward. So you will design stuff for the likes

of me, and not just for the likes of Aaron? We're on the case! That's

going to be tricky. You are still limited. The airlines need X amount

of seats and you have only got so much space? It is a fine balance

when economics and looking after the passengers' interests and improving

their lot obviously. You do paper towels and also some health products

as well. That's right. Why do you suddenly rush off in different

directions and do other things? I thought you would specialise in just

doing seats and things like that? We are an innovations company. So we

get involved with product design as much as transport design. On our

innovation arm, we have been founding shareholders of start-ups,

you know, in terms of the paper company like you referred to, the

world's first round paper towel. A round paper towel? And medical

products. We got involved in a start-up on anti- anti-Deep Vein

Thrombosis. Clever professors came up with a technology and we turned

it into a product. We've got to wrap it up Ian. You must travel around

the world. How often do you fly on the seats that you've designed? Not

as often as I'd like! What if you got into one of your seats and

thought, "I don't like this. Maybe we need to tweak it." Hopefully that

keeps us in employment. That's what my wife tells me.

We appreciate your timement thank you very much.

In a moment we'll take a look through the Business Pages but first

here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us.

The Business Live page is where you can stay

ahead with all the day's breaking business news.

We'll keep you up-to-date with all the latest details

with insight and analysis from the BBC's team of editors

right around the world and we want to hear from you too.

Get involved on the BBC Business Live web page.

On Twitter we're at BBC business and you can find us on Facebook.

Business Live, on TV and online, whenever you need to know.

Just keep talking Jamie. Just keep talking, Jamie!

We are going to look at some of the business news stories and on the BBC

evens website. . website.. We got this story which sort of

began to break in the Budget. Self employment, rise in self employment

was damaging tax revenues because they are not paying as much tax? The

employment legislation was designed for the old world of employment

where everyone was directly employed or properly self-employed. Here you

have a number of clients and you're not working exclusively for anyone.

People who can work for one employer can be treated as self-employed like

delivery drivers. The gig economy? It is a double-edged sword. Some

people like it. They like freedom and at the BBC we have been talking

to people who have been talking about the up sides of the gig

economy, work when you want, but the down side is you don't get a

pension, you don't get paid holiday and ruthless employers will make you

rent the equipment you need to do your job. Really? It is a

double-edged sword and I think over time and we have this Government

report out today, over time employment legislation will tighten

up. Will they get tax back? If you stand back. Corporation tax is in

decline. We maybe heading for an era where corporation tax is no longer

levied on companies. You will end up with a thing where activity will be

taxed. That's where we're headed in the long-term. So employment

activity will be taxed because it is easy for companies to avoid

corporation tax. It becomes an optional activity. You're turning

this into HardTalk. This is a paper review!

Let's talk about drones. That is quite... Would you step into that?

Would you? You have got to work your way around a propeller. It is a

Chinese made drone. It was shown off at a show in Dubai. If you have been

to Dubai, Dubai's traffic is terrible by any world city

standards. It is awful. They have they will have this thing flying

around in Dubai in July. It carries one person. I'm not sure I'd jump

in. But if you travel on London Underground most of the time you're

travelling on a not driver controlled train. Not a driverless

train, but the trains are driven by computers. So transport systems are

largely run by machines rather than men. What happens if you have masses

of them up there, that's when it gets scary. And a Tube train is not

flying 500 feet up! Hopefully the technology is good

enough so it won't have lots of crashes. Less than a minute left.

Greece is back in the headlines, right. The amount of money it has to

pay off between now and July, it's staggering. There are periodic

crisis in Greece. A good way of gauging is looking at the price of

its bonds. Its debt? On its Government debt. When things are

really bad it got above 14%, we're only at 10% and 11%. We are a few

minutes away from midnight. It is the same argument, the IMF doesn't

want to lend money until it is reformed. Greece will never be able

to pay this money back. The debt will never be able to be repaid. At

sometime they will have to bite the bullet. That's hard for any German

politician to sell at the moment. It depends who is in charge in Europe

with all the votes going on. Dominic, thank you, mate.

Wrap it up Jamie. That's it from Business Live today. There will be

more business news throughout the day. We will see you later.

Hello there. Good morning. We will start with a look back at

yesterday's morning. There was a variety on offer. Many of us saw a

good deal of sunshine, but that wasn't the case for all. There was a

fair bit of cloud across the north-east