from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i am mark crumpton. this is "bottom line," the intersection of business and economics with the main street perspective. protesters stormed government buildings and ukraine. then, a look at the republican party's new digital strategy. stilly baseball cards are the business. viewers in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world, we have full coverage of the stocks and stories making headlines today. phil mattingly has a bloomberg special report -- powerbrokers,

inside the rnc's digital operation. peter cook looks at efforts to restore unemployment benefits. let's again with indira lakshmanan. she has details on voting in afghanistan and more unrest in ukraine. indira, good afternoon. >> good afternoon, mark. >> is what we are seeing in eastern ukraine a repeat of what happened in crimea? >> it's how it initially looks. what happened in crimea began --h her russian separatists pro-russian separatists storming government buildings. we have seen that happen in the 3 major cities in eastern ukraine. we have seen protesters try to take over government buildings, we have seen roads shut down by authorities, and even some injuries. there are concerns about the are where the rebels believed to be armed, having taken over an arsenal. on one hand we see parallel

sprint on the other hand we have russia saying we haven't stoked this, this is about ukrainian government street -- mistreating russian speaking minorities and it underscores that you need to do more for these minorities. not surprisingly we have the saying it is kiev absolute nonsense, and the acting prime minister has of trying to carve up his country and have a pretext for invading and putting what he says is the ukrainian people and a territory of slavery under a russian dictatorship. pretty strong words. >> last week the u.s. confirmed a navy destroyer was heading to the black sea. his military force a real option or is the international community's hands tied at this point? >> there is very little likelihood that the united states or nato are going to use military force with the situation in ukraine. but you did see the important nato meeting last week, the nato foreign ministers getting

together and as a show of support for the eastern members, that includes countries such as poland and lithuania, which are right on the border of all of , boosting support for the eastern members and reminding russia that an attack on one would be an attack on all members of nato. what we see is more likely at this point is the ramping up of sanctions in the united states and the european union. we are already seeing the impact of this conflict and -- on ukraine's economy as well as the russian economy, with of the verbal falling and the ukrainian currency at the worst of all lossncies, seeing a 30% .his year in its value the european union and the united states are threatening action against russia, more trade measures against ukraine. let's turn to the historic afghan election over the weekend.

58% of the country's 12 million voters turned out, despite what was termed a very real threat of violence and intimidation by the taliban. what are the key takeaways from the vote? >> a couple important things here. the reports and fears about violence turned out to be at least on election day itself not as bad as many people had feared. you also saw incredible bravery of the afghan people, as you said, a majority of afghans coming out, defying intimidation and threats in their communities, even those dominated by the telegram, to vote pretty pretty good participation among women as well, with 30% of the voters being women, according to the reports we have seen. it gives a vote of confidence that the afghan people want to a democratic government, and you will also see that me know that the leading candidates have all said it would support sending the bilateral security agreement with the united states >>. >>

>> chief foreign policy correspondent indira lakshmanan joining us from washington. more ukraine in a few moments. reva bhalla joining us a 2:15 on "bottom line." senate democrats will try again today to pass extension of emergency unemployment benefits. it would affect more than 2 million americans. i handful of republicans are on board. bloomberg washington correspondent peter cook is following the story. the question right now is do they have the votes? >> they appear to have the votes, mark, and this vote will take place at her this afternoon. the senate is coming into session now. this is a fight that has been waged since december. democrats are trying to extend these benefits since that time, and it looks like they have the number of votes they need in the senate to get it done.

the question remains, what is going to happen to this measure in the house of representatives? this latest proposal is bipartisan, coming from senator jack reed from rhode island and dean heller from nevada. this legislation of reauthorizes unemployment benefits, the emergency benefits through may, and he would be retroactive, as you said. more than 2 million americans could be eligible for the benefits good about 10 billion dollars being paid for basically by changes to company pension payments. they don't have to pay as much in pension payments, and that priests taxable income. also, custom user fees involved here as well. it is important to republicans that this be paid for. the measureral vote received a 61 votes, cynosure prevail in the u.s. senate. there are several republicans led by dean heller who voted for it. what will happen in the house?

the house leadership remains skeptical, particularly speaker boehner. this is part of a broader perspective press to deal with the issues about the economy and specifically income inequality. that can beanything done at this point to get speaker banner on board? -- speaker banner on board? >> he hasn't said all along that he is skeptical but he did not adamantly oppose it. if there are jobs measures added to it and it is paid for he could consider it. dean heller in the senate says he is prepared to work with the speaker to sway him. >> they have the issues, their prerogative's could we will find out what they are. i told my staff, get me a meeting with speaker boehner and let's see if we can figure out what would motivate them to move this piece of legislation forward. , no word at last word from the house. the vote at 5:30 pm eastern time. >> chief washington

correspondent peter cook, thank you. the 20 14th and 2016 campaign seasons have kicked into high gear, so we thought it was good cap for white house correspondent phil mattingly to bring us a politically related story. it is a segment we are calling "our worke -- "power brokers." phil goes behind the scenes with people with axes -- access. he gets a firsthand look at the rnc's digital operation. ection 2012 post-el headlines told the story of president obama's tech and data victory and the republicans' failure. republican officials and donors wasted little time matching resources and the talent to match the democrats text -- tech savvy. is the team.

we have not only the people who work with our data, who aggregated and do the quality control compiles the data scientists, the people building models of the data. headquarters,rnc o is overseeing a new model to streamline data. more than 40 full-time staffers in washington and silicon valley, in a recruiting effort that has reached the top engineering schools in the country, as well as through facebook and linkedin. >> we are making the widest investments to make sure that our workers have the analytics they need. >> they are building a platform to streamline the rims of voter information coming into social media, e-mail, and consumer data. they plan to utilize constantly evolving sets of apps that can be sent straight to the field to target voters and donors. we chief data officer -- meet

the chief data officer. he points to republican david jolly's special election victory in florida. >> we are multiplying upon it on a national scale. >> jolly's victory served as a beta test. operatives had access to the real-time data from vendors, including information from your home or car purchases. >> it allows us to do it at a very low cost >. >> the rnc thinks they can match the obama 2012 data mining systems and improve upon them. how do you gauge right now, numbers-was, what has been successful? >> it goes back to the question on the wall -- does this drive data? is it helping them to put us on a path to vote for the candidates and maybe become a donor? >> still, republicans are really do not have to take obama's team

had on this time around. >> when you no longer have the narrative of getting the incumbent president reelected, you have a brain drain and less urgency. bloomberg's white house correspondent phil mattingly dressing up to be live on "bottom line" with the tie. about this data, the heart of the operation. the rnc has an unusual arrangement. walk us through that. >> as the universe of outside republican groups has her own, so has the access to different types of data. what the rnc has done is aligned themselves with a third-party group called the data trust. they have an exclusive agreement with data trust to share information -- voter files on the consumer data, details on voters and donors. it serves as a clearing house to other outside groups. outside groups are collecting their own data, doing their own into datafeed data

trust and the data trust feeds that into the rnc. the rnc has exclusive agreements with the state party organizations. between the rnc and data trust, there's a constant stream of information from outside groups, the rnc, and state parties. the goal is to be able to serve as a streamline organization so everybody has access to the best and most information coem election time. >> white house correspondent phil mattingly joining us. thanks. we will have more on the russia-ukraine crisis when "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

>> if russia moves to eastern ukraine either overtly or covertly, this would be a serious escalation. andall on president putin his government to seize all efforts to destabilize ukraine and we caution against further military intervention. >> that as white house press

secretary jay carney commenting on the latest moves by russia in ukraine. we have more on the crisis. our next guest says the standoff is settling into an old familiar framework of the cold war. she is vice president of global analysis abstract for the global intelligence firm based in austin, texas, and she joins us live. welcome to "bottom line." thanks for your time today. >> thank you. >> we learn from the pentagon that it will send a u.s. navy ship to the black sea where the russian naval fleet is based, and it is expected to arrive there within a week. the pentagon says the action is being taken to "reassure partners in the region." is that reassurance i hint of military intervention? >> we are still in the realm of gestures, so yes, you can send a warship into the black sea. that will cause some consternation between the turks and the russians if the u.s. tries to overstay its welcome in the black sea.

still, the u.s. and nato are not prepared to engage in actual military action against the russians. it will certainly see an uptick in military exercises and rotations and talk of defense deals to countries on the eastern front with russia. but still, this is avoiding a confrontation. >> how vital a security asset is ukraine? >> it depends on who you are talking about. russians it is a vital national security interest. for the americans, ukraine is a tool to keep russia in check while it enjoys disproportionate power on the continent. russia is going to be playing the long game in ukraine. in that this is a government that is going to return to a very familiar state of paralysis . we are going to see a lot of gridlock as austerity measures come in, and as they have been saying, they will, cause either way into the crisis and leave lifeline support.

it will get very rough for the average ukrainian in the coming years and russia. >> is russian president vladimir putin trying to paralyze ukraine politically? is trying to fundamentally get the united states to recognize unusual buffer zone in the former soviet territory. from russia's perspective, ukraine is handoff from -- hands off for the last good but what russia is trying to show is you came in and you over to the government and take -- and yanukovych out and now we have this mess in kiev. according to plan, it is going to be competent enough that easy protests in eastern ukraine, and russia would likely have a hand in that. >> sounds like you are saying that this is really about a negotiation between the united states and russia. exactly what are russia and moscow looking to achieve? well, for the russians they

understand that right now, life isn't that bad. energy prices are above $100 a barrel. they have the resources to manage any negative financial applications right from the crisis. but fundamentally they know that down the line, within it a day, they will be facing a demographic problems. apple turning to social problems at home and economic problems at home. they also note that the united states has been distracted for the past decade with its w ars in iraq and afghanistan when dealing with iran. russia has benefited from those distractions. that is not a static situation. it is only a matter of time before the united states turns its attention in a more fundamental way in the eurasian theater, and that is why russia is trying to deal now, saying, look, ukraine his hands off. we need to bargain over this. there is going to be a lot of back-and-forth. but when it comes to further military moves on the scale of what we saw with crimea, we are more doubtful on that.

we don't think the russians are going to move into mainland ukraine. >> i'm speaking with reva bhalla vice president of global analysis for stratfor. for the average ukrainian, what is life going to be like the next year, particularly given the demands from the international community for kiev to receive financial assistance? >> energy is the big issue here. it is not evidence that has promised raise the price of natural gas. -- that gazprom has raised the price of natural gas. in russia has no interest in negotiating with what it sees as a distressful and paralyzed government in kiev. the energy hit is going to be a big one. ukraine does not have good alternatives. there is always talk of reversing flows through slovakia to help ukraine get by, and there will be some limited measure of that, but it is not enough. not enough and slovakiadon't want to get into a contractual argument with the russians, and they have made

that clear but when you're looking at countries like bulgaria hungary, even and central europe, they're being very careful not to upset the russians. bulgaria is going through with its south stream plans at the same time, not particularly swaying itself towards the west as these tensions rise. arelections in ukraine scheduled for next month. is that time i'm in town now -- is that timeline in down now? >> i think it is. it is a familiar pattern -- calls for referendum and protection, and it raises the specter of russian military incursion. we don't think that is going to happen. russia doesn't need to do that because he can apply that economic pressure and he can keep the political situation in limbo and how do you hold an election when you have major sections of the country that don't recognize the government to begin with? that is the kind of paralysis russia is counting on. >> i have about 30 seconds left.

there was a presidential election this weekend in afghanistan. 7 million votes-plus were cast. the size of the vote -- what does it say about the influence or lack of influence of the taliban? >> oh, well, certainly, yeah, the taliban did not succeed in upsetting the vote. is the test for the taliban to integrate itself into the government because afghanistan plus problems -- afghanistan's problems are significant and the taliban could create a situation on the ground to force their way in and make life difficult for the average afghan. but certainly this was a testament to the people's intolerance of a government led by the taliban. that is the issue that has hampered the political negotiations. >> reva bhalla, joining us from austin. thanks for your time and we appreciate it. >> thanks so much. >> a check on the markets is next.

>> 26 past the hour, and that means bloomberg television is "on the markets." olivia sterns is standing by. >> we are treading close to session lows right now. the friday selloff is continuing on into monday. the nasdaq is the main laggard among the benchmarks. a couple big names we are keeping our eyes on -- let's start with pfizer. the breast-cancer drug was found to stop tumor growth in 20 months of advanced breast cancer, twice as long as the previous drug's timeframe. but still, shares are up by about three percent.

some investors were hoping for better results. we are watching shares in wwe, wrestling company. they are, you could say, getting the smack down in trading. wrestlemania subscribers a little less than benchmarkers had forecast.

>> welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line." i'm mark crumpton. thanks for staying with us. an australian official says underwater sounds detected by a ship in the southern indian ocean are consistent with the blackfrom the aircraft's boxes. officials wanted to take days to confirm whether the signals picked up by the australian navy ship are indeed from the black boxes that belong to flight 370, but they called the discovery very encouraging. the jet has been missing for a month.

ianolyn the e -- paraylymp pistorious took the stand today. he is accused of murdering girlfriend reeva s teenkamp. he says he shot her because he thought she was an intruder in their home. attributes are pouring in factor mickey rooney, who died in his california -- for actor mickey rooney, who died in his california home. at the age ofbut 6 and became one of hollywood's biggest box office draws in the 1930's and 1940's. decades later he launched a 6meback on broadway as senior -- as he neared 60. he was nominated for 4 academy awards and received 2 special oscars. actor mickey rooney died at the age of 93. private equity firms may be facing sanctions after the

securities and exchange theyssion found that charged inflated fees and expenses. cristina alesci has been following this story closely. what is this about and is it, says a price? >> it comes as a little bit of a surprise, but largely speaking we know that since. frank mandated greater regulation of the industry, this was going to happen at some point, that the sec was really going to dig in and find out about its practices. what is happening here is it took about 2 years for the sec to understand the private equity business, and in this stage of the examination, what we're seeing is getting into the weeds . in this case what we found is they reviewed 400 firms and over 50% of them were somehow charging fees that really weren't disclosed correctly or were perhaps a little but overstepping their boundaries. what i mean by that is the charge 2quity firms

kinds of fees -- one to their investors, the other to their own or for their companies. at the end of the day these firms buy and sell companies. but these clothing -- the holdings they have and those committees charged the companies for that. they found that the fees were missed how good, in some cases inappropriate. we're seeing a ramping up, and this is not stopping here. there are other things that the sec is going to look for with these firms and how they do business. >> how is this been allowed to go on for so long and have any big firms been implicated? >> to a certain extent this has been allowed to go on so long because investors were happy with the kind of return they were getting from the private equity firms. now we see investors more tuned to the fees being charged and whether they are sharing in the fees that the private equity firms are getting it that combined with increased regular tour scrutiny has brought a lot

of the practices july. a lot of the practices july. as for the bigger firms -- carlyle, blackstone, all publicly listed -- they have had to deal with this agency for quite some time because they are publicly listed. they have compliance departments they have built up and are more tuned into got headlines. the firms have become very sophisticated in how they handle this is more of a concern for the sizable and midsize firms. alesci, thank you. for high school graduates and their parents, it is that time of year. colleges and universities around the nation have send out acceptance letters, and now it is time to take schools. iran education reporter janet lauren is tracking the trend for the full school year and she joins me now. good to see you again.

is there less competition for the ivy leagues? >> this year you saw harvard's administrate drop slightly. rate droppeds slightly. harvard had a decrease in applications by about two percent but it is still tough to get into any of those schools. >> is an ivy league education so worth it? >> chances are if you go to one of those schools and qualify for financial aid, you're not paying the sticker price by any means. they have the most generous financial aid packages out there that i think a lot of parents would still cut off the left arm to send their kid to harvard. >> princeton is offering a great deal for students to get accepted. how does that work? >> princeton has offered this amazing deal. it is called the princeton parent loan. for parents they offer a deal of 1.2% interest rates variable and 1.2% fixed rate, and no origination fees.

if you were to take the government parent loan, the student loan, the rate is significantly higher. you will also be paying a 4.3% origination fee. difference. such a you will be filling out a loan application. for the loan it is not underwritten. you the higher rate because you don't have the same kind of underwriting capacity. the financial aid is incredibly generous but not everybody will qualify for it. required fortill your contribution to pay $20,000 for your even though the total cost will be around 60,000, it is hard for families to be able to write that can check. it gives you a bit of liquidity,

and princeton says we do it because we can. [laughter] >> yes, amazing. they have an endowment and are able to secure great rates for families and they don't have any fees. >> who is making use of the loans? >> not a huge percent of the student body population. about 10% of the families. for those whowing do qualify for financial aid about $19,000. >> some arbitrage going on? >> for those who do not qualify for financial aid is about 36,000. if there were arbitrage going on you would see that number a lot higher and you would see much greater but is a patient in the program. >> other universities -- why aren't they doing the same thing? >> it is a very good question. winston is the fifth largest endowment. there are 4 -- princeton is the

fifth largest endowment. there are 4 other school systems that have larger endowments. >> janet, you were talking about harvard. look at the screen and see that number to the subtotal of bills , $58,607 per that is why you and i are sitting in talking right now, isn't it? that's an enormous amount of money. >> and harvard does have a generous financial aid program. if you make under $60,000, you're not paying anything. it is a good question why other schools don't offer this. governmenthave the plus loan or you take a home equity line of credit and that just isn't as available anymore. >> the home is not an atm the way it used to be. higher education reporter janet lorin, thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. >> when "bottom line" continues, the validity of collectible trading cards. we talked to a manager at the

topps company.

the companystries, led by billionaires charles and david koch, is in discussions to buy a print group. they are in discussion with the goldman sachs group private equity fund. it is likely to be more than the flint annual sales of $3 billion last year. the sales of coke industries and goldman sachs would mark the end of a years long attempt to exit flint, one of the world's biggest suppliers to the printing and packaging industry. it is time for the latin america report. wona rica opposition leader a landslide election victory and he promised to tackle the corruption that fueled the voter frustration with the government of the president.

i history professor and former diplomat, he wants 70% of -- he won 70% of the vote in the runoff ballot. he will be sworn in on may 8. 2. smuggling tunnels with rail systems stretching hundreds of yards across the u.s.-mexico border have been discovered by law enforcement officials. no contraband was found in connection with the tunnels, which would've the linked warehouse -- which reportedly linked warehouses in a tijuana, mexico and san diego. coming up, collectible trading cards. the major league is underway and soccer's world cup kicks off in june. we will look at what a company like topps is doing to tap into those events. ♪

>> we wanted to let you know that bloomberg is the only

business news service being offered on amazon firetv. if you missed any of our enemies, you can watch them on any ofrg on apple tv -- our interviews, you can watch them on bloomberg on apple tv. derek jeter may retire at the end of the season but he will live on forever on a collectible trading card. the topps company has evolved over the past 75 years from a family gum business in brooklyn to a classic american sports company could the trading cards continue to foster a connection between fans and their sports heroes. joinsd manager at topps me in studio. welcome to "bottom line." good to see you. we are in an age of social media. how do you make trade cards relevant? .> great question one of the biggest problems we have is appealing to a younger demographic, and the way we do that and keep ourselves relevant

with the younger consumers through our digital trading card apps. withve also partnered bloomberg sports to provide advanced analytical information on the back of our training set just camemls out last week. information, exciting -- new information in exciting -- will get to that in a moment. you are a privately owned company. how did that give you an advantage during the session? >> great question. privately owned -- from a professional backing, a report from the business to keep doubtg along without any from ownership it and the personal investment cap is moving forward -- kept the business moving. >> how did you have to change with the times? 75 years is a long time for kids to be opening cards and eating a lot of gum. >> that is what a lot of people

remember about topps, how it was once wax packed with bubblegum -- >> it is a nostalgic thing, part of your childhood. >> but the industry has evolved over the past two years so now as opposed to just the trading card feature, it is about and piecesand relics of jerseys and bringing fans closer to the game. that is what we built ourselves on from the competitive advantage standpoint over the past 15 or 20 years, bringing consumers closer to the game and not having it just be about the card. valuable, there veterans hall of famer is an all-stars. --o, that memorabilia card they can't take the collector and bring him closer to the game. >> the memorabilia aspect, is that what has turned this from just a collectible card company -- now you have made the pivot. we're talking big business and big dollars.

has been thehat linchpin of our success over the last decade or so. .he memorabilia aspect now we look at what we can do to stay relevant within that younger demographic moving forward and i think you see some opportunities with digital. you also see staying true to traditional collectors, the loyalists who love the trading cards and love the tangible impact of opening a card trying to find a delicate balance. >> you talk about major league soccer. as you mentioned, for purposes of disclosure, your company is partnered with bloomberg sports. our sports department provides analytical information on the backs of your mls cards. this information is pretty advanced. this isn't your grandfather's stat sheet on the back of the card. it is completely evolved and advanced analytically. on the back of certain cards you can have passed efficiency,

goals shot percentage, saves from the goalkeeper insert the quadrants -- in certain quadrants by taking a step further than we have in the past we think it brings fans closer to the game could that is a bit of the theme you have heard me mention. it also keeps the card packet relevant. >> exactly. >> the statistics that were once on the backs of cards were a linchpin in the 1980's. that information became so readily available on the internet. >> what type of feedback have you gotten from fans? >> the advanced analytical piece has just been featured on our major league soccer said. that was released about a week and a half ago. we are gathering information on how that has done. i think collectors will be very happy. it is more interactive. bloomberg has hosted website of the top 50 people. it is an analytical equation.

>> we have about 30 seconds. why mls? for all of the efforts to get american fans into soccer, it is still a football nation. >> it is, but if you look at mls, and the age demographic, trends very favorably. it is the second-highest sport about everything except for nfl -- above ncaa football, major league baseball. in terms of that demographic, i think it is an opportunity for us to grow our consumer base to attract the 12-24-year-old that was once interested in the company, tried to reattach them to the brand and keep them collecting cards well into the future. -- i'md manager at topps just getting an update. derek jeter has scored a run at yankee stadium. thank you so much. another check of the market movers is on the other side of the break.

>> to the latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio and streaming on your tablet pen to bloomberg.com. i am mark crumpton in new york. ask for joining us. "on the markets" is next. see you tomorrow. >> 56 past hour, which means bloomberg television is "on the markets." i am olivia sterns. stocks are firmly in the red. the s&p has erased its losses the start of the year. aboutnchmark is off by 1.20 five percent. the nasdaq is continuing easing the biggest selling among the benchmark indexes.

let's also sure you what is happening to the treasury market. the treasury rally sending the yield little bit lower. trading just below 2.7%. by a chief investment officer at the atlantic trust company. david, you save the consumer is still recovering from its recession hangover. what do you mean by that? >> the great recession was really driven not by the normal cyclical forces. it was joined by the bursting of the credit bubble and the decline in the credit environment. that takes many years to repair itself. we had a very slow economic thevery, including by consumer. importantly, we're bianca season green shoots of better activity from the consumer. >> what kind of creatures are we seeing?

the economic data has been quite mixed as of late. >> it has, and in the december-february period, weather was a big factor. pizzahe weather in spending or manufacturing activity, it tends to be activity that is delayed rather than lost forever. in march we began to see a pickup. we saw vehicle sales moving back above $16 million. that is in it portend for him or. -- that is an important barometer. the jobs report for march was not great but it was pretty good. hiring, peoplef coming back into the labor force. survey picked up in march as well. indicators are turning more positive and we will see more of that as 2014 progresses. --the focus for messengers the focus for investors will turn to earnings season. what is your outlook for the

first quarter? >> generally, first-quarter earnings will be on the soft side, and it goes back to the weather argument. what will be more interesting is the guidance that companies provide. particularly those with global revenue streams. we have gotten used to rather conservative come even downcast guidance from management in both quarters. it may be another reason for consolidation in the market here. ultimately, because we think growth is going to pick up, that will help with positive earnings on the revenue side. finally, talk to me about valuation. what we have been seeing is that stocks are selling off. investors not willing to pay the skyhigh valuations. atrall the index is trading 31.8 times earnings compared to 18 for the s&p. do you think that stocks overall

are fairly valued at these levels? >> overall the stock market is fairly valued. rich not cheap but not either. they are going out and looking at stocks that in some cases were way ahead of themselves from a pe or other valuation metric. >> we will leave it right there. thank you for joining us. on the markets again in 30 minutes. in the meantime, "street smart" starts now. >> carryover concerns. the move causes the nasdaq to get clean again today. a little bit of an up tick. doing wellll not here. headtriple digits as we into the close. i am trish regan. .street smart" starts now