Real money with ali velshi. This is real money. This is the most important part of the show. Tell me what is on your mind by tweeting. This is a sorry about alibabi. This is not a story from the arabian nights. Im talking about chinese behemoth alibabi. Com. If you dont know what it is, you will soon. Its bigger than amazon. Its bigger than facebook. It dominates china, investors expect with this ipo alibabi will set its sights on global domination. The company is expected to raise as much as 20 billion in a Stock Offering later in year. If true that a make alba pas ipo the biggest in u. S. History. Youll have to wait to see if that comes true. The question for investors is it worth it . Last year there was a quarter of a trillion dollars in Business Done on alibabis three main sites. And that, by the way, is a 62 jump from the previous year. During that time the sites transacted with 231 million active users. Alibabi businesses have been described as a combination of ebay, pay pal and amazon on steroids dominating 80 of chinas Online Retail marketplace. Now, yahoo stands to make a killing off this deal. It had the foresight to buy a big stake in alibabi for just 1 billion back in 2005. Yahoo stake has been whittled down over the years to a little more than the onefifth of alibabi, and its obligated to unload more stock in this offering, but based on current estimates of how much alibabi will be bother, yahoo stake could end up being worth 10 billion or more making alibabi one big thing going yahoos way right now. Live to what yahoo ceo melissa mayor talking about the windfall everyone thinks i cant had ya. We returned some of the proceeds to shareholders, but we did make some Smart Investments in the company in terms of building up talent, building up technology, and platforms like tumblr, i can point to what weve done historically and point to the fact that we know that this is of critical importance to our investors. That sounds like a perfectly scripted answer. Her lawyer should be proud. Alibabi would be nowhere without its founder jack ma. Mary snow has his story. Reporter he may seem an unlikely business tycoon. Jack ma, a former english teacher who describes himself as not a tech guy skyrocketed to rock star status as founder of e commerce giant alibabi. He even dresses like a rock star. He started the company with friends in his apartment in 1999, scraping together 60,000. We will make it because we are young, and we never ever give up. [ music ] reporter mas perseverance is a trademark. His personal set backs are legendary. Being rejected ten times by harvard is one of them. When he faced doubts about alibabi taking on ebay he said if eabout a is a shark in the ocean were the crocodile of the ganyanzte river. Really, it takes a special kind of person and personality not only to build this company but to have the longterm vision and financial patience to build the company like alibabi over many, many years. Reporter in china ma holds rank with the likes of steve jobs and bill gates. His personal fortune is estimated to be 8. 4 billion. At 49 jack ma is no longer alibabis ceo. He retired last year but remains the executive chairman and holds a stake in the company. Now hes setting his sights on social challenges. Meanwhile the company that jack ma started is focusing on growth. He spent 3. 5 million on acquisitions mostly on a mapping company, but its expansion outside of china that is holding the speculations. Good to see you. Good to see you. There are a lot of things about this that is interesting. What stands out to you . What stands out the most people are expecting an outline of maybe their global ambitions that is not in this perspetus. It is china focused. Why not continue to concentrate on that . Except alibabi has been spending like crazy outside of china, and you know, spending heavily in the u. S. So whats going on there . They certainly didnt tell us. The one neat thing for american investors is that you love the chinese market. You think there is a lot of growth, and you want a direct piece of action this is a way to get it because youre investing with a company that interacts with the chinese every day. What is the other side of that . Are things going to change for us in the way we do business on the internet because it becomes a Public Company . That depends on alibabi, and right now it looks like it will invest heavily in china. Its growth is dependent on its investments going up. That depends on if there is a housing crash. Whats mainly talked about is expassage in Southeast Asia and the u. S. In Southeast Asia late last year it launched its ebay in singapore. It launched its Southeast Asia hub. Its serious about this. If go on the site you can find any language you want. Its all there. That is a lot of expensive language that theyre doing, and theyre making it accessible to the growing middle class in Southeast Asia. Theyre also trying to list the stock in hong kong, and the rules there, the hong kong regulators did not want to let them do that because they wanted to do this that did not meet their standards. Do we read into that that our standards are lower for a company that is investing . Do we need to worry about that . Yes, we do have lower standards. Hong kong has higher standards. That we can take away from this. You mentioned taubao. One of the challenges that this company deals with, with the trade that was done on its website, a lot of counter get in china. Is that a threat to its business . That depends on how much it spooks investors. On the ebay, they have a whole section on fraud. I think its larger in china, but thats something that theyve at least shown that theyre actively trying to address. Its a big problem. Thats not just alibabas problem. Thats an entire economy problem. Thanks for joining us. Here is a sign of chinas power. Chinese business occupy the top three spots on forbes latest ranking on the worlds latest public companies. The top four spots on the glob global 2000 are all banks. The state controlled industrial of china. Ibcb as its known. Construction bank and Agriculture Bank of china moved up to third space. Jp morgan chase fell a spot while Warren Buffets Company ranked fifth. Apple again ranked first in terms of stock market value. About 500 billion at last count. When janet yellen is worried about us, its time for us to worry, too. Ill tell you one thing that the federal chair just said shes worried about americas economy. Plus the small California City is doing that congress probably wont do to put money in your paycheck. That story continues, keep it right here. Im Joe Berlinger this is the system id like to think of this show as a watch dog about the system. To make sure justice is being served. With our personal liberties taken away from us, it better be done the right way. True businessgrade internet comes 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. Trwith secure wifie 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. All we heard about last winter was how harsh the winter was. But now that winter is, we hope, behind us, the weather is no longer an excuse. Janet yellen gave a mostly positive outlook for the u. S. Economy to Congress Joint Economic committee. But she said it still needs help. She said the job market is far from where it needs to be. She worries about the Housing Market remaining weak, and much of that with fewer young people looking to buy homes. We have seen very slow household formation. Many young people who are living with their parents, its difficult for students who have heavy student debt to qualify for mortgages. We talked about that a great deal. She expects the economy to grow and expand at a faster rate and she expects Interest Rates to remain low for a long time. We do have low inflation, low Interest Rates and a job market that is finally showing signs of real life but wages arent going anywhere. In addition to housing thats another concern for the economy. I want to know where do we go from here . What sense do we make from that. From the royal bank of scotland, thank you for being here. Thanks, ali. Thanks for having me. As time goes by after you have a paul volker and greenspan, i dont know if theyre getting older or becoming more clearer. Theyre speaking more slowly. What encouraged you, what disappointed you. In truth they are trying to intentionally to be more transparent. Chair yellen has been overseeing even when she was vice chair. The message was the same. Theyre trying to thread the needle. They want to talk up the economy. They want to say things are good. Thats why theyre able to cut back on some stimulus. Theyre winding down this asset purchase program. At the same time they dont want to be so confident that it speaks the market in thinking that the fed may soon be raising Interest Rates. As you noted i thought the caution about housing was interesting. The fact that the fed is watching that closely, and also this talk about financial stability. The fed is also watching Financial Markets and being wearwaryof financial money may d to go a bubble. Theyre also very watchful of that. Smart people ask they these days, are you worried about the stock market . Do you think its in a bubble . Do you think it will go down. Im sure they ask you that, too. What do you say . From my standpoint valuations are appropriate. Weve got great corporate Balance Sheets and good earnings, certainly thats what janet yellen said the fed is seeing. Equity valuations look to be in line with historical norms. Thats a sign that as of yet they are not worried that the equity market is overvalued, that its all this easy money that is pushing stocks higher and nothing fundamentally supporting it. We dont think so, and neither does the fed. There is talk that well look back at the First Quarter of this year that weather froze so much that we had negative growth. I dont know if you share that view, but a lot of smart economists think we did not grow much in that First Quarter. When that number comes out should we be worried . We do think that First Quarter is going to be revised down to negative territory, a maybe half a percent. But the good news were seeing signs of the thaw. We had a job gain of 288,000. I think theyll average the first and Second Quarter. Were looking at growth in the Second Quarter of 3. 5 . When you average it, its shy of 2 . Lets look at jobs. We all thought. A lot of economists said you need 150 to 200,000 jobs a month. Many think if you average 150,000 a month, youre doing okay. But at 2el 8,000, lots of jobs but not much wage growth. Its absolutely true that you dont need as many jobs now to get the Unemployment Rate down as historically. Thats why growing 200,000 a month on average and youre seeing the Unemployment Rate come down, but by historical standards thats still subdued, subpar. Normally you would be looking at job growth of 250, 300,000, thats what you need to get wages growing. We still have slack in the labor market, thats why wages are not turning up. When its slack that means there is someone available to get your job and you get that wage increase. Michelle, chief economist at the royal bank of scotland. The danger of americas booming business of moving oil by train cars through local communities. Today transportation secretary anthony fox told lawmakers on capitol hill that the standard tank cars that hold millions of barrels of cru crude oil are not to transport oil. Here in the United States and in canada. Federal regulators are also issuing a safety alert to push oil by Rail Companies to retire the tank cars or reinforce them with more melt. We will continue to watch this story for you. Okay, shes the mayor in the middle with workers and Small Businesses on either side. Coming up im talking about a big catalyst in californias minimum wage debate. Plus middle class families living paycheck to paycheck. You keep getting unexpected hits from all different angles of things youre not prepared for. My look at americas middle class continues, we look at a husband and wifes balancing act and the toll its taking on their relationship. Im not just talking about it. We have more right here. You followed their journey across the border it was heart wrenching. Now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. I didnt go back to the person that i was before i left. An emotional borderland reunion this trip was personal to me. This is real. Long held beliefs. Illegal in mexico too. Learn the language come here. Most ridiculous thing ive heard in my life tested by hard lived truths. These migrants are being exploited beyond borderland. Only on Al Jazeera America a year ago you probably hadnt heard of richmond, california, the area ravaged by the housing crash, but its been making waves with its chairmaning the ship. Last year it was poised to become the First American city to buy distressed mortgages through emman domain. Thats the law that allows the government to seize private government for public good. And they would pudge minimum wage to 12. 30 by 2017. The mayor its been busting local wages, mayor mclachlin, thank you for being with us. Thank you, glad to be here. Youre walking a tightrope between a place that has to survive because businesses do business in your town, but at the same time is looking to protect the interests of the working people, the middle class people, the lowincome people in your community. That is a tough balance to find. How do you feel youre doing in this . I think were doing a great job. I mean, we want businesses. We appreciate our businesses. We want more of it, we also want businesses to do the right thing for their workers. In richmond we have nearly 18 of our families living under the poverty level. 2,000 to 4,000 lowminimum wage jobs exist in our city, and we think its to our benefit to the benefit of our community, to the benefit of our local economy to raise the minimum wage because then you have people with more money in their pockets spending money in our local economy, and actually revitalizing our economy. So its to the benefit of businesses and certainly to the benefit of working families who work so hard now and half the time by even working full time cant even make ends meet. Later on in the show were going to talk to one of those families. Where its typical they have two incomes and have difficulty. Let me show my viewers what your council is proposing. There are a couple of exemptions. Workers under the age of 18. Workers at businesses with fewer than ten employees, and workers who are regularly tipped. A study of 23 of 53 local businesses said that they would comply with the law without exploring options like reducing their workforce, cutting hours or moving to a nearby city which means 30 business its out of 53 were going to do one of those things. I guess im asking you at what point are you worried that youre doing the right thing as far as youre concerned but businesses may say this cant be my problem. Im going to another town. We did make some amendments last night. The Council Majority was unwilling to move forward the ordinance as we had put it forward, some of us on the council. The exemption nor youth is something that i did not support. I made a motion not to include that. I think youth should get a minimum wage increase as well. The majority of the council did not go along with that, and also i believe tipped workers should get an increase in the minimum wage, but the majority did not go along with that. I did support the amended ordinance knowing that we can change it Going Forward to strengthen it to include these exemptions at some point when we get a different council, when we have a council that understands that we need to strengthen it even further. All the studies that i have read stated clearly that businesses benefit from the increased wages. We did it in a phased way so over the next three years it will go up to 12. 30. Small businesses can adjust. We dont feel that its going to harm the Small Business community or certainly the large Business Community is not even objecting to this. To some extent. We try to make this very, very fair to businesses. So i think there is a little bit of misinformation, some studies that didnt have really good data were presented, but by far and wide the majority of the studies say that a phasedin minimum wage increase does not cause job loss. But i will say, mayor, this particular study im citing i believe was done, presented by council by the city staff. This was a survey set up. Right, i think what they did, they held a Community Meeting or rather a Business Community meeting, and i think that they discussed is various other studies in the a meeting. Only 60 businesses responded. Thats not a robust sample. Really, exactly. Mayor. Thank you for being with us. We hope to continue this conversation with you through the course of the year. Thank you