On retail sales. Janet yellen and more more. Peter cook looks at regulatory issues behind the comcast time warner deal. We look at the stock moves in the 45 billion acquisition. Good afternoon. One thing thats important to note about this acquisition is its a stock transaction. Shareholders will get stock of comcast in return for this deal. They are going to get 2. 875 for every time warner share they old. That values the company at about 17 higher than yesterdays close. If you look at the Time Warner Cable shares today, youll notice theorizing which is what you might expect but they are trading below that offer price. There could be a couple of reasons behind that. First of all, comcast shares are declining so the value of the bid is declining to some extent. Second of all, its going to take a long time for this deal to close. It could be the end of 2014. And third of all, and of course peter is going to get more into this is the Regulatory Risk associated with this deal. Thats why the Time Warner Cable shares are rising but not as much as you might anticipate. As for comcast, not usual for an acquiring company to be declining. Most analysts are bullish on this deal and the fact it will add 11 million subscribesers to comcast and access to the new york city market and more Bargaining Power with content providers. Thats what these combinations are all about. Who is being left out in the cold . Thats charter communications. It offered to buy Time Warner Cable. Its bid was much lower. Time warner Cable Holding out for a higher bid has worked out. But now investors and annual lis are asking where does charter go from here . Who else can it team up with . Thats why were seeing a decline in shares today. If that deal is going to move forward, government regulators are going to have to give this the green light. What else do we know about this . That is one of the risks associated with this situation. Thats one of the risks to the deal. We might see comcast divest some of its properties and charter, which i just mentioned, that Company Might be able to pick up some of those assets. Thank you so much. Lets go to our chief washington correspondent peter cook. He has more on this story. Is this going to be an up hil fight on the regulatory front . Anytime you have the number one Cable Company and number two cable cun Company Joining together, you get some red flags and werey views in washington. At the end of the day analyst players think this deal will likely get it. Comcast will have to make serious concessions to the government. Could they make this deal less attract toif comcast in the process. The reason this deal will get cleared is because these companies do not compete in any of the same markets. There is no overlap here. They are competing against more than the rest of the cable industry, they are taking on satellite providers and internet providers as well. The regulators are going to have to acknowledge that. They are going to have to make concessions to focus on Regional Sports networks, sports channels. That is where a lot of the tension will be here in washington. But comcast making an aggressive case this is not an anticompetitive deal and it is in the public interest. Speaking of public interest, what is on the federal governments wish list then . A number of things and comcast moving on its own pitching to the government some ideas voluntarily. They are willing to divest 3 million customers. That will keep them at the 30 Million Subscriber mark or the less than 1 3 met trick. They are offering as well to abide by a range of competitive commitments they made when they ok over nbc, most notably to not discriminate against certain content running on their network. The question is will the government ask for more and could those demands make this deal less attractive in the long run. That could be the deal killer. Tom wheeler is the one to watch. Its the a test for him. Hes talked a lot about competition and warned about consolidation in the wireless business. This is a different industry, could be a different set of questions for them. But hes a key player to watch. These companies, do they have a lot of friends in washington on the hill many they do and comcast in particular. Its a big player here no question about it. We had a top comcast executive attend the state dinner. s spent time with the president. And made friends on both sides of the aisle. You look at their top five law makers who have received contributions from comcast and you get a who is who of republican and Democratic Leaders as well key players with regard to telecommunication issues. Comcast is a powerful player here and as nalls washington, good to have friends in high places when there is a big issue like this on the table. Peter, thank you. 1 cars of a Freight Train carrying crude oil and propane deflailed pennsylvania today 30 miles outside of pittsburgh. One struck a nearby steel plant which was forced to evacuate. No injuries have been reported. Investigators will determine if the weather cribted to the derailment. Propane supply levels are at their lowest since 2001. We go international in scope as john kerry aflives seoul ahead of president obamas trip there to asia in april. Well get analysis from our Foreign Policy correspondent when we continue in just a moment. Italian Prime Minister will resign after his party withdrew support for his tenmonth old government. He intoned resign from office officially tomorrow. Democratic party leader says italy needs to start a new season with an executive that lasts for the entire mandate. He would need to win a vote of confidence in both houses of parliament. Secretary of state kerr ray fliveedstule try and reign in nuclear ambitions. President obama promised in his first term to foift asia and to devote more u. S. Attention and resources to that strategyically vital region. How is that pivot going . Well the importance of that asia pivot depends on which awsyens you are talking to. The ivet didnt even come up when president obama gave his state of the Union Address to the American Public and there is no tchute distrabs in the middle east have taken attention away from the region. Kerri has spent so much time there working on middle east peace and has been absorbed by the problems in syria. This is his fifth trip and he insisted the rebalance to asia is still president s top priority. John kerry has to be there to reassure critical u. S. Allies and hes bringing news of president obamas plan to visit in april. There is an intense effort to finalize the Trance Pacific Partnership and this is about laying the ground work for the president s trip. China may be a tense visit. How much influence does china have over north korea and how much leverage do we have over the merry time dissputes that are going . Not much especially given the u. S. Is at odds with china over key issues. Ow the u. S. Says china, youre north koreas closest allies, you supply their fuel and Banking System and you can do more to urge them to stop their Nuclear Weapons program torks release the u. S. Missionary kenneth bea who is in a labor camp there. China demothers on this and say we dont have as much influence as you say. As for the merry time dissputes, these are some of the busiest shipping lanes in all of the world. They have dissputes not only with japan and south korea but with many of its neighbors and the u. S. Being a major Pacific Power wants to keep freedom of navigation open, the East China Sea has so much oil and gas and the u. S. Is trying to tamp down these high tensions between china and japan which could set off an accidental confully relation which is what the u. S. Is worried about. Thank you the. U. S. Economy is off to a slow start this year. Most americans face colder than normal temperatures and slow growth in jobs and wages. Joining us now with a closer look chief economist and our economic senator joining me in studio. The u. S. Saw decline in retail sales last month. The drop was. 4. It was the most since june of 2012. What do does it say about the health of the American Consumer . Most of us which are experiencing the hibernation in the polar vortex, that has really disrupted, deferred and delayed a lot of economic activity. Ifed the only been a few days, we would think about it being transitory. What im worried about are some of the losses that are very heavily in foot traffic like vehicle sales and department stores, restaurants got hit too. On the other side of it things like Grocery Stores did better, building materials, repairs, they are associated with the disruptions and the damages caused by storms. There was a real imprint of the weather but i worry about those who have lost wages due to the weather and it becoming repeated events. This week now cumulating. Now im concerned this is less transitory than what we once thought and now beginning to be burden some. You have to look at the numbers as possible sign of some sort of pause. Its difficult to separate them from the weather. Until we get a better read on how much damage the weather has done to not only sales themselves but the confidence people not wanting to go out and spend at the moment, its hard to say whether it means a lot. Yesterday we talked with the st. Louis president who is going to look past this. He thinks after the weather improves, the economy will too. What do these numbers tell us about First Quarter growth forecast . Velocity . Eded to gain this is going to be difficult. We are exass baiting weakness with the weather. Some will be recouped and it wont be recouped where its lost. I think there will be vacations to sunny places. That means tips in areas of the country where there is more temperate weather. Youll see 1. 5 in the First Quarter looking at the weakness and retail sales that is carried into february as well and disruptions to travel and things like that. The question is not only do we see it recouped in the aggregate and not where we lost it but i worry about how so many schools closed, that represents day carry for some people. That is hitting hours and earnings. Much harder to recoupe with this. One of the interesting points in retail Sales Numbers was the online sales. They were down as well. You can shopity home when its cold and snowy. Yes, you can. And that is something i worried more about because many people were home with their children. They were stuck home with their children and anyone home with young kids, you dont have a lot of time to shop online for sales. But they werent working and people on hourly pay lost pay. Plus we have higher heating bills in december and january. And looks like february as well now. Thats a real blow to disposable income. Not much aptitude to go out and spend even online. That was different than what we saw before christmas. Were going to ask you to stay with us. Were going to continue our discussion later for california and other places around the country, three words that could be a game changer, brout proof farm. That story is next drought proof farm. That story is next. Were back fed has a new fed president. She is the research director. Shes been there for 28 years. Its an interesting move for the leveland fed center. Loe retta comes from a bank with very hawkish tradition. The senator has been one of the people who makes very few waves. She hasnt done a lot of Monetary Policy speeches. It will be interesting to see if the cleveland fed takes a more prominent role in talking about what the economy should do. What are we thinking of this . Its critical. Its interesting because she oversaw some soft research that was used by the house on tuesday to attack janet yellen from the Philadelphia Fed arguing that 80 of the reduction in participation in the labor force is structural related to retirees which is in contrast to other estimates out there. She walks into the equation with view. More hawkish it sets up the stage for more decents in terms of Monetary Policy. Thats going to be more confusion than clarity where we have noise from the weather. And the fed crossing 6. 5 thresholds and things like that. You put out a note saying the hallenges facing the yellen is weak jobs. Might they change based on qualitative views . That is certainly the onsensus now not to go forward lowering the threshold but to stay with the current threshold but say its more knew answer than that. The problem is Financial Markets like numbers and not nuances. The fed is dealing with a collision course it set up in terms of thresholds which were not triggers and how to deal with it in this world where were crossing them. He wants to go to a qualitative base system. What are the indicators you would look to to tell you its time to change policy . Its a great interview you had. He noted things Like Labor Force Participation is still low. Even though its trended down, its not all retirees. The other important number is long term unemployed is still high. The number not taking part is still high. The able bodied people who want to work or underemployed working under 35 hours or less is extreamly high, 13 versus 6. 6 . So you can look at other measures within the Employment Survey that i think are more to the meat of the matter of how weak the labor market still is. How does janet yellen distinguish herself from ben bernanke . How does she make it her fed . I think she already has. Its all about communication. Shes going to be the queen of communication but its going to be a rough ride. I think its going to take time. Its about communications but its going to take time for people to look at her and see the decisions she makes. Shes got to make decisions and lead and then it will become her fed. It wont take that long. Thank you for joining me bloomberg is on the markets. Our markets Senior Correspondent joins me from the newsroom with the details. Good afternoon. If you take a look at stocks, they were rising to the highs of the session right now. Retails sales worse than estimated. Counter balanced by some better individual corporate news. Lets talk about a couple of individual stocks. One of them is applied materials. They are forecasting fiscal sect Quarter Sales up 10 . Applied materials seeing higher mand fromers of cell phone chips. And General Motors recalling over 750,000 cars. That recall linked to the ignition system which is hit by a heavy key ring could cause the engine to shut off and deactivate the air bags. We are seeing g. M. Down a little more than 1 today. Youll get more bottom line after the break. Welcome back to this second half hour. Thanks for staying with us. Lets check some of the top stories were following for you at this hour. After pummeling wide areas of the south, a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on arts of the midatlantic region. Government officeses were closed and hearings were cancelled on capitol hill. A state of emergency was called in parts of the country. Many of the commuter towns west of london have been hit by the worst floods in 250 years and the establish Environment Agency says the risk of flooding is likely to increase in the next ew days as the rivera proaches peak levels. For the state of california 2013 it was driest year in history and there is no end to the drought. 80 of the water supply in the state is used for farming and that has some looking at new ways to grow food. We have broccoli, some tomato plants, a variety of different lettuces. Two years ago Ken Armstrong started a different kind of vegetable patch in california. People ask me if i was doing farming before this and i told them no. Everything i tried to grow i killed because i forgot to water it. That is clean roots an one beautiful head of lettuce. This is an alkqua upon i can farm where fish and produce grow together. All the nutrients are available to the plants at all time. They expend more energy into growth. In this pond there are 800 catfish being raised on organic fish feed. They are carried to troughs here plants grow on floating pots. The clean water is returned to the fish tank where its renewt fide and begins the whole process again. Its a combination of plant farm and fish farm. Combining the two cancelles out the negative of both. Fish are cold blood so in an alk upon i can system it is not possible to have e collie or sam nell louisiana the fish can be harvested out and used as a protein source. Alk upon i can farms are expenive to construct but are less expensive to run. They eliminate the need tr fertilizers or pesticides or farm equipment. It may seem count intuitive to grow in ponds of water in one of the worst drouts. Alk uponics use 80 less water because its recycled and its not lost to the soil or evap relation. They could restrict our water by 80 and it wouldnt restrict us at all. This ancient farming method may prove to be the modern solution to drought. I believe this is the evolution of farming. Because of its ability to grow faster more densely with fewer resources it will be the method doling of growing in the future. For more on californias drought, im joined from San Francisco by make wade, depecktive director of the farm coalition. Thanks for your time today. Good morning. How bad is this drought . The drought today were experiencing is one of the worst weve ever experienced in california. It isnt just something that impacts farmers. It hurts people across the country. California provides almost half of the nations fresh fruits and vegetables and when farmers cant grow them here in california, they dont show up in market as cross the country. Do we have any Historical Perspectiv