Wardrobe without spending all of your money. All of that and more over the next hour. But first the headlines for my radio cohost, carol massar. Up 31 , the first straight day of Third Straight day of doubledigit gains. Radioshack is reportedly talking with shareholder standard general about a financing deal. Abercrombie fitch is falling the most today in about six months. The retailer reported secondquarter earnings that missed analyst estimates. Up 7 in the last quarter. Speculation that apples announcement on september 9 will be the debut of a wearable device. Those are some of the top headlines at this hour. Thanks very much. President obama today making remarks about a wide range of issues, beginning with iraq and immigration, and also the situation with the confrontation between russia and ukraine. Peter cook has details. Lets start with a foreignpolicy crisis. He did talk about immigration as well, but the immediate news coming from this statement from the president , this brief press conference, he made clear taking expectations off the table that the u. S. Might conduct airstrikes into syria. The president basically saying, listen, we dont have that option on the table yet. We are still developing a strategy both up hes going into a meeting this afternoon and evening with his National Security council. There is some talk that the u. S. Could move right away to launch air strikes. The president clearly taking that off the table and even saying that he would go back to congress for more broad discussion about how to take on isis in the region. That issue, basically put to bed on for the moment. On the subject of fruit ukraine, an announcement by ukraine that russia has crossed the border not only with troops, but heavy weaponry. We have nato officials releasing satellite imagery that they say proves without any doubt that Russian Forces have, indeed crossed that border. The president would not go so far as to say he believes this is an invasion, but he said ultimately, russia is response will for what is happening in ukraine. Take a listen to some of what he had to say. There is no doubt that this is not a homegrown, indigenous of rising uprising in eastern ukraine. These separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by russia. Again, the president reiterating has no plans for military action to try to bolster ukraine. He was asked about the possibility of even providing more arms to ukraine by the United States, but did not answer the question below directly, taking a deliberative approach and saying that the u. S. Is prepared to ratchet up sanctions against. He will be meeting with some of his European Partners next week, nato talks in wales. He made it clear that hes not happy with what Vladimir Putin is doing, but not prepared to go beyond sanctions to try to get him to change his ways. Peter cook, going beyond sanctions and military overflights in syria, tell us what the use the u. S. Is doing to combat isil. There has been the expectation from folks in the administration and even at the pentagon that the United States ok surveillance flights over syria, and that maybe the next move would be military airstrikes against the Islamic State in syria. That would be controversy over for the president has stayed out of this civil war for a variety of reasons and has avoided military action there. And he made clear that while he has been considering a, hes not there yet. He has okayed airstrikes to support the Iraqi Government near erbil, but not yet for serious. That could open him up for criticism, but hes taking a deliberative approach and wants regional players to take a bigger role. He is sending john kerry to the area to bolster that. Regional players do not agree always on a host of issues. Thank you, peter cook. Joining us also from washington is john herbst , a former ambassador to ukraine. Give us your latest understanding of what is actually going on in ukraine and in russia. It is really very simple. You have a russian invasion of ukraine. And in fact, mr. Putin wants to hide this from his own people, which is why he has not put it out on his television that those are regular pRussian Troops regular pRussian TroopsRussian Troops fighting against ukrainians. Ambassador herbst, why are the russians not prevailing . They are not prevailing because the ukrainians are fighting furiously and effectively against the Russian Armed and legs and supplied separatists. Clearly, if mr. Putin sent in 50,000 or 70,000 troops, he could probably easily deal with the ukrainian military. But right now he is sending in thousands of troops. And even these thousands of troops are making a little bit of progress, but not substantial progress. Ambassador herbst, if nato and other western allies do not respond with military force, will Vladimir Putin end up putting 50,000 or 60,000 military troops in ukraine . I wouldnt rule it out. The west has been four to six weeks late in responding to all of the russian provocations in the past five months. And they have been relatively weak when they have responded. That is unfortunate. If the sanctions, for example, that president obama talked about today were levied already, that would be a much stronger signal to talk about them than to levy them in, perhaps two weeks. And thats it are, what are some specific things ambassador, what are some specific things you would like to see nato do . Two things that the west as a whole needs to do to deter russia and to roll back the current russian aggression. First, the United States or any nato country should be providing significant military supplies to ukraine. Antiarmor, antiaircraft, and antimissile supplies, so that russian casualties go up sharply. The kremlin is hiding from his own people the fact that russian soldiers are dying in ukraine because i would be politically awkward for the kremlin. Lets make it clear that is happening. And by providing military clement to ukraine, that would happen. That is one. Number two, nato as an alliance should fully review the russian founding act. It says there is no threat to the east. Mr. Putin is now posing a threat to our nato allies, the baltic states, whether they are russian speakers, or polish allies. They need to review it and place substantial military assets in the baltic states. Aggression has consequences. And that russian aggression must cease. To political leaders in europe understand a need to demonstrate to their own people that russias behavior is aggression toward them as well as ukraine . Its not necessarily aggression towards europe directly. But its aggressive policies, which could turn elsewhere within europe. And lets not forget that in 2007, russia released a cyber war against estonia. If russia succeeds in its ukrainian aggression, that would embolden putin to take aggression against the other baltic states, maybe romania, maybe poland. He is trying to overturn the peace settlement reached in the early 1990s at the end of the cold war. That is a danger to stability in europe and around the world. The chinese, as they push their aggressive aims in the seas around china, are watching carefully the western response, the week restaurant response the weak western response to russia. Thank you very much, ambassador. Coming up, is the value of your home going up or down . Are people buying homes or content to rent . It is all about location. Find out where one with a company is putting its money. That is next. And later on, the oil industry, onshore drilling, has seen a renaissance in the u. S. But the offshore picture is a different story. Details ahead. This is taking stock quote on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. The strength of the Housing Market depends on the week. On monday, new home sales fell to a fourmonth low. Today, pending home sales for the month of july are up three point 3 for the month. United Development Funding provides funding for home developers. Hollis greenlaw, thank you for being here. This is a serious business. Explain exactly what United Development does. We provide Capital Solutions for private Regional Developers and homebuilders. What we finance is the Land Acquisition and development loans, finished lots, as well as home construction. And we are really taking the place of banks in their slow, upward sloping recovery in housing. Why are the banks not doing what you are doing . The banks historically have done what we are doing. But basically, what happened in the financial crisis in 2008, the banks turned off this big it the spigot. They stopped lending, and that crated the opportunity for us to come in where home prices were stable and jobs rebalance to come in and provide that lending. The banks on a National Level were crippled because of their lending in the not so fantastic four. California, nevada, arizona, and florida. Now, the banks are slowly recovering and restoring their Balance Sheet, and slowly reading gauging in the lending in this space. If i were going to find out Hollis Greenlaws travel itinerary, telling the states you would be spending the most time in. But absolutely. Absolutely. Texas is an economic juggernaut. Since 2007 when the Great Recession started to the end of last year, texas created nearly one million new jobs. In contrast, the United States has lost nearly one million new jobs. Certainly, at the top of my list is texas. And that would include dallas, fort worth, austin, houston, and san antonio. This is more than just the oil industry. Absolutely. Its new job creation, technology, medicine, professionals, health care, and if you expand this housing recovery, you look now into states like florida. The i4 corridor, tampa over to orlando over to jacksonville into the carolinas. I have called it the red state phenomenon. It is not political. Its just about jobs. That is where the jobs are being created. Now that we have stopped up this excess supply from overdevelopment and overbuilding, now its all about jobs, where the jobs are being created. I started this by saying depending on the day of the week, you cannot most pick your statistics to fit your strategy. Based on the way you determine where to go, you say you look for the job market. What is the hottest job market that people do not know about now . In an lshaped recovery, the numbers show up on incremental basis. What youve seen is the strongest job markets have been and continue to be texas. What is going to turn the corner are going to be florida and the carolinas. There is something happening that is fundamental in texas. I called texas the most stable emergingmarket, because it is a trading center. It has the structure and the port system pulls up we have the whiting the widening of the panama canal. From a trade perspective in texas, you will see migrating to tampa. You will see moving into jacksonville, harrelson charleston. That is where i would be looking for a neck celebration of job creation. Are you concerned that Interest Rates will be increasing in the future . We know that ernieyear Mortgage Rates right now, i think 30year Mortgage Rates right now are at 4 in some cases. I hope so. I will embrace oblation and kissed inflation. What you are seeing in texas, everything that is good about america you see in texas today. We have Wage Inflation in texas. We have just gone through a deflationary environment. We saw that in california. Phoenix, las vegas. When the Balance Sheet falls 20 yearoveryear, that is deflation. He will stop spending. When you have inflation, Wage Inflation, that is when Interest Rates should start to rise and that is sustainable. When you deal with your developers and builders, do you get the message that they find it challenging to find properly trained individuals to work in the construction and housing industry . Sure. Basically, the two primary challenges, youre talking about the labor market and basically bringing all of those workers in that industry that have found other traits in the Great Recession. There is scarcity of labor. That is the primary issue in them Housing Market. The primary issues are capital and land. The banks stopped lending in 2008. And in the extended economic downturn, we have not been developing any finished lots. At me guess, you will have a cowboy hat and cowboy boots for all of the . Aba texas flag as well. Maybe a texas flag as well. Absolutely. Thank you for joining us, Hollis Greenlaw of United Development. Coming up, onshore drilling has seen a resurgence in the United States. But the offshore drilling picture has a different story. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. The world runs on fossil fuel. For example, resident obama recently approved the posits off the coast of the night states. For a rundown of the search for oil, lets go to princeton, new jersey, where im joined now by bluebird Intelligence Analyst andrew cosgrove. Bloomberg intelligence providing Realtime Research and context on a variety of industries. Andrew, lets begin with a look of the oil industry onshore and offshore in the United States. Tell us about the health of the onshore business. The onshore business is running along just fine. Exploration companies are increasing their while counts, which are in turn, helping drive levels of increased activity for a man druthers, neighbors industries, parker to, Companies Like that. They have significantly increased the number of wells and level of activity for onshore drillers and have, in turn, charged up the rates that they can have per Company Per Day for a revenue basis. That is onshore. Tell us about offshore in deep water and Shallow Water. To a certain extent, its the opposite. The onshore equities have risen about 25 year to date, while their offshore peers have fallen 14 . Specifically, the drop in equity prices has been in line with oversupply of floaters and or jack ups depending on if we are talking about deepwater or Shallow Water respectively coming to the market. You had this great wave that happen over the past couple of years. Now you are finally getting the rig delivery to the market, which is at the same time lower spending by Oil Companies abroad. That is having a negative affect on activity and day rates. Ive got to stop you, because i need a definition here. Tell us, what is a floater rig . What does it do . Those are your deepwater and ultradeep water breaks that are drilling pretty much rigs that are drilling pretty much at water over 5000 to 7000 feet. If you look at the chart, you are seeing the number of floater rigs that are available or coming to the market, and you can see there was a pretty high limb or of them high number of them in 2014 and 2015, but that trails off in 2016. There is a ton of supply coming into the market and that is having a negative effect on day rates. What is the day rates . The amount of money that it cost to hire one of these rigs . That is correct. It is the rate that the offshore Drilling Company essentially charges per day in order to use the rig. Where is the opportunity for investors . Plex in the chart you are looking in the chart youre looking at now, you can see that the one thing the market does have going for it is we do have a number a high number of rigs that are older and have fewer specifications, fewer capabilities. The growth in the offshore sector is demanding high specification rigs. You want to look at companies that have a high specification fleet. What would be an example of one of those . A company that has a young fleet, like pacific drilling, for example. Or a very high spec fleet where the average age of their fleet is less than five years old, Something Like that. Thank you very much, bloomberg Intelligence Analyst andrew cosgrove. Coming up, we have a new device that can track your heart rate, and supposedly a lot better than anything else on the market. Details ahead. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. We are looking at the headlines by my radio cohost, carol massar. We begin by looking at the state of the u. S. Economy, with gdp growth at an annualized rate of 4. 2 , up an additional 4 . Expectations for continued growth this year. Detroit has one complete rush a commitment from detroit has won a complete and commitment from barclays. The deal will be finalized if the judge approves the city debt cutting plan in a trial next week. And in an exclusive interview with betty liu, and executive says why he is retiring so suddenly. He was diagnosed with grant cancer in 2010 and has only nine months to a year to live. Back to you. Thank you very much. Wearable devices designed to monitor your Vital Health Statistics such as your heart rate are a popular trend. Apple soon introduces a device to track her wellbeing. Vital connect has introduced a special type of biosensor designed for those with heart conditions. Joining me is the chief executive, sakellariadis nersi nazari. Describe exactly what it is that vital connect is trying to do. Vital connect is in the business of making these very small biosensors that way about weigh about one third of an ounce, but has a capability of looking after your heart and even show you with accuracy of and ekg. Im showing you this on my heart myself. He will they calm her as your interview goes full sub your heart rate will go down. Exactly. There is a variety of wearable devices, anything from fit it to others. What makes this different . This is totally different. We are a medical Device Company that is trying to make medical devices smaller. Having a wearable device not having a wearable device to do some physical activity monitoring. But this would go into a hospital setting. Absolutely. First we got approval by the fda for inhospital usage. And are near this month, we got approval for use at home. For example, if you are a patient with a heart condition, you would attach the sensor to the patient, to your self, and with your own device you could monitor your own bottle statistics vital statistics, but then that information could be sent off also to your health care provider. Absolutely. It can be sent to your doctor for safety reasons, but also the aggregate data can be analyzed for conditions that are more difficult to detect than just observing the patient for a few minutes. You have to have some kind of special conditional approval . It is your doctors judgment. Like any other medical device, if your doctor thinks its in your best interest, he or she can prescribe it for the is it expensive . Because you basically said youre miniaturizing what is already in a hospital setting. Is it expensive to produce at this size . The engineering cost was a lot, but also we are miniaturizing the cost in a way that this is going to be costing tens of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands of dollars. Give us some idea of your background and how you got interested and connected with vital connect. My background is in electrical engineering. We found out that medical devices have a lot to do with conditioning of the signals that come from the human body. And also, my partner is interested in the mechanical side of how to make it small, but also manufacture them in a highquality way. We combine the two and hired some engineers and we were off. What is the current state of vital connects finances . Are you looking for new investors . When does this rollout on a bigger scale . Plex we are in the process of we are in the process of raising seed funds. We invite any investors who want to join us. We are working to engage with customers, so we can announce some of our customers with the next few months. And you can monitor the success with these centers on investors as well. Yes, we can. Thank you very much. Nersi nazari, the chief executive of vital connect. Coming up, i will take a look at the Major Business behind minor league baseball. With one of the coowners of the cincinnati own cincinnatis own Dayton Dragons. And what to wear. We have the brands to watch. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. Before Baseball Players get into the major leagues, they have to start the miners. Recently, three graduate from harvard and wall street executives bought in manually team, body minorleague team, and paid one of the highest sums ever paid for a minorleague team. Joining me is the coowner of the Dayton Dragons, Nick Sakellariadis. I practiced your name perfectly before hand, but then you told me has become americanized. Tell me about how minorleague baseball has caught your attention. Being a private company, we do not disclose the price. I cannot deny or confirm the price. Number two, i would like you to be the first person with the Dayton Dragons had. O, wonderful. If i was going to root for the Dayton Dragons and go to again, what would my experience be like . Plex it is a terrific, families hundred experience. It is different products a different product than the major leagues. It is the fifth third stadium in dayton ohio. An Incredible Community buyin. The Management Team were there to construct oversee the construction of the stadium. It is just a fabulous family set of entertainment. We have more than 260 skits. You have baseball going on, but in between the lines and in between the innings, you have all of these fabulous little goofy games, like toddlers racing from down the for sale sign the first baseline, clowns, dragons. Its just a terrific experience for kids and families, and very affordable experience. You can take a family of four for probably less than 80 food, ticket, the whole shooting match. And there have been some comparisons where if you want to go to Major League Baseball for a family of four, it will cost you about 165. The movies, about 80. You are very competitive. How many see . Plex 8200 8300 capacity. And youve been 8200 8300 capacity. And youve been selling out. We have some standing room only and some grass areas where people can bring pink blankets. The stadium hasnt sold out every single day since it opened in 2000. The stadium has been sold out everything will day since it opened in 2000. It is the longest streak in professional sports. Doesnt matter how well the team perform . Plex its not essential. It is great that they perform well. A lot of them are fans and following closely. If the season ended today, we would be in the playoffs and very excited about that. A lot of writers will tell you that if the scanner members the score when they leave the stadium, they have failed. If a fan or members the score when they leave the stadium, they have failed. It is the memorable experience that is important. What made you do this . Plex for 30 years ive wanted to do this. I did on 1820 years ago, but the day job got in the way. I bid on a team years ago, 20 years ago, but the day job got in the way. I started thinking, if im ever going to do this, this is it. I actually hired a guy that had moneyball fame to be my baseball consultant. Believe it or not, there are baseball consultant. He studied this on the side and discovered that the industry dynamics were decent and that there was a way to enter this and perpetuate a fun, family filled fan experience, but also make it a good economic opposition. You are telling me that there are rules for attendees. There are some kinds of guidelines for behavior that goes on in the stands. We want to make sure at the beginning we have 10 rules of behavior, presented a very fun filled, nonoffensive fashion. No cursing, no smoking, behave politely, be aware of balls shot in the stadium. All of those sorts of things they go to a familyfriendly, safe type of environment. This is a team that is connected to the cincinnati reds. Yes. What is the connection . All of these are affiliated minor league teams. Meaning, they are affiliated with an apparent a parent major league team. And the players in this case our associate it with the cincinnati reds. We are a socalled farm team for the cincinnati reds. It is an incredibly stingy symbiotic relationship. They are focused on all of their multihundred million franchise values, and to do that, they want to develop the best possible players they can have. Theyve got typically five minorleague teams with 125 to 150 players in development. They want to focus on putting a game environment, you know, a fan filter friendly environment. That is their focus, and our part is to handle all the logistics. We provide stadium, the confessions, the environment, etc. Some have made the analogy that we are the movie house, and they are provided in entertainment. The content. Ive noticed about 160 minorleague teams in the u. S. Its roughly 30 majorleague teams and roughly five teams at Different Levels for each team. How is the economics of the business . Its pretty decent. Again, symbiotic relationship with the major league. Great leadership at the minorleague level headed up by a guy named pat oconnor, and in the midwest league, George Sibelius and scott west bomb. Theyve got great initiatives in terms of branding minorleague baseball. You can get the digital effort and the branding is tomorrows future stars today. These are good, positive things. And youve got a flexible cost structure because labor costs are shared with the major league. It is unique content. They are not making anymore more of these. There are 160 teams. There is territorial exclusivity. If you Pay Attention to detail as our great Management Team does, provide a fan friendly environment, you will do just fine economically. Lets say, someone listening to you, the scandals in them this kindles in them to be ownership part of a team. How do they get started . Plex you could do it my way you could do it my way. Who do you know what that is in minorleague a small . And minorleague baseball . And then start making some calls. People are super friendly. He will take your call. Go talk to them. There are some baseball consultant and bankers who can help to pave the way. People are welcome to call me if they would like. Can we also see Nick Sakellariadis on the field one day echo in the stands, definitely in the stands. I have gone to almost 10 games so far. Plex much appreciated. Much appreciated. Go check them out. Coming up, take this Seasons Fashion catwalk to your google your cubicle. And coming up on bloomberg west, its not just fashion in your cubicle. Chances are, you have watched some Youtube Video there, too. From creative stars to video studio takeovers, we take a look at how youtube is shaping hollywood. When it comes to office fashion, its no secret that casual work where is quietly becoming the norm. But casual wear is getting a bit of an upgrade this fall. Fashion is the focus of the latest edition of bluebirds businessweek etc. Section and our own Emma Rosenblum is in it. She joined the now. Simon miller is listed as one of the names to watch and the companys creator joins us. It has a variety of different looks that will be trendy or fashionable. But it is also designed to not break the bank. We have a range of prices. We always do. We have stuff from h m the costs 50 and stuff from valentino the cost 8,000. It is for every budget and every varying workplace dress code. We have stuff that you can dress down, but really, the thing this fall is that people are dressing up again. The suits are in. Genes jeans, too, slightly more highend, those that look more like trousers. And fashion for women that makes them look more like silhouettes, pencil skirts, and a move away from the casual of the last few years. Something more sophisticated when it comes to the look that people want to risk present. Its interesting. We have them now in the to buy one construction. But what is to buy one construction . 2 x 1 construction . It is a cleaner finish and you combine that with the total kitsch total stitch. What does that mean . It means it is the stitch that matches the color of the balbir. Of the fabric. And the idea of dressing up the blue jeans a little bit, is this something for the office as well as or formal occasions . You can put on a pair of jeans and wear them for six months straight. With washing in between, right . We do focus on vintage washes. I meant, the jeans you would wear for six months. You would wash them in between, yes . I wash them rarely. Rarely . Probably every four months or so. Really . Yes. The great thing about indigo, we have really helped built simon miller around incorporating this through our collection. Indigo fade beautifully. You have to wear jeans multiple month without washing in order to get that beautiful quality that indigo creates. I noticed in the etc. Section that one of the things you should look for is not only the clothing, but the dry cleaner that specializes in cleaning the clothing. For codes are back. They are in different silhouettes that they used to be. They are not the big puffy minx that your mom used to wear. But if you have a fur coat, you have to send it to a specialist, not a dry cleaner. And you may think about a solid colored top with a more patterned bottom. Also, the sleeves that have cuffs on it to give it a matter a more casual look. These are details. I like all of those details that you just pulled out. Yes, its true, patterned pants for women are still very big and have been for the past couple of seasons. They are still in for fall. And as jake was saying, you can dress it up for the office. You just have to wear a button up and a blazer. And it almost look like you are just wearing pants. Were the experts in this . We use all japanese fabrics. Japan has a long history of indigo dying. They have brought over a lot of balloons that it used to exist in the u. S. , and now exist in japan. They are creating the highest quality fabric. We started by sourcing from familyowned mills that we have relationships with and in manufacture everything in the u. S. We do a lot of our own hand dying in los angeles. The idea is to combine this idea of indigo with luxury fabrication. We have cotton indigo overnight tease. Overdyed tees. What are some of the price point . We have Just Launched our collection at bernies this fall. We set an elegant price point for denim at 265. That allows us to compete with those others that are fashion oriented and have classic styles. We have a high wasted straight leg that speaks to our Downtown Fashion girl. I want to thank you both very much. Jake sergeant of salmonella, and our own Emma Rosenblum from bloomberg is this week. And breaking news, Vladimir Putin, the president of russia, has called for a piece discussion with ukraine p eace discussion with ukraine. Details ahead