This is real money. So tell us what is on your mind by tweeting us at ali velshi. We learned more about the effort of an u. S. Corporate giant to bid 100 million for an in great britain. It relates about april being the cruelest month, especially if you get stuck writing a check to the irs. Most of us do everything in our power to reduce our tax bills. Its no different for companies, and some of them in Corporate America are going to extraordinary lengths to cut their tax bills, and theyre doing it by quitting this country all together. The Worlds Largest drug company renewed its bid to buy out its british rival by doing so not only can pfizer become a bigger company, but theyll take up address in london. And because britain has lower corporate taxes than the United States, it could save pfizer a billion every year. Companies like chicata banana, walgreens are all exploring merger deals with foreign rivals that will allow them to take advantage of a lower tax rate. Britains tax rate has fallen to 20 . With writeoffs pfizer has brought its taxes down to 28 , but if it goes british it can save 8 off its tax bill. But the Obama Administration wants to close the loopholes. Pfizer plans to keep its headquarters in the United States. Maintain its listing on the New York Stock Exchange and just be britain on paper. But that paper change will save the company and cost the u. S. Treasury millions. There are ways to keep americas corporations and their profits on u. S. Soil, but politics stand in the way. Thats according to a man who won a pulitzer prize. David is also the author of divide. He joins us from seattle, david, what phaser is tryinged to, is it unamerican or being responsible to pfizer shareholders . Oh, i think its pretty offensive to the United States. Back when the twin towers were still burning in new york one of the big account be firms was advertising clients and i have a copy of the video and wrote about it back then that patriotism should take a backseat to profits, and they were proposing back then a similar deal using a bermuda mailbox. If youre going to take all the benefits of the United States market and the benefits taxpayers are providing to you as a company from infrastructure to research to educated employees, i think its pretty offensive conduct. How much money has the u. S. Treasury lost in terms of revenue it could have gotten from companies that went overseas to lower their tax rate . Well, were all for all companies were talking tens of billions of dollars. The trick, david, is to earn your profits in the highest Tax Jurisdiction you can, and then use accounting devices to funnel the money out of the country. One of the ways pfizer does it is that the intellectual property rights, the patents and the how to make rules for viagra are all in an offshore tax haven. Every time they sell one of those blue diamond bills pills e profits are siphoned out of the United States and they are not taxed. What is so difficult oh politically about fixing this . From the outside its easy to say that they should fix it. The reality is members of congress, if they want to get recollected cannot incur the wrath for big Multi National companies. If you dont play ball with them, theyll find someone who will and this will get them voted out of photographs. The club for growth that targets those republicans who dont toe the line on the rich and eliminating taxes for corporations. What about the arms that said look, were simply going the way any american would. Were following a strategy and the problem is not, well, the United States is taxedtaxing us at a greater rate than great britain. Tax us at a lower rate and then we wont go to great britain. Two parts. Its perfectly legal to do whatever the law allows. It doesnt mean that its the appropriate thing to do. Corporations used to worry about reputation, they dont do that any more. Its congress that makes the rules. Congress does not have to allow this kind of conduct. It doesnt have to say you can get a free ride. Thats really what is going on here. Pfizer, which gets massive subsidies from the tax payers wants a free ride. Other companies are sure to follow their strategy. We should raise questions why a company like pfizer, yet pfizer doesnt want to bear any of the burden of supporting government that makes its profits possible. Yet you think that the United States out to raise the corporate takes and that would be good for the u. S. Economy. Explain how. Well, i dont necessarily think we should do it. If you raise the taxes, you find that you have 1 million extra profit. If the tax rate is 20 , you may say write me a uncle sam a check fo sam a check for 20 and ill keep 80 . Our tax system used to be focused on inseventh advising companies noincentivizeing not. We should have a discussion on how we should tax corporations. We should have control of the cash they build up or theyll be a huge drag on the economy, something that ive written about and spoken about before. Its something that our nation needs to have this dialogue and have this conversation about. David kay johnston, a columnist, thank you for being on the program. Thank you. Vladimir putin could hit back against western sanctions, and if he does there is one huge American Oil Company with close ties to the kremlin that looks to get hurt. We will look at what it means for the team and finances. That and more as real money continues. Drug wars in mexico this guy saw someone they suspect and they just went after them now vigilantes have joined the fight i dont want to do this. Is it a Popular Uprising . Or a new wave of violence . Fault lines. Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Theyre locking the door. Ground breaking. We have to get out of here. Truth seeking. Award winning documentary series truth seeking. Award winning documentary series mexicos vigilante state true businessgrade internet comes truth seeking. Award winning documentary series mexicos vigilante state with secure wifi for your business. It also comes with public wifi for your customers. Not so with internet from the phone company. I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. The stream is uniquely interactive television. In fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. All these folks are making a whole lot of money. You are one of the voices of this show. I think youve offended everyone with that kathy. Hold on, theres some room to offend people, im here. We have a right to know whats in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. So join the conversation and make it your own. Watch the stream. And join the conversation online ajamstream. There was a new development in the war of words that could spell trouble for u. S. Energy companies. Vladimir putin said he would reconsider western Energy Companies participating in Russias Energy sector if sanctions against his country persist. Putin spoke the day after the u. S. And europe expanded the list of travel bans and asset freezes. He said there was no need for counter sanctions for now but he said that could change. One u. S. Firm with a lot at stake is exxonmobil. It has very deep financial ties to Russias Energy company. And on monday the u. S. Added it to the list of russian facing sanctions. So far exxons deal is not in jeopardy, but it under scores the modern best. Policies does not always mesh with the interests of companies. Reporter russian president Vladimir Putin a picture of cooperation that continues despite escalating tensions over the crisis in ukraine. Since 2011 exxonmobil has substantially strengthened its ties with with a gas plant in the far east, developed oil fracking sites and joint 3. 2 billion project to hunt for oil in the blacks sea and russian Russian Arctic waters. The trade access to billions of barrels of oil for engineering expertise. Basically exxon is going to russia because of the opportunities there. And russia wants exxon. Reporter the relationship also gives rosneft a food hold in the west with exploration rights in the gulf of mexico. Oil gas is a linchpin of russian power and theyre poised to enhancement regardless of u. S. Foreign policy objectives. Exxon will send the message loud and clear its not just the u. S. Government disagree on politics and policies. Theyre here to do business. Reporter according to a new book, the companys new Ceo Lee Raymond said, quote, i dont make decisions based on whats good for the u. S. But if moscow were to bar western Energy Companies from russian territory, exxonmobil wouldnt necessarily lose out. Lets say that this crisis gets worse, that means theres more pressure on energy markets, which means higher prices, which means more revenue for exxon. Reporter al jazeera, new york. An exxonmobil spokesman said that the situation in the ukraine are, quote, not impacting our operations. But they would not comment on Russias Energy sector. Target is teaming up with mastercard to rule out socalled chip and pin cards. These cards are considered more secure because they use an embedded microchip. Thats in response to the massive data breach over the Christmas Holiday that effected up to 100 million target customers. It announced it has hired a new chief information officer. Ibm raising its quarter dividend a 16 increase of . 95. This marks the 19th Straight Year of the stock difficult dents it pays out to shareholders. Since then it has gone up 800 . When judging the amount paid out, ibm dividend ranks in the bottom third of stocks listed on the dow. Their home may be one of your familys biggest events. Coming up, more on the value of that investment, and why some analysts are worried that the Housing Markets recovery might slow down. Plus, bigotry proofs very costly now that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned from the nba. Al Jazeera America presents borderlands dramatic conclusion no ones prepared for this journey. Our teams experience the heart breaking desperation were all following stories of people that have died in the desert. And the importance. Experiencing it, has changed me completely. Of the lives that were lost in the desert this is the most dangerous part of your trip. An emotional finale you cant miss. We got be here to tell the story. The final journey borderland continues. Only on al Jazeera America every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. I became beautiful when i became a feminist Gloria Steinem sexuality is about cooperation, not domination. And inspiration. I want for women whatever they want for themselves. And the unconventional future of the movement theyre many faces for feminism, including beyonce talk to al jazeera only on al Jazeera America home prices in the United States are still rising, but not as much as before. Thats the take away from the latest Standard Poors home price index, and the cooling Housing Market has been the story for a while now. The days report show the home prices increased 12. 9 for the same month in 2013. The smallest increase since august. It comes after a 13. 2 gain in the year and in january. Index rose 13. 4 for all o of 2013. Higher Mortgage Rates may be one reason for the slowdown. Other data released 120,000 homes were in some stage of foreclosure in the month of march. Thats down from the 1. 1 million homes from the year earlier. Since the financial crisis began in september 2008 there have been 5 million foreclosures in the United States. The slowdown in rising home prices is not going to hurt the overall economy according to michael car liner who has spent more than three decades studying the Housing Markets. He said that what is more critical is to look at demand for new home construction. A former economist with the National Association of home builders. And joins us from washington, d. C. Michael, if we do subscribe to your theory that its all about home construction. Home construction is still starting to flight line a little bit, isnt it . Yes, it is. I think thats a temporary pause, but it has been a lot weaker over the past few months than we would have expected. Part of that has to do with the weather. Even as the weather turned good and even in parts of the country where the weather was fine all along there has been slow down. This slow down. What is the relationship between that slow down and the over all u. S. Economy. Is it a big part . Is it something that people can say overall Home Building is 2 of the economy. But it used to be about 5 . But as we moved in and out of recessions sometimes housing accounts for as much as a third of the change in gdp. It could get a big boost to the economy if it could have the kind of recovery that it normally has. What are some of the conditions that you believe need to exist in the Housing Market and industry for things to pick up . Well, Mortgage Rates were still low. They jumped a little bit last summer. Normally when Mortgage Rates go up it takes about 9 months for the full negative impact of that to show up, and were about nine months later now. Thats one of the explanations for why weve slowed down. But even with the level of Mortgage Rates a lot of people are having trouble getting mortgages. And a lot of people that might otherwise have bought havent done so. Also people dont feel as confident about their financial situation or they dont have jobs, and it will take some of that to further increase demand. On the other hand we had a big glut of excess housing supply a few years ago, and were working that off now. We dontwere almost back to a normal level of vacancies, inventories and foreclosures. Foreclosures may not be so close to normal. But as that occurs, and the market gets tighter, well see more construction. To that point as we do work off supply, and the glut starts to essentially recede, to that lifestyle point you were making a few minutes ago, isnt it true that a growing number of americans are simply, the American Dream was not what it was once, people are more willing to rent, have roommates, the idea of owning a home does not have the same flow that it once did. I think there is something to that. People got a little overexcited over homeownership. I dont think that its changed that much. One of the interesting things that ive seen in a number of surveys is although the people, the ones that really got burned in the last cycle, they are pretty negative on homeownership. Younger people, people in their early 20s are much more positive about homeowner at this point than the 30 something. Regarding foreclosures, according to data from march march 2014 the greatest percentage of foreclosures were in florida, michigan, and what is it about those states that attracted so many foreclosures . Well, there was a lot of speck at a live home buying in some of those places. A lot of large share of homes ten years ago. In california, and many parts of florida there were speculators who felt they were going to flip them. That contributed to it. But another factor in terms of how this plays out is that in some places the foreclosure happens very quickly, and the market can adjust and start to recover. I think thats actually starting to happen in california. In florida and much of the northeast foreclosures take just years to go through the process. And so all that is delaying the adjustments that need to occur. Michael, thank you for being on the program. We appreciate it. My pleasure. The effects of inequality show up in many areas including education. Twothirds of the nations wealthiest families enroll in fouryear colleges, and a student from a high income family is 14 times for likely to attend the most selective universities as a lowincome kid. The Completion Rate for low income students is one in four. Steve knapp is looking to narrow the college gap. Looking at how to increase College Access and Graduation Rates for low income students. Knapp sat down with ali velshi in los angeles today to discuss some of the causes of the college gap and how best to address them. Whats the problem in getting low income kids into university . We do know that in many cases money is available to them. Is it money . Is it an expectation that they dont go to university . What is the thing that we have to do to get more, a greater proportion of low income kids. There are a lot of things we have to do. But i want to emphasize as much of a problem that we have getting low income students in we have a greater challenge of graduating them. Part of that is part of the burdens that effect them when going to high School Getting ready for college. Many times that will continue. Some of those are financial burdens. Some of those are family issues that they have to deal with, sometimes causing them to pull out of college. Some