Yes, getting married is expensive, and we introduce you to present values cash registry. We will explain. And the actor doug e doug discusses a movie and how he raised the money on kick starter. First, some headlines from carol massar. But the nevada state gaming control board investigating the unexpected failure of the Las Vegas Sands website and those of all of its properties worldwide. Attempts to reach the corporate side and the sites of its resorts in las vegas, pennsylvania, macau, and singapore also all produced error messages. Jon corzine is being investigated in his role in the collapse of mf global collapse. It filed for bankruptcy in 2011 with customers blaming that 1. 6 billion for loss or transferred to other part of the company during the liquidity crisis. Those are your top headlines. Thanks, carol. It has been a busy day in washington. Janet yellen delivered her first testimony as Federal Reserve chair. And the house prepares to lift the nations debt ceiling with no strings attached. Peter cook has more on the on both of these stories. Lets begin with the debt ceiling. No strings attached, is this really going to pass . Is this really washington . Its hard to imagine we could have a debt ceiling fight in this way with a retreat by House Republicans, but that is exactly how its playing out. The vote has started right now in the key number to keep an eye on is how many republicans end up voting for this clean debt ceiling increase. John boehner said he had to bring it to the floor because he had no other pathway to get some concession out there, no agreement even among his fellow House Republicans as to what to ask for in return. He is taking it off the table and effectively choosing to fight this fight another day. The vote should be wrapped up in about 10 minutes or so. They need about 270 votes. Most democrats will vote for it. The question is whether they will have at least 17 republicans. The expectation is that they will and it will move over to the senate tomorrow and democrats will largely support it. Have you done the math . What do you think the final vote count will be . I would be shocked if we get more than 20 to 30 republicans voting for this. Most republicans do not want to vote for it. John boehner said he will vote for it and anyone who is in a safe enough position that they want to get this issue off the table and they can protect their colleagues who have to vote no on this and get this over the finish line. I will be shocked if it is too close. What about janet yellen . What was your take away from her testimony . Very interesting, and historic. Of course, the first woman to hold this job. Her main message throughout the course of this hearing is and she stayed throughout the hearing after 4 00 to listen to every member of the panel. She said, ben bernanke is gone, but im not changing course with the Federal Reserve. Yes, the economy is gaining traction, but not so much that we can take our foot off the gas entirely. Take a listen to what she had to say. We will likely continue reducing the pace of our purchases in measured steps, but we have also indicated that this program is not on a preset course. Which means if the Committee Judges there to be a change in the outlook, then it would reconsider what is appropriate with respect to the program. And she was pressed by the democrats on the panel. What would it take for you to actually turn the taper off . She said it would have to be pretty significant and for it and she raised a pretty high bar there. We can expect at least for the moment that the taper will continue. They tried to drag her into politics and she bobbed and weaved pretty well in her first testimony as fed chairman. Thank you, peter cook, our chief washington correspondent, on the vote going on right now in the house were presented is about the date the nations debt ceiling. We interviewed the Federal Reserve president of st. Louis, james bullard. That will be tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern. And we will be learning more about bitcoin and bitcoin exchanges. The First Publicly Traded Company with the word bitcoin a minute is bitcoin shop with the word bitcoin in it is bitcoin shop. We have the companys chief executive Charles Allen joining us now. I was thinking maybe janet yellen was going to have to take a position on this cyber crypto currency called bitcoin. How do you describe bitcoin to those of us using regular money . I would describe it as a virtual currency. There are a few. Bitcoin has the largest market value, almost 9 billion. Bitcoins are created through a process of mining. It is similar to mining going mining gold. You have to go out and do work to get it, but it is computer power didnt set of axes and shovels. Or tractors and equipment. The effort gets harder and harder each time a bitcoin is mine. You need to invest in expensive computers to do it. It is controlled by a peer to peer network. I got to stop you there. When you went to the peer to peer network, i kind of understand what that is because i remember about napster and the idea that once something goes out into the internet either it can bounce around into the internet ether, it can bounce around and you do not know where it is going to land. But you say there is a limited number of these and you have to my name with computer power. Is it a big long string of numbers . I would look at it you know, try to keep it simple. The number of bitcoins can go to 21 million. It could get mind to that point and it gets harder and harder to make more. Once you have a bitcoin, you have to have a key to unlock it so you can pass it on to the next user. Or the other way to get a bitcoin if you did not mind one is to go to an exchange and convert, lets say, u. S. Dollars to bitcoins. And there has been a lot of wallet tilde there. There has, because a lot of these exchanges are having problems maintaining the accuracy of the exchange. For instance, in japan. Correct, they had an issue. It was not the first attack that bitcoins have been under. Correct, but as exchanges get more established mother will be dominant players in the industry and they will have best practices to make sure it is secure. Where does bitcoin shop fit into all of this . Our firm was started by two nasa engineers and they realized that it is great to have a currency, but if you cannot spend it on anything, what is the point . It is a means of speculation. We believe if you can gather a currency that can be spent on goods and services, then you can actually do something with it. It can actually be convenient. Isnt it already convenient to, lets say, use your credit card or some other form of electronic immense . What is the at at electronic payment . What is the advantage to acquiring these bitcoins and then going to a specific location on the internet to buy pot to buy products that might be available somewhere else . The convenience will be built in overtime. Right now, with a digital wallet on your phone you can scan a qr code and purchase something that way. You can do that with your phone. Lets say, a cup of coffee. Right now, there are not enough products that you can buy. We have over 140,000 products on our website. If you want to buy a big screen tv with bitcoin, you can do that on our website. Is that just your connection to someone elses inventory echo correct. You are just in incense in a sense, a broker and you take a fee for that. Correct. Is this bill to something, how big is this industry . That is hard to say. It could be massive. If it is massive, use a reverse merger you use a reverse merger to become a public company. Why do that rather than a more traditional route of a traditional Public Offering or Venture Capital . Very simple. Three reasons, one, publicity. We are an ecommerce site and we need to convert potential investors. Couldnt you get that publicity by just having the name bitcoin in the name of the company . Sure, but would i be sitting here on tv with you tonight and have all of these viewers watching . We are running a 10 discount this week. We need the publicity and it is coming for free. As a startup company, that is huge. The second is transparency. There has been a lot of skepticism around bitcoin in general, and to the extent that we can open the lid and let people look under and see what we are doing what is the volume right now . Are you doing a lot of volume . It is pretty small. We have been in business since june of last year and we really only opened the website in the third quarter. We are effectively just give an example. What is the quarterly volume or dollar volume in sales . X we have not disclosed that at this juncture. As a company we did not have an audit done that would be approved. Hence the reverse merger. No, we did the reverse for publicity am a transparency, and the other big one was time to market. The bitcoin ecosystem is moving extremely fast. If we had done and ipo, it would have taken nine months. It would be very challenging to get a banker interested at that level. We will keep an eye on it. Thank you for being here. Charles allen is the chief executive of bitcoin shop. Coming up, i will talk to a ceo of a company that is working to develop treatment for drug addiction and mental illness. That is next. . According to the u. S. National survey on drug use and health, nearly 2 million americans are dependent on pain relievers or heroine. The recent death of the actor Philip Seymour hoffman renewed interest for treatment for diction. He was found dead in his apartment with packets of hair when, according to new york police. One Company Helps develop medicines to help people manage addictions. Joining me now is the chairman and chief executive, richard pops. Thank you for being here. He got to start with your bit of history. How old were you when you started in this . I became the ceo when i was 28 years old and im 51 years old now and im just getting going. How do you describe the company to people that dont know about Central Nervous system diseases . X we are one of the companies we are one of the companies in the world that has decided to focus on Central Nervous system diseases, particularly schizophrenia and mental health. It is difficult to develop drugs there, but we have a niche and we are exploring it now. Tell us about some of the drugs that we know on the shelves. Almost 2 million americans have an addiction problem, but other people have sought treatment using some of the products that you make. I think we first gained notoriety with our long acting injectable antipsychotics. These medicines we developed first for Johnson Johnson that allowed those patients with schizophrenia to not have to worry about taking a medicine every single day. It is very hard to take a medicine every single day, particularly when your disease makes it difficult to do so. We pioneered these once a month injections that makes sure the patient gets the drug on time. And that segued into a drug for addiction that we think would have been very relevant about the story of Philip Seymour hoffman. How does it work echo people who are addicted to opioids have resected receptors in their brains that becomes specifically dependent on ingestion. And it is not just hair when. It is all kinds of prescription opioids. Our drug blocks those receptors in the brain, like a key in the lock and it keeps you from being able to get high, or overdose on the medication. What you need with our drug is to become drugfree first. You need to detox and then the magic of the drug is that it is given once a month as an injection. The addict or the patient does not have to think about making a decision every day, do i use drugs or abuse drugs or take my medicine . There is a safety net, if you will, for having the medicine by having the medicine on board for a month at a time. What is the Business Record right now on vivitrol . It is early. But we stay at it so we can help patients and their families. Each year, it it continues to grow. Its biggest days are ahead of it. What else have you got . You have other potential winners. We are really excited about a drug for depression that we just put into phase three. We are also excited about a drug that we are about to get the final the nickel results of four schizophrenia. I will start with the depression drug. It is an oral tablet that is a new way of treating depression by targeting different sets of neurotransmitters in the brain than the drugs you are most commonly familiar with, like the classic ssris. This is different. It is had beautiful resulting Clinical Trials and was fast tracked by the fda. When does that end up . It will take a couple of years in the clinic, if we do it carefully. And you have doing it when you have been doing it as long as we have, that seems like overnight. Richard pops, thank you. The chairman and chief executive of alkermes. Coming up, meet the cofounder of a new business called class pass. . Evidence shows that boutique fitness facilities, such as yoga and spin studios am a they are siphoning off some members from larger gymnasiums. Instead of paying for a gym membership, why not subscribe to a service that offers different workouts at different places . There is a business called classpass and it lets you do just that. The chief executive and cofounder is payal kadakia. Thank you so much for being here. Why were you inspired to start Something Like classpass . I am an engineer and ive been a dancer on my life. I have an very act of throughout my life and ive always found it very difficult to be inspired and feel like i could try new things. And it is very expensive to take new classes in the city all the time. It was about getting people to live healthy come a active lifestyles. How did you go about getting all of the different purveyors, the vendors to go through you . The fitness business has a lot of fixed costs. For them, incremental revenue in their fitness capacity is important to them. If they are going to give the class anyway, you wanted to be full. Exactly, and many of them operate with under 40 capacity. Our mission was to help all the people who want to work out and need to work out to find these better providers through a more engaging way. That is really what classpass is. How many different vendors do you have . We have different 80 different studios. 80 . Yes. We have yoga to barre, and boot camp and a ton of different studios. Is it noticeably different to do this through class pass then to go to each one . Yes, our membership is 99. It is a lot cheaper than going to a gym. And seven percent of 70 of people who have a membership at a gym do not attend. Ours is a lot more affordable and more engaging and we try to make it a communitybased class form. You are seeing the same faces and it is an easier way to work out every single day. What would you like to see in the next six months . I think everyone around the world should try to find a way to stay active every single day. We are launching in three more cities this next month. We will be in washington, san francisco, d. C. , and currently and we are currently in new york. We actually did the text our program last year. We have been well ingrained into the Startup Community in new york city. As we grow, weve got great people supporting us and we are growing very fast right now. The revenue is growing 60 month over month. And we already have thousands of users on the site. Well done. And people could following go where you take courses as well. Absolutely. The class pass cofounder, payal kadakia. Up next, we will talk to congressman jim hines about the debt ceiling debate going on right now. This is taking stock on bloomberg. . Breaking news, the u. S. House of representatives has voted to pass the debt ceiling bill. Lets go to peter cook, our chief washington correspondent. He has been looking at the vote. How did it go . We talked about between 20 to 30 republicans and i did not get the final tally, but the final tally overall was maybe 28 republicans that voted in favor of the debt ceiling increase, this clean debt ceiling increase. Now i goes over to the senate and we expect it will be considered in the next couple of days. There are some procedural hoops it needs to get through, but a egg but a big step on part of the republicans. A long time to go now until next year when this battle is waged again. Congressman jim hines will be joining us shortly to talk about this vote also. And also questions to janet yellen earlier today. It seems historic. Our next guest, steve bell, the senior director for the Bipartisan Policy Center. He previously worked with new mexico senator, pete dominici. You said it was an historic day. Why is that . I have been working on budgets and i have a friend whos been here even longer and this is the first time in half a century when the president of one party had to ask one house or the other to pass a clean debt bill and it actually happened. It never happened under reagan or under either of the bushes or even clinton. We have shown that it is possible under rare circumstances to get a clean debt bill. What is so rare about the current circumstances . There is an old saying, a cat will not jump on a hot stove twice. Republicans jumped on that hot stove last year and they got earned pretty badly. And when the socalled bipartisan budget act was passed over the objections of many republicans, what happened was the far right, as the far left earlier, had been repudiated by the two caucuses. That is really good news. Steve bell, you are the director of the senate you were the senate director for the budget committee. What do you think will happen now . My guess is that there is a Storm Brewing and as usual, this town is scared of any kind of storm. The senate will vote tomorrow and it will go to the president. We will have until the middle of march, 2015 and this melodrama will go away. Does this give the president any reservoir of power or credit to use for the remainder of his time in office . I dont think so. But i want to be careful there. The person who is really now the big winner, strangely enough, and that is the speaker of the house, john boehner. He waited for three years until he had the opportunity to break the stranglehold of the right wing on the Republican Party. He did it last year and he did it again on the bipartisan budget amendment. And he has done it again now. The big winner here is the centrist and slightly right of Center Republican leadership in the house of representatives. Steve bell, does that mean that, perhaps, Speaker Boehner has a little more leverage inside the Republican Party as they look to the next residential election . I think so. This has been a redeeming thing for the speaker. He has a place a special place reserved for him in heaven after what hes been through in the last four years. What you will see now is a chaste Republican Party that will no longer, especially with its right wing, try to reach for things that are obvious to everyone kind of silly and counterproductive. This is a very important point. The speaker supports immigration control and limit and immigration reform. This gives him, i think, if he wishes to use it, a pretty good leaping off point for immigration concerns, especially in a lameduck session of this year. Do you think that Speaker Boehner would like to get something done now, or when the next president takes office on immigration . I think that the speaker and chairman ryan, paul ryan of wisconsin, would like to have it done as soon as they could. They have not persuaded the majority of the Republican Caucus yet, but they are strongly in favor and on the record of saying that they want Economic Immigration reform among both for economic reasons and, friendly, for societal reasons. Will that help to create the kind of support for a republican candidate for president that has an independent street when it comes to these issues . I think it will. I think that all of these early polls showing that there are 25 different republicans that might get the nomination shows you the that the republican electorate has very far to go before it makes up its mind. I want to thank you very much, steve bell, senior director of economic all as he for the by policy in the Bipartisan Policy Center in washington, d. C. Up next, we will speak to congressman jim hines about the debt ceiling vote. This is taking stock on bloomberg. . The u. S. House of representatives has just passed the debt ceiling bill. It now goes to the u. S. Senate. Peter cook joins us with connecticut democrat representative jim hines on congress on capitol hill. He is also on the Congress Services committee and are dissipated at Janet Yellens and he participated at Janet Yellens first hearing today. Let me start with the debt ceiling. Would you have been surprised if i had asked you a week ago that you would be voting on a clean debt ceiling bill and that it would actually pass . The country and the congress have made Real Progress on this issue. For too long, it was choose your metaphor, then it the grenade that somebody put on the floor. I would not have expected that we would have gotten it done this far in advance of this of disaster. It is usually five minutes before midnight when the vote is happening. Does this change the game . Is this the new template echo now that republic the new template . Now that republicans have agreed to a clean bill . X i sure hope so. I sure hope so. And both parties have laid this game. And both parties, franca, including the president himself have played with this one. If i can continue with my metaphor, now we can move on and not put the hand grenade on the negotiating table. I hope we can move on. What does it mean now for the house if this issue is off the table . Weve heard republicans if they will not tackle immigration in time soon. Can you still get something done in this Midterm Election year with is now gone with this now gone . Yes, it was an enormous thing that happened and im not sure how much we should celebrate that. But it is a little bit of the breaking of the ice around here. We got a budget done for the first time in four years. The farm bill drew a lot of support from both sides of the aisle. I will not overstate, but it does injured indicated that things are getting more functional. And Janet Yellens first testimony as fed chair. You got to question her today. What was your take away . If the chairman of the Federal Reserve, or the chair as we now say, of the Federal Reserve to my of the Federal Reserve, you will not take away anything too dramatic. It was a great introduction. It is a privilege to be there for the first time in 100 years as a with a woman chair. But she held the line on all of the issues that we focus on. She was very careful in the way she answered the questions. She did not answer some of the questions, which is what the fed chairman does. I had a little bit of an opportunity to talk to her about the vocal rule and about the cost of austerity that this institution has adopted the volker rule and about the cost of austerity that this institution has adopted. She was pretty frank about it. And there is been quite a High Standard she has placed for turning the bond program back on. What is your sense . She was very careful. The bigger story is not what happened today, but the fact that the taper has been put in place and discussed without major dislocations in markets. We will keep our fingers crossed that continues to be the case. Thank you very much. A busy day for you on the floor, and with janet yellen as well. Back to you. Thank you very much, peter cook. Joining us from our Nations Capital where the u. S. House of representatives has just voted to lift the debt ceiling. The talk about something called the playbook for the playbook, for your pocketbook. The average cost of a wedding budget is more than 28,000 and if you live anywhere in the metropolitan region, it could cost you an average of more than 75,000. Here now to help us figure out how to pay for one of lifes biggest expenses, michael levenson, the cofounder of present value. It is a cash registry. Before we get to the business, i want to find out a little bit more about your background and then and some tips on how to pay for a wedding. As i said, it can be expensive. You put together some ideas on how people can save money at that particular time of life. Absolutely. And thanks for having me on. I actually started my career in finance. At jpmorgan, i had a fantastic for years there and i worked on allocation and Financial Planning and things like that. A wedding can be a daunting task. Especially with those numbers you just mentioned. 28,000 is the national average, and depending on your wedding, you can go up or down from there. You can definitely be prepared and save and do it in a right way. The key for anyone, the first up, the budget. It may sound simple, but if you are prepared and you lay out the Different Things you want in your wedding through a long way toward saving in the long haul. You put up you set up a budget. Youve got this idea that you got a plan, youve got a budget, but then you come back and use and you look and you say, you know, id rather have the money. Exactly. When people getting gauge, they think about flowers, photographers, vendors, things like that. When people get engaged, they think about flowers, photographers, vendors, things like that. And what they really need is money. And that is where we come in. We allow them to register for things, including their wedding. It is this idea that you create some kind of personal identity online that lets people contribute, lets say, if you have a student loan, they can pay that off instead of buying you a new set of dishware. Exactly. And traditional things like blenders, china, that is the kind of stuff that people find on wedding registries. We have created a simple website people can go to and register for a down payment on their first home, paying off student debt, the wedding itself, bigticket financial items. This means that the giver, and im thinking of parents as well as parents friends and relatives and so on they can select a specific gift and say, i helped you buy the house because i was one of a group of people that bought that share when i went online. Exactly. And the beautiful thing about it is that you can go on the site and in a matter of a few minutes you can give a gift to someone and know that you are helping them with their financial future. When couples get married, it is a big moment in their financial lives. It is probably the first big moment in their financial lives. As a gift giver, to be part of that is special. To me, one of the reasons i started the business, that is more special than giving someone a blender. But having said that, how do you make money at this . The great thing about present value and how we are excited about moving forward is that we view ourselves as a bridge between a couple getting married and even with all of these Financial Issues as well as financial institutions. We are creating partnerships within institutions and connecting them with couples getting married, opening that first joint account, thinking about that first mortgage, needing to plan for retirement, all of these big Financial Issues, and we connect the two. It is a winwin for everyone because the couple is getting everything they need at this critical moment in time. Does that mean that you will you obviously have not availed yourself of this cash registry are registry online because you have not gone down the aisle. I have been dating my girlfriend for three years. We have lived together for a year and a half and interesting really interestingly relating back to present value, weve got everything we need. We have a toaster, blender, wineglasses. When the time is right and i know she is watching right now. As they say, everything but the ring, right . Exactly. When the time comes, im sure present value will be extremely valuable for me as well. Maybe you will tell us more about it. Michael levenson, the chief executive and cofounder of present value. Coming up, some value right here. Act your doug e doug joins us to talk about his new film, the projectionist and how his producers are using the internet in order to get the film into movie theaters. That is next on taking stock. . A website called kickstarter helped to start a revolution in what is called crowd funding. It has been championed by many individuals, including the film director spike lee. He spoke about it on Bloomberg Television last july. Crowd funding is the new wave in financing. You go directly to your base, the people who love do the right thing, malcolm x. Joining me now is doug e doug. He has worked with spike lee. He has a new film entitled the projectionist coco and they have been using kickstart her to the projectionist. And they have been using kickstart her to fund it. But i promise i wont yell like spike lee did. You never know. It depends on what we are going to say. How did you get into this world of financing movies using the internet . I think we saw a new trend in filmmaking taking place before our very eyes with the technology and the access that we had to it. And we also have this opportunity with this trend changing with regard to how films are financed. Most kickstart her projects are going to go to kick started to say, we want to most film kick starter projects are going to go to kick starter to say we want to make it. And we saw that as an opportunity to use the platform not necessarily to make the film, but to find the audience and engage interest and contributions made from that with an opportunity to reinvest in the film and finance our own theatrical distribution without any Distribution Company backing us. Trying to distribute without a big studio behind you, what has been your experience . How is it traditionally done and what things are you trying to change . As far as traditional distribute and, youre talking about a large ad buy, or a series of them. Commercials, radio, a lot of investment. A lot of marketing goes into it. And that ed that adds into the amount of return that you have to give because you have to pay for that. Out of your receipt. Exactly. In this case, what we are going to say is we are going to try to achieve some pure profit, so to speak, without having to make the upfront costs in terms of advertising. But not to secure a true prophet. Youre just trying to gauge what the interest is and determine what your Investment Strategy will be for exposure to the film. What is the movie about . It is about a soldier who returns from iraq and has undiagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder, as many veterans do when they return. He is simply trying to reassociate himself with society and reconnect with the world that he left behind prior to going and serving his country. And it is really hard to watch at times. We are very excited about releasing this film and getting it out to a huge audience and showing the world the work we have done. But also, it is, to me, just as much about raising awareness on an issue that really is not being discussed. It is something that is being swept under the rug and hundreds of thousands of people are being affected by this. You give your life to something and not necessarily have proper rehabilitation when you return home, you know, like i said, in addition to entertaining people, because we would like this to be a successful friday night movie, but also raise awareness on an important issue. Doug e doug, is that what drew you to this project . It was that, and also ryan. Being a young filmmaker, he had the enthusiasm and he did not only have the cause, but he had the Distribution Strategy intact. When i sat down with him, there were no loose ends. It is where you can meet with someone who has enthusiasm and talent and also a cause. It was wonderful. You mentioned you were going to use this to gauge Audience Response and so on. Is that going to be the way that big studios do this in the future . I think theyre doing it now. They are trying to integrate social media in order to get the moves about what they should make. We are doing it in terms of fundraising distribution. Thank you very much. Thanks for taking stock.