Income taxes (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
Nov. 30, 2018	Nov. 30, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Effective tax rate	14.20%	21.90%
Income taxes paid	$ 61	$ 45
Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Of 2017, provisional income tax expense (benefit)	$ (12)

Percentage of domestic federal statutory tax rate applicable to pretax income (loss).

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SAB TOPIC 6.I)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=34349781&loc=d3e330036-122817

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 12
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32687-109319

Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 13
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32698-109319

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Data Type:	num:percentItemType
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Period Type:	duration