Im proud to be gay, and i consider being gay among the greatest gifts god has given me. With those clear bold words apples ceo tim cooke became the first and openly gay ceo of a fortune 500 company. Along with others, hrc praised cooke for coming out in an essay published today. In the essay, cooke says being gay as been tough and uncomfortable at times, but also says it has quote, given me the confidence to rise above adversary and bigotry. It also gives me the skin of a rhinoceros, end quote. Cookes decision to come out is a very public move by a very private man. Patricia sabga has that story. [ cheers and applause ] reporter when tim cooke took over apple three years ago, many wondered whether the company could survive without its visionary founder steve jobs. Cooke was relatively unknown outside of apple. He cut his teeth at ibm before joining a struggling apple in 1998. He streamlined the way apple products are assembled, and struck longterm component deals to boost profits while locking out potential rivals. Can you even see it. [ laughter ] since ascending to the role of ceo, he has piloted the companies through scandals and alleged Corporate Tax dodging. Owe. Reporter he tackled faltering investor confidence. Quiet and methodical, he has yet product. Ipad is everywhere. But the softspoken alabama native has been a game changer socially championing environmental causes and human rights. The intensely personal cookes Sexual Orientation has long been an open secret. In 2011, he topped out magazines list of powerful gays. He forcefully declared in an open letter, that he is quote, proud to be gay. Patricia sabga, al jazeera. Now tim cooks says in his essay that plenty of people at apple already knew he was gay. But a study from the Civil Rights Group i mentioned earlier showed that 53 of lbgt workers nationwide hide who they are at work. And 83 of gay people hide some aspects of their identity at work. The socalled covering might mean a gay person decides not to bring a partner to a job funding or display a photograph on a disk. Consider this map, it shows that only 21 states, the ones that are colored in orange have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual or reendation. And the other 29 states, the ones that are white, companies are within their rights for firing someone because he or she is gay. Think about that for a moment. And then also consider that federal law does not protect private Sector Workers from discrimination based on their Sexual Orientation in 2014 in america. Lets talk more about what this all means not only for am but for workers across the united states. Joining me is the man who served as Senior Advisor to president clinton an attorney and long times gay activist, and a consultant whos clients include google and microsoft. Thanks to both of you for being here. Dory you referenced a 2011 report from the center of talent innovation. It was published in Harvard Business review as well. It says there are significant advantages to being out in the workplace. I would have thought there are disadvantages to being gay in the workplace. Tell me what the advantages are. Thats right. Obviously this only applies to states where you are prevented on the basis of sexuality. But in those states where antidiscrimination are in place, workers who are openly gay are better able to succeed in the workplace because they can concentrate on their jobs and not on hiding their stuff. Precisely. What an fromming thing. Richard you and i know each other. You say you can hear the fascination in my voice that all of these states where its you can get fired for being gay. I truly think i wouldnt have known that if this hasnt come to light. You are a lawyer. 2014. You have been working in the Clinton White house, why is this still the case . Its amazing, and the bill that would have protected all workers nationwide missed passing the u. S. Senate by one vote when president clinton was president. So why has it taken so long to move forward . Its a complex number of reasons, mostly because different parties at different times have controlled the congress, whereas marriage allty has become a big priority of Gay Rights Movements. So its the its the doublecontrol of congress by two parties and the fact that congress hasnt moved on this, and individual states that havent been wanting to do it, but you can get married in a lot of these states today, but they dont have basic civil rights protections where you can be fired just for being gay from your job. Dory one of the things that a lot of people dont know about Silicon Valley is it is far less welcoming to women than you would think. It is not an entirely welcoming environment, and certainly for women who are trying to start their own businesses, it is not an entirely welcoming environment. Which goes on to say. This has not been a great place for adversity. Does this help apple and silico valley . I think it absolutely does. It shows that apple is walking the talk. And tim cooke is willing to stand up and be counted, but there is a subset in Silicon Valley of what are called brogrammars, frat boy bros that create a culture that is not really welcoming to women and perhaps gays and lesbians. And they are also the people who finance you have a whole bunch of people that go from wall street to Silicon Valley. Richard were almost upon on election, how does this start to resolve itself . Does it evolve . Does it tag on to the gay marriage wagon or is somebody going to have to lead the charge to say everywhere in america you cannot be fired for being gay. Its interesting, i wrote a piece this morning, which pointed out the fact that this is how Real Progress happens. People like tim cooke coming out. I mean the advances that the Gay Rights Movement has seen have largely been based upon the fact that people have become willing to be open and honest about their Sexual Orientation. And when people come out, you realize its your neighborhood, your doctor, your son, that gays and lesbians are everywhere. They are just like regular people. And once you know someone firsthand its hard to discriminate, and the resistance falls apart. And thats why the movements have seen have really advanced the cause. Conservatives would say thats why you ruin a culture. Thats right. I noticed that ted cruz said today he still likes his iphone. To tim cookes credit he has been at the front of human rights issues. But does he now have to be all movement . This frees tim cooke to not have to worry about talking about this all the time. As part of its dna, apple has been supportive of equality, but for a long time, because tim cooke was semiopenly gay, there was the question looming in the air, why isnt he just admitting it . Now he can put that past him. Its out there. Its old news. Job. And like the rest of us, just choose what he wants to actively support or not. Exactly. And the second fortune 500 ceo that comes out, no one is going to care. Exactly. Human Rights Campaign says very proudly 91 of fortune 500 companies have rules that prohibit discrimination on gender identity. Which 9 dont. Right. 9 dont. Including exxon mobil. And thats one of the reasons why this is still a very big deal. Somebody might say in this day and age somebody coming out is not a big deal. But this guy is the head of apple. He is probably one of the most not only one of the most prominent americans, but one of the most prominent people in the world. People may feel the person they work for is not particularly accepting. This sets a very powerful example for people. That you can be successful, you can get ahead, live your life orientation. All right. Great to talk to both of you thank you for being with us. Coming up next, the stock market has been on a remarkable run since 2009, but ill reveal a major reason behind your 401ks increase. Plus new yorkers have their noses in the air and for good reason, its air worth a lot of money. Tell me what you are thinking on twitter or facebook. These people have decided that today they will be arrested i know that im being surveilled people are not getting the care that they need this is a crime against humanity hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now they are running towards base. Explosions going off were not quite sure. Fault lines Al Jazeera Americas emmy winning, investigative, documentary, series. Its a chilling and draconian sentence. It simply cannot stand. This trial was a sham. They are truth seekers. All they really wanna do is find out whats happening, so they can tell people. Governments around the world all united to condemn this. As you can see, its still a very much volatile situation. The government is prepared to carry out mass array. If you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. Well the markets gave investors a prehalloween treat today. The dow staged a rally of 221 points. Despite the volatility, october is turning out to be a good one for your 401k, the dow and s p are on track to end the month about 1 higher, the nasdaq about 1. 5 higher. Shares of visa were up more than 10 today, one day after visa gave a forecast that topped what analysts were looking for. Visa also reported that it is launching a 5 billion stock buyback program. That brings us to a disturbing reason that the stock markets bull run has kept running. Stock buybacks. Thats when a company buys its own stock in the open market. Its a popular way for companies to boost their own stock prices by creating demand. In that happens because investors like it when a companys per share price goes up. You are dividing the profits over a smaller number of share, so each share earns a bigger piece of the pie. The increase in earnings per share is not because the companys business is actually doing better. And here is what is really disturbing, companies on the s p 500 are on track to spend 95 of their earnings this year either on dividend payouts or buying back their own stock. 95 . That is money that could be spent on raising wages for workers or Capital Expenditures meaning investing in new plants and equipment. And more companies are actually borrowing money to buy back their own stocks. Jen rogers has the story. Reporter many of americans Largest Companies have been on a binge. On track to spend 914 billion this year alone to issue dividends and buy back shares of their own companies. The companies include apple, ibm, exxon mobil, fie or and cisco systems. The companies with the biggest buyback programs have outperformed the Broader Market by 20 since mid2008. And its a trend that has been on the incline for the most part crisis. Companies are doing more buybacks now, partially because they can, but more importantly because they are being pushed to by outside investors. When they do the buyback, they reduce the number of shares that they use in calculating their earnings per share, so their earnings per share goes up, the price to earnings per share goes down, stock looks more attractive, and investors like that. Reporter but critics say some of the money should have been used for Capitol Improvements and hiring more employees. Companies now spending around 40 of their cash for Capital Expenditures, but that was 50 back in the early 2000s. These companies warn that companies who cut Capital Expenditures jeopardize their potential for growth. More and more of the earnings are created through sharecount reduction, as compared to increasing the sales and true earnings of the company. Reporter and many are wandering how Long Companies can keep buying back their shares at lower levels before investors start to question how they plan to grow for the future. With me is a man who has been reporting about the hundreds of billions of dollars that companies have been spending so by back stock of their own companies. This has been going on for a long time. Its not new. Small businesses will understand that they may have had investors in their business, things are going well, they are going to buy those investors out, and gives them more control of their company. Why would a Large Business spend 10s of billions of dollars buying back their own stock . Maybe the main reason they do it is because it works. Investors like it because it creates demand for that stock, and what does demand for a stock do . It makes the stock go up. And this is not a radical notion. Theres a lot of research that stock buybacks work. In that companies that buy back their stock at large using large amounts of money do boost the price of their stock. So thats one main reason. Another very important consideration is that actually Companies Corporate america is sitting on huge piles of cash. By some metrics more than a trillion dollars of just unused cash sitting on corporate balance sheets. They are making money and not spending it. They are making money. Profit margins are higher than they have ever been, and companies are feeling a lot of pressure to put that money to use, and as you know, theres a number of things that a company can spending its money on. They can spending money on things like hiring new workers, factories, improving infrastructure, things like that, sort of investing in the future. They can spending money on mergers and acquisitions, buying new companies, and then they can return money to shareholders. What you have seen is that returning money to shareholders is really the easiest thing you can do with your money. Its giving back to shareholders in the terms of buybacks and dividends, and investors like it. And in the corporate environment were in right now, where a lot of people still dont totally buy the recovery, returning money to shareholders is really a lowrisk thing that companies can do with all of that cash. They can either buy their own stock back or pay dividends and the combination of those two is what were talking about. Its nice of us to say that we think companies should reinvest their money, and employ more people. But is it a fact as patricias piece said, its taking money away from reinvestment. Is that a bad thing . Yes, it certainly can be. Thats the argument that critics make, it is shortchanges future growth. This is money that could be going to opening new factories, improving aging infrastructure. Hiring new workers, and bringing down the unemployment rate, and these are all improvements that go along way towards expanding the economy, and, you know, we all know that Economic Growth has not been spectacular in the u. S. For the last couple of years, so thats really the main argument against these huge buyback programs, and huge dividend programs. Of course stock Market Investors love these programs, and you s e investors clamoring for more. We spent the first segment of this show, celebrating tim cook, and coming out, and had he not done that, i was going to spending the time talking smack about tim cook. It has over 150 billion in cash, and has borrowed money to engage in stock buybacks. Apple are the Number One Company that buys back its own stock by far they swamp everybody else, and they have tons of cash sitting on their balance sheet, and they they even have more to spend if they so chose. Right, apple does have a tremendous amount of cash on its balance sheet, much of that cash is sitting overseas, so what a number of companies, apple included do, is they essentially issue debt, take the cash that they raise, and then put it into the stock market so buy back their own stock. So they take money from the bond market and give it to their shareholders. A number of critics refer it to as financial engineering, moving money around. And money is very cheap. Yeah, anybody who can get days. Its super easy. Dan good to see you. Thank you so much for being with us. Coming up next, a legal shadow may be following citibank, and it is proving costly for them. That story and more when real money continues. On techknow. These are some of the amazing spider goats small creatures, big impact how strong is it . Almost as strong as steel inspiring discoveries changing lives this could go in a human body. Right this is for an achilles tendon techknow every saturday go where science meets humanity this is some of the best driving ive ever done, even though i cant see techknow were here in the vortex only on Al Jazeera America oops. Citigroup says it is chopping 600 million from the profits it already reported for the three months ending in september, so instead of earning 3. 5 billion, it only earned 2. 8 billion. Citigroup says the reason involves talks with regulators, regarding, quote, inquiries and investigations. We know citigroup is among the banks in talks with british lawmakers. The u. S. Economy is chugging along at a healthy pace. Gross domestic product grew at 3. 5 . Thats an annualized rate. That followed growth of 4. 6 in the second quarter, but taken together that is the strongest six months of growth since the second half of 2003. Increased Government Spending on defense and strong growth in exports helped drive the Third Quarter performance, looking ahead, some economists are worried that a strongerst dollar could hurt exports. The strengthening u. S. Dollar is adding to worries about europes economy that have some economists forecasting the continent will slide into another recession. A lost decade looms for europe in the view of this man. He says that europe must come up with better policies to reduce Corporate Bank and sovereign debt to emerge from this financial crisis. He joins me now from washington. Robert a lot of americans would be forgiven for thinking that over the last couple of years, europe was doing some things to emerge from its ongoing financial crisis. It was looking quite positive, and then things took a turn. Some of that is clearly russia and the sanctions and the flow of natural gas not flowing because of ukraine, but what is going on in europe really . Ali thanks for having me on. Europe did a great job