one guest liked a caribbean hotel so much he bought it. then he closed it down and refurbished the premier property. now it has reopened. we will check in on the luxurious malliouhana hotel. all that and more over the next hour. let's get headlines from su keenan. >> we start with the big winner in today's training. wake up and smell the single service coffeemaker's deal with kraft. it posted most in three months up 13% after announcing a deal that will bring kraft brands to its homebrewing system. foot locker shares rose to a record high today after the athletic shoe chain posted second-quarter sales that beat estimates. foot locker is overcoming a broader retail slump by revamping store layouts and merchandising. general motors, the world's second-biggest carmaker, is cutting production in russia where the economy is weakening because of the ongoing conflict with ukraine. g.m. halted carmaking at its plant in st. petersburg and plans to refurbish through october 27. >> new details from the annual conference in jackson hole, wyoming. janet yellen and mario draghi both spoke today. michael mckee is there and joins me with the latest. >> pimm, certainly not a day you could necessarily trade on but a lot of information for investors to digest. two central bankers with their economies going in different directions, two different messages for the colleagues and the markets. for janet yellen, acknowledgment the economy is getting better faster than she expected which does put rate increases on the table. the timing remains uncertain. act too fast and you risk threatening recovery if investors overreact and push market rates up deceptively. act too slowly and you risk accelerating inflation that would force the fed to raise rates higher and faster short-circuiting growth. as yellen said, monetary policy must be conducted in a pragmatic matter that reflects the ongoing assessment of a wide range of information. mario draghi does not need information. he knows his economy is in trouble, growth stalling in eurozone and inflation is still falling. after a long-delay, the ecb is acting. he repeated they are willing to do whatever it takes. he did not mention quantitative easing. he did suggest the bank is ready to "adjust our policy stance further" and use "unconventional policies." he warned the ecb cannot do it alone. he had a strong message for european politicians telling them they needed to get fiscal policy going and easing some of the policies in place and cut taxes. it sounds almost like ben bernanke here a couple of years ago. >> it does sound as if we are going through the same thing except in a differently which in language in europe because european economies seem to be stuck in a malaise that looks a lot like what the united states was experiencing five or six years ago. >> it was interesting because both central bankers outlined at length the problems with their economies and figuring out what is going on. janet yellen talked about the question of whether it is structural or cyclical. for mario draghi, it is mostly structural in europe. they have had two different recessions. the first in 2008 and one brought on in large part in the peripheral countries after that because they don't have the flexibility as individual countries with individual fiscal policies to react to downturns. that has hurt them. he said the ecb has done a lot, but we may be reaching the limit of what we can effectively do. >> stay with me. i want to bring in other economic experts to give us more details about what is going on in jackson hole and in the economy. a dartmouth economics professor and a former member of the bank of england joins us via skype from new hampshire and from washington, d.c., a senior fellow at the peterson institute for international economics. let's begin with you based on what you have just heard from michael mckee regarding mario draghi. is mario draghi in a position to do anything other than talk about rates? >> well, he could do some quantitative intervention and buy various assets. the question is whether he would want to do it. >> mario draghi has also got to contend with a multi-speed european economy. the german economy different from what is going on in spain, greece, and portugal. when is he going to recognize getting them altogether is part of what has got to happen? >> i think he has to look at the data. you are right. we have seen weakness in spain, greece, italy, and portugal. now we are starting to see weakness in germany and france. yes, he has talked about what he can do. you said it right. it looks like europe is where the u.s. was five or six years ago. they have had five or six years to sort out what to do and still have not worked out what to do. they are still working out how to do quantitative easing. with the bank of england, we knew by november we needed to do it, and we did it in march. the ecb still does not know what to do. >> michael mckee, does the topic of rationalizing bank regulation in the european union, has that come up at all at jackson hole? >> mario draghi did bring those up as part of his policy prescription, things that needed to be done. when he talked about tax cuts, he was talking about business tax reduction. some of the corporate taxes that get levied. in general, this conference has focused on the labor market so that was not a major part of the presentation. what strikes me about the whole thing here is in a way, we saw a lot of cordiality between janet yellen and mario draghi. but mario draghi has got to be hoping janet yellen hurries up and raises interest rates because he would like to see the euro fall. if he cannot get the governments to act, at least maybe trade would pick up. >> is it worth noting the conflict that continues in eastern ukraine with russia and other nato members, that that could also derail any efforts on the part of the european union to unify their economies? >> well, not in that regard. but rather that we will see lower growth because of this conflict. one part is the political risk. we have seen investment and business confidence in germany has been less than expected because of conflict in ukraine. today we have seen a major russian escalation in eastern ukraine. there are reports regular russian troops are in eastern ukraine and they are fighting there. they have gone in in open daylight according to the organization for security and cooperation in europe. we would expect a major blow from this. it is mainly in business confidence. we will see less growth everywhere because people will be more hesitant to invest. >> danny blanchflower, a couple of seconds. fortress not europe, but how about fortress united kingdom? the economy and the political situation in the u.k.? >> the political situation in the u.k. is there is an election coming. growth has been moving fast. in the last five years, real wages in the u.s. have been flat. in the u.k., they're down by 8.5% and falling fast. the economy is different. living standards are going to be a big deal. it is going to be hard to raise rates even though two people voted for it this week when living standards are low and there is an election coming. >> i want to thank you all very much. my thanks to all of you. of course, our thanks to michael mckee. he has been reporting from jackson hole, wyoming. coming up, we will take a look at food safety. food packaging in focus with the global leader in all types of packaging, sealed air. you are going to meet the chief executive. with the u.s. open set to begin on monday, i will speak with the vice president of one of the largest tennis racket manufacturers and find out how tennis is gaining thousands of new players each year. ♪ >> food safety. the lack of food safety can send shudders through a population. recent lapses in china and russia have caused companies such as mcdonald's to stop serving certain kinds of food. sealed air is a global leader in protecting food, people, and supply chains. the company has about $7.5 billion worth of sales and employs 25,000 people. it has got a global reach. 175 countries. sealed air's chief executive jerome peribere joins me now. we were just talking about some of the more everyday uses for the products you make. i am wondering if you could describe, how did you come to be associated with bubble wrap? this was like the most original thing for sealed air. >> bubble wrap was invented by sealed air in 1957. this is what started the company. it was invented as a wall paper type product, cushioning material. gradually, the predecessor of my predecessor introduced it into packaging and it became the product it is, which is probably one of the products in the world with the highest brand awareness. >> it has the highest brand awareness not only with adults but also with children because after you get the packaging, you hear that sound throughout the house. give us an overview of the company because i know you have operations all over the world. let's start in china. i was looking at results. you're doing very well there. >> double-digit growth, 13%, a very important country for us. we are investing a lot in that country. we are investing because to make a trend in asia where population growth and urbanization are extremely important is a great environment for us. the increase in the standard of living, the increase of urbanization makes you buy more packaged food, more food safety and restaurants, and all of those kinds of things. more in e-commerce and all of this. we are the world leader of protective packaging. we are the world leader of food safety and food packaging for protein, meat, cheese. as a result of that, the natural trend is to be in those kinds of countries. countries like china, regions like southeast asia, india, brazil, the united states, europe. this is why we are so global. we are extremely global. >> i'm glad you mentioned brazil. from asia, i want to go to latin america because that is also proving to be a growth market. >> double-digit growth. the situation did not allow us to have dollar growth this year but big growth in local currencies. brazil, argentina, and chile are important countries for us. >> in the united states, if a customer were to go to costco, what kinds of products would they see that are connected to sealed air but they might not know it? >> they might buy padded envelopes. they will probably be ours. he's going to go to the meat department and see the sirloin pork or beef that will be vacuumed. that will probably be ours. you need to have shelflife extension. it is extremely important to make sure the quality of your beef, pork, chicken is there when you want to consume. the new generation wants smaller portion packaging, so our job is not to wrap. our job is to help the consumer have the quality and sanitization of the products in his fridge. we are the food waste production reduction company. $8 billion of chicken is thrown out of the u.s. every year. >> i'm glad you're mentioning food. there is a movement that has to do with your invention of the cryovac. that has to do with putting food in vacuum packed pouches and then putting them in a hot water bath to put the food. you developed that. >> this was an invention a few years ago. it has been invented by cryovac with a french chef. it has a lot of market acceptance for prepared meals because it is extremely important today in urban environments to cook very quickly. >> and precisely. >> and precisely. and for restaurants. you have all of those sirloins in packaging with sauces already in there. it is put in the oven and served. >> to be able to have many meals at the right time. you said the cryovac was made with nylon. price increases. i noticed you had to pass along price increases specifically because nylon. what is going on? >> polyethylene in the u.s. is extremely high because producers are running at capacity. as a result, prices have been going up the last two years. we have to pass those. we cannot absorb those. they have been hefty. there will be an increase on september 1 again. we need to have our customers understand we are not in the business of absorbing those because we cannot, so we pass them on. but we are obsessed with creating value for our customers. creating value for our customers is something we need to demonstrate. we even put it in the logo of our company because our tagline is "reimagined." our mission is we reimagined the industries we serve. we are there to create value for our customers through our innovation, new business concepts. as a result, we increase value to ourselves. we are a company which is about cash flow generation and quality of earnings. that is what we have been doing the past few years. >> i want to thank you very much, jerome peribere, ceo of sealed air, for sharing your story with us. goldman sachs reached an agreement to resolve all federal and state security claims related to residential mortgage-backed securities. the years involved 2005 to 2007. coming up, are you ready for rest and relaxation? we will look at a business that is all about luxury. luxury resorts. this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. ♪ >> according to bloomberg intelligence, hotel owners and developers are having to work harder to lure customers. one company trying to make its property stand out is all auberge properties. joining me is managing partner mark harmon. i wanted to introduce you as the guy that left the hotel so much about one. tell us that story. >> this is a property in a stunning location in the caribbean perched above a beautiful white sand beach with turquoise waters. you can't help but fall in love with this place. it is on the island of anguilla, a private paradise, a beautiful place. small but easy to get to. this property opened in 1984 and had a wonderful history. it set the standard for hotels, luxury hotels in the caribbean when it opened. over the years, it has had wonderful success. guests came back year after year. a couple of years ago it closed down. we bought it and did a top to bottom restoration of the property. malliouhana, that is it. >> what other properties do you have? i know you have auberge in california. >> our flagship property is in the napa valley. we opened that in 1981. we have other properties in the napa valley. we have the hotel jerome in aspen. we have other properties that are going to open soon. >> what is the next when you're going to open? >> i can tell you the next property we will open is in fiji. >> that is going to be a long flight for you. >> it is a long flight. but we are excited because we look for spectacular locations to delight our guests. >> thank you for spending time with me. come back any time. mark harmon, managing partner of auberge resorts. this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. ♪ >> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i'm pimm fox. for headlines, let's go to su keenan in the newsroom. >> we have late word goldman sachs has agreed to buy back $3.15 billion in mortgage securities as part of a settlement with the housing finance agency. the deal aims to resolve all claims related to residential mortgage-backed security spot by fannie mae and freddie mac from 2005 to 2007. very big news. argentine bonds sell for a second week after the argentine president proposed a plan to get the country out of default. a u.s. judge called the plan illegal. one economist told bloomberg the argentine economy will contract 3% this year. could the man known as the world's greatest investor, who likes to boast he runs his company on a shoestring budget, need a little help in a comes to record-keeping? in the past two weeks, warren buffett's berkshire hathaway missed filing deadlines for investments in two companies, dow chemical and usg. one mistake resulted in an $896,000 penalty. those are the top stories. back to you. >> thanks very much, su keenan. the u.s. open championship set to begin on monday. rafael nadal is out with a wrist injury. the sport of tennis is doing just fine without him. according to one research report, the sport added over 650,000 players in 2013. to tell us more about the growth and popularity of tennis is greg mason, president of the tennis industry association. thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> we have to start by talking about the u.s. open. who do you think will win? >> you have a great open. djokovic playing well, federer challenging, a fan favorite. it is going to be interesting. you have serena on the women's side. halep is a youngster coming up and challenging. it should be a good tournament. it always is. >> you are so diplomatic. the sport of tennis, tell us about the popularity. what is going on? >> it has been a lot of fun. recent survey ranked the top 10 sports. tennis was the only traditional sport. the others are running, cycling, walking, things like that. the tennis industry association is all about growing the game and revenue. the sport is unique because we all work together. whether that is the usta, pros teaching at a local court, the racket manufacturers, we all work together around one or two to key messages. we do 10 and under. we have added 5% more players 10 and under just last year because of modifying the game with different equipment. >> tell us about some of that equipment. people look at tennis and say those rackets seem to get bigger every year. >> it is the opposite for kids. you think about it, baseball for example, how do you learn the game? it is t-ball, coach-pitch, and kid-pitch. we used to send kids out with nets up to their eyes and balls bouncing over their heads. now we have a modified game with shorter courts, lower nets, and balls that bounce lower and slower, so they can take full swings and develop their games. the other thing we have done is we have generated a grand central website. playtennis.com. anybody can go in and find a court, a program, equipment information. it is one site they can go to whether you are in peoria or manhattan, you can find a facility or program right for you. >> when you think about tennis, you think about tournaments. we have the u.s. open. we just had the french open and wimbledon and so on. this is also about children, young people playing in all kinds of locations, whether that is inner cities or somewhere in the suburbs. there has been a lot of organization about getting kids specifically interested in tennis. how did that come about? >> america is graying. we all know the demographics are getting older. traditional sports are not attracting kids. if you look at all the stats, when a kid plays tennis at the age of 13, because it is not an easy game to start to learn, what happens is in most sports at the age of 13, they fall off. they don't make their high school team or they are not in the club. they are gone. tennis is a family game. you can play with your sister, mom, dad, cousin. it is inexpensive. you can go to a public park. a few bucks for a can of tennis balls and an inexpensive racket. it is an easy game to get into. if you can get them in there, especially if they take a lesson, i think the stat is 61% of people that take a tennis lesson play tennis going forward. if you and i go out and have not played, the odds are if we play for one hour, we will spend 59 minutes picking up balls and one minute playing, so you want to get into a program like that. that is why i push the playtennis site because it is a natural. >> hang on. greg mason is the president of the tennis industry association. speaking of tennis, the u.s. open coming up on monday. my next guest is trying to figure out a way to beat stubhub, ticketmaster, and ebay at their own game. the company is called tickpick and says it has a better way to score tickets. joining me is the cofounder, brett goldberg. thanks so much for being here. what is wrong with stubhub and ebay? there are not enough ways to get tickets? >> there are differences. one is no buyer's fee. there's still 10% buyer fees and 15% seller fees. 25% total. >> less cost. algorithms will help the consumer find the best deal. if you want to look at seat location, price, you can compare them. >> by using this algorithm, you can find out for a certain amount of money, let me tell you the best seat. >> exactly. you can manipulate the algorithm. if you want to sit courtside, you can say i care more about seat location versus price. it is going to manipulate the algorithms so the better seats will rank better because the general algorithm is not tailored to who you are. it will allow you to tailor the algorithms. >> the key is bidding. this is a twist on the whole thing. it is not just buying and selling. you get to put out a good. >> correct. my background is wall street. i used to work at barclays capital in investment banking. i had been buying and selling tickets as a hobby. my partner and i discovered stubhub in 2006. we said, what is the problem? you were not able to give feedback to the market from a buyer perspective. the seller has no feedback. we took a step back and said, how can you make this more like a financial marketplace? in a financial market place, you have sellers say what they're asking and buyer saying what their bid is. on ebay, you can list a ticket for sale. someone can say i will pay x. if you're going to the u.s. open and there are 1000 seats courtside, you're not going to spend the time to bid on 1000 of them. with our bidding platform, it allows you to set a price of what you're willing to pay for the best seats and not as good seats. you can say i'm willing to pay $1000 for the first row or $500 for the second row. the seller is able to see that feedback. we also will have a process that can run in the background. >> where do you get the ticket inventory? >> we have over $1 billion worth of ticket inventory on our site right now. that is coming from a couple of thousand different brokers. that industry is a well-developed industry. we have about 80% of the same inventory stubhub has. >> you are able to put in a price and you give instant feedback to the consumer to tell them what is the percentage your bid will succeed. >> exactly. let's say you're looking to go to the finals of the u.s. open. courtside seats are going for $2000. you could say i'm willing to go to that and want to sit in good seats. i'm willing to pay $1500. you will not get that ticket today. but prices fluctuate like the stock market. two days before, the price dips to $1400 and you got yourself a seat. >> this is not just for sporting events. it is for theatrical events as well. >> concerts, broadway, you name it. if it is a live, hot event, we are selling it. we do a little bit of everything. >> what kind of sales have you experienced in growth? >> the last year, we have done about $10 million in ticket sales. each year, we are growing by about two times. we are doing about $1 million a month now and expect to be doing $2 million by the end of december. the fall season is our strong season because of nfl, nba, and nhl. we have been seeing two to three times growth year over year. >> how do you make sure there are not people putting in bids to manipulate prices? >> i hope they start to do that. that would be a good problem to have. that would mean you're starting to get liquidity and eyeballs. for super bowl last year, tickets a week before were going for $1500 maybe. we had a person place a bid for $1250. it was lowball. little did they know someone was going to list a ticket. they can see what someone is willing to pay. they say instead of listing it and waiting a week, i will sell it right now for $1250. that means there is efficiency there. already, the ticket industry is trying to figure out arbitrage. that is what is happening. >> is someone going to buy your company, you think? >> i think we are a good target for a lot of people. >> we're going to leave it there. what is the next event you're going to? >> i'm going to the black keys at barclays. i got them on tickpick for less than face value. >> brett goldberg is the cofounder of tickpick. coming up, i will be speaking with the creator of the mobile dating app that has made over 3 million matches. if you're looking to buy some luxury gifts for your four-legged friend, look no further. i will introduce you to the founder of yark to find out why the market for luxury pet products is soaring. ♪ >> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i am pimm fox. mobile dating apps continue to grow in popularity. hinge is adding an old-school twist to this new form of dating. it is matchmaking mystery mutual friends. imagine that. hinge is partnering with uber. hinge founder justin mcleod joins me now. we have to start by trying to figure out why does the world need another dating app? >> i think it just needs one that works well. that is what we are trying to be. what we are all about is we believe technology should be something that enhances our real-world lives and does not displace it or get in the way of our real-world lives. we are introducing you to people through your friends like you would in real life when you go to house parties, dinners, and weddings, and the kind of places you forge great relationships. we make that more frequent and a much smarter process. >> how does it work? how do you connect to mutual friends? how do you get them to be part of the network? >> it has been a slow growth process. we started in washington, d.c., originally. it was getting my friends on and their friends on. it has grown concentrically around that. it moved to new york last year. this year, we have launched in a bunch of new cities across the country. >> every person has an average of 36 friends on hinge. 85% of the downloads come from word of mouth. >> that is right. it is even getting to 95% now. >> how does that happen? >> i think we provide a good experience other people are not used to. a lot of times, you join a dating app and see people who are irrelevant to you and you have to filter through people you would not be interested in at all. i think people are very surprised. when we show you someone on hinge, it is someone you are actually interested in. as a result of the social validation that comes from having a friend in common, people are more willing to move off-line more quickly. as a result, that turns into more stories. i went out with this person, i met them through hinge. that turns into another download. >> what about uber? >> this is a great opportunity. uber launched the ability for us or other apps to plug into their app. we deeply into their app. what happens on our app is if you're chatting with someone and type in an address, we immediately recognize that is an address and allow you with one click to call uber to come and pick you up and take you to that address. >> what about access to online profiles from places like facebook? for example, many people have friends on facebook. but they may not be close friends or friends that you would want to share with other people. >> right. it is the strength of weak ties that allows a lot of people to end up matching up. it is not a really good friend that will be a good romantic connection. you probably would have already thought to yourself these people would be good together and matched us up. it is the weak ties, the ones you would not have thought of, people who are acquaintances that end up becoming those matches. your social network says a lot about you, like where you went to school or grew up. that ambient information is what is powerful. >> those commonalities. what about the cost? >> right now, we are a totally free app. coming up, looking to walk man's best friend in high style? you will meet the founder of yark and find out what makes a handmade leather leash worth over $100. coming up on "bloomberg west," the united states and united kingdom investigators are using high-tech tools in the search for james foley's killer. the east london accent and slit in the executioner's hood are being analyzed in the hopes of getting the identity of the person in the video. the video is being scrubbed for metadata and more. emily chang rounds up some of the best experts to tell us what investigators are looking for on "bloomberg west" next. ♪ >> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i am pimm fox. spending money on man's best friend is big business. americans will spend over $50 billion this year on pets. $13 billion is going to pet supplies. yark wants a bite of this market. founded earlier this year, yark produces and sells handmade leashes and dog beds. i am joined by the founder. great to have you with us on bloomberg. why did you decide to start yark? >> well, i started it because i discovered a void. when i got my first dog in college, i struggled to find a leash and collar that suited my style. i filled this by taking old belts to my local cobbler. he helped me convert them to a leash and collar. i started noticing people asked, where did you get that? it was not just me that saw this void. i developed a business plan. i moved to new york city where the resources of the garment district allowed me to be with sample makers and do product development while still working full time. the end result is i was able to create a product i loved as much as i would love a handbag, something i use every day and wanted to get excited about. >> give people an idea of some of the products and price points available. >> ok. launched in february. we have leashes and collars. a set retails for about $200. this is all handmade in california and new york city. launched just two weeks ago are our loungers. this is what we call our sophisticated dog bed that is a true piece of furniture. these are handmade in california. the idea is you don't have to compromise the look of your living room decor and can give your dog a great piece of furniture. i think a lot of dog owners can relate to the fact that dogs enjoy the comfort of furniture whether we allow them to or not. this solves that issue. >> where can people purchase this? is this an online experience? is there a place they can go see it before they decide this is something they want for their dog? >> at this point, it is online direct from our website. yarkdog.com. in the coming months, we will be expanding to wholesale accounts as well. >> what is the most popular dog collar you sell? >> the most popular has been the frankie. it comes in a couple of different color leathers. it has a bright pink woven trim. it has a different style i don't think you have seen until now. >> give us an idea of how well you're doing. what kind of sales or volume? >> six months in, the response has been incredibly encouraging. so much so that we decided to launch our loungers sooner than we anticipated. >> we have got to leave it there. colleen carr bayless, the founder of yark. you can get a dog collar for man's best friend. thanks for "taking stock." ♪

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