>> welcome to "lunch money." we try to get the best stories, interviews, i am adam johnson. we are in the final hours of the holiday shopping spree. a wild card, you better keep your bitcoin safe. i learned the hard way. dennis rodman is returning to north korea, but do not call him an ambassador. private equities in the market for homes as it turns out hundreds of thousands of them. a wolf has come to wall street. leo and martin scorsese are going to tell their story. president obama and family catching some hoops in honolulu,

hawaii. he has had a rough year. a botched health-care rollout, the fight over the keystone pipeline, all of those issues hanging over the white house, but it can't all be bad. >> there has been good action taken by congress to eliminate the fear about the budget and to reduce the sequestration. we see the fed having taken some well communicated action concerning the tapering program. >> we're talking about four point one percent economic growth in the third quarter. that is a big deal. unemployment falling down to seven percent. that is why the imf and christine lagarde raised its forecast for the u.s. growth next year.

>> and is always a question of confidence. if you have long-term confidence in your job and employment status and the economy, it is all about confidence. if that confidence is there an confidence goes up, you will find people borrow more money. >> borrowing money helps the u.s. economy, but is it what needs to happen when americans cannot afford or do not want to buy health insurance? today is the deadline for individuals to enroll in plans and begin january 1. while the website appears fixed, people are logging on to find out a don't qualify for subsidies. >> some states have been reporting that people who are enrolling, it is to the big fear of insurers, skewed toward older, less healthy individuals. >> around one million people have signed up and the administration wants 7 million signed up by the end of the six-

month enrollment period. that ends on march 31. another issue the president will have to face, the continued fallout from the nsa spy scandal. a white house report said the u.s. should be prohibited from collecting and storing billions of phone records. the surveillance should continue. here is the president speaking last friday. >> we need this intelligence. we cannot unilaterally disarm. there are ways we can do it that gives people greater insurance that their checks and balances, that there is sufficient oversight and he, as important and necessary as the debate has been. this is done unnecessary damage to u.s. intelligence capabilities and u.s. diplomacy. i have confidence in the fact that the nsa is not engaging in domestic surveillance or

snooping around, but i recognize that as technology changes, people can start running out rhythms and programs that map out all the information that we are downloading on a daily basis into our telephones and computers, we may have to refine this further to give people more confidence. >> the formal head of the cia was on the white house panel and he is in the president cost corner. >> there was no abuse here. they were doing what they were told to do. with the panel is saying is in order to better protect civil liberties, we believe two things. we believe the government should not hold this data any longer. we say the government should not hold this data any longer. somebody else should. >> google, facebook, plenty of other internet companies have been protesting internet surveillance. they're also making millions from mining that same data.

why is it that americans are ok with companies making money off their data, but not cool with the government doing the same thing? >> it is a combination of ignorance and consent. they don't know what they're consenting to, but they went through the formality of picking a box. they are putting the information out there voluntarily. with the government, it is a combination of ignorance and coercion. it is compelled. the government doesn't give you a choice in the matter. the government has a monopoly and different standards than the private sector. this economy has exploded in the last 20 years. it has gone so quickly that it has grown so fast and is driven by the invest in banks, they have had to monetize the data that they get. the only way they can monetize the data is by selling the data about their users. >> what is different from what

the government gathers? >> it depends on if the government is investigating you. the government, as a practical matter, doesn't know anything about you. on the other hand, if you are using any of these internet- based services, the services know everything you put on there. all of that. anything they can correlate with any other service that is voluntarily cooperated with, they can create a composite picture of you. >> facebook makes at least $1.65 off of each of its users. that is most likely a mail user who is not very active. most is $7.62 off of a female user who has at least 250 friends and posts 150 times a month. write equity is making money. we will explain. you have to take a look at this.

we are in the final hours of the holiday shopping season. procrastinating? it could turn out to be the best way to go. beyoncé spreading shopping goodwill in massachusetts. she got on the loudspeaker and offered to pay the first $50 of every customer's holiday shopping. ♪ >> the commerce department says

spending rose half a percent in november and confidence is

rising to a five-month high. consumer spending accounts for about 60% of u.s. gdp. men's wearhouse, it's 1.54 billion dollar bid for joseph a bank has been rejected. they say they are not interested. plenty of retail winners and losers this holiday season. we're going to go through the list of losers first. >> they are cutting a working capital to raise stock dividends, raised buybacks, leadership has been lost. that is the wrong way to go. >> in this holiday shopping season, is it because people are migrating to other stores or

online, or are we not shopping? >> browsing, not buying. walmart was notorious for having doorbusters and our team across america saw that people would go in and the doorbusters were out of stock, they had been freezing for hours. people so we were not shopping here anymore, we will go to macy's or someplace that is in stock we are going to go to amazon and shop online. that is why com score is reporting that internet sales are up 25% this season. in addition to the big box stores that are getting pounded, pennies, sears, made tier department stores. >> as those of the losers, who are the winners? >> destination malls are working, but you have to have great retailers and if you don't, to michael's point, you have three to four times more retail square footage in the u.s. than other developed countries.

bloomingdale's, nordstrom's, burberry, they are all doing well. >> what is the single most in factor in getting consumers to buy the season? >> this weekend was a pivotal weekend for retailers. all day's end up being the top shopping days of the year. here in chicago, we saw an abundant amount of foot traffic and many consumers carrying packages. it felt like it was a pretty good week. today, it is an important date. this is what we call father's day, the day when male shoppers get into the pattern. the day after christmas is always pretty strong. what we are seeing right now is about a 2% increase in sales last year. we projected 2.4%. we need strong sales to hit that number. we are confident that the

consumer one out and tried to finish their holiday shopping this weekend. >> it seems like every store has a coupon, a promotion, a black friday, a cyber monday. >> the discounts are volatile this year. we have heavy discounting during black friday and that whole weekend, thanksgiving was a strong day this year. we also saw some discounts rolling through this weekend. we expect the largest discounts to come after christmas when we will begin to see retailers trying to shed themselves of inventory. >> big retailers want big crowds. remember with big crowds comes big responsibility. target had to learn the hard way. second-largest discount change said it data for about 40 million debit and credit card users might have been wrongfully access. chase bank has put limits on debit card use at that store. on the other side of things, target has benefited from a social media collaboration with pinterest. >> pinterest is featured in

target stores which is great for you guys. show me how that works. >> they are calling out items that have been popular on pinterest. they are visiting target.com and saying they love this rug and they're going to say this rug. they have created this signage here and they did this on their own to call out the item that users have decided our most popular. >> one of the most popular pinned items is elf on the shelf. apparently this is a big thing for kids of these days.

>> he makes sure everyone is on the nice list, will fly back to the north pole and give a report to santa and then fly back and join in with the kids again. target has managed to catch some pictures of where the elf sits. >> what are other retailers doing with their products? do you have any other stories were they have used pinterest in a creative way? >> a number of partners are using pinterest for their black friday and cyber monday strategies. lows showed silhouettes of items that were about to go on sale. >> they are starting to experiment with that, but d.c. an opportunity to make money through these partnerships, to take some sort of a commission on the things that people are buying?

>> we are doing testing and the ideas that we will work with a handful of partners to test the system. we are in the early stages to see how our users react. >> facebook has been working, experimenting with commerce for a long time, twitter hired a head of commerce. how do you think pinterest stands out from other options out there? >> we hear from our partners as a complement to google. when someone knows they want something, they can search for it and find it. the other side of that is i don't know what i want, i don't have a formed idea, but when i see it, i know i like it. it is like coming into a store. you may not have come in for something and you see it and you

want. that is the experience we are trying to provide. >> here is one thing people want. i was robbed on air. i am going to fill you in next. movies, the willful fall straight his back, but on the screen. we will tell you about it. wall street is in the old link potential road to riches. people are turning up in droves to play the annual christmas lottery. winners were announced during a four-hour ceremony. it is a 200-year-old tradition. more than $3 million was paid out. ♪

>>'twas the monday before christmas and as bloomberg's 12 days of bitcoin. matt miller gave me a unique christmas gift this past friday. >> here you go. trish, here you go. you will find a private key on the inside that you can access and load into your wallet that you have. >> this is what i put on my phone so that when i want to go by or sell or whatever, i put this up on the computer. the computer reads it, knows to debit my account. >> that is my account and it should be pretty sweet, but i lost it. you cannot let anybody see your own account. that is private. >> what happens is if someone has access to your private key, that person is then able to

access your wallet. each one of those little wallets i gave christmas cards to adam and trish had about $20 on it. not massive, and right after, the internet lit up, mostly twitter and and reddit. one guy, he wrote on reddit, i saw it. glorious hd. i took a screenshot of that and emptied up the wallet of all of its content. the guy said he would be willing to give the money back and we still may organize something like that. >> he said he'd give it back? >> i told him he taught us a great lesson in bitcoin security, so keep the cash. what i wanted to point out was that this means bitcoin wallets are not secure. this is basically as if you were to show your internet banking username and password on live television. you would not do that. you know, you have been using the system for so long and you're used to it and you realize that if you did that, somebody would probably be able

to get into your bank account and empty it of all the funds. >> lesson learned. now, there are even more wallets i will have to keep secure. bitcoin is not the only game in town. >> a lot of people in the community feel these currencies are a bit of a scam. it is becoming harder and harder to make money mining bitcoin so other currencies have popped up. the idea is that at least among the serious bitcoin, these other people are just popping up to get rich quickly and not as concerned of the movement as digital bitcoin is. >> there are those that think

bitcoin might be a scam. >> bitcoin can be a scam. it is may be that there are scam artists using bitcoin to make money. there are so many others, there were 35 or 40 alternative coins on -- a website that shows you the different types of coins. one of my favorites is one that i'm not sure you have heard about. it is interesting. i read a great story about it. there is still this massive advantage that bitcoin has over the other currencies. it has been around longer, more

people use it, and the market cap of bitcoin is $7.5 billion. that is a lot more than all the other alternative coins added up together. they all operate on the exact same principle as bitcoin. >> christmas eve we are going to wrap up our 12 days of bitcoin. we have a special adventure that only matt miller is capable of. we're going to speak from the russian prisoner fresh out of custody. >> i guess we got our santa claus rally. the dow and the s&p already record once again. we have the imf saying it is >> this is "lunch money" on

bloomberg television. we are also streaming live on your tablet and smartphone. today's moving pictures with video is the story. an ice storm through canada. he goes back with part of the northern united states from michigan to maine. more than half a million households lost electricity in 400 flights were canceled. antigovernment protesters try to plug all editions from registering from the election. the prime minister has called for elections. he is trying to defuse protests. the final member of russian punk band "pussy riot" called for a boycott of the upcoming winter

olympics. members have been jailed for staging a protest performance in the moscow cathedral. we're going to stay with russia for a minute. the countries former wealthiest man is also freed from prison. he will campaign for the rights of prisoners. >> i do not want to be seen as a symbol for a particular situation, a knowing the fact that there are more political prisoners. i want to be seen as the efforts of civil society that can lead to the release of people whose release was not expected by anyone. >> although it is not safe for him to return to russia others should not boycott the winter games.

>> to the question of sochi, is celebration of sport, something which millions of people will celebrate was not should be damaged by a boycott. it should not become a great party for president putin. >> now to a billionaire who still has his money. sheldon adelson says he will spend whatever it takes to persuade them to block the rollout of online gambling. >> i will spend what it takes to get the point across. it will not take a significant amount of money. in my position, whatever it takes is ok. i am very much against it. i am morally against it. i think it is going to kill the entire industry. it has the potential to fill the entire industry. it is already doing that in

europe. they allow it willy-nilly in europe. >> it is also self-preservation. >> it has nothing to do with my business. i am not in that category where my customers would play on the internet. we take bets that are quite significant. we take bets up to $1 million a hand in singapore. >> dennis rodman left north korea. he went to train local basketball players for the exhibition game he hope will include former american pros. >> i'm not just coming over here as a marshall. and coming over here to be the basketball team to prepare a great game. people need to understand that it is not important for me to meet them every time i come over.

he is a greater job for the country. i respect that. >> hopefully, it kim jong un's birthday was splendid. private equity firms are snapping up real estate from soccer moms and commuters. we will explain. holy hobbit. the guy responsible for the special effects of one of the most successful film franchises in history. i love this. look at this. peyton manning has reclaimed his nfl record for the most touchdown passes in a season. he threw for yesterday. it is a total of 51. that breaks the mark of 50 set in 2007. he broke the previous record of 49. i love this. ♪

>> the largest physical asset class in the world, want to try to take a guess? america single-family home. private equity firms are jumping and capitalizing on historically low prices, trying to build the housing market. pretty amazing story. how it is working in one atlanta suburb. >> out by the courthouse -- >> $128,000. >> the prices may seem at first high. this is a bargain. this is a block of homes that have been seized by the bank. it is an enormous bets on some of the hottest new asset classes on the street. the american single-family home.

the biggest layers include new york private equity giant blackstone through its subsidiary "invitation homes." many of the houses they are buying up where recently homes that belong to families. they have been juggling with their monthly payments for some time when in late september they requested a third mortgage modification from their lender citigroup. >> it was supposed to be a hold. we did not worry about it. >> after a days notice, city mortgage sold the family home of 10 years to the highest bidder, blackstone. >> we feel like our house was literally stolen. we were caught of guard. just in general. no notice. no anything. >> this property realtor was on the scene. across the state of georgia in one day the firm purchased more

than 170 homes. thanks to the rapid foreclosure process, blackstone's invitation homes and competitors have dominated these auctions, buying up around 2000 properties in this county alone. nationwide in subdivisions across the country, these large investors are placing huge bet on a vast number of single- family homes. >> the major institutional players have put in about 20 billion dollars to acquire north of 180,000 homes. >> what is the attraction of a city like atlanta? >> you can by thousands of homes in close locations. >> arm bar should not pay their mortgage on time, the lender foreclose is on the home and sells it at auction. a private equity firm hires a bidding company to buy it, a second company to empty it, a

contractor to renovate it, and the leasing agent to rent it. they can bundle them together, price them, and then sell them on to other investors. the number of american rental homes has jumped from $33 million to almost $40 million today, boosting demand for single-family homes. blackstone offered to let them stay in the home as renters. for $200 more than the monthly mortgage they could not afford. >> it is our job to worry, not yours. they are the latest family to be priced out of their home and the american germane. >> is not worth it to us anymore. i would rather rent.

i never thought i was say something like that. >> is a tough new reality for many on main street that has created a profitable new business for the few on wall street. >> he found out that the one private equity firm offered a family $3000, that is it, just to leave the house. teeming millions in a pump and dump scheme. in the movies, the hobbit is winning at the box office. we will hear from the man behind all the special fx. no special effects here. this is a real footage from the american space station trying to remove a broken cooling pump that would jeopardize the operations. it is like watching the movie "gravity" but it is real. ♪

>> copy that. we have it. >> this is "lunch money" on bloomberg television and streaming live on your tablet and smartphone. we are going to take a look at the weekend box off engrossing. "the desolation of smaug" took first place. the number two spot went to "anchorman 2" and ranked in about $26.8 million. even with it as popular as it is, it is so hard to compete with the lord of the rings series. the movies have 117 academy awards. three of them for special

effects. the man behind is joe letteri. >> we did drastic art was in 1993. there were 55 shots in the film of dinosaurs and tickets a year to do. in this film we had about 2000 shots and it took a year to do. what audiences want to see keeps getting bigger and bigger. >> what about the budget? is it a stab in the dark or you are able to figure out to the dollar how much it will he? >> it is a bit of both. what we create is interesting. every shot that we do is really unique. there is some similarities but everything is a custom-made piece. >> is this chicken or egg in terms of how you come up with what you are going to do? does the director say here is what i want or is this where you

say here is what i can do? >> it is a little bit of both and is always story driven. we find ideas that will be the next development of the story. with the hobbit, we are story. we know what the story is and we have time to prepare. >> is this a safer investment than the actor? >> i do know that these seem to be films audiences want to see. we enjoyed making them. for us it is working out. >> another film slated to make big bucks "wall street." it stars leonardo dicaprio. he was an alpha dog. he became the stuff of legends. >> the year i turned 206i made

$49 million which pays me off because it was three shy of $1 million a week. where ever i when i brought my insanity with me. >> in the movie they get a cautionary tale of what to do or what not to do. when i was in the bottom, we were writing about what i was a terrible person. >> three is good. >> [indiscernible] he is looking sexy as hell and is $2000 suit. a lot of people but into the notion about being noble by making as much as you can. i was taking enough drugs to feed a pride of elephants each day's lows are focusing on reality. i am not making any money on the books or movie.

the only way i would is if everyone got paid back. until then i do not want to make money. as a broker, you are not creating anything. you are trading off the ingenuity of other people. it is easy to feel like there's nothing tangible attached to your profit and you have an emptiness to the money you make. you try to attach value to it. don't focus on the long-term incentive instant gratification. >> that is the real one. here's the one who played him, leonardo dicaprio. he joined martin scorsese. >> this is a satire. it is a dark comedy. so was dr. strangelove. we take a funny approach to this but ultimately what we are

talking about is a very serious subject. it represents something within our very culture. >> winners and losers and lots of money and people get hurt. >> i do not think i ever thought of it as a satire. [laughter] >> it is an accurate depiction but their own life was a satire. >> my feeling is not to separate it. this is it. this is really it. this is the mentality. we were pushing it. believe me. actually, we just scratched the surface. the story we could've told her whatever. what i wanted to do was avoid

cannot tell them all, compress them in such a way that we would throw the audience right into the maelstrom of this kind of thinking. >> is expected to take in $25 million in its first week and incomes up christmas day. this may not rank in 25 knowing it but it went viral this week. you have to check it out. students from the advanced immediate class at kilgore high school has a neat way of saying merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> one of my favorite christmas memories is every christmas -- [screams] >> my favorite christmas memory is the first year we had christmas. >> it has to be the first christmas i spent with my -- ♪

>> it is approaching 56 past the hour. i am julie hyman. i want to highlight a couple of movers. he is raising his price. $65 a share from $63. the tech share remains a strong. he insisted he had increased through the holiday.

the practices are coming under fire after it was revealed that as many as 40 million credit and debit cards may have been stolen. two senators calling into investigation of the measures. let's get you caught up on the broader markets. more records today for the s&p and the dow. the nasdaq at a 13 year high. the imf said it will be raising the forecast for next year. joining me for more including a proposal for market storms to raise awareness like the weather channel, winter storage. a fund proposal going into the holidays. the weather channel is doing this gimmick. why shall be market benefit? >> they think it is a way to promote a preparedness for the storms. maybe we could use some of that. we do not need it in 2013. the biggest decline was only 6%. 2014 is a typical year. we may get four named storms. this is a far cry from what the investors have gotten used to. >> what is going to cause these market storms?

investors are more aware. how will they set up? >> i think this year we accessed about washington, whether it was the fed or what was going on with the brinkmanship. i do not think that will be the issue. and sit it is going to be about economic growth. in the spring at each of the past few years we have had economic data coming in below expectations. this could be what prompts the scare. it could be the first of the market storms. he comes in the spring of 2014.

>> do you buy protection? what do you do to hedge against greg's performance is not as strong as 2000. back in 2000 it was mostly tech companies. any.com was able to increase strongly on the first day. now anybody can go public. >> are we going to keep going. are we going to see this kind of demand? it's tough to say. equities said he is expecting a pretty big number. ec pretty big companies looking to do ipos this year. >> alibaba. let's talk about that. that's the big when everyone is

talking about. >> that is huge. than $16 billion. we're looking at a 200 the lien dollar valuation for the company -- billion dollar dollar valuation for the company. >> that is huge. . . . .