It is helping a charitable foundation. To Olivia Sterns for the headlines. This afternoon, president obama gave his yearend news conference. He said next year is highly significant for the u. S. 2014 can be a breakthrough year for america. , as i outlined in detail earlier this month, we all know that there is more we have to do to restore opportunity in broad based growth for every american. That will require some action. The president did admit that administrative his administration did screwup the the Affordable Care act. Sergio marchionne is said to have started again the negotiations to buy chrysler. With an ipo on chrysler on hold, he meets with the Health Care Trust and says to the people asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Those are the top headlines. New york city is adding Electronic Cigarettes to its ban on smoking in offices, restaurants, bars and public parks. The law would take effect in four months and may soon be followed by other cities in the United States. Jason cardiff is the founder and president of ecigarettes. Explain your position on this band. Thanks. A kneejerkon is reaction on the part of the city of new york. When we look at the ban, the initial smoking ban for 2002 was based around Secondhand Smoke. So when we look at Secondhand Smoke and Electronic Cigarettes, they dont have anything to do with each other. We are not generating any Secondhand Smoke with our product whatsoever. What about the contention that ecigarettes will lead people to smoke real cigarettes and, as a result, that will be detrimental to their health. That is an interesting theory. However, what we are finding in the marketplace, specially at our company, is that its the opposite. What smokers are looking for is alternative. 99 of people that smoke want to. Pullu smoke if you smokers, they dont want to smoke. So we provided them with a healthier alternative. When i look at new york, they are on the cutting edge of health. Sometimes you can go a little too far with the governing. They have made some great moves when i look at what they have done with sows with soda and the size of stoughton size of soda that you can buy in stores. And the increase of the age to 21 to buy combustible cigarettes. Is there any chance that the ecigarette industry will get ahead of these bans and propose rules of its own . I dont know if it will happen before the laws take place. But eventually it will find its footing and things will start to straightening out to strain out. When it comes to becigarettes smoked, it should be allowed based on the health benefits. You say health benefits, but the fda has really yet to rule on the Health Advocacy of Electronic Cigarettes, correct . That is correct. However, just this week, director zeller has gone on the record and stated that nicotine does not kill you. Very a high level a but it isstimulant, not what kills you in a combustible tobacco cigarette. It is the tar. It is the chemicals. It is the Secondhand Smoke. That is what is causing most of the problems. When we look at this ban on indoor smoking, it is the Secondhand Smoke that is causing all of the health issues, not the Electronic Cigarette. The fda has been clear on their stance that electronic secretary much safer alternative than a combustible tobacco cigarette. I wonder if you can respond to the idea that watching people use either an Electronic Cigarette or a combustible cigarette, that that will inevitably lead to smoking on because of young people what young people see adults do they imitate. Obviously, at our company, we are very conscious of the fact that we dont want Youth Smoking , we dont want previous motors we are very much in agreement with what mayor bloomberg has done in new york city with raising the smoking age to 21 years or older for tobacco cigarettes. And you are right. Youth will always be a concern. That is why, at our company, we dont make flavors. Electronic cigarettes get hit really hard. They should be made in bubblegum. They should be made it through in fruit flavors. Producttobaccobased that is for a current smoker and is of a generally will to smoke. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of bloomberg lp, the Parent Company of bloomberg media. On to the idea of selling e cigarettes, will they be regulated on a statebystate basis . States are asserting to regulate them and get their hands around them. We want the regulation. As i stated before, i believe the biggest issues for electronic they being electronic vaping are the bigger items where consumers are filling the products with their own liquid nicotines and ingredients and those types of items. We are looking for heavy regulation in that area. I want to thank you very much. Jason cardiff, founder and cigirex from los angeles. Have you ever gotten your child a gift and found that they were more interested in the actual packaging . I will tell you about a new Charitable Initiative that is based on that very concept. Americas singlefamily homes represent the largest physical asset class in the world. Are nowequity firms investors and hope to capitalize on historically low home prices in order to build americas first centralized rental housing market. Bloomberg zillow marks looks at how its working in one suburb of atlanta. In lawrenceville, georgia the prices may at first seem high. But this is a bargain hunt. On the block are homes that have been seized by the banks. It is all part of an enormous bet on what some consider the hottest new asset class on the street. America syntel family homes. The biggest players in this new game include new yorks private equity giant blackstone through homes. Sidiary invitation colony American Homes, unit of 20 Million Investment fund. And American Homes for rent. Many of the houses they are buying up were, until recently, homes of along to families like this. They have been struggling with their Monthly Payments for some time when, in late september, they requested a third mortgage modification from their lender citigroup. Everything was posted be on hold so we didnt even worry about it. But after what they say was just a days notice earlier this month, city mortgage sold their family home of 10 years to the highest bidder, blackstone. Literally, it feels like our house was stolen. We were caught off guard. Just in general. No notice, no anything. This woman acting as a property bidder bought the house sight unseen. It was more than a dozen bidding victories for her and she was one of more than a dozen bidders for blackstone. , inss the state of georgia one day, the firm purchased more than 170 homes. Foreclosuree rapid process and historically low house prices in certain states, blackstones Invitation Homes and its major competitors have dominated these options, buying up around 2000 properties in Gwinnett County alone. In city suburbs and subdivisions across the country, these large investors are placing huge bets on a fast on a vast number of Single Family homes. The major institutional players have put in about 20 billion to acquire north of 150,000 homes. What is traction like for a city like atlanta . You can buy homes in nearby make its that economically feasible to service those homes. When borrowers dont pay their mortgage on time, the lender forecloses on the home and souls at an auction and sells it an auction. A company to bite, and eviction company to empty it, a renovated, and then they gather the rental income from the thousands of homes and coming blackstones taste, bundle the income streams together, price them and then sell them on to other investors. The number of american rental homes has jumped from 33 million before the housing crash to almost 40 million 40 million today. Blackstone offered to let them stay in the house as renters. But for 200 more than the monthly mortgage they couldnt afford. It is me and daddys job to worry, not yours. Family toe the latest be priced out of their own home and the mac and dream. It is not worth it to us anymore. They areather rent the latest family to be priced out of their own homes and the american dream. It is not worth it to us anymore. I would rather rent. Joining us from los angeles is mark austin, the owner of Skyway Realty in the current chairman of the National Association of Real Estate BrokersPolitical Action committee. Story touches many different parts of peoples lives. How did you come to connect with the story . To gwinnettown county where these big investors have been doing a lot of buying recently and we went to one of the monthly auctions that you saw in the piece. Every tuesday of the month, they have these options. Blackstone was winning every civil competition against their rivals, like americans rent. We tried to find families that were in those homes that had just been sold in this family was the only one that would talk theirwhen we turned up at front door. They were one of the few families that was still in the home. Mark, im wondering if i can get your reaction to this piece into this trend. What is concerning is the community impact. In los angeles, we went from having a glut of inventory at low prices to no inventory. It is becoming impossible to get an owneroccupant buyers offer excepted. You go to these options and you see young couples, families along with local investors trying to buy these properties and they are never able to compete with the money that people like blackstone can throw around you. Peopledit available to like blackstone is a lot cheaper than the credit available to a lot of people like you and i may be going to try to take out a third mortgage. Some of the people in these areas that have been hit by foreclosure, the credit has taken a big hit. They often cant pay huge amount of cash on the day. Mark, does this underscore the feeling in the United States that a home is more than just an investment. It is not a piece of real estate. It is a piece of someones life. And for memmunity personally growing up, having your own home, buying a home was commensurate with success. The destination. Renting is a stopping place on the way to owning a home. In our community, homeownership, the opportunity to build International Wealth and transfer that to your children, to be able to start businesses, to send your kids to college, to retire off of accrued equity over time, thats really important to our community. We have lost an unprecedented amount of wealth through poor closure through foreclosure. You have a lot of experience in the real estate industry. In and around los angeles. Would you ever participate in Something Like this as a representative of one of these private equity firms . For other parts of the country, we have had this discussion a lot. For some parts of the country, there is a benefit when there are a lot of vacant homes. There is blight. There is boarded up houses. In los angeles, we dont suffer from demand. It becomes a matter of conscience almost when you represent a community as i do to decide what form of business you want to operate in. I pretty much call it misery business. I would much rather represent people buying houses or refinancing to lower their monthly debt. I think that is important to note. Refinancing is one of the obstacles that people are facing. If you are a lender and you have delinquent borrower who is a few months behind and they seek modification, like the family and that story, are you going to talk to them about a third modification and try to work with them that might take time and you will be losing money on losing money all the while or when you have a company like blackstone was offering you cash and sell it to them . I wonder if you got a response from blackstone about the piece. I didnt today. I heard nothing from them. I tried to work with them to try to get 70 to talk with us about part of the story. To get somebody to talk with us about part of the story. Think there is some fairness in what they are saying. Give families the chance to live in neighborhoods with good schools. This is one of the ideas they use when it comes to deciding where they will buy these homes. Are these desirable neighborhoods . Do they have good School Systems . Will families want to live there . He says we are hoping, for the next few years, these people will be able to rent the zones in these neighborhoods, restore their credit and he put a lot of lame on the federal government and he is no fan of the federal government. Having said all that, based on your piece and interview with this one family, if it is going to cost more, its not as if they will get a chance to stay in our own homes. No, it may mean that they may have to move to another area that is not as desirable. Thank you. Coming up next, remember the dance team each trade monkey dancer . Those and some of the best of all time were made by next guest. There are three alltime best super bowl marshals and theyre all made by my next guest. He is creative director on stickers and helping to create the longrunning m ms character campaign. Looking for a new challenge, he launched his own advertising agency. Fastest growing independent ad agencies in north america. He is here with the hottest holiday gift of the season. Youve got a box, dont you . We have a great box. I feel like this is lets make a deal. Is there anything in the box . No. There are four versions of the box though. Tell us about the box. Every parent knows that, when you give a kid a gift, they will play with her for a minute or two, throw to the side and then Start Playing with the box. O lets make the box the toy ok, you get rid of the toy. Just go for the box. The box comes unassembled. You do have to assemble it at home yourself. You have to unfold it and tape it to your question at there is more to this because the money that goes into making the box and buying the box, where does that go . All proceeds go to charity, the Charlie Davidson the kenya fund and blue side bridge, which is child davidson Leukemia Fund and leaside bridge. How did you come up with this idea . Last christmas watching my nieces and nephews playing with a box. A friend of mine that i have said come a you know, this is for kids imaginations so lets make it all for kids. They tried to do something for charitable organizations. This is what we are doing. Doing right now . We are doing all right. To date, we are at 92 bawxes shi pped. And theres still nothing in the box. Nothing at all. Quite a you can use it to put something in, right . You can use your imagination. There is really a lot in the box. You are helping out a lot of charities. How did you select the charities . Jonathan is on the board with the new sky bridge. Werefe and sisterinlaw they be suitors for Charlie Davidson who passed away from leukemia and his parents started the fund with mass General Hospital in boston. Just go to a website, is that how it works . Giftbawx. Com. You cant make this up. More next on taking stock. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Lets go to mark crumpton. The u. S. Economy expanded in the Third Quarter at the fastest rate in almost two years. Gdp climbed at a revised 4. 1 analyze rate. This comes as americans increase spending on services such as health care Oil Companies invested more in software. Shares of blackberry rose 15 in todays session after the smartphone maker secured a five year deal with foxconn an. Phones forl produce blackberry in indonesia and mexico. Deutsche bank will pay 1. 9 billion to settle claims that it didnt provide adequate disclosure about mortgagebacked securities sold to fannie mae and freddie mac. The agreement with the federal Housing Finance agency will resolve their mortgagerelated legation case from 2005 to 2007. Tonight, we will go over todays surprising gdp number and look ahead to what is happening during the holiday joetened week with brusuelas. We have a new segment on called stock, and its right place, right time. How individuals seized opportunities in turn disappointment into determination. They were in the right lace at the right time. Todays company was born out of a chance meeting in chelsea, new york. Transform the affordability and accessibility of interior design, noah santos and will make them join me now. Great to have you both with me. Thank you for coming in. I want to start off with you, noah, because you are experienced in the world of design. Right here in question also have to be a little bit of a psychiatrist, dont you . [laughter] yes. Coming into someones home, piece ofa big trust the puzzle that you have to solve. People look to bring someone that they jive with, not only on a stylistic level, but also on a personal level. Even though we are a tech company, we seek to it is a big matching process to make sure that each person gets the right designer. You as theh came to designer, as the decorator, as the guy that was going to help you with your own home, what happened . I had a miserable time finding a designer. I had a brandnew chelsea apartment. I just got out of banking. I got my last bonus check in for that amount of money, i couldnt find anyone to talk to me or they were condescending or they would say to go to ikea. I was ready for a grownup apartment. Upough a friend, i meant no him he came in and he said this is what we will do. I love the bones that you have in here. Anna became a partnership. That also means you have to agree on something called a budget, right . [laughter] what was that process like . What is spe