Look up to what will be an exciting day of Market Makers. Im matt miller happily in for Erik Schatzker today. Are you ready . Are you ready . Im looking forward to it. Lets go to the top Global Business stories of the morning. It has been a wild ride for the ruble today. The russian currency fell to nearly . 80 per dollar for the first time ever. Plunge and that came after Russias Central Bank raised Interest Rates by the most in 16 years. Here is richard haas. You might have thought that raising Interest Rate by more than 6 would be a strong signal to reassure the markets. That has got to be a scary moment when you do something that dramatic and it doesnt gain traction. Russias central bank may take more steps to shore up the ruble. There is speculation russia will announce controls on capital. Meanwhile, will resumed oil resumed its plunge. It fell below 54 per barrel, and brent crude traded for less than 60 dollars. Administrator for energy said opec should not be expected to cut production if no one else does. And according to a person familiar with the matter, the hackers at sony began sifting through information to cover their tracks. All of that in a recent attack that uncovered a lot of dirty laundry at some pictures. Cbs has a new prescription for investors. The drugstore chain has a plan to buy back as much as 10 billion worth of stock. Raising his senate if dividend by 20 . Watching the realtime class of currency this morning. You see here what we are looking at, right now, 72 72 ruble is what it costs to buy a dollar, but over the line but earlier it was over 80. When you see the line going up, that means the ruble is weakening. It is confusing. Of see it with a lot currencies like this, again as well. If it is getting stronger, is actually weaker because it takes more than to buy a dollar. Ryan chilcote is with us from london. It is incredible to watch this drop. There has been a slight recovery, but not much. What can we say about russias move in the central bank . The central bank will did not do a lot. The idea was to release to at least claw back some of the losses we saw yesterday. The ruble fell 10 . People were talking about it being the biggest single they drop since 1988. And if 1998. Anyways saw it claw and many gave up its games and then down an additional 23 . It is hard for people to get their heads around this. What does the central bank do now . They could raise rates further, i guess. They could use the 416 billion they have in reserves. Re is talk that they have that we could see capital controls. That the bank of russia has limited options. Ck the Prime Minister the Prime Minister is in a me an emergency meeting with top officials. What could come out of that . At the top of the meeting is who is to blame. I suspect part of that is being decided in that room. The russian president is still very popular in his country, in part as a result of the annexation of crimea. Surprisingly, he got even more popular as a result. He will not sacrifice his popularity. He might sacrifice some of his inner circle. It might be a bit of a dog fight in that room as fries who will be sacrificed. But beyond that, one of the things that the former in that room as far as who will be sacrificed. But beyond that, one of the things that the former finance minister has been saying is that the government needs to step in and take measures to raise in ther confidence economy. What we have seen last few days and weeks with the ruble is not oft depreciating on the back oil or sanctions. This is a crisis of confidence, and only the government can address it. But hang on. Hang on. The question of who done it, at least from our perspective is clear, right . Vladimir putin is responsible himself for all of this. From our perspective, and i want to point out its only from our perspective. He is the one who could turn all of this around. What is he thinking . Because surely, he knows our perspective. Got to be concerned about it, because if you think about it, before we have the mobile down over 40 come and now its well over 50 on the year. Andhe ruble out over 40 , now it is well over 50 on the year. At the beginning of next year, he would have to worry about inflation for all russians, because they import so many goods. This is an astounding drop in the currency. This has caused shock and now he has a real problem on his hand, because this will create even more inflation next year and could create i dont want to say these words, but a run on the banks. You said them. If you raise your Interest Rate still not investors want to make that money, that means they do not trust you. They think you will just steal it, like you did last time. Heres the problem. I was in russia on august 17, 1998 when russia had its last currency crisis and that is when it defaulted on its debt. I watched people fight in line to get the rubles out at the banks. Many were unable. The ghost of 1998 is not too far in the past. Russians remember that. Last night when the central bank decided to hike rates by 50 basis points, they knew they were sacrificing the economy next year. They already saw a drop by about 4 4. 5 . But they are hoping they can avoid a financial crisis. 18 hours later, they cannot be sure of that yet. Im not sure what i was doing on august 17 in 1998, but i can assure you i was not thinking about a crisis in russia. Thank you for the latest, ryan chilcote. I want to talk more about what is going on overseas, the currency there, the Interest Rate aspect of it, which i find fascinating. Lets bring in howard, our cohost for the hour. Hes the cochair and the cochairman of lending tree. Energy prices to buy up debt, that could be the most interesting thing we are talking about today. What does it they to you that you could make 17 on your money right now . Are you sending it all to moscow . I think in order to make investments, you have to believe youll benefit from the rule of unlawful to and the underlying question about russia is whether you will. You used the expression a minute ago he will feel it he will stealt pick up he will it. Make moves that will have an outcome in a range of your to hear russia, it is here to hear. Is that because you cannot trust the rule of law . It is one of the most important reasons, yes. According toperate International Norms . Thatu have to assume Vladimir Putin knows this, even if hes unpredictable. He is an intelligent, educated, thinking man. And us, he would never invade another country ding, ding, ding. Unless he thinks he has the right to do it by burress of his country. Of his country. And he might think that he can throw people in jail for a decade and do these kinds of things without repercussions. Will this change his mind . Your correspondent just said is that he remained extremely popular. The popular masses in many countries like to see the leader behaving powerfully, especially when the country has been suffering economically. It is a great distraction from economic suffering to operate strongly nationalistic leave. If not in russia, lets talk about where you do see opportunity right now. With these Falling Energy prices, oil . You know, it may not surprise you, stephanie, to know that im working on a memo. Not about oil, but it will be about the lessons of oil. We are of the lessons living again now is how fast things can change. In the investment world. There was an economic philosopher riddick or dornbusch rudiker dornbusch who said that it takes a lot longer for things to happen when they can, but then they happen a lot faster than you think they would. For a couple of years now, we been talking about a high level of confidence and complacency. Now suddenly a few months into this oil slide, that has evaporated and in some corners we are seeing panic. Week deals that could get done because the markets were complacent and generous are now being exposed as having been overleveraged, etc. Wecourse, when that happens go from being extremely reticent to being aggressive. See i mean, for the ruble, for example, there may be no floor. But for oil, there is definitely a floor. And that is, matt . Zero. Im just saying, do you see a slightly higher level than something of 50, that you are feeling fairly confident that will will not get cheaper than that . You cannot say i mean, you can say that, but then you would quickly have to retract it. Im sure many people said it could not go below 70. Now people are saying he cannot go below 50. Weve talked about gold. It is similar to oil in many ways. Its hard to put a price on gold , or oil, or any other asset that is not income producing. We can say what a bond is worth, because we stayed in terms of its income. Ratiofor a stock, ap he a p e ratio. But its hard to say on a stock that cannot be seen from the downsides of wins when people see prices falling, how should they do it . There is some point at which you have to say, its probably not going to go lower. And if you can buy the bonds of a Country Company that became overleveraged because capital ,arkets were to accommodative at a price in which will goes to 45, you should probably step up and do it. Especially when other people are selling. My favorite cartoon, i think it was from the 1960s. It has the Stephanie Ruhle of the day in front of the tv reading the script and it says, everything that was good yesterday is bad today. And thats the way the market goes. There is analytical, and emotional. And when panic takes over and markets stop eating discerning being discerning, that is the time for the bargain hunter to get after it. What are we reaching that plays . Are we reaching that place . Everybody loves junk and yields. Is it time to get out of that asset class . I would turn that around and say we should start getting interested in the asset class. Declines are not a reason to get worried. Its a reason to get excited. Likesvesting public things better at high prices than low point low prices. The professionals like things better at low prices than five. Say that one more time, because it such a good point. The public, people who dont understand how investing works, feel better when things are at high prices and lose confidence as the prices falls. Warren buffett says, i like hamburgers, and i. E. More of them when they go on ales. The invest professional and i eat more them of them when they go on sale. The investment professional likes things when they go below intrinsic value. Quick a little bit of blood a little bit of blood on the street. Let me ask you about the ceo of and he came from an and said that less than now they want to attract more capital. How do they do that . Oaktree has wanted to attract Investment Capital for many years. It is not one of his principal mandates to do that. His mandate is to apply professional management. Oaktree has been stuck with me. Stuck. Marsh,my partner, bruce neither of us are professional managers. Then we had john frank, who was very good at minding the store, but hes not a professional manager. He is a lawyer. Now we have brought in somebody weve known for over 30 years who is a bona fide professional manager. People with to 1000 20 businesses and almost 100 million under management, its time to have professional management. Have you learned Something Different . You are offering Retail Products for you are offering different products for Retail Investors. Have you learned anything different about how we tell investors like to invest . Well, what i believe ive learned over my years in this business is that the best service we can provide the Retail Investor is education. It is to make them understand what we are doing and why and what he should do about it. Convincing convince him not to make investments emotionally. In 2015, if there is one lesson you can teach, what do you want it to be in terms of investing . I cannot say one. To have reasonable expectations, and to like things better as the prices fall. Oil, stop crying about oil. Listen to howard. Very interesting. Can we keep him for the hour . I would love it if you would stay. Howard marks, always a pleasure. Thank you for spending time with us. Back, breaking news in president ial politics. Just bush is one step closer to running for the white house. We will talk about ws brother. Very interesting breaking news on 2016 president ial race, but less than 140 characters of it. In a twitter post, jeb bush says im excited to announce i will actively explore the possibly running for president of the united states. Frommattingly joins us washington. Im assuming you are not surprised at this kind of lukewarm and middle that he is running for president. Ttal that he is running for president. Ive just bush has new flooring the possibility for a long time, bush hasrly jeb been exploring the possibility for a long time, particularly in the last couple of months. But he is establishing a Political Action committee in january, and that is important. He will have a Financing Mechanism to start campaigning around the country without officially declaring. It looks pretty lukewarm off the top, but there are two different primary dynamics. One is that he will start this pac and start moving into campaign mode. The second is the most important. This will speed up a lot of other peoples decisionmaking process. The first one in forces other people to jump stop the reason we have seen to jump. Nowreason we have seen him make it official is that hes been hearing from his Donor Network that he needs to make a decision. If we are going to commit to somebody, its the donors who will be the most interesting to watch after this announcement. It does not like anything major, but there are a lot of behindthescenes mechanisms that officially kick into gear. What will this do to mitt romney . Pushing to the right. To be honest, ive never been totally sold just talking to people in his orbit that he was going to reconsider. But whether it is just bush or Chris Christie, it makes it less likely that mitt romney is going to get in. Just bushs donor base is mitt romneys donors base. That makes it less likely he will jump in. And on twitter today and why would hes a this via twitter . I think if youre going to say so little, its the way to go. I think he has been explore in a president ial run for 30 years. Phil mattingly in washington. A little bit of breaking news on jeb bush. They with us. Stay with us. On asing up, why bitcoin an investment this year. It has done even worse than oil. Can you believe it . Worse than the ruble. Do you remember the 12 days of the coin . I do. Bloombergom headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers with eric chest or an. Chester and Stephanie Ruhle. Welcome back. Erik matt miller in for schatzker today. Here is a question that it pains me to ask what was one of the worst investments you could make this year . Plungedompanies have along with crude oil. Look at bitcoin. It has fallen 50 since jamie ray first, pretty much the day i bought it. It hit more than 1100 just last year. I did a piece on bitcoin. Pieces. 2 bitcoin my my first bitcoin and then about three or four more. Now it is worth about 350. Now quoted as a currency, a digital one, but nonetheless a currency. What does this mean . Our guest is with us via skype from austin. David, thanks for joining us. Good morning. A lot of people, including the producers of the show are constantly making one of me biause i was and am such a tcoin believer. Tohas come down from 1100 350. Does that bum you out . If you look at december of 2012, bitcoin was 13. If you have been a longterm holder of this asset, thats a pretty good return. And more important than the shortterm price movements, youve seen these incredible announcements in the last few days. Take microsoft you know, it does not get much larger than microsoft as far as companies that could be accepting bitcoin. And more importantly, we see a huge user growth in people creating bitcoin wallets. If you are having these great announcements and support, why is a trading like you know what . I think it is a longterm valuation creation. In the shortterm, people are voting their opinions. But in the lot longterm market, it is weighing in. We are talking about tens of millions of users by next year. Ultimately, i think the value will be reflected in the price over time. Is Warren Buffett referring to investing in bitcoin . Is he a bitcoin buyer . No, bill gates is a bigger fan. He called it a Technological Tour De force. Theit also has picked up likes of Mark Andreessen and other technological leaders. You can use the underlying Bitcoin Technology regardless of what the price is today. Tim draper and barry silver as well. When i first started getting really into bitcoin, i was more excited not about it as a currency that wealthy westerners could use, but as a currency that people in troubled economies, for example, like venezuela or argentina could use. Toever, its not very useful them if it falls so steeply in value. When does this turnaround . There are a couple of technological solutions. People, like the folks out of panama or the folks out of kenya, they have created negative that can standardize ad take they have created mechanism that can standardize and take the volatility out. You see people creating ways to take the volatility out of using bitcoin. More and more of those types of solutions will start to emerge, and that gives you confidence. Is that the floor of the price . It does not really have a floor. Will that with the resistance under the price . Ultimately, there is a limited number of bitcoins that will ever exist, 21 million. As people use it and demand more of it for payments or merchants, that will increase organic demand. Last year, people were very excited. In the early days of the internet, if you showed up at night and into and everybody was talking about the wonders of what would come, and in you come back later in 1993, you still would not have seen social media. I did not even know what it was then. One of the things i was most excited about was this anonymity, which is really pseudonymity, but the fact that i could use it in his libertarian way. And now that is an big corporations are getting involved, people are talking about regulating it. Seem toty does not understand is, but nonetheless lawsky does ben not seem to understand it, but nonetheless attacks it was regulation. The technology itself is completely transparent, so its a very bad mechanism for any sort of crime, because there is a permanent record of the transactions. But the actual ability to maintain financial privacy is very valuable in this day and age when we have seen all of customer information. Ultimately, we need to move away from that model where we are storing all this information in one place, and decentralized the storage of that information to users who own it. Where our regulators today on bitcoin . A year ago, things are moving so quickly they were not even on the map will stop fast forward. Tell us where they stand today. In 2020, the conference where sky wasty ben law talking about the licensing. I think will only they will need to come up with an environment where it is as friendly as the days of the internet. Has gone tobitcoin canada, germany, switzerland, friendly jurisdictions that have said it is perfectly legal and we will give a lot of clarity about how we will categorize it. Weve come a long way. And the has weighed in folks involved in a lot of states. Im happy to brag that texas is the friendliest bitcoin state with banking. Lets say, everyone watching is saying, i like it, i love it, i want more of it, how do they invest today . Person, i average would recommend using something coingoing based on call base. Com. And can go on there and by have it in their wallet. But i would recommend going to a meetup i would recommend going to a media. Rinking craft beer working on things in your garage. Start this way. Thank you so much. Lucky for him, he is in austin, texas. Lucky format, he is sitting next to me in nyc. When we come back, mcdonalds can learn something from wendys. They could if they ever tried one of those processes, delicious. Im talking about the boost in sales. Darden restaurants is set to report earnings after the close. We could learn if the owner of all of garden, which is lovely, has appointed a new ceo. Julie hyman has the details. Is a lovely ecco have you been to and all of garden lately . Do you go to all of garden . I dont actively go to all of garden, but i believe i have been to one, probably 20 years ago. Would you take a date they are . There . No. If we are going to share our honest opinions, i dont like the new design. But so you have been there. So you have been there. But ive seen your coverage. In any case, an activist hedge fund, Starboard Value has been getting involved in a number of industries and basically had a new board appointed at darden restaurants. Stephen anderson over at military back, he thinks brad blum, who was a member of that board, will be appointed ceo. It could happen today. I have not heard that from many others, but he thinks it could happen today. Charge of thein all of garden from 19942002. What the good years. The good years. Exactly come and he was also in charge of burger king and macaroni grill. Now he is in charge of this partnership in u. K. That is healthier fast food. A former walmart executive is also now on the board at darden restaurants. This there are some potential ways this could go, but the analyst i talked to say will be important who the new Company Leader is. What will that person need to do . There are some changes that darden has already pushed through. They sold some Corporate Jet to save money. Cut a bunch of jobs to remove a layer. Costcutting is not going to do it. What are you going to do to make the product better and have Consumers Want to go . As long as people are lining up to go to all of garden, they can have Corporate Jets. The company also owns bahama breeze. Thats the one with the progress shells. Just so you know. Shells, just so you know. And they also own and tvs. E ddie vs. The month of november, allimportant all his garden reported a rebound olive garden reported a rebound in sales. And hoping they focus more on that than costcutting, because next of his Interest Rate hikes and capital controls. Going from pasta to burgers, you know there is a battle going on. Wendys seems to be doing something right. On fresh beef and ingredient is keeping them a cut above the rest. It is a sweet spot that earned wendys seven quarters of the consecutive sales gain, while ising these mcdonalds reporting is worst slump in decades. Our own betty liu, she stepped down. I can like with all of his pasta and berger talk ive already gained three pounds. I feel like with all of this burger talk, ive already gained three pounds. Great things come from the state of ohio. Taken over has wendys and he said, dont call wendys the walmart of fast food. They will compete not on price, but on frets fresh ingredients. Remember the wheres the beef . Campaign in the 1980s . I had a chance to try their cheeseburger. And i ate the whole thing, by the way. Do you believe it . I do. Matt has seen me. In any case, this is about how they are competing with this highlow strategy. But if you think about a walmart strategy, i dont think there is a walmart strategy that applies to quick serve restaurant businesses. What do you mean . Walmart is an ugly Little Organization and they built a massive very successful business at theirg products lowest price out there. They done a phenomenal job of doing that. But we are a brand. And we are about highquality products. You have to be able to have a range of price points, but we are also massive. We have 6500 highvolume restaurants in the u. S. You have to be able to come appeal to a wide range of consumers. They have already started to revamp their 6000 plus stores. They are putting televisions in their restaurants. There is one with a fireplace. Exactly, and new flooring. It looks like a restaurant and not a fast food joint. I tell you what, all of that stuff is fine. But bottom line is, they serve good meet with good, fresh vegetables, and its a decent product. When i was a kid, that was wendys philosophy and it was always a cut above the the other fast food places. Better quality at a mcdonalds price . A little bit higher than mcdonalds, but about 45 cheaper than to fully chipotle. And the other thing is they dont want to practice focus on breakfast. They dont need to. I asked him about not getting into the breakfast wars. We have tested breakfast several times over the years. As the onlythat Large National chain that has not gotten into breakfast, its very difficult to enter that space. And commit the, kind of Marketing Resources that we feel would be necessary to really entrench ourselves successfully. And also, by the way, do it in a way that we cannot just break even, but make a good amount of money. If were going to ask our teams and restaurants to work hard and spend extra time there, we want to do that in a highly profitable way. On our laughter and that we were not quite there. On our last learning that we were not quite there. You would not ruling out, though . Rule it out though . Oh, no, maybe sometime in the future we could differentiate it will stop but if you look at the growth, breakfast continues to be one of this the strongest growth areas. You have tried them all. Who is the best . Are you going to put me on the spot they are . I can choose. They are a little bit different, but you know what bums me out . The first or ever on broad street in columbus, ohio. Im offended. Latestiu, giving us the out of wendys. What we come back, it is time to drink with jayz. We will bes aching to the man hiphophe pop the champagne brand. Welcome back to Market Makers and im Stephanie Ruhle. Butz got 99 problems, champagne isnt one. He didnt just buy the bottle, but the entire brand. For a look at what direction the rapper ceo is taking into the bubbly unknown, we are joined by sebastian. In the last eight years, we have seen tons of artists and celebrities and musicians attach themselves to brands, but what jayz has and is more than endorse this product. He has really put his money behind it. Talk to us about it. The intent here, he was in love with the brand. He considered it to be one of his babies. And he wanted to really take it to the next stage. I think it was an interesting timing for the acquisition. Seller, ace for the great price for the buyer. Because we will take it to the next stage together. I think it is fabulous for the brand. Why does it work . I dont think of jayz as someone who knows champagne, but what he does better than anyone is branding. Is that the key to this product, branding . Brandingk he does best, but its also where the consumer is going. Looking at their needs and wants in the future. This is a product that is very authentic. 250 years history in winemaking in france. And its really about true , owned by someone who understands talent. Have you heard of it . I have heard of it. Let me ask, was this a reaction to the lvmh club where the guy say, we cant stop them from ranking it, kind of referring to rappers . From drinking it, kind of referring to rappers . Was a positive feeling behind it, which was about building something that would be exceptional and unique. It takes the champagne category to a new stage, and also to a new consumer. You see the ace of spades. I love it, but only because im a motorhead fan. Using this kind of thing in vegas. Thing ine this kind of vegas. It doesnt seem to be the class that is in the nation market. The niche market. In india, they use champagne for large weddings. Veryia, is considered a high luxury product. In europe, it is appreciated for its winemaking. For the fabulous reviews weve had. In the u. S. , its a party element, celebration, champions. There are bad reviews out there. Im looking at new york wine buyer saying the biggest ripoff wine. History of min does it matter what it tastes like because you are selling cool . For me, i want to the feedback from the marketplace. Theis income, i love passion it generates. 99 of the passion was positive for it. I want to manage it properly. But i know that from all of the important critics, it has been an amazing you can disagree and sometimes a bad review will pop up and you dont know where that came from. Yes. You do have it wrapped in pink and gold foil. It is loud and gotti. It does not look like something we the 14th would have had. Maybe he would, i think. You dont think louis the 14th light to party . Roman 14 like to party . My point is, it looks like something that would not be at club. B, but at the do you know what i mean . We have actually taken that exactly where it is. Can you drink that on my television . Im enjoying it. Love it so much. Live, from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers. The russian currency crisis goes from bad to worse as the ruble plunges to an alltime low. A third bush in the white house . Jeb bush says he is exploring the possibility of running for president. When of paltrow, from Luxury Retail shoppers. Gwen if paltrow, for luxury paltrow, gweneth for Luxury Retail shoppers. Inrush of the ruble went into freefall today. In russia the ruble went into freefall today. The Russian Central Bank tried to shore it up last night with the biggest rate hike in 16 years. After a spike, it plunged to a new record low for all of history. Europes highest rated government bonds climbed into record lows, the jet german 10 year rose for the second day in a row, little more than one half of 1 and Falling Oil Prices dimming the outlook for inflation. Arercontinental hotels going boutique. The owner of the holiday inn has agreed to buy timken hotels and restaurants. Largest ki mp kimpton is the largest in the u. S. Jeb bush is actively exploring running for president and establishing a Political Action committee that will allow him to raise money and Engaging Campaign style travel. Steve cohen spent years fending off prosecutors and fbi agents, now he wants to hire some of them, according to the new york times. He is looking for a former prosecutor and several federal agents to join his fund. He was once investigated for insider trading, but never accused of wrongdoing, important to point out, so i didnt say it. Theow moving onto incredibly sinking ruble. Traders around the world around the world watched this chart all morning. We saw the russian currency all but collapsed. The line going up means that the value of the ruble is going down. Lets dive deeper into this with joe wiesenthal, the executive editor of bloomberg markets. If you have not seen him on area this morning, i hope that you follow him on twitter, his head has been exploding about this over the last four hours. I do follow you on twitter. Crazy morning. I spoke to a lot of professional traders who have been trading bonds and emerging markets for a long time and they said they have never seen anything like this. Since 1998. An incredible move. The crazy thing is if you look at the beginning there is a tiny upturn after they announced a huge interestrate hike. At the veryblip beginning shows some strength. That was all that they got. They massively hiked rates last night to try to induce people to hold rubles. Who was that, by the way . And then the market totally demolished the Central Banks plan. The meetings happening right now, do we believe that anything productive will come out of this . The fact that no one has faith in the ruble, it does not make me feel like anyone will turn around anytime soon. Psychology turns for reasons that are unexpected and that surprising times, but clearly the sentiment towards russia is panic. Everyone wants out. That is exactly what we saw this morning. I dont want to make you feel bad, but doesnt joes hair look so good . He looks great in general. I love the sweater, bubble thing. What i was thinking was if you are going to offer me 17 and i dont like, what is next . The only move left is to take my money from me. This could be some sort of capital control or they just make it illegal to move capital out of the country. Maybe they could try another interestrate hike tom a but they are slamming the economy 17 Interest Rate hikes. Not good for growth. They are already looking at a recession. This will make it worse. Sawe was another person i this morning talking about how it could get as bad as 2008 there. Possible thatw, they will introduce laws making it illegal. Stay here, i want to bring in another voice on the struggle. Tim ash joins us now by phone from london. You and a lot of others predicted early this morning that the Central Banks rate hike would stabilize the ruble, but guess what, it didnt turn out that way. What do you think happened . Some have been arguing all year that the ruble is overvalued. View we have been correct. In terms of the 650 move for rates, that was huge. Most people assume that that would do the trick. The fact that it didnt i think reflects the fact that for the past month the central bank has been out for lunch. They have done very, very little to defend the currency. It has been remarkable. One month ago they announced that they were freefloating the ruble and said that they have got a bazooka with reserves, dont take us on. Much, exactly, has russia got in reserves . Now . Hey busting it out or Still Holding it in a tightly locked warchest . They have got plenty. No doubt about it. 420 billion, about 18 months of coverage in the Exchange Rate. What has changed in the last month or so, i think the central bank has been told by the kremlin not to use those because of the geopolitics. The messaging is that the battle with the u. S. Over the ukraine were generally is that it is in for the long haul. Ethics reserves are not geopolitically strategic, so we dont want to use them. Into anntral bank going Exchange Rate battle, it has had one hand tied behind its back. Toy were very reluctant raise rates. Until yesterday they had both hands tied behind their back. And almost impossible position for the central bank, laying sanctions over that with oil prices, along with policy paralysis. For a currency to move 10 in a day when you have plenty of reserves, i think that that shows that that is not correctable and it shows policy correction. Russia should not be experiencing this level of Exchange Rate movement. Massive . Need to be asked about central bank management. Just the central bank problem . Is it not a ukrainian issue as well . Arent there other things shaking confidence in russia . Absolutely. There is a lack of confidence in the central bank. Obviously all the geopolitics. There any more bullets that the central bank can fire at the problem . Is it possible we will see another massive interestrate hike soon . Going back, you are absolutely right. People say the ruble is undervalued . Its not. In reality it was massively overvalued when we came into the crisis. The fact that when oil was very high the russian economy was not growing reflected structural problems. There are good reasons why the ruble would be weak. But even inflation inflow should manage the currency, smoothing or preventing a crash that creates systemic problems. Bank pullhe central Russian Troops out of ukraine and stop flyovers . Isnt the real issue something completely different than what their Interest Rates are . Im not sure that the central bank could pull the troops out of ukraine, that goes beyond traditional Monetary Policy and probably very unorthodox in terms of policy, but still, look , this is about geopolitics, right . Russia has changed this year significantly. Changed, this has is about the bigger picture, greater russian union. Stopping what he sees as encroachment to the west. I dont see much evidence that that more offensive strategy will change. Maybe, though, buying time in the ukraine on the agenda of the ukraine, bringing them back into the russian geopolitical strategic umbrella, biding time fell they address problems at home. As you mentioned, underlying this is this geopolitical battle with the west. Sanctions, underlying deepseated problems in the russian economy. Commodities, problems with weak growth, and obviously oil prices are killing them. , this final now blow is the real policy paralysis by the central bank more generally in russia. Asked me in terms of what they could do. Frankly, i think that they need changes in their policy. We need to see new faces in the government and the central bank. You can kind of test this against other countries issues who are dependent on commodities. Is anyone elses currency and a complete freefall who depends on oil . Absolutely. Other Commodity Currencies had a rough year, obviously, but the ruble is the worst. Is that not because you are adding the geopolitical . That is exactly right. Look at the nigerian currency, that is having a rough time, but it is not at the same level as russia. Clearly that is because you have the geopolitics. And look at the sheer panic wrapping it together. When you increase Interest Rates 6. 5 . Especially if no one bites. Tim ash, pleasure having you. Stephanie . We are going to continue on this, i guess. Ruble, bitcoin, theres a lesson. What do these things have to do with each other . Just saw the headline cross. Russia is not considering currency control, so there you go. Sure. Why wouldnt they . They say the first rule of capital control is you never talk about capital control, you do it by surprise. If they do it, theyre certainly not going to broadcast appear broadcast it. They might kidnap your babies, you know . Russias out . Get it . Very funny. Caviar. Honestly, i think you are really good looking. Is just amazing today. When we come back, challenging the king of tv ratings. They say they have a better way to measure audiences then nielsen. Has a nielsen box . 38 years, ive yet to meet someone. Taking goop to the next level, who is running quiet paltrows Luxury Retail site . Media measurement firm, on mccain ofking television ratings, nielsen. They have just announce a new patent that lets the measure how engaged in audiences is with a television show. Their ceo is here with us. Bill, how engaged are people . People out of the media world, explain who rentrak is, how you work, who you are. We precisely measure movies and tv anywhere. You know about us because you read about us on sunday and bloomberg about who went to the movies. You know that internationally the top movie that did not even open here was the hobbit. What was the largest movie around the world . Opening here . Ou know that from rentrak every time someone buys a ticket, whether it is on their mobile device or the theater. In television we measure every set top box to measure movies and tv shows. For all tv shows, whether it is live or you are watching it from usingvr, then we are about 60 million. Compare that to how much how many nielsen boxes are out there. As stephanie points out, shes never met anyone with a box. In my whole life. I have been asked. I feel like i know someone who knew someone. Boxes does, how many your competitor have out there . They have a sample into the tens of thousands, they are measuring who is clicking and what their age is. Doing, with as massively passive approach, we integrate what we own and how we vote politically, in what election do we vote for this candidate or that candidate . And the precise tv show that they watch. Rentrak is essentially big data merging with other big data sets. So, just walk me through who is using it right now. Who is your Customer Base . Agencyof the large holding companies. What is that mean . Wpp, ipg. Wpp just recently became a shareholder. The Advertising Firm . Firm. Advertising acting normally people think who cares about nielsen, but tv networks do. The truth is that your Customer Base are Advertising Firms who need to figure out who is watching what, when. Exactly. We live in a hyper fragmented, hypercompetitive world. These ad agencies are the stewards of advertisers dollars. When car campaigns get placed on television, with hundreds of millions of dollars they get spent, they need to make sure that they are in the correct tv show. They want to get the best bang for their buck. Right. Television networks by us to conduct business. Local tv stations by us to conduct business with local and national politicians. Are you able to measure viewing engagement . Sure, there are tons of airports, dentists office, and lobbies with tv networks all day long. Some trading floors. But i would not say that those are people who are engaged or watching. If i was an advertiser, i would not care about those eyeballs. Thats correct, you essentially get those as a bonus. Advertisers care about someone sitting in their home, lounging on their big couch, watching their bigscreen television. It is a percentage of their disposable income. How long are they watching that show without licking the Remote Control . Is that changing . Are there not less and less people watching their bigscreen . No. I am doing it a lot. I spend hours per day doing it. I live tweet what im watching. Im pretty engaged. We are seeing the great content moving. People are not necessarily watching it live, but watching it over the course of a month when they want to, ok . Unless it is a big story, like today with currency fluctuations in russia, big story. You are watching shows when you want to. Is a great example. Football usually runs long. If you are watching the great shows on cbs, your dvr is probably going to catch it 20 minutes, 30 minutes late, you dvr, you havet on to use video on demand or watch it live if youre watching continuously. What has happened is all of these new appliances have actually created more opportunity for the advertiser and the network. Their best kept secret is that many people today are watching network tv as they did a couple of years ago. Really . Just on other devices and over the course of 28 days. Tv,ou dont watch a lot of do you . Some. I spend a lot of time watching a lot of television, but i never watch anything on the cable box that i pay 180 for. Everything i watch is on netflix, apple tv, xbox, my tablet, the laptop. Abn amro millenial. Not. Immaturity. Back, bill. Come if you could not hear, his microphone just went out and what he just told us was that rentrak finding that everyone is watching louvered television. Sorry about that. I did not hear his microphone go out. [laughter] Market Makers will be right back. We are approaching 26 minutes 25 minutes past the hour, but one minute after that it will be 26 minutes past the hour. What does that mean . Likes it is time for bloombergs on the markets. Scarlet fu has the latest early. Same difference, either way we are looking at u. S. Stocks hitting session highs right now. It raising their earlier losses, now of 9 10 of 1 as the Federal Reserve policymakers meet for their twoday meeting. Energy stocks climbing the most, keep in mind they lost 20 in the past three months. They have turned around and oil prices recovered. They collapsed earlier, since stabilizing. Even though crude has stabilized this morning we are still off 42 since the end of last year. The russian ruble is certainly an focus. The biggest rate increase since 1998 failed to heart failed to halt the devaluation of the russian currency, but we seem to have found a fourth year at 72. Starting the morning off at 5657. It has been a long, sharp fall for the ruble. Some headlines out of russia as well, economic ministers called the situation very difficult and they do not plan to consider currency controls. No currency controls, but in the meantime we see investors potting safe havens, like u. S. Treasuries and yields in securities coming down. The yen often stronger as well. That is the dollar versus the yen. We will continue to monitor all the Market Action now after the session highs. Thank you. When we come back, how do you spell celebrity . The ceobe speaking with of group. Goop jeb bush, what does his latest move mean . Moves, really. I think that there were two. We will bring on a special guest for this. Make the best entertainment part of your holidays. Catch all the hottest handpicked titles on the winter watchlist, only with xfinity from comcast. Bloombergrom headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers. Marketme back to makers. I am matt miller, in for Erik Schatzker on this and fabulous tuesday. With christmas here we are talking about retail in big brands. Goop is getting ready to grow. s media maven is setting lisa to take it to the next level. She recently served as the ceo of Martha Stewart living omnimedia. She joins us now along with the managing editor of bloomberg luxury. Anyone in this house knows luxury, it is this guy. Lisa, welcome. Us understand, why is it that lifestyle branding is more than just luxury . Why is it that attaching your aand to a lifestyle, to celebrity does more . It is the whole theory of contextualnk of as commerce. People, women in particular, buy into the context of what they are buying. They want to understand the story. Sometimes they might understand it from their best friend, but if there is a brand that they feel related to, they will buy from the brand because they understand what it is about. So, we pick up a product, we write about it, why we think it is the best one we have found. We have done all the homework around it. You should buy it. Right . Do that, too, if you buy a ferrari you are buying formula one wins, and so, italy, you are buying the whole story behind that 12 cylinder dream, you know . But this is different, a trust and critics as opposed to trust opposed to someone who lives the lifestyle. You lost, you win, you want to buy them. Its difficult to do that with a luxury brand, though, right . Everyone can aspire to luxury, but they cannot afford it. We dont always put ourselves in the category of luxury. Yes, we do have some aspirational products on the site, but we also have some very attainable products as well. That high low mixture that everyone loves the by fits into the lifestyle that we have created. What does goop sell . Reminds me of slime, but i guess it is Something Different. You obviously grew up during the nickelodeon era. Clearly. Group, i love the name goop, i love the name, it is about the brand, not the person. I think that that is important, when you are thinking about a lifestyle brand. Yes, we have an incredible brand , but our job is to take the brand and create the lifestyle for everyone. Why would you not wanted to be like the brand . I want to be like her, i want to act like her, i want all those things. I think that that is why people are attracted to her style. That is very much the aesthetic of the business. Now our job is to take that, scale it, and create employees who understand the site and can build it. What do we sell . We have permission and is brand to go into a lot of different categories. Travel, food, home, apparel, beauty. Whatever is part of that vision, that is the product. Are there too many Lifestyle Brands at this point . It feels like every celebrity wants to be a brand. They are looking at what is happening in the movie industry now, more and more big action, more and more pixar, you have to find a way to broaden what you are doing. People see what Martha Stewart has done, what when it has done, it probably seems a lot easier what rentrak what gwyneth it probablydone, seems easier than it is. Building business is hard work. You have to build a team. You have to serve the audience. You have to be true to the brand. But it is enormous fun to. Did this start with jayz . With that kind of sean combs kind of thing . But there is a difference between endorsing a product and saying i use it you know this better than i do living the brand, becoming a lifestyle brand. Which is why i am interested in how you guys scale. What have you learned in growing a company big . You are not doing the stuff that martha did, to get it to jcpenney, qvc. We are obviously different versions. Martha created the first ever really diffusion brand that went to scale. The first one to go to kmart. Now there are a lot of celebrities that have brands that are much more math. Today the retail environment is being so dictated by direct to consumer and what i love about goop is that we know exactly what our consumer is responding to immediately. We put something on the site, we can tell who like that and how quickly they buy it. Our job is to figure those things out. How challenging is it for you . Mickey drexler said to me a few weeks ago that in terms of consumers it is alert it is a race to the bottom and Everyone Wants discounts and sales. You are asking for a longterm relationship. How long before you can convert the buyer . We are seeing it now. Mickey is in the retail brickandmortar rate. Look at Companies Like warby parker, harrys, they are going right to the consumer, cutting out the middleman, building real businesses around Digital Brands and content. And making money. Are you guys making money . We just started. We will be making money. I mean, it is lovely is that your directive . Our directive is to be to build a huge brand, which means making money. You guys are doing clothes next year for the first time. Can you tell us more about what they will be like . I heard that there were already loads. Always athere is process around it. You have to try them on. Yes, we are working on some basic apparel pieces for the spring. We will look at the verticals. I think there is an opportunity in the home and beauty space and in the travel market. People love our city guide. We hear that all a time. The great thing about building a digital brand is that you can you hear from your consumers all the time. Who is she . We think about this. Obviously the demographic is largely female, but we think about the psychographic, someone who wants a curated lifestyle who really values their time along with their money. So, they want to understand i am looking for this and someone here figured it out . This is what i want. Luxuryt fair, storytellers right now are given a hard time for not being massmarket. Have at ok to say i specific demographic and i know who my customer is . It Companies Like gucci have muchperceived as being too mass, now they are trying to move back to the exclusive part of the market. I dont think they can come back, do you . I think they can. People used to desire gucci. Whenever it hits the shopping mall, it hits loses that desire factor. They just integrate creative director. Everywhere on the street you need to sell and make money, but you need to eat that exclusivity factor. You need to keep secure ration. You need to be true and authentic, your customer will know that. That is the trick to scaling. That is why we are building that team in. I need to be five feet nine inches, have long blond hair, and be really skinny. That will not work for me. [laughter] redheads,love them you know . You are doing ok, Stephanie Ruhle. We are not just about the apparel. People love the aesthetic of the home product that we bring in. She told us that she just did a fat joke. We are getting into food. It sounds like fun. It sounds like you are living an awesome life and just putting it out there. So well said. Exactly. A thinly veiled insult. You might not be tolerated and skinny, but those products are for you. I was just commenting on the red versus blonde. [laughter] we will let matts day. At least you all have hair. True. Be thankful. Coming up, he did not exactly throw his hat in the ring, but still jeb bush has made it clear that he is running for president. If you did not know that already , one really important piece of news is the pack that he is starting. Pac that he is starting. Bushs 2015 2016 ambitions are that clearer today. He wrote big news to political junkies everywhere, though they probably already suspected it, because they watch, with all due respect, market Mark Halperin, who basically said the same thing last night. Well, john is not here. Not here. Not hear, so he doesnt exist . Price absence makes the heart grow less memorable. Last night basically were saying that you thought he was then run, he was definitely making moves for this because he is going to need the money before everyone else. This is a huge play for him, getting an early means that all of these other people, he doesnt have to start running now, now people will commit to him. If you are a Chris Christie or cruz or a randed paul, anyone else now, you might feel pressure to get into start asking people. Than anything else . Donors. That is why he has was i announced so early . It, think that is part of but he is also trying to be a different kind of candidate. I am not saying that he will be the nominee, but i have thought or a while he would the strongest candidate the republicans could put forward. She sure is building a lot of momentum right now. I have heard nothing but more and more about jeb bush over the last week. Overe thing that he said the weekend, he does not want this race to be about being another bush or a business guy who made a lot of money, he wants this to be about being the governor of a megastate for eight years and did well. Who does this hurt . Chris christie, scott walker, almost everybody. I am telling you, republicans looking at their history has have had nominees back to ronald reagan. Potential, as these other candidates are caught flatfooted, to be the front runner by april. Could it hurt Hillary Clinton . In some ways he is the best person for her to run against. It takes away the dynasty thing. I think a lot of people think what i think, that jeb bush is now the strongest candidate against her. This is someone who could win votes away from her. Lets check out these numbers right now. A poll that showed hillary sort of edging out jeb bush a little bit. Is that just a kneejerk reaction for democrats . Since they have been saying it for like 12 years . A little bit. One of his greatest strengths, people dont know him well despite his last name, he has the potential to get democratic votes the way that most republicans dont. We are a polarized country. As a guy who has traveled the country talking about issues for a long time, he touches democrats. Its so weird to hear that any bush could do. There. The last bush was the most polarizing president we have had since i dont know who. The toxicity around the name, has it subsided since w left the white house . His numbers are better than they have been since i left the white house. For jeb bush to win, he has got to not run as a bush. Hes got to run as the guy who was governor of florida for eight years and was extremely smart about policy. People should watch this interview, he is a better, more fluid speaker about the challenges than anyone i know. Maybe he should just go like cher or madonna. People would figure it out. Someone likepush mitt romney further to the right . Jeb bush has said that he would be more of a centrist candidate. If he does this thing and gets an early and reaches out, it may cause mitt romney not to run. Jeb bush would take up a lot of the space that mitt romney would like to take up. Think aboutople to how they want to run against him. A lot of talk about people attacking his positions on immigration and education. Those are hugely popular positions with the donor class. While the grassroots gets a lot of attention, rightfully so, earlier in the year the donor class matters. The donor class is for the kind of Higher Education standards that he has fought for. He is a formidable candidate with a lot of the Republican Party and people will have to decide if they want to mimic him or run to his right. The donors here in new york, republican donors do not care about being against gay marriage. They are not super supporters of the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms. They are much more moderate, middleoftheroad. In the last hour and a half i have been bloomberg in with with bigtime business guys were pumped about this. They are excited. His support is not as big in the leads, but he has been working on a secret strategy to take his popular brand and try to bring it wider, make it more of a populist or at least broadbased candidacy, but there is no doubt that insiders and education reformers, they heart jeb bush. I tell you, these other candidates watching the reaction , their advisors will say that they have to get in this soon. I have to cut you off here, but if you want to see more on this, Mark Halperin is on with all due respect. He is a tall, bald, goodlooking guy there. If you cannot catch them on television, check it out on the radio. I listened every day. We are looking at a 200 point gain on the dow after it fell to the lowest level since october yesterday. This would be, could be, what some refer to as a dead cat bounce. Separating the men from the boys. We will be back here we will be back. Thank you for joining us. Have fun with eric tomorrow. Eric will be back with us tomorrow and we will have the former fed vice chair, alan binder, now a princeton professor, one of my favorites. Very big deal. With neil donna, one of my favorites. My husband, the tiger dog. I like anyone who lives in the garden state. It will be a big day. All right, i dont know what i will be doing. No, eric is taking the to a blackberry event. He loves the blackberry. I love the black area. And i will be talking to john chen. Ceo a blackberry. Minus old, it barely works. But guess what . 56 minutes past the hour. Who is out there doing it on the market over his back on the markets. Who is out there doing it . Rebounding from earlier losses indexes went to the lowest level since october, the dow jones and the s p gaining 1 , oil obviously in focus, initially falling 4 to a new fiveyear low. Offbase, nicely, joining me for the options from reconvin Kelly Capital partners. What asset class security do you look at now as a leading indicator . There has been a lot of turmoil and energy has been the forefront for the last month or so, impacting 2015 earnings, it is about 15 of 18 of the 18 of the s p 500 but one thing that is interesting is that the volatility index is even more elevated than it was in october. So, we saw volatility spike for 30 days going out, but it is still underneath those levels. Yesterday now coming into this afternoon, it really is going. Etween up and down 15 to 20 what does that say for the rest of the year . It usually is a quiet end of the year trading pattern, but it is about to be disrupted, isnt it . You are seeing companies coming into the forefront to get ahead of 2015. A 10 billionting buyback plan. One of the things the market is trying to digest is is it 23th it to own that stock at times forward earnings . Is that the best use of capital for cvs . A bunch of companies are doing it. Tryingng the market is to digest is is that good for stocks . Quick headline, jason berman speaking to reporters, saying that the russian economy is on the brink of crisis. Once again, jason furman saying that the russian economy is on the brink of crisis. We certainly see the volatility generated over concerns in russia, oil prices on the catalyst. You are looking at General Motors, downgraded, they were talking about the weaker yen leading to more competition from japanese automakers. But certainly there is an element here of oil prices factoring in as well. That is exactly right. As you said, russia impacted as well, it impacts continental europe. They are big trading partner. As you can see, rbc downgraded General Motors and were down 12 in auto sales in europe alone last month and you can see competitors like daimler and bmw in the dax, the next day up 8 12 , pulling other chevrolet brand of europe. There is a lot of uncertainty on how u. S. Automakers are doing. You are also keeping an eye on shares for mcdonalds. You had a strategy here that was fairly bearish . We are not really fans of mcdonalds at this current juncture. As you can see, over the last trying tohave been increase samestore sales but they just keep going down. What is really telling about mcdonalds is that there implied volatility is at a 52week high. So, the traders to buy the 85 to position yourself on samestore sales declining against a dollar that is getting stronger. Ok, you dont see a recovery for mcdonalds anytime soon. Thank you so much, kevin kelly, joining us this morning from recon capital. We will be back on the markets once again. Money clip is next. Clip. Ome to money with our together the best stories, interviews, and videos in business news. I am pimm fox. Russian moves to say the ruble. It does not quite work, not yet. The chief executive of wendys has a full menu. Etty liu sharpens her knives some new bedfellows, intercontinental and