P. M. Eastern. I want to get everyone caught up on the other top stories we are following. Came up short. Everyone has an excuse, right . It is called the weather. Bad weather affected operating revenue. Warren buffett found a way to keep his Company Taxes taxes low. To stockhe plan shares . Another twist in the search for that missing plane. Filesia said that some were missing from a Flight Simulator found in the pilots home. Major changes in the Federal Reserve today. Their first meeting in eight years without ben bernanke at the helm. Michael mckee is here with me at the beginning of this janet yellen era. This threshold of 6. 5 has been such a key metric tom a but that may change . It may be the first thing she brings to it. This is not her first rodeo. She has been on the fed since 1990 four. This is actually not the first fed meeting she has chaired. February 20 there was an open meeting on dodd frank. The first topic of business is what do you do about the socalled evans rule . That it will be appropriate for as long as the Unemployment Rate remains above 6. 5 . It has come down a lot faster than they thought it would when they adopted that rule in december of 2012. The question is, why does this level of unemployment not feel better if it is better . The idea that the economy is not doing well enough to really rely on this measure. At this point, you have set the threshold for when you will Start Talking about Interest Rates and when the market reacts to that guidance. The guidance was supposed to keep the rates lower. If we go below that, the rates start to go up. They cannot do anything about how it feels, but they can do something about what they say. Does the fed change the length and wording of their statements besides dropping the evans rule . When Alan Greenspan first put out the first statement in 1994, it was 99 words. Imagine that. Those were early days. Are we going to have less transparency, then . Abandon the evans rule, does that mean it will be harder . It will change the way you look at it. They will use what is called qualitative guidance. There will be a broader measure of things. It was a lot of emphasis on the. Chart. Remember those . We get them this afternoon. How many people think the fed will be at one Interest Rate at a certain point in time . Tom at december, three people thought theyd would change rates in 20. Then it moved to two. That kind of movement is what everyone will be looking at as we see what comes out of this. The weather, too. We got that from fedex. Of thedescription economy, and we probably will not say much other than to say that this is may be temporary. One other interesting thing, only nine voters today. Brainard is not confirmed. There is one more empty seat that has not been nominated. So, anything that they do today could get reversed. We are all over it. Lets turn now to the situation on the markets, the standoff in crimea. Standoffer killed in a as the fight for the peninsula moves from the halls of parliament to the battlefield. Berlin. Ins me now from david, many had hoped that the unrest would be settled once Vladimir Putin effectively got what he wanted. He seemingly did. But me ask you, is he more like a shark that smells blood . And European Union do not stand up to him, will he make a play for something much larger . There is the possibility that he will do that, but not until the crimean situation is under his full control, which has not happened yet. Although you did mention some of the tensions going on in the peninsula at the moment. Many of the russian speakers in crimea now consider the peninsula to already be part of the russian federation, which is why they are looking at the ukrainian troops stationed there and thinking you are a foreign army. We just heard reports from where the Ukraine Naval base is. There have been protests mainly by women, we have heard, moving into the space, demanding that they leave as soon as possible. It is an extremely tense situation at the moment. It does sound like tensions are heating up. Some basic questions here, can we trust the data that we see . It overwhelmingly looks like the people of crimea were voting to be part of russia. From an economic standpoint, are they really better off . If you had a choice between being part of the European Union or being part of the russian economy, as an individual, really, which are you better off with right now . Know, ukraine is very far away from being part of the eu. It is true that on friday they will find a political agreement for part of what they want to do to move closer to europe for integration, but that is a long way from actually being a member of the eu. Remember, ukraine is going through a tough situation at the moment, financially. The tensions in the ukraine are about half of those paid in russia. Much of the crimean citizens looking towards russia, thinking that they could be better off financially, this is an economic. Ifficulty remember, ukraine is still close to default, still trying to work out some kind of bailout so that they can get through the next few months. So, there is an incentive for people to work through russia. Thank you very much, david, joining us live from berlin. Betty, San Francisco, she is with someone who has an interesting view into our global issues. That is right. You have seen this time and time again. Tweets, hundreds of thousands of ukrainians coming into the street. We saw that with the arab uprising. If Silicon Valley entrepreneur who pioneered the business of online reputation management, michael fertik, joining us this morning. Michael, great to see you bright and early this morning. Understandportant to that we are in california. I had to go through something to be here. And here i am. [laughter] we were just mentioning about how social media plays this role. We saw that in the arab spring. But we have seen that in lighter moments. Think the sochi olympics. All the tweets that went out. Problems with the twitter handles i was following, the toilets installed backwards, feet in the air. Exactly. In this instance you see russia very conscious of social media. They blocked several websites and social media accounts because they were afraid it would create even more problems. When Something Like that happens, is there any way to really stop this . Features of two social media. One is what the crowd is saying, organizing themselves. It is not always clear how many people are behind the self organization. One of the stories on the arab spring is that it was apparently a small number of people were amplifying their affected by sock puppet in discussions online. Still, there was a following locally and globally to get a certain kind of information out. The flipside is when you have a powerful authoritarian regimes like china, like russia, the power steering information away media, changing or blocking the conversation, it is very high. I would not overestimate the for the full liberalization. Shutting down social media, if you have the right kind of regime, can unfortunately be very effective. At looks i look at all of this and i think what is the point . It seemed like the entire world as following justine sacho she flew for 15 hours. Where she did not know what was going on. We all had a moment where we were focused on this and then it was done. I look at this malaysia jet, the missing jet with websites popping up, crowd sourcing people with satellite imagery. Saying help us find this airplane. I suppose it is for the greater good, but it kind of becomes navelgazing. It is almost a cover, in some ways. There are two parts to what you are asking. Ephemerality of everything on the internet. If it is not important, very few wait a few moments and it will go away. Like super hd. The cnn effect of the daily news that used to happen with many 24hour news channels that would keep a story alive for a day or two, social media might keep it alive for a few minutes. The second part is is this macabre . I have to think i have to say, for some things i am a fan. When you are looking at things like debris for malaysia, it may not be as helpful as the official authorities. Talkinge by the way about an area the size of the United States. Easily. Easily. It may not be as important, but for other things that might be important, like somali refugee camps. ,r the tomb of genghis khan these are very interesting project that would never get the kind of scale or government attention that this disaster had. Michael, what about Something Like this . Courtney love. Got to love Courtney Love. She tweeted this out, where at thought she had looked the satellite images and thought she had found something. Later on it turned out it was imagery of votes searching for the jet. She was the only celebrity who has joined in on this search. What does that say about celebritiesd the participating in social media . Joining in on news events like this . The celebrities look like us a lot of times, but they do have a lot of times on the hand a lot of time on their hands. I dont know how effective someone like Courtney Love might be. Maybe she is very effective. Who knows. I will say that there have been a lot of elements that have been catalogued in this search. It did bring more attention to these interesting and powerful free services. I am generally supportive of these kinds of services. Michael, stay with me. We will have you for the whole hour. We will talk to you about alibaba, next. Michael fertik, ceo of reputation. Com. Why is alibaba expected to be such a hot ticket in the u. S. Ge, other companies, a growing concern that russia may retaliate against them for the russian sanctions. Saying that they were just getting started. Wednesday, coming from the west coast. 18 months ago, alibaba was under u. S. Scrutiny. Now the chinese ecommerce giant is headed for what may be the nations biggest ipo since 2008. Joining me again, i cohost for the hour, michael for kick and ceofertik, founder of reputation. Com. Nothing like a few billion dollars to turn around the reputation of the country company. You could do a lot with that. Just between friends. You could. The fed coverage has been completely praising of this business model. The fact of the matter is that it is still closely tied to china. And the Chinese Government. How it is so anticompetitive. The piracy issues. Is any of that going to come to the fore . I think that it will. We have to understand them in the context of what we know. There is no analog in the United States or even in the world, except perhaps japan. If you have shares in softbank, i think that that is the bet on the value of the ipo. I am a believer in alibaba. Buying in my proxy. Of tied into their ipo. They have an enormous commerce thing that looks like amazon. Amazon is just dessert. We are the full meal. Paypal. Like they have email services, social mega services. They have enormous numbers of properties that are basically your alpha to omega. In fact, in some ways they are the fully sanctioned internet for china. That gets back to your question about risk. There could be a sense of risk that American Consumers may not want to do business with the Chinese Government. Or that the Chinese Government could shut down parts of ali baba if they are not happy. Right, is there a breakup risk if they crossed the line . He has been around for a long time. Obviously, jack mondo knows how to navigate the Chinese Government. He is definitely ready to be one of the National Heroes of china, globally. What kind of a grade would you give his reputation globally . The guy is outstanding. I have seen him talk. Question about how he manages the Chinese Government, he says with humility that he is not a minister, but i tell you what, entering the u. S. Market is not as dissimilar. He is very savvy. The initial word that my grandmother would say is that he has [indiscernible] think that he is going to relate to u. S. Investors here . Extremely well. He is very wellknown in america. His english is very good. He is an extremely charming guy. He was this teacher who had a great story. Selfeffacing, when you meet him. Very selfeffacing. Total billionaire. Sweaters and turtlenecks. Like that is part of the affect. Is selfeffacing. A few billion dollars in revenue . Yes, but i only think about customers. On the flipside, michael, the fact is that they are as big as they are because china does not Like Companies like facebook and twitter in their own market. You are exactly right. At some point china will have to give. If they are going to get with Ecommerce Companies entering the western markets thomas they will have to give as well. They will have to allow american companies. Just to see what could be done. Exploring to china. Why are we not allowed here . The answer is simple, and it is one that they will have to give. We will be back in a moment guestichael fertik, my host this morning. We will check back in with you guys and a little bit. Coming up, everyone, candy crush stands to gain as much as 10,000 when the Company Goes Public in a few weeks. Pretty nice, right . And the benefit of starting your company in new york. What is driving growth in the manhattan tech scene . Fromnuing live after this new york and San Francisco. We will be right back. In there watching loop, live on Bloomberg Television and streaming on your phone and on bloomberg. Com. I am betty liu, at bloomberg and San Francisco. I know it is early, but be sure to tweet me while i am here, let me know what stories are important to you that we will be covering in the next few days. It is day number two of the fed meeting. I want to get back to new york and my coanchor, trish reagan. It is definitely early out there and San Francisco. The futures market, 26 minutes past the hour, it is a big day with that fomc meeting coming up. We expect to hear the statement by 2 p. M. We will be covering it live for you this afternoon. At 2 30, janet yellen will be having her first ever press conference at the head of the Federal Reserve. Or is still tension brewing in the ukraine right now. You can see that futures are higher across the board there. A lot of questions as to whether the fed is going to abandon that 6. 5 unemployment threshold today. We will certainly be watching signsat, as well as any of tapering. We will be covering that story for you live at 2 p. M. On bottom line. Meanwhile, the search continues for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight. Authorities looking into the south indian ocean, focusing on an area about the size of italy, based on the analysis of the planes fuel reserve. Some files were reportedly missing from a fight Flight Simulator that investigators found in the home of the pilots. General electric is joining boeing in tracking the fallout in russia. They will be among almost 100 of the executives set to meet in washington today with chuck hagel to talk about how sanctions would impact their businesses. Hey, blame it on the weather, right . Why not, everyone elses. Fedex, the Package Delivery company cut its fullyear forecast. The company said that winter storms throughout the quarter disrupted operations and increased costs. Of course, that is going to be another issue, betty, that we will expect to hear a bit more from from the Federal Reserve today. One of the things that has made it so hard for them to analyze what the countrys economy is doing is all of this bad weather. It is a bit better in San Francisco. It is still early, but i agree with you, that the weather has in fact clouded a lot of the data we have seen in the last few weeks. When it quite sunny comes to investing in technology. The west coast, the best coast when it comes to technology. The thriving new york city startup scene is suggesting otherwise. Metamorphic ventures, a Venture Capital firm that invests in startup and early early stage technology. Fashion, media. David hirsch is the cofounder and founding partner, he joins us now with more from new york. Also still with me, michael fertik, michael ford it michael fertik, the founder and of reputation. Com. David, lets start with you. You are trying to bridge this gap. We keep hearing that, people have been saying that for years. That silicon alley in new york, is it finally taking shape . We have been working towards it for a long time. About the transformation of major industry, as you mentioned in tor intro, from fashion mediate the publishing. Financial services. The list goes on. Consumer packages. The valley is still the valley. And willn is happening continue to happen. It is time for major industry to embrace technology and unlock this distribution, this monetization, this strategy. Real companies and industries are embracing web startups and taking advantage of it today. David, break it down for me. Give me an example of on the ground. As you work in new york, what do you mean, exactly . Look at the activity. Easily under armor purchased an apt about fitness. Met this really signals to is metamorphic to the industry. Real industry is excepting web startups to innovate. Without it, they are in deep trouble. Industries and Real Customers expect speed, access, and personalization. Look at chase bank, for example. They have 5000 branches. What they do with them in the next five years to 10 years will , but he find who they are. The way, how many of those branches are going to stay open, given the technology . Michael, how does Silicon Valley