You are the most important part of the show. Join our life conversation ajrealmoney. Facebook. Com ajrealmoney. You crane lairs toward breakup. The autonomous peninsula on the black sea voted to join russia. Al local referendum to approve the move is now scheduled for march 16th. The interim authorities in kiev, ukraines capital denounced todays vote as illegal. Leaders in the west joined in including president obama who said it was, quote, contrary to international law, end quote. Thats the latest in the growing crisis inside ukraine which pits russia, which is now in control in crimea against the wishes of the west. Its europes biggest crisis since the cold war. In response, the European Union suspended talks with russia on visas and a new investment treaty and warned of more measures to come. The eu also announced it would freeze the assets of 17 ukrainian officials including deposed president Viktor Yanukovych he net after three months of often violent protests against his rule. He turned up in russia. The new rulers in ukraine accuse him of bundling 37,000,000,000 of state money out of the country, a country short of about 35,000,000,000. Not to be out done, president obama announced steps to target russians and ukrainians threatening the territoryial sovereignty. The executive order freezes u. S. Assets of these individuals and denies them visas to enter america. The white house hasnt said exactly who these people are. They dont include the one man orchestrating russias intervention in ukraine, russian president , Vladimir Putin. In the meantime, president obama is stepping you will coupes for sanctions against russia, europeans who depend way too much on energy, trade and investment with russia are cool to that idea and they are still hoping for a negotiated solution. Lets bring in mike viquera at the whitehouse. This is where politics comes into play. The president knows sanctions will be tricky. He is under pressure from republicans to do something reporter there are a lot of moving parts, there is no question about it. If you want to talk about the political angle, yes, republicans have been on the attack. Its valley interesting. The quaint notion, ali that will politics used to stop at the waters edge when there was a crisis like this it that involved National Security of europe and, by extension, the United States. Not so this time, and not so for several years past, really, to be frank about it. We have seen attacks from john mccain, from mitch mcconnell, from john boehner. All saying that vladimir puttip has duped the United States and the United States has missed the signs of what putin is up to. The reset that the administration set out with Vladimir Putin and his predecessor has turned out to be a sham and that the United States basically, their feckless Foreign Policy as john mccain put it in syria and elsewhere has led Vladimir Putin to think he could push the United States around. The politics on the other side, fascinating, john boehner saying the congress, republicans were going to stand four square but not behind what the president wanted to do in terms of legislation, in terms of aid to ukraine, in terms of sanctions against ukraine ineffect annual they may be for reasons you described. To that end, an incredibly bipartisan vote in the house of representatives, 23 of the 435 members of the house voted against this bill, a billion dollars freeing up a billion dollars to administer to ukraine for economic aid. Its a basket case. I know you know that, to be administered through the imf. Passed very easily. It will pass the senate again and the next thing they will take up is some sort of sanction packa package. We will talk about that next, mike, always a pleasure to have you here explaining to us, mike viquera at the whitehouse. Charles cuptin said thats what western leaders can expect as they pile pressure on russia. He served as the director at the Security Council under president clinton and worked on the policy planning staff at the state department. Charles, good to see you. Thank you for joining us. Sure. Sanctions mean Different Things to different people. You are saying even if we are discussing sanctions right now, we are at the earliest stages of those safrningsdz, sanctions target individuals, those sort of travel restreaks, the eu has frozen some assetsikes, the eu frozen some assets. Where are we in the world of sanctions with russia . What i would call it. Ier 1 of what could be multiple tiers of increasing sanctions. Right now, they are looking at visa bans on a small number of individuals that are involved in the crackdown and the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and on those people who have absconded with money in ukraine and not going after putins inner circle. I think the idea here is lets turn up the heat a little bit but keep the coredors of communication open. The possibility of turning up the heat, should putin push ahead and insert forces into eastern ukraine. To your point about it. It for tat, the fact is russia does have leverage at this point. Its winter in europe and russia provides much of the nat gas in at least the eastern part of europe. If you look back historically, when we do something, we sanction particular individuals o expel a russian diplomat, they tend to respond in kind. How they will respond to this is unclear. They have said that if you throw stuff at us, we will throw it back at you. The main vulnerability, i think, is the one you just mentioned. Thats 25 to 30 of the natural gas supply in the European Union comes from russia. Gas flows through pipelines in ukraine and we know five, six years ago, the russians turned the spigot down and there were poles and romanians and others who were cold because they couldnt get enough gas. Ultimately in the history of effective sanctions, certainly in the last 50 years or so, trade sanctions 10ed to be the mosttend to be the most if something goes on a long period of time. When we look at south africa, if we look at iran, iraq during the era of saddam hussein, there were pretty tight trade sanctions put on, and they dipped. They really hurt and they have affected, in this case, irans willingness to negotiate on the nuclear program. Doing that to russia is more difficult. Russia is now fully integrated into the global economy. 460,000,000,000 worth of commerce between the European Union and russia. So once you start tightening a noose in terms of trade, everybody gets hurt, including the russians but, also, including the United States and the European Union. Of course, back to your earlier point, the European Union is going to be less excited about this concept of trade sanctions, largely because russia has some leverage over the europeans with natural gas that it doesnt have over america, for instance. Yes, which doesnt mean it wont happen. There are a lot of very wealthy russians with apartments in new york and apartments in london. They would not be happy if they found their assets frozen. So, i am not saying its out of the range of possibility. But we are certainly not at that stage yet. And if any of these sanctions do work, whether its tier 1 or 2 or 3, its not necessarily likely to lead to somehow affecting Vladimir Putin or putting him out of. . No. Not putting him out of. But, you know, he has an entourage around him thats wealthytion, oligarchs that bought up some industries when the soviet union was falling apart. If they feel pain, some of the pate ronnage system he relies on come under stress. I wouldnt want to under estimate the degree to which this will cause political repercussions inside russia. Charles, thanks for shedding light. Charles kupshen is at the council on foreign relations. 40 million americans are caught up in a crisis of a different kind student debt spiraling out of control. This should be one the Top Priorities in the country because we are talking about giving people the tools and skills to schools and in many cases will take the packages offered to them. How do you figure out how much you should be paying for college . How much debt let me put it this way, how much debt would you assume . Not more than your starting salary. Thats a rule of thumb. But for so many young people they wont be able to predict how much they are going to make, the people who started school in 2005 had no idea that when they would bra on time the economy would be would gr graduate on time, the economy would be in free fall. In case they have to navigate in tough times. But there needs to be transparency and better income data, otherwise they are throwing a dart in a dark room. Is there a danger that only children with wealthy parents will be able to study humanities, or will earn you a salary that doesnt pay you enough in the first few years . In a lot of sectors, where we have clear reportings and outcomes, we dont know much here. Most people are going to community colleges, and even those colleges have seen big increases and it is not just state aid that has gone down. A lot of families are just poorer. After they saw their house go down in value, their retirement go down in value, maybe they experienced unemployment also when the economy tampled. They will tanked. Saying look i dont know what im going to do, i hope it will come out about. Rohit, good to see you. Boeing said it will end Pension Plans for 68,000 nonunion employees and shift them into 401 k plans starting in 2016. The move includes top executives and will help the Aerospace Company cut its long building pension costs. Effectively moves the burden and risk of saving for retirement to employees. For some Union Workers its a hot commodity being bought and sold like gold. In we all tend to look at water as being essentially free. We think it falls out of the sky. It has an area that has tremendous challenges but also tremendous opportunities, because there is no substitute. Coming up why some investors are betting big on water. Youre watching real money. Keep it here. Lisa fletcher here with whats coming up on the stream. Lisa, start ling results about hiv infection in the us. Hiv nefntion 2 infection 20 t of whites. And outside of prison its a connection newly explored and yielding some shocking information. Dont miss it. The stream right after reem. Realmoney ree. How many is the water in this glass worth . For those of us inundated with snow and rain this endless winter, not much. But for folks in california, dealing with one of the worst droughts in history, its a drop in the bucket. What they see in this glass is liquid gold. David shuster checks in on the business of buying, selling and trading water. We all tend to think of water as being essentially free. We think it falls out of the sky. It should be delivered ous free or if not completely free. Most americans have no clue about the value of the water that comes out of their tap each and every day. But it points to at least a does Companies Buying water worth a combined 6 billion, just a fraction of the 500 billion invested in the overall water industry but a sector gaining interest as investors bet on water becoming the any oil. The new oil. Tremendous opportunities because there is no substitute. Mark is a partner at water asset management, a new york City Investment firm with an annual 700 million in water transactions. Water is probably one of the more neglected Asset Classes that weve come across in our professional careers. Its hashed to imagine water as a commodity bought and sold like gold but heres how it works. Every year state and local authorities divide the available supply among what are called water right holders. Farmers municipalities and industrial interests. Certain areas in the western United States allow those rights to be traded with interested buyers, usually on one on one transactions. And thats where private investors come in. They snatch up water rights in dry states with the highest water rates, usually in california, texas, arizona and colorado. Having said that there are pitfalls in trying to invest in the water industry too quickly without sufficient background. Water can be notoriousl notoy difficult to invest in. Some water rights must be used for agriculture and only in certain seasons. Prices of water vary from region to region, and promise the pun, it, trlts of dollars of water he owned in text, t. Boon pickens many you cant sell water wherever you want. There may be only one or two buyers for the assets you want to hold. When you are ready to exit those buyers may not be ready to buy. Outperforming other investments over time, other Companies Like pure recycle in california even sell water to private consumers like aarapaho county. There is a tremendous amount of investment and expertise that goes behind that, to make sure to deliver that water as a clean fresh supply for our customers. You dont need much expertise to see waters value in the years ahead. If you have a fixed supply and a growing demand for that water supply your economic forces really indicate the value of that water in a watershort area is going to continue to grow. David shuster, al jazeera. In an effort to make better use of the limited Water Resources they have, california officials announced they aimed to streamline their Water Resources facing what can be a time schools an consuming water. Deal with combine safeway with that other big Supermarket Chain that cerberus already owns, albertsons. Could be a rival bid by kroger krogers. Are you one of eight americans who has Student Loan Debt . How does it affect your economy . If you want to see more about tonights stories log onto our website, foxsports. Com realmoney. Final thoughts abou aljaz. One reason i want to put to you the unemployment i want you to put the Unemployment Rate on the wayback burner and focus instead on how many actual jobs the economy created last month. Thats called the nonfarm payrolls number and that requires no explanation. One way to read it, high is good low is bad. Contrast the Unemployment Rate can rise or fall for reasons involving how many people enter or heave the workforce. So a lower Unemployment Rate may actually be a bad sign if it falls because people give up looking for work. A higher Unemployment Rate can be a good sign if it peen meanse people become optimistic but havent yet found a job. Thats our show, on friday, a complete look at the employment report. Hi, im lisa fletcher, and you are in the stream. Black women are testing positive for hiv at an alarming rate. What is leading to the increase in infections that has some now looking at the prison system. My cohost, wajahat ali is here, bringing in all of your Live Feedback for the show. It has been about 20 years since the start of the aids crisis in the u. S. , and it has sort of