Helping military families. You know about salad bars . How about for my dear . Conquering the world, one beer at a time. All of that and more over the next hour. First, lets get headlines from our radio cohost carol massar. The minutes from the Federal Reserves june meeting released today, showing zones all as the about were concerned growing too complacent about the economic outlook. Some officials believed the central bank should be on the lookout for excessive risktaking. Meantime, American Apparel continues its fight for survival. It has reached a deal with standard general. The deal features American Apparel receiving 25 million from standard general. Five out of the seven current members are resigning. Dish Network Install the sec to deny comcast that the comcast purchase of time warner cable. They have serious competitive concerns. That is a look at the top headlines. Back to you. Much, carol very massar. Now pronounce of those Federal Reserve meeting minutes, i am welcome to you both. Honest us it, i want to start with you. I love saying your name over and over again. An idea going to have of your pitch for the Federal Reserve. It is really confirming the ship that is taken place. Lets not be pulled by the lack of market reaction. Whether its an implicit or explicit reference to higher rates, it is upon us. We have to be watching it very carefully. The fed is trying to communicate to the market that this is not going to be a pivot. It is going to be a slow turn. That is exactly what were seeing. Do you buy that . Do you think that is what the Federal Reserve is trying to communicate. We are going to do is eventually, but we are not trying to scare you. Forewarnedn at least that that is a plan. I think that is right. A keyword that anastasia use was injured by and. Isre seeing that the fed being extremely deliberate, not only making his decisions, but in communicating them. We saw in the april minutes how they were having these discussions about what that strategy would be. Janet yellen came out and said that we do not have any decision yet. Got morehold, we details in these minutes. They said even more details will be coming later in the year. Anastasia, lets make this altogether. We got the alcoa earnings. The stock move is higher. We are in the summer trading so blames her muted. Next week, we get the retail sales reports. Were going to get more housing reports. The july numbers for employment. That will not be into me and beginning of august. What is the help of the economy right now . I think it is improving. I think it is actually quite solid. Effect confirme what we were suspecting, which is the Second Quarter activity is really picking up briskly, and it is likely going to carry us through the rest of the year, and probably over the next two years. I think all of the data points were getting are quite optimistic, which makes us optimistic on rates for the time being. We can safely into why i think now like socks . Yes, stocks. A credit or fixed income, we can talk about this risk, but also the opportunities in emerging markets. The types of are risk assets we are talking about. What are you making of that . Are there economies in other parts of the world amid be in better for your investment dollar even know what the treasury the 10 year treasury yields more than the comparable german paper, and i think almost as much as managed in your paper. That they thing is markets last year were very ofcerned about withdrawal activity. Have a collapse . They have not collapsed. It had a big selloff and started to bounce back. You have actual liquidity coming out of the bank of japan and the fan,ean bank very the though not withdrawing stimulus, are reducing the rate. And we gete more european come anastasia . Yes, i think there is room for that in the portfolio. The stimulus package that was unveiled last month is quite significant. Tever you want to call it it means more money. It means more money. Supply and demand. More money needs to find a home. Credit flows. The European Central bank is applying this. What they are essentially saying is capitals extremely attractive. The formula is quite complicated, but if you follow the format, all of that is to boost the Growth Potential of the euro area. We got a little bit of news from the fed today about the liquidity. We heard some indications from danielle and and president dudley that they might not change their investment policy as early as people expected. There were some four warnings of this, but today, we heard that the fed was going to wait until the point of raising rates before would stop reinvesting into securities. That means more liquidity for the market. As i think that is a very interesting point, but it also sets us up for some future risks. 2015 could be very interesting. For whom . But alsolders, potentially for stockholders. Not only do we get most likely the first rate increase. Prior to this point, we were not talking about reducing the reinvestment. Once the reinvestment stops, it could be a pretty significant amount and Mortgage Backed securities that and do not get purchased by the Federal Reserve. One thing to keep an eye on. Were going to count on you to do so. Thank you very much, anastasia. My things also to boomers josh wright. If congress does not act soon, rhoda Bristol Construction could grind to a whole. The Highway Trust Fund pays for infrastructure projects. There is a problem. The trust fund is running down. Lawmakers continue to debate what to do for more on the state of play in washington, we have our chief washington correspondent peter cook. Were there any signs of a compromise . There are some signs of movement on capitol hill in the last 24 hours. You have the House Republicans a 10 dave camp offering billion mandate. It wouldve used in billion dollars into the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to run out as soon as august. He would pay for it by a couple of budget gimmicks. Pension plan changes that would effectively raise about 6. 4 billion. 1 billion from a leaking that theanks find federal government maintains. He says this is a temporary solution to kick the can into next year. And poorly, this is a proposal that has the backing of speaker john boehner, i asked him about it today. I think they have a really solid bill to help pay for the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund for the next nine months. It is a solid these of legislation. I am looking forward to the committee marking it up. Speaker boehner cause of the solid these of legislation. Not even all republicans feel the same way. Bob 10 as he it an embarrassment. The real issue here is that there are a lot of lawmakers who would like to see a longterm fix, four to five years. Asy see this patch inadequate to the challenge, but the reality is this may be the best the congress can do given that its a Midterm Election year. What happens money. What happens if they dont reach a deal by august . There is a lot of doom and gloom predictions out there. The Highway Trust Fund would expire. There is no additional source of funding for it. That means road construction, particularly ones on the drawing board, will launch at all. The white house is convinced that that will put in the perils carol 700,000 jobs. The threat is is its going to run dry and august. Thank you for your reporting. Peter cook, our chief washington correspondent. Coming up, successful people from the world of media. Idaho for sun valley, the annual meeting. Find out next. Sides andors taking amazon price dispute with russia. I will talk with steve berry. That is coming up next. This is taking stock. I am pimm fox. Today, tim cook another technology and media executives met at the atlanta and Company Conference in sun valley, idaho. That theme at this years now isnce joining me the chief executive and cofounder of motif investing which designs customizability Exchange Traded funds. Thank you for being here. What is this i hear about a specialized etf, but it is only content distribution players . Tell me about it. They are not etfs. They are baskets of stocks. They look and feel like an etf. The advantage is if you own a stock versus an etf they are customizable. They are built around concepts like content distribution, access, holders revision creation process. Of these individual portfolios you are constructing . These are a basket of up to 30 stocks intelligently weighted. What youre purchasing is a dirty stock basket. One main dollars for work. It will cost you 9. 95 to build a basket of stock. It is built around the world of sports, water shortage, or could be a trading strategy. Concept. A now what do i do to act on that concept . We create an index portfolio. It is customizable. You can tweak it or change it. Community, our customers, have built 50,000 of these monkeys. Include content distribution. And tellas an example us of the companies involved. The companies would be time it is content creation, distribution, and the access points. Eightw do you know how to w the participation . That depends on the company. If you take a company that has different exposures to content, distribution in the online adjust thee, we will market cap by revenues or different factors to really tease out the exposure that you have that company. If you let it look at access ofnts, we wont put all apples market cap. The weighting. Companies are pretty complex. We do a lot of rmb to give you exposure. Tell us who some of the investors are. We have a great group of venture capitalists. ,p morgan and Goldman Sachs wicklow, and were lucky to have a couple of independent Board Members like arthur levitt. As far as the constituents in these various groups, there is no date get your heart of that has to be met . We dont do any stocks. We tried to be responsible about putting product out there. , if lot of these companies theyre in the technology into the business, you can be struck down by a Supreme Court ruling overnight. Absolutely. That is the advantage of having a product is reverses and egypt exposure a broad versus a niche exposure. About the distribution rights to the world cup games, everything you can think of related to sports is in a motive , and you can purchase it in one place. There is also one that is sands sind, right . Think of gluttony companies. Think of greed. Think of lust. It is a way to take an expression of what people think, and it is outperforming the s p. What does that tell you about behavioral investing and economics . It tells you a few things. The power of inking conceptually it doesnt have to i didnt have a quantitative easing strategy. I can think about that taper. These areinvest all expressions. The power of this is that we all think conceptually. We take those expressions. I want to thank you very much. Very interesting. Motive interesting. Hardeep walia. Want to introduce you to sell serve beer. That is coming up on taking this is taking stock on bloomberg. I am pimm fox. Amazon wants to cut out the middleman again. The company is proposing that all the proceeds of the sales from digital books go directly to authors. It is all part of the dispute with the hopsters book group. 18 million copies of his books. 51 countries. As most recent book is called the lincoln myth. It is pretty good. Great to be here. This proposal by amazon it looks, great. It gives steve berry all of the money that he makes online. It makes no sense. Hacettethe riders at are advanced riders. How they pay it back . From the sale books. Hachette the money actually belongs to them. They are paying it back. Amazon knows that. That is why this is almost a ridiculous offer. There is no way in the world that they would take it. If they did take it, all they would do is believed bleed them dry more. It was just a publicity stunt. Look of us in the business at that offer and say it is ridiculous. Tell us about the business. Were going to connect it with amazon. Youre in new york for what . We have a thriller fest. We have 2600 members from around the world. It is a subject of conversation. Are able topeople reach the level of success that you have had . I would say that i am probably in that one percentile. I started at zero percent. I voted up over 13 years. I am at that level. All riders have their own levels of success. All riders want to move up the ladder. Everyone strives for that. Nurturing of the talent over 13 years and the relationships, is that something that amazon does not care about, things they can drive a wedge between . Put anyt want to negative ill will to amazon. I dont take a position with either one. I stand for the rider. You guys are going to be used as a ball. You have two multibilliondollar International Corporation fighting over riders money. Money. Is more difficult for us. We work solitary. We dont have a union. We work solitary. Each one as an individual deal. We try to do what we can. We talk to each other. I talk about my deal with other riders. You have these two corporations fighting over money. That they payte on an ebook is low. It is not relative. It was added a time when there are no ebooks. Thank you very much. Is the lincoln myth. This is taking stock. I am pimm fox. Let us take a look at the headlines and go to our radio cohost carol massar. Despite u. S. Stocks benchmark setting records is your comment investors pulled more money from your stock mutual funds than they have in 18 months. Stock funds suffered redemptions and the week ending july 2. Former new orleans mayor has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was found guilty in february on 20 counts of federal corruption charges. Until hes out on bond has to report to prison no later than september 8. And set transformers a record at the chinese box office. Transformers has had more than 225 million in the country. Those are the headlines. Lets turn our attention to washington. The navys 23 billion combat ship is facing some chopped. The dods weapons tester says the new ship is less able to survive an attack that other worships. Our correspondent is in washington with more. Critics have been calling the ship wouldve of the been calling the ship . They are called the little ship. My colleague got his hands on a letter from michael gilmore, the defense departments director of Operational Testing and evaluation, written to senator he expressedhere that the combat ship standards continue to accept risk that the crew would need to abandon ship under circumstances that would not necessitate the action on other vessels. Gilmore wrote to the senator to rebut the navys contention that he is mistaking requirements. Gilmore is standing by what he said. They are significantly different from those for other ships. Ship is intended to operate in shallow waters. It is being built into versions by lockheed martin. It has come under a lot of courtney for price and performance. It has garnered the nickname from his critics. Todays news comes after chuck hagel said in february that he was limiting purchases to 32 the 52, instead of originally planned. He was a navy to develop alternatives for a more survivable ship. Those recommendations are expected by the end of this month. Hang and for just a moment. I would to bring into the conversation robert levinson. Robert, good to have you here. I want to start off by saying, how was your morning . I had breakfast with the chief of naval operations. Littlebat ship came up a bit in the conversation. Lets just do that for a second. What is up with this project . Has it always been this content is . I think it has been pretty contentious. The navy thatand it needed to play in the smaller wars. It needed a smaller ship it to get closer to shore. One of the things that has been , they sort of lower the bar on the ship. If you read the report, originally, it was meant to be very survivable, but then they said, were going to back it off a little bit. Anytime you see that with a weapon system, where you start lowering the requirements, that is usually a pretty bad sign. Is this a pattern at the department of defense, that you have programs that you may have started many years before, specifically before the advent of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, and now a lot of these weapon systems have to be rethought . . We said this. Our timeline for producing these big weapons is usually a couple of decades. Youre kind of making a projection of the future. You are hoping the system will meet the need. Threats evolve, and sometimes something designed for one threat is not ready by the time it comes off the production line. To rethink the whole concept. I was thinking about the f 35, the joint strike fighter. It has basically been grounded. It has been grounded now. They had a fire in engine. Theyre trying to figure out what that is. This is a program that has been on the drawing board for a long time. Inis going to be completed 2017. Any time you invest that much money and that many airplanes for that many years, theres going to be a lot of questions. What are the chances that the show up turns up in the quantities that they are being talked about . They have already cut it by 20 ships. It went from 52 to 32. A good come down even from that. I would not be surprised. Its not going to get a lot of support in congress. Budgets are tight. Theyre going to look for things to cut. If the apple can find more money that moneyr needs elsewhere, he will find Something Else to spend it on. I want to thank you very much. Robert levinson. Coming up, i will speak with the head of lacking the hotels, the hotel chain that recently went public. He has some plans to take the southwestern inspired hospitality chain to the next level. This is taking stock. I am pimm fox. La quinta inns and suites is over 45 years old. In 2006, the private equity firm blackstone bought it. La quinta went public in april this year. We have achieved executive and president. Being here. R la quinta lets start off with a little bit of history about about la quinta. Prior to the blackstone acquisition, blackstone purchased the company in 2006. We took the company private. Yearsnt a number of repositioning the brand. April of this in year. What is the brand stand for in the Hotel Industry . , we focus onta driving loyalty and engagement. We focus on those things that make us different from our competitors and industry and space that some would say is commoditized. We focus on delivering those points of differentiation. Lets talk about price. A lot of this comes down to how much does it cost to stay for a night . What segment of the market does la quinta focus on. . We are in the upper two midscale segments. 98 of our revenue comes from the sale of a room. It is about the experience in the room. We deliver a unique experience to the customer by delivering on those points that are unique. Can you give us a range of prices . What would be a low price . What would be a high price . The price range is going to vary depending on the market and the property. From 85 could range to several hundred dollars, depending on the location. In irving, texas, what would it be there . It is still going to very from property to property, even there. We have several properties in irving. Rates, weve run in the 80 plus range on average. That comes with free breakfast . Free continental breakfast and every property, and we also provide free. Ighspeed internet where geographically are your strongest . Where would you like to get stronger . Is where the company started. Texas is our largest market. Our three largest markets are texas, florida, and california. We will continue to see growth in those markets. That havecompetitors more hotels and we do. We have plenty of room to grow our brand and even in the United States today. Today int represented some market tracks. We are focused into getting into those market tracks. Where would you like to go next . Whats we are focused on growing brand all over the united dates. United states. We are under construction in honduras and columbia. 10 of our pipeline today is international. 16 is urban. We are focused on getting more properties in urban districts. The stock is up about nine percent 9 e since the ipo. You have any debt the service . We do have debt in place. We have a great capital structure today. We are really focused this is a quick cash generating business, and we have committed to taking the free cash low. Flow. Are want for joining us. He is the president of la quinta inns and suites. You are not are going to meet the company that will not let a bartender stand between you and your group. Taking stock on bloomberg. I am beer in box. Selfserve beer stations. The allstar game. A Company Called pourmybeer is part of this. Beer and solesource wine stations across United States and canada. Could a bartenders days be numbered . Josh goodman is the chief executive of pourmybeer. He joins us from chicago. Great to have you. Why do we need pourmybeer . We love bartenders and servers, but the whole idea is to make things more efficient. We allow customers access when they wanted. We allow bartenders to focus on other duties. Described your pourmybeer system. We have two types of systems. We have movable and builtin. We have bare walls and their tables. The table is set up for a group of four to seven people. The table offers them the ability to access to peers per person. Two beers per person. The whole idea is to get in the beer as soon as you can get it, and do it responsibly. Two beers,cess to and you have to get access for more beers. It is a controlled environment . It is the core of our product line. When i first started the company, i had to go to every liquor board to get approval. It is controlled. It is no different from a pitcher of beer or a bottle of wine. It is a true prophet driver for our customers. Driver for our customers. Have your favorite pourmybeer locations. Down in san diego. It is selfserve. Thatan get an id bracelet allows you to go around and taste different beers. In chicago, we have a plethora of locations. They do 50,000 a day or more. They do selfserve liquor at the table. That is another feature of our product. We have the milwaukee airport. Miller brewhouse is our products there. Caesars entertainment, marriott hotels. Yes, sir. We are quietly growing. A key clientiously of ours in las vegas. Las vegas being the town that it is, it is very forward thinking concept. They and chicago have been our leaders in the market for getting our product out there. Are the systems put together . Who constructs all of this . That is a good question, pam pimm. Manufacturerour out of michigan. They make all of our movable products that store the beer inside the table or wall. Marriott in baltimore has that version, where you can use that version with a room key. We have a builtin version of which is more of a custom project. A company in Fort Lauderdale has multiple tables were customers and for from. When they sit down, they have access immediately. That is more of a customized job where we will learn to work with more local manufacturers. I am coming to your house. I want to thank you very much. Just goodman, he is the chief executive of pourmybeer. Lets turn from beer to marijuana. The second state in the nation to legally sell marijuana. Washington approved medical marijuana back in 1998. Is johnhe leaders davis. He is the chief executive of the northwest Patient Resource center in seattle. He joins me now. Thank you for being here. Lets start off with your reaction to this change in the law and the implementation of the new law and ruling in Washington State. It is a store moment in Washington State and in the nation to begin to move away from the policy of prohibition. Going to be a little bit messy to start, but you got to understand, we come down a long, rocky path, which is then prohibition, which has been really unsuccessful at prohibiting anything. Going to have to dig our way out. It is not going to be instantly something that works incredibly well. Fact that washington and colorado are moving away policy is going to allow us to show the people that theyre going to do so without increased use used, without increased youth availability to other drugs, without increased overall access. Those types of statistics are going to inform the rest of the nation. Your experience and Ongoing Research in this field, what is the various points of view of Law Enforcement agencies . Or not . They be local i think Law Enforcement more thatore is coming to terms they are spending their resources inappropriately when they need to be spinning their resources on things like property crime. We have come a long way from the fourth amendment. Away a lot of our individual liberties in the name of this drug war, which we are not winning. Thinking of the brooklyn das office in new york city, basically coming out and saying there needs to be some kind of demarcation line in terms of the amount, where, and so on. They are not going to prosecute, but police have the duty to enforce a law. It becomes an economic point. In seattle, would be homes, our city attorney, was elected and decided not to prosecute those low level drug offenses, no position for candidates cannabis, we did not have to go to jail. We in the United States are the largest jailer per capita in the history. No other civilization has managed to lock up individuals at the rate that we have. This is connected to the war on drugs . Absolutely. It is economically not viable. Even if we wanted to continue spending money on it, it doesnt work to bring it anything. The purity goes up. The prices go down. This is something that we are going to have talks about. In the case of cannabis, it is such a simple equation. Cannabis cannot kill you from overdose. , compared to recreational substances, it is a much safer substance. And certainly does not deserve people spending long amounts of time in jail. Having said that, who is going to make the money . Who is going to make the money . Are westry going to end up with Something Like the cigarette business . Bigyou going to see corporations . Eventually, right now, it is still federal eeo. They barely have a banking system. They barely have a banking system. I think they are looking at it. They are not seeing it as viable. It is really taking the entrepreneurs who are willing to take that risk and to come in and be savvy about it. If you want to play in the cannabis industry you have to make sure everybody is doing the right thing. There are a lot of people participating. There will be some rotten apples. Absolutely, we reach out and Work Together with other individuals as well as we can. We realized what has been handed to us. If we screw this up, it is going to put cannabis reform back for two years. Even busier now than you have ever been . Absolutely. I have worked on this particular issue for more than two decades. People can find you at the northwest patience resource. I want to thank you very much. John davis. Thank you for taking stock. I am pimm fox. Good night