Transcripts For ALJAZAM Real Money With Ali Velshi 20140510

[ music ] this is real money with ali velshi. Youre the most important part of the show. Hit me up on facebook president obama showcasing walmart is not stopping for minimum wages. Instead hes highlighting Energy Efficiency. When it comes to Corporate America walmart is away ahead of the pack. It stores in its facilities around the world get one quarter of their electricity from Renewable Energy sources especially solar. With the Walmart Store in california as a backdrop the president announced new plans today to boost solar power and promote Energy Efficiency in the United States. Now those plans include 2 billion in efficiency upgrades for federal buildings, and the just completed installation of sola solar panels on the white house roof. Earlier this year the Obama Administration released a 800 page report on Climate Change. It predicts challenges that are already changing the world as we know it, and it links them squarely to greenhouse gasses by human activity. Today the Energy Department targeting some of that human activity with new efficiency standards for electric motors and walkin coolers and freezers. Even so the administrations moves are a drop in the bucket when compared to the scale of the challenge. More meaty curves on greenhouse emissions are expected to come out next month. Thats when they could issue new regulations on the amount of carbon released by power plants. Thats the biggest source of greenhouse gasses in america today. Total u. S. Emissions fell to it 6. 5 billion tons in 2012. Thats a 3. 4 drop from the Previous Year and lowest level since 1994. So we are making some strides when it comes to curbing emissions but that is still 17 of the worlds total. The u. S. By the way used to be the number one offender in the world but now china, a country with more than four times the population emits more. By the way remember the u. S. Is five percent of the worlds population. 17 of the worlds carbon output. The switch from coal to cleaner natural gas thanks to the energy boom and fracking. If we want to make a much bigger dent America Needs to rely on Renewable Energy like solar and wind. But cleaner energy isnt necessarily cheaper. Picture this, rows and rows of wind and solar farms collectively generating enough electricity to power American Homes and industry. Administration said that will become a reality. Projected to grow by 69 b by 2040, and that includes an increase of 140 if things like wind and solar power. Renewables are americas Fastest Growing source of electricity. But the news isnt all sunny. Heres the rub. The rub is that in order for a wind farm to be coupled to the grid, the grid has to have special qualities. Those qualities are socalled peaking stations, Power Sources that kick in to fill electricity needs when the wind doesnt blow and the sun doesnt shine. The grid has to be capable to the fluctuations. That takes additional costs and the question is who bears those costs request . Analysts say it will likely fall on consumers and the prices may not be cheap. Electricity in california could jump as much as 47 over the next 16 years as that state goes increasingly green. Price hikes are expected to be compounded with plant reductions and that restrict Carbon Emissions froemissions from coa. All we need to do is look at the example of germany, germany has made the decision to, if you will, go green. And they are seeing their electricity prices with a sharp increase. The german public has agreed to this. Americans may have a different view especially after recent shale boom has left an abundance of cheap natural gas. That has some fearing that cheap gas price also sap incentives needed to push investors towards renewables, but its precisely at that recent energy boom that analysts say now is the time to seriously develop green solutions. You want to do that in a period of abundance, and right now we have abundance of energy in this country. In fact, fossil fuels and renewables may be complimentary Energy Sources with natural gas to power the peaking stations which are needed for renewables. If youre talking about a lot of renewables on the grid, you have two options, batteries, and the technology is not there yet, or gas. Until Better Technology takes a big leap forward youre going to see more and more natural gas. Al jazeera, new york. Now there is one major down side to natural gas, getting to it. There has been controversy surrounding hydraulic fracturing to extract gays hidden underground. The chemicals used in the process contaminate water supplies, and theyre considering a proposal that would require companies to disclose what chemicals they use in fracking operations. Fracking does not face significant federal oversight, however. Efficient sources an , sun edison, cofounder with richard branson, for addressing Climate Change, and the author of creating climate wealth unlocking the impact economy. Thank you for being with us. Great to be here. Number one, the epa, the department of energy and the white house are all very clear about saying something that will get under the skin of conservatives in this country. We have Climate Change and a lot of it is manmade. That is still a dispute in this country. One of the few countries its a dispute, but its a dispute. I grew up in a rural town in illinois that actually voted for the republican candidate against obama and illinois for both elections. When i talked to my friends its not that theyre against manmade Climate Change. Theyre against someone saying that its reel and not proposing solutions to solve it at the same time. We are a nation of hope, opportunity, not a nation that whines about these problems without providing the other. One of the things that the gentleman that david interviewed said, we understand why it could be good and solar costs for the time being, who will bear these costs. Youre an entrepreneur, you figured this out. Who bears these costs as these technologies become big and scalable. Today there have been 30 studies done, texas and iowa are two of the largest users of Renewable Energy in the country, and both of those states have found the total cost to consumers from Renewable Energy is less than 2 rate increase. Whereas natural gas has cost a 30 increase in wholesale prices causing oklahomans to have some of the largest jumps in their home electricity bills in the country. The gentleman referred to germany and saying look, germany has made the decision to go greener and electricity prices there are higher but germans seem to be okay with that. Well, germany used a policy that we invented. We used them to build a bunk of coal plants in the 1990s that people are still frustrated by. They used it for solar and wind. We decided that policy was too expensive so we came up with a new policy which most of the folks in the country are seeing that declines with volume and scale. With scale comes a cost reduction. And greater profitability. Thats right. What you found was in the state of california where they have done all of this Renewable Energy, less than 2 cost increase to consumers when the natural gas costs have really driven up costs in california and other places around the country. One of the arguments that we heard in that story was while we have Energy Abundance why dont we take advantage of that and not let that sap our enthusiasm for alternatives. One of the points i heard you make was lets not take this abundance thing too seriously. Youre worried there are signs out there that there might not be as much natural gas as we think there is. There is no doubt in my mind that there is enough natural gas out there. I used to work at bp and loved the fact that were using homegrown resources. My challenge is that at todays prices not all the natural gas is Cost Effective to go after. When you think about oklahoma, they averaged in earthquakes 3 on the Richter Scale and higher. And in the last three months theyve had 138 earthquakes above 3 on the Richter Scale. Thats from fracking. I dont know if anyone wants to see all these changes. Ive been to youngstown , ohio, the earthquakes come from fracking but the jobs are better better. The last time people felt better about the economy was 1999. When you think about 1999 we were paying 2. 29. Today were paying 4. 70. Thats a lot more expensive. Were paying 50 more for our electricity. Were paying 4 a gallon for gasoline when we paid 1 a gallon back then. This notion that were better off, great. But if were so in abundance show me the lower cost of energy and lower cost of natural gas, and the lower cost of oil. I want you to come back if my viewers can make money on alternative energy the way you have done so successfully. Thank you for joining us. Author of creating climate wealth unlocking th. You may be asking, when am i going to get a wage. Plus the tangled web, the irs is only part of the picture. That story and more. Keep it right here. How old are you . 9 child labor in america in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. You dont see any of that in agriculture low cost food how many of you get up at 4 or 5 oclock in the morning to go out to the fields . Whos paying the price . Fault lines. Al jazeera americas hard hitting. Ground breaking. Truth seeking. They dont wanna show whats really going on. Award winning, investigative, really going on. Award winning, investigative, documentary seri the Performance Review. Really going on. Award winning, investigative, documentary seri that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. You followed their journey across the border it was heart wrenching. Now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. I didnt go back to the person that i was before i left. An emotional borderland reunion this trip was personal to me. This is real. Long held beliefs. Illegal in mexico too. Learn the language come here. Most ridiculous thing ive heard in my life tested by hard lived truths. These migrants are being exploited beyond borderland. Only on Al Jazeera America one of Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellens favorites is jolts report. Job opening labor turn over survey. The report for march came out and had almost nothing encouraging about the strength of the job market. The number of job openings fell, and the number of people hired in march also dropped to 4. 6 million from the 4. 7 million the month before. This down shift gives us reason to think that the sharp gain in job creation in april remember there were 288,000 new jobs, may slow down. Jolt also measures how many people quit their jobs. Workers leaving positions voluntarily can be the sign of a healthy labor market because it means that some people are confident about getting a new job. But in march the number of quits stayed steady at 2. 5 million. Not much to get excited about. Well, the economy is a complicated place. And figuring out which tea leaves to read isnt easy. Viewers of this show believe tha that too much importance is put on the labor rate. I prefer the Participation Rate that measures all americans 16 and older who have a job or who is looking for one. And the best gauge of the economy is wage growth. Or the lack of it. We have that story. When the u. S. Labor market is tight, with two many jobs and not enough people to fill them increased competition to higher andto hire and retain workers drives wages up. But when the labor market is slack, employers are in a strong position to pay less which drives wages down. Thats why dartmouth David Branchflower believes Hourly Earnings is the best gauge to measure economic health. Our adjustment and Janet Yellens judgment if you look at all those things together, they all interact on wages. Last month americans made on average 24. 31 an hour. A disturbing is signal janet yellen acknowledged in testimony before congress this week. Most measures of Labor Compensation have been rising slowly. Another signal that a substantial amount of slack remains in the labor market. Average hourly with a shift away from high End Industries who have shed 2 million jobs to low wage jobs which have added just about as many. People who are working or actively looking for a job, some attribute much of the recent job to baby boomers retiring but some argue wages tell a different story. If what they said was true, and its baby boomers who just left theyre not putting pressure on wages we would see wages rising, which we dont, and we wouldnt see what we find in our paper that those inactives are pushing down on wages. While there are widespread calls to raise the minimum wage to help struggling workers it would not necessarily boost the natural earnings nationally. It raises wages but it can reduce your employment levels or economic growth. Reporter al jazeera, new york. Well, some American Companies say they are feeling the pressure to pay higher wages including chipotle mexican grill, but they say not to read too much into individual anecdotes and in general there is no pressure on companies to raise wages. Thats the view of bob bruno, he said it requires investing more in modern manufacturing and less on services. He joins us from chicago. Bob, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Sure. So many topics to discuss here. Lets start with thewith how you measure unemployment. I like patricias story, this many jobs available, this many jobs created, what were missing is the kind of jobs. What struck me out of her story was the high end jobs and and the lowend jobs that weve gained. That worries yes. The vast majority, nearly all of the new jobs gains since the peak of the recession have been in what we would think of as lowwage fields. A lot of this work is in the hotel industry, in the service industry, in the retail industry. Those folks are making 15 or less an hour, and most do not have fullpaid health benefits. Thats where the new American Economy is going. Thats where the workers are. Thats a whole lot different from those manufacturing jobs with benefits. You cant build a modern economy on the service industry. What example do you have that we can follow, by the way, we are in a Midterm Election year so lets live closely to this, to create more manufacturing jobs. Are we reversing this to say that manufacturing jobs were good, we lost them, so we must get more of them . I think we can do more with manufacturing. Manufacturing is still this great economic engine. It is the job creator, the manufacturing of foundation of a society. We cant think of any modern successful democratic economy that has become that way without having a successful manufacturing base. We can do lots of things. We can do things to increase apprenticeship programs. We can do more in job training, around healthcare, child care, around labor law reform, around market. We have Industries Like the Energy Industry like you talked about. There is a whole lot more that could be done. Is there a model. In the energ germany comes up as a place that some how has tackled this from a vocational perspective, educational perspective, the reason why we dont manufacture as much in america is because of globalization and technology. Germany is a good model to look at. You touched on a bunch of pillars. You talked about education and incentives to create an industrial policy at home. Its true that there has been job loss because of technology, but its also true that Public Policy matters. You compare the United States against other western democracies and you take a good look at the Public Policies created in those countries to promote and invest in their industries. Ail see a significant difference. Its not just that global indication happened randomly. There are rules and those rules have impacts. One thing that i done enjoy talking about is the Unemployment Rate. It doesnt tell enough of the story. But as more and more americans get jobs, if we create jobs at the rate of more than 200 or 250,000 a month, will that not automatically start to increase wage pressure . Because there will be fewer people available for every job . Well, if we can in fact create another four or five million jobs and bring this Unemployment Rate close for 5, 5. 5 , if you can genuinely create that kind of a demand in the economy, one would expect that there would be pressure to raise wages. But i also think that employers are going to do what they can do. Right now they dont have to raise wages. To some degree its because of the constitutional supports that protect that wage floor have been reduced over the last few decades. I think we have to againwe have to get back. It is a Midterm Election. We have to talk about Public Policy and we have to think about how we use those levers. Well talk about it here. I dont know if theyll talk about it where those elections are run. Bob bruno at the university of illinois. When you think about taxes you think about the irs. Hold on that agency is probably only part of the picture where you live. Coming up im looking at special tax distributes and asking what is so special about them. Middle class used to mean you had a good shot at moving up in the world. I look at who is affected and how we can help. Keep it here. On techknow. Were heading towards the glaciers a global warning is there an environmental urgency . That is closer than you think. Even a modest rise, have dramatic impacts on humankind. How is it changing the way you live today . Techknow. Every saturday, go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive ever done. Even though i cant see. Techknow. Were here in the vortex. Only on Al Jazeera America no matter what Political Party you belong to or what you think of government many of us agree that the number of taxes that americans pay has reached alarming levels. Ive talked about this before. There are 90,000 socalled governmental units across the country that can tax residents. They range from School Districts to mosquito abatement authorities. We looked deeper and found these are called special taxing districts and they provide funding for many small towns. But critics say some of these districts are inefficient and need reform. Fighting fires, lending books, providing clean safe water, these are just a few basic services that we expect from our local government. These services may be provided by an entity. Its called a special taxing district. We have 40,000 of them in the country now and they account for 100 billion of spending. Reporter a special taxing district is created by a state or local government to perform a specialized service, firefighting is the most common along with water, drainage systems, hospital administrati administration. This is the water district. It has its own defined area. Reporter woodstock, new york, a small town 100 miles north of new york city has created seven special districts to provide its services. Its density. And in some towns the population tends to cluster in one particular area. So having separate wells and separate septic fields becomes impractical. Reporter all straits have some special districts that are authorized to collect and spend tax payers dollars. Usually a special taxing district will operate on property tax revenues. Many states will have transparency requirements to point out what specific type of tax levy is being levied on the property and what type of government its going to. Or the special taxing district. While this kind of special taxation may sound unamerican it has deep roots in the nations history. Benjamin frankly reportedly founded the first taxing policy when it funded the firefighters. Today illinois and texas top the list of states with the most taxing districts. But even these districts dont include the tens of thousands of smaller districts providing specialized services. Street lights, for example. Its no surprise special districts often overlap. They pile on top of each other. The park district, the sewer district, and so on such that it wouldnt be at all uncommon for one person finding themselves within the boundaries of ten or more of these districts. Another problem critics charge inefficiency. There might be circumstances like a rural area where having a special district makes sense. There might be others areas where special taxing district exists not because its an efficient way of doing something but there is a certain political dynamic keeping it in place. Now some states are fighting the growth of special districts. I think where you do have special commissions that might be something where you could look at consolidation. The town of woodstock, the board of trustees, the library, these are all unpaid positions. Theyre volunteer. Its not like youre getting rid of administrative costs. Benjamin franklin may have created the First Special taxing district but apart from School Districts there were very few in existence until the new deal. The Tennessee Valley authority may be the most famous where president roosevelt encouraged the creation of hundreds of districts for Public Housing soil and Water Conservation in farm states. Today these districts are a way of life. I want to talk about whether these special taxing districts are the best way to collect and spend the taxes that you pay. Gerald benjamin from the university of in new york. Good to see you. Good to be here. I want to examine this a little more. On one hand it sounds very american. They are used locally and they should be decided locally. Some how it sounds like its out of hand. The most recent is the tax limitation in the 70s and 80s. Local governments were constrained in their taxing to deliver services. Why are these not constrained . Because the constraints were directed as general municipal governments for the most part and existing School Districts, it didnt contemplate this development to the degree that it has occurred so you can avoid the limitation by creating another entity that can then tax. A work around, a loophole, if you will. Generally in your opinion good or bad, that this loophole was created. That someone created a way around restrictions . Well, im going to say that its even worse than you described. There are layered purpose governments as well, and layered School Districts and so on. So my view is that complexity defeats democracy. People cant hold their governments accountable. We ask them to vote too much. We ask them to vote at the wrong time of the year where there is low turn out. You advance overhead. Overhead is higher because you have to maintain many entities. The problem im talking about is the generalizations that will apply, and then it wont apply in specific cases. Because there are some that probably make sense. We would argue that there are some services that have to be delivered at scale. If you have to deliver them at scale and the then you have to get some mechanism to do that. Give me an example of a place where it works. Well, the example that immediately comes to mind are the public authorities that are delivering transportation systems. They are not within your definition because theyre feegenerated. They command taxes bus theyre not taxing entities. Tolls at airports. Tolls or thruway authority. We pay those tolls, the bridges and so on. Professor, good to talk to you. Its great to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Well, its a pillar of the American Dream. A better life for your children but in reality many kids raised in the middle class grow up and fall out of the middle. Im looking at the causes of this trend. And some solutions at my yearlong look at americas middle class continues. Plus what is apple going to do with all of its mountains of cash . One possible answer emerged today. Ill tell you about it right after this. Im Joe Berlinger this is the System People want to believe that the Justice System works. People wanna believe that prosecutors and police do the right thing. I think every american needs to be concerned about that. We do have the best Justice System in the world, in theory. The problem is, its run by human beings. Human beings make mistakes. Id like to think of this show as a watch dog about the system. To make sure justice is being served. Wrongful convictions happen, we need to be vigilant. With our personal liberties taken away from us, it better be done the right way. Is justice really for all . All week long weve been looking at the struggles of the middle class through the lens of three families. Each family believes its doing everything right to get ahead but theyre falling behind. Well look at the issues faced on this important segment of society. The idea that children will grow up to be better off than their parents is a central component of the American Dream but onethird of americans raised in the middle class fall out of it as adults. Thats according to a study done by the pew Economic Development project. Who is among the fallen third, director, erin, thank you for being with us. This is a serious illustration of the hollowing out of the middle class. This is the one thing that so many of us believe to be true, that you should be able to do as well as or better than your parents. To think that you grew up in the middle class and you have a very good chance of falling out, tell me about some of your findings. Its right. In public polling that we conducted, we see that having children being better off than you is the key definition when they think about the American Dream. But this Research Shows that economic mobility out of the middle class does happen. A third raised there stay there. A third rise and a third fall out. Who would they be. Those who dont have education beyond high school. People who are divorced, who never married, and unfortunately africanamericans. Is there differences in gender . More men . More women . There are differences in gender, but only among white. White women are more likely to be downward mobile. We dont see that in hispanic or africanamericans. You mentioned africanamericans more likely to be disproportionately fall out. When we look across our Mobility Research we see this mobility gap. The research that youre discussing shows that africanamerican men are about twice as likely as white men to fall out of the middle class. As adults 40 do. Is that tied to the fact that africanamerican men have the higher Unemployment Rate than the general population . There are a lot of things that drive mobility over the generation. Were looking at people in their 40s and comparing them back to their parents when their parents were in their 40s. So post secondary education attainment is a huge factor. Family structure matters, too. When people marry they have that insurance policies you could have a second earner who can help in financial set backs. The thing that really drives economic mobility is having a financial cushion. Savings and wealth really matter here. Beyond just income even though this is a measure of income mobility. That would mean that family background, family economic background would play into this, obviously. If you have some money to fall back on, or inheritance you have a bit more insurance toil or caution. When we look at economic mobility we see that the fast majority of americans have higher family incomes than their parents did at the same age. Thats true across the income distribution. Thats a reflection across broad economic growth. But unfortunately only about half of americans have higher Family Wealth than their parents did. Theyre really at a disadvantage in terms of broader measure of financial security. They might have enough income but about they could still be living paycheck to paycheck without buffer to support them if an unanticipated economic event course. Post secondary education seems to be a major determinant of success in maintaining the socioeconomic position you started off in. We see this over and over again in our research. When you think about what has happened over the last 30 years, the returns to education has been on the rise and theyve consistently risen. Families that have that Fouryear College degree are in a completely different place than families who have a High School Diploma or less. It matters in terms of wages and benefits that people might be exposed to. Retirement, paid sick leave, all of these things are wrapped up. Not only are people in better position, but more untangible things. Its tough in these days and age when people look at the increase cost of college and wonder if the return is worth it. It seems that the argument your study makes is that its worth it even if its costly and you incur debt to get there. Your lifetime success as opposed to having secondary education outweighs the danger of falling out of the middle class. I think thats right. Also when you think about the recent recession what weve seen it that people who had post secondary education had much lower rates of unemployment than people with High School Diploma or less that a diploma. Thank you. My pleasure. Dont miss our 30minute special this weekend, americas middle class rebuilding the dream. Thats right here on Al Jazeera America. Okay, apple has investors and Technology Types scratching their heads. The company is reportedly about to buy beats electronics for 3 billion. I see a lot of beats on the subway but i didnt know it was a 3 billion company. Now going viral on youtube thats him in the background saying hes about to become hiphops first billionaire. Dr. Dres head phones first went on sail in 2008. And a music streaming music that costs 10 a month. If the deal goes through it will represent apples largest deal ever. Why did it choose beats for its first multi millio milliondoll. I have to tell you, jake, i did not see this one coming. Were all mystified. Some of us are even appalled at the idea that steve jobs fortress would stoop down to buy beats. Headphones maker. Their heads are exploding over it. But the thing that we can be assured off theyre not buying it for the hardware. God knows that apple knows how to make hardware. Theyre not buying it for the brand. You cant really touch the brand status of apple. What were seeing is the slow demise of itunes and the threat of spottify and other streaming services and pick that slack up by buying the fledgling beats service. Theyre buying the competition, a growing service . If you would ask me before i had looked at this why they would do this, i would say four words, ubiquity. There are few products like headphones like beats that are as popular as they are. Look at iphone. You dont need more apple products in more hands. What i think is theyre worried about itunes being built around a digital download and digital purchase of digital tracks and albums. Thats an old model in this fast moving space. Spottify and these other services where you pay 9 to 14 a month to have open access to any library you like. Thats what theyre worried about. They dont have it. They know theyre behind. Theyre bolting on to the Service Rather than develop it themselves. Im not one to doubt you. Your analysis is always spot on but im going to push different ideas on you. What about the market difference . Beats ben traits a penetrates an urban market in a different way that apple does. Is there anything to that . Maybe, it could be, but i dont think the higher up are looking out across the landscape and saying we havent reach enough people. We havent touched enough people. I think theyre looking attheyre probably saying were not good at striking media deals. We havent had a lot of success with with that. And here are a couple of guys who have locked that in in some way. I dont think its hardware. What i get into, i think this Cocktail Party game that everybody should be engaging in this weekend, apple has 159 billion just kicking around. Really . Beats . Of all the things you could have bought, you know. I was a lot more confused about what is up with 160 billion. I get why that is useful, but at least apple does seem to be judicious about the way it spends its money. I would not have guessed if you would have given me 19 guesses that beats was a 3 billion. The crazy thing when youre talking about 159 billion in cash kickic around, the kinds of things you could buy. You could buy tesla for 30 billion. You could revolutionize the Auto Industry with apples car company. You could buy go pro for 8 billion. A bargain comparedyou could buy comcast for 110 billion. I mean and you could buy a few small countries. You could buy mars. Its just unbelievable. The idea that dr. Dre and jimmy are going to be the recipients of the one great huge acquisition from apple has all of us scratching our heads. We live in weird times. Jake, youre our weird times correspondent. Im glad we have you here to clear this up. Jake ward here tonight. Thanks. Netflix making good on a price hike. Starting today anyone signing up for the standard streaming service will pay more a month than those who already have accounts in the United States. Netflix said it needed more money to develop new original shows thanks to the success of house of cards. This is the first price hike in three years. The first one did not go over too well. Current users can continue to pay 8 a month for the next two years. Radio shack looks like a company some analysts say is on the brink of bankruptcy. It failed to reach an agreement with its lenders with its plan to show 1100 stores. Instead radio shack will pursue a much smaller costcutting plan. Radio shack which is almost a century old lost 100 million and the year before that it lost 140 million. Its failing to compete with best buy and the internet and it carries the reputation for being stuck in the 80s. It tried to use that reputation to its advantage in a super bowl commercial. What . The 80s called. They want their store back. The commercial goes on at a say its time for a new radio shack. Shares plunged 9 to 133 a piece. It looks like its time for a new plan. Johnny manziel is heading to the browns. If you have the right skills, cleveland would like to draft you, too. What the city is doing to attract talented new workers even if they cant throw a football. And the plight of the u. S. Postal service. There is hope if there is help. Well have more on that ahead. On the next talk to al jazeera lawyer david boies gives surprising insight into his most historic case bush vs. Gore and tells of his relentless fight for civil rights this is the defining issue today. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America im joie chen, im the host of america tonight, were revolutionary because were going back to doing best of storytelling. We have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we havent heard before. I think Al Jazeera America is a watershed moment for american journalism ic. Real reporting from around the world. This is what we do. Al jazeera america. Much of Americas Industrial heartland has fallen on hard times. Places that were once giants in manufacturing making things like steel, tires, and cars are suffering from a lack of jobs and declining populations. Cleveland, ohio, is one of those places. It was once one of the Fastest Growing city noticies in the co. Population peeked in the 1960s at 914,000. Now its less than that. Now to pump new life in the city and economy cleveland is trying to attract new skilled workers including immigrants. How the city plans to do that, a Senior Reporter at cranes cleveland business, stan, great to have you back on the show. You are a guy who not only knows cleveland, but you love cleveland. Give me a sense of the employment in cleveland. Things are better now. Weve been rivaling the national Unemployment Rates, which is progress for us. What is cleveland trying to do . How do you get people to come to a place like cleveland. There are so many initiatives that its incredible. The biggest thing is cleveland just received a 750,000 investment from the state of ohio, and theyll use that to promote the state to northeast ohio and the state of ohio to foreign populations in hopes of bringing more immigrants to cleveland. Any problems with that . Sometimes when people try to go outside and attract immigrants you get local population who say why are we looking for immigrants . We have people here who need jobs . I grew up with a lot of kids who were immigrants. Their parents were first generation and came over from russia, ukraine in the 50s. But what occurred to me as i gave it more thought, cleveland is telling its story, and will leave behind letting everyone else tell the story. Theyve got a website that promote cleveland in terms of gosh its got a great low cost of living here. Its got all the menties of a really good city yet it has a smalltown feel. Heck, its smaller than it was when i was growing up here. And youre a stones throw from canada, which i always like. If you can get a good job in cleveland, you can buy a house for 200,000 that would run you 600,000 in higher cost city. Thats certainly the case. My wife and i watch tv, and were aghast at how much people pay for 800 square feet in manhattan. The other side like some of these rehab shows people pay 800,000 for a dump in south carolina. 300,000 gives you a house that is fixed to the nines in a great neighborhood. You grew up with immigrants, but immigrants are the same in that they come to america, they have to choose a city, there are lots to choose from, theyre going to come for opportunity. That means upward mobility, change jobs, get your kids an education, not get hit over the head with a steel pipe as you walk down the street. How do you sell the complete picture of cleveland . Its a classic digital strategy, ali. The idea is that they have this website that talks about how much it cost to live in cleveland, the housing is inexpensive, some of the cheapest in the country. The other side there are a lot of goodpaying jobs. One of the problems that cleveland has had for decades weve had so many jobs that the percentages dont change much. Were facing a dual problem is that so many people from the baby boomer are getting close to retiring, and the slip side we dont have population growth. There are going to be a lot of job openings within existing companies. They need a guy like you as an ambassador because youre born and raised in cleveland. I dont generally see this on peoples bios, but you go out and state that you dont plan to leave. I would have to get divorced first. My wife who i met in high school has no intentions of living anywhere else. Thank you for joining us. Pleasure to talking with you. Stan, as you heard from him, he aint leaving any time soon. Maybe some bailouts arent so bad after all. The Treasury Department today sold another 7 million shares in a ll ally financial. After todays sale the government so far will have made a 600 million profit and you the taxpayers still own 16 of the company. Now if you want the post office to deliver, congress has to deliver. Im going to explain what i mean coming up. Keep it right here. The stream is uniquely interactive television. In fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. All these folks are making a whole lot of money. You are one of the voices of this show. I think youve offended everyone with that kathy. Hold on, theres some room to offend people, im here. We have a right to know whats in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. So join the conversation and make it your own. Watch the stream. And join the conversation online ajamstream. Consider this the news of the day plus so much more. We begin with the government shutdown. Answers to the questions no one else will ask. It seems like they cant agree to anything in washington no matter what. Antonio mora, Award Winning and hard hitting. Weve heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. Theres no status quo, just the bottom line. But, what about buying shares in a professional athlete . Real perspective, consider this on Al Jazeera America earlier in the show i told you that benjami Benjamin Franklin first started the tax district. He was also the first post master general of the United States. The United States Postal Service goes back to the very first years of this republic. It was founded on the principle that every person in america no matter who no matter where has a right to send and receive correspondence through an affordable mail service. Historical milestones mail by pony, mail by steam boat. Mail by rail. Today we have mail by air sorted by automated machines. The Postal Service has fallen on hard times. I dont remember the last time i wrote a letter. Today we learned that they posted a net loss of 1. 9 billion in the first three months of the year. People are sending less mail than they used to with email and everything else, but its not so much the digital age that is doing in the Postal Service. Its the cost of its workforce. The Government Accountability office said that the Postal Service says it owes 100 billion for workers past and present. Over the last three years the Postal Service has defaulted on those payments and its calling on congress to legislate an overhaul that could change its Business Model and reduce its financial burden. Dont hold your breath. In the meantime the Postal Service is trying to cut costs like getting rid of saturday deliveries and it signed a deal with amazon to do sunday deliveries in new york and los angeles. More needs to be done to bring in revenue and cut costs but to do that successfully cropping ha successfully, congresshas got t. Safety or education nigerian parents take their kids out of school, after a prior warning of a mass kidnapping, to the authorities. Hello, woum. Youre watching al jazeera, live from doha. Oum steven cole. Coming up, a chance for peace government and rebels sign a Peace Agreement in south sudan. Going to homs residents get access to the old part of the city after years of fighting why