>> from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i'm mark crumpton. ."is is "bottom line today, the fed releases minutes from its first meeting under janet yellen. then, fixing detroit's finances. and an exclusive interview with minnesota senator al franken. ♪ to our viewers here in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world, welcome. we have full coverage of the stocks and stories making

headlines today. we dig into the medicare database to reveal the nation's top paid doctors. peter cook follows the --cast-time warner merging merger hearings on capitol hill, but we begin with breaking news on the release of the latest fed minutes. >> remember the take away from the meeting was that fed officials might have moved up of the firstd pace interest rate increase, but it turns out several members at the meeting were worried that would be the market reaction. in the minutes, we find out that ofy said this component their economic forecasts could be misconstrued as indicating a move by the committee to less accommodative reactive function, said speak for faster and sooner rate increase. several participants noted that the projection overstated the shift. they are referring to the famous chart the fed uses. you can see in 2016, they moved

up the median forecast for where they thought interest rates might need. we all thought that the meeting was janet yellen's first. turns out that was incorrect -- she presided over a march teleconference wherein they discussed getting rid of the 6.5% guidance. they agreed that the existing forward guidance with its reference to the .5% threshold -- reference to the 6.5% theshold was outdated for employment rate. they did continue that discussion when they met on which timed 19, at almost all members judged the new language should be qualitative in nature. that's what they ended up with, but not everyone agreed. one member wanted to keep the 6.5% threshold we know. ,ne wanted a new 5.5% threshold

and a few wanted an inflation floor threshold, but they decided against it. assessing the economy, most participants noted that severe winter weather had held down activity during the early months of the year. they went with conventional wisdom. business contacts reporting a number of weather-induced disruptions, and the general feeling was as we get better once the weather improved. couple star reasons to believe that slack was more limited, viewing the decline in the participation rate as primarily reflecting demographic trends, so that's an argument still playing out. members agreed that inflation development should be monitored carefully for evidence inflation was moving back towards the committees longer run objective of 2%. disagreements over whether or not there should be a threshold,

although the majority of the committee voted in favor, and concern about how the markets would read their new communications. >> how will investors react? >> they will follow this by parsing closely what that officials say in their speeches from now on -- what fed officials say in their speeches from now on, try to figure out who is on what side. bond yields are going to move higher, no matter what, according to bank of america research. 20 meetings, last when minutes were released, bond yields went up. >> michael, thanks. more on the latest fed minutes coming up. the executive vice president and portfolio manager at bonds giant inco will join me coming up about 25 minutes right here on "bottom line." let's turn our focus to the

architect of the biggest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. detroit's emergency manager says the city may be able to conclude its record bankruptcy by october, which would be less than 18 months after seeking .rotection from its creditors kevyn orr joins me. let's get right to it. the city of detroit agreed to million bonde $388 holders are owed. will it be enough to encourage other creditors? >> i know some people say they were supposed to get 15% under our plan, but as we have always said, the plan is dynamic. this represents a big movement for them over what is a plan.ted

we certainly hope this spurs some of our other groups to come in and make deals. we are open for business. we hope to make plans so we can preserve the grand bargain that was orchestrated by the chief judge. >> if the remainder of the balance will be erased, what will happen to that money? >> a substantial portion will be used for an income stabilization plan so no one is pushed below the poverty level in the city, and the city will be able to benefit pensioners in some fashion from that process. maybe some left over after going through that process. the main thing is we have a party that has seen its way fit to come in, make a deal with us, support eventually our plan. friday, we have a request in front of judge rhodes, the bankruptcy judge, to preserve a swap settlement. we are getting a lot of support this week, and we hope other parties will join us in that

effort. >> on monday, detroit's biggest union told a federal court at the city's disclosure statement -- that's the document that supports the restructuring plan -- has "failed to provide large amounts of critical information." some of the union's concerns include an increase in poverty rolls, and they say they are concerned about "the likely increase in crime." how do you respond to that? >> everyone is going to file an objection, and that is part of the process. we think we have a response to all of that. our income stabilization deal has answered the poverty question. crime rates have been coming down, so we think we have addressed that. we will address please after the closure statement hearing on the 17th, and the judge will make a ruling. >> what about the city's assets like collections from the detroit institute of art?

has there value been determined yet? could they be used at this point to increase payments to creditors? >> they cannot. we have an auction house, one of the most renowned in the world, come in last year and appraise the art, and they came up with a range of eight years -- of figures. secondly, the grand bargain, that $816 million -- understand $356 million is coming from foundations who had nothing to do with the decline and nothing to do with the funding levels. they are doing this out of the goodness of their heart. read hundred $50 million from fromtate -- $350 million the state. all that money goes away. >> as you knew when you took this job, you really stepped into it. this city was a mess, and it's not something that happened over the last couple of years. we're talking decades -- 40 or 50 years where there was fiscal

mismanagement or, let's be .lunt, there was a lot of greed but promises were made to certain people, and i think that's where some of the vehemence come from -- comes from. what do you tell these people? >> i tell them first of all i'm sorry. first -- certainly no one on my team participated in that process. secondly, this is a partition -- this is from the asset values, and as you noted, decades of neglect and malfeasance. frankly, if we do not do this, there will be no pensions. they could totally go away because they will be underfunded, and the obligations to some 60, 70, 80-year-olds will leave behind the 30, 40, 50-year-olds. >> i would be remiss if i did not ask you -- what mistakes do you think you made since you became city manager? manager, onergency

thing i would say is i should have understood and appreciated the resilience of the city. when i first came in, i took a couple of weeks getting my footing and my standing. when i go out on the street, the number of people who come up to me and say, "thank you, this was long overdue. let's get this done." there are 700,000 citizens, including schoolchildren. many of them recognize they need more acutely than anyone else -- many of them recognize the need. they recognize the need for change. >> do you think this will get reconciled? >> i certainly hope so. that will be up to the judge. >> detroit's city manager joining us. thank you for your time. next, peter cook will join us with the latest on the comcast-time warner merger hearing, and he talks with al senate, a member of the

committee. right now, nasdaq is up 1.3%. .8%.ones up "bottom line" continues in a moment. ♪

back.come top executives from comcast and time warner defended their proposed merger in front of a sometimes-skeptical senate judiciary committee. bloomberg correspondent peter cook is on capitol hill with one of the senators leading the questioning today, minnesota democrat al franken. >> thank you very much. i am joined by one of those questioning those time warner and comcast executives on this combination. they spent a lot of time defending the public interest and will benefit consumers. you are still not convinced. >> not at all. this is the number one cable provider, comcast, buying the

number two cable tv provider. number onehe internet broadband provider by being the number three internet .ot brand -- broadband provider this is too much size and not enough competition in these markets. what about the response you heard from some who testified today that the playing field has changed? that it's not just about the numbers, but there are new entrants in the this this -- apple, google. >> even if you decide to cut the tv fromgetting your warner cable -- what used to be time warner cable -- to get tv, you are going to want to go to your broadband, and that's the best way to get your tv signal. you are still going to the same .eople

even though they say satellite tv is the big competitor, this is also broadband. have a situation here where this is the broadband, internet, and over 50% of the country. you just see what the netflix deal was, you would see that this is getting a little kinky the open internet. netflix just paid so they can get onto comcast, and this was announced -- this deal happened after the acquisition plans were it brings up a lot of, a lot of competitive issues, including -- i brought up you guys a little bit today.

the filing with the fcc yesterday, it said that of all the conditions, the fcc only looked at one that they violated, and that was not true. he did not mention the one with bloomberg -- >> the dispute that bloomberg has had about our placement in comcast? >> they were required to do means youoding, which will notice they have cnbc next -- all inext to fox that neighborhood. bloomberg is put in the nosebleed section, and the reason that is important is they want people to watch cnbc so they can charge more for advertising, and they do not want people watching you. >> to be fair, he did say that that issue was resolved. >> except that he said in his

filing that the fcc had only looked at one condition that theyhad violated -- no, were supposed to create a standalone broadband package and market it to people. they created that, but they did not market it. they did not tell anyone about it. that is one. bloomberg is two. not true. just is >> congress will not have a say on this. how do you think this hearing and your concerns get reflected in the review under way at the sec and doj? >> i think you heard a lot of skepticism from senator lee from utah. a lot of skepticism from connecticut. mehink you saw some from

obviously. i think this is just too big a in these spaces. we need more competition, not less. we will see what the doj does. close ties pretty with the democratic party. are you satisfied with the democrats that this deal will get appropriate independent review from the fcc and doj? >> i look at this not as a them are crap but as a senator representing my constituents in minnesota -- i look at this not as a democrat. the head of antitrust -- the head of antitrust recused himself because he had represented microsoft. i am satisfied that the fcc and doj will take a real look at and decide on the merits.

>> give us your crystal ball -- at the end of the day, does this deal get done? >> i don't know. i do not want it to get done. my suspicion is that if they do ,t, it will be with conditions but that is not what i want. i do not want this done. i do not think it should be. i think consumers will end up paying more and there will be less innovation because of this. i think comcast will continue to push its own content. the point was there were fewer eyeballs on you guys and more on cnbc so they could charge more. that is leveraging your competitive advantage. they said that they will leverage this, when they have had their calls with wall street

. they basically said, "no, no, no, we are going to leverage this." i think this is wrong, and i certainly hope doj and sec reject it -- i certainly hope doj and fcc reject it. right, peter cook, senator franken, thank you both so much. senator franken did mention bloomberg talking about that neighborhood set up, and for purposes of this disclosure, -- for purposes of disclosure, bloomberg and cnbc are competitors. next, a market update. we'll be right back. ♪

>> welcome back. this is "bottom line" on bloomberg television. i'm mark crumpton. staying with us. the equal pay debate is at a stalemate after republicans blocked a motion to advance the paycheck fairness act, killing the debate. aimed at narrowing the pay gap between men and women, the bill would allow workers to compare salaries without threat of retaliation and would allow companies to explain pay disparities. after senators talk past each other on the floor today, no one voted off -- on the bill. democrats promised that the fight is not over yet. and a reminder -- there are multiple ways to watch bloomberg television. we are on the web at bloomberg.com, on your mobile -- on your mobile device, on apple tv, and on amazon fire tv. bloomberg's washington correspondent, megan hughes, has been going through the numbers

on dr. pay -- doctor pay. what did you find? >> this is a huge amount of data to$777 billion medicare paid 800,000 health care providers just for the year 2012. you can see how much money the select few doctors at the top of the list made. more than one of them has been charged with fraud in the past. let's look at the highest-paid dr. by the medicare program in 2012 -- the highest-paid doctor by the medicare program in 2012. he made $21 million, and again, that's just for 2012. that's 64 times the average payment to ophthalmologists. he was found to have overbilled medicare by $8.9 million in 2009 . this is also the same doctor that contributed to robert .enendez's campaign

the senator was accused of intervening in a medicare billing dispute. again, mark, that is just the top of the list, but more than one doctor at the top of the list was accused of fraud. ♪

>> welcome back to the second half-hour of "bottom line" on bloomberg television. i'm mark crumpton. with us.r staying russian president vladimir putin is threatening to start charging a move that could sharply heard his neighbor, startis already on the -- charging ukraine and advance forecast supplies, a move that could sharply hurt his neighbor, which is already on the brink of bankruptcy. it's one of the biggest auto

recalls ever -- toyota is telling the owners of more than 6 million vehicles to bring them .n to fix a variety of defects none has been linked to death or injury. suvy, corolla, and rav-4 are among the models being recalled. the missing airliner -- a navy ship detected to signals that most likely came .rom the black boxes an analysis of the two sounds dissected in the same area on saturday showed they were consistent with a plane's black boxes -- an analysis of the two sounds detected in the same area showed. let's get reaction from an executive vice president, mark streit it, and portfolio manager executive vice president, market strategist,

and portfolio manager at pimco. what is your take away? >> everything you need to know is on page seven, top left, more so the bottom right. the top left tells you about the short run story for the fed, and the bottom right tells you about the long run. for those who do not want to take a look, the top left shows how the fed has been looking at the economy, and whether it is absorbing the extra slack. janet yellen described for reasons why she still thinks there is a lot of slack and why it is she thinks the fed can be patient on rates. if there has been a change, they will see it in wages. the fed is watching wages, and we all should be. americans, as janet yellen eloquently showed this weekend in showcasing a few examples -- americans for five years have lagged behind on wages. average hourly earnings have grown at a 2% pace.

3%.ally it's imagine it is a year from now, and janet yellen faces a situation where americans are starting to catch up, and the wage rate is 2.5%. will she say to america, "that's it. no soup for you?" more likely, that indicates the fed would be patient with respect to rates. you want to watch wages because it is the best gauge, and the minutes suggest that is one of the key things to look at, and there are longer run implications on that page i referenced with respect to why the rate will not go higher. >> the prospect is leading some investors to pull their money from developing countries and reinvest in the united states. will those investors be rewarded? are falling currencies in those countries and unintended

consequence -- an unintended consequence? >> if you did an analysis on emerging market bonds and said that in september 2012 when the fed announced qe3, there was a huge inflow into local emerging market bonds, and it kept flowing until may 2013 when ben bernanke indicated that the fed might taper its bond-buying, and that set off turbulence. since then, the excess money that flowed into emerging markets has flowed out of local so you might think that now is the perfect time to buy, but that is using september 2012 as a reference. a think ultimately, it is good buy, but you will have to experience some volatility along the way. >> u.s. growth was about 1.5% in the first quarter of this year.

pimco expects economic growth of 2.5% to 3% over the next year. why is pimco so optimistic? >> we retain our cautiousness with respect to the longer run outlook on growth. many factors will keep it down -- demographic influences and deleveraging and that sort of thing, but we are optimistic or the next year, owing to a number of things. the reason why the consensus is a 2.8%, and we agree with it, is because of the reduction in fiscal drag. you do not hear about the fiscal cliff or the sequester any longer. these elements will reduce the percentage by a point, and state and local governments are in great shape as well. households, companies, banks, etc. we are waiting for data to confirm it, but that should keep rates on a very slow upward path . they have not moved since last

year, and it's a remarkably stable trading range. >> what is that going to mean for bonds? >> we would not see the fed raising rates until at least the latter part of next year. translates, of course, since inflation is dominated by wage pressures, that the inflation rate will be low. year-over-year, the inflation rate the fed targets is just 1.1% next to the lowest level since recordkeeping began in 1960, the lowest being .9% in 2010. that gives the fed reason to be patient. the fed is projecting itself rate at the end of 2016, well below what used to be the normal rate in the past.

could havenow -- we a recession along the way. >> no doubt. tony crescenzi, executive vice president, market strategist from pimco. always good to have you on. thanks. not sure if what you are eating is organic or genetically modified? that story coming up. ♪

>> it is time for the commodities report. su keenan is standing by with details. >> energy grabs the spotlight with oil prices rising to the highest in a month on the strength of gasoline. natural gas also a big gainer. the latest supply data shows that gasoline demand rose to a three-month high as supplies dropped to the lowest since november.

analysts say gasoline demand is picking up, particularly as we head into the summer driving season. stockpiles should be helping the market overall. meanwhile, west texas intermediate is poised to become the worldwide and mark once benchmarkorldwide once again. the price difference narrowing as we see a reduction in the glut of the world's oil, and that, again, puts wti oil back in prominence. >> while we have gold taking its cue from the fed, what's the story? >> many investors were waiting on these minutes, and the commodity, which have fallen from a two-week high, was trading sideways. we have the language about the rise in interest rates and the protection of the main interest rate being exaggerated or having exaggerated the likely speed of heightening, seen as a positive by traders.

investors appeared to be taking their cues directly from the fed 's signals about what will happen with interest rates. >> thank you. it is time for today's latin america report. government officials and costa rica were stunned when bank of america and intel said they will fire about 3000 workers in the central american nation -- government officials in costa rica were stunned. it presents an immediate challenge to president-elect sol iz, who won a runoff in his first bid for office. a disease that started in asia has spread to africa. its deadly for the cavendish banana that makes up about 95% of supplies to importers, including north america and europe. the disease has not reached top latin america exporters such as ecuador, costa rica.

states have been trying to pass laws requiring companies to label genetically modified foods, but now republican congressman michael pompeo of kansas is proposing a bill that could preempt state efforts. our agricultural reporter joins me now with more. the agriculture secretary was here in new york today, which is why you are here. he spoke to the council of foreign relations. interesting comments, you tell me, about the drought in california. >> it was interesting the concern the secretary had about the drought in california. there's a horrible water situation. they had the driest year on record in 2014, and it has not stopped. he said the impact on food prices may be greater than the corn belt drought. why is this?

farmers continue to grow corn and soybeans, and you could smooth out the supply disruptions. the water situation in california is so bad that farmers are not even planting the crops. we are relying on foreign markets that may or may not be fulfill demand. >> what is it doing to farmers and the overall economy? >> california is the biggest overall california -- the biggest overall agriculture state in the country. you are really seeing farmers struggle, as they need to have something in the ground to make some sort of money. if they cannot do it, they are left with no income. >> commodity prices have stayed higher than a lot of analysts had thought earlier this year. why has that been the case? what does the department agriculture -- what has the department of agriculture said today that drove prices even higher? >> soybeans hit the highest price in 10 months today, in part because the usda minimum labor board reducing inventories

they are expecting for soybeans. same thing happens with corn. the world is looking to u.s. crops as part of a safe buyer of last resort when you see some of the turmoil with the weather in brazil or disruptions in the ukraine. it's making american crops more attractive. >> speaking of which, exports continue to boom. what's the factor? >> again, u.s. is sort of the buyer of last resort. if you're watching the ukraine and wonderware supplies may be coming from there, you have an issue with ukraine, with south america -- if you are watching the ukraine and wonder where supplies may be coming from. more thane told me in one interview, you are from farm country. what has been going on there? what are those farmers up against, particularly as we get these mixed economic signals, where one day it seems we are taking two steps forward and the next day it seems like we are taking a step back?

>> you are seeing farmers start to prepare their crops to be planted. risk inseeing more of a was farmers are expected to plant a record amount of soybeans which are less expensive and may be less profitable than corn. we had a boom in the at or cultural economy. no one is saying that the times are over, but they are tempered by risks and geopolitical and weather situations we are seeing, so farmers are being a little more cautious than they have been. >> let's talk about politics being local. what is going on with the farm bill? >> it is now in a limitation phases, which means you will be focusing attention on other things, such as the gm of issue issue from- gmo michael pompeo of kansas. it looks at mandatory label of crops. what you saw today was this bill

being introduced in congress to sort of preempt those state laws and raise a really high threshold before they would be a a product.n >> good to see you. thanks for stopping by. next, it is a company that has never spent a dime on marketing, but more than 10 million people have seen the product online. what exactly is the rhino? find out when "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪

spent amotors has never penny on marketing or sent a single press release, but more than 13 million people have viewed videos of the one-wheel motorized bike on youtube. we went to portland to find out why. >> what is this thing? is it a motorcycle? is it a segway?

it's actually called a ryno. have you ever seen anything like this? >> no, well on youtube. with are still struggling how you define it. >> chris hoffman is the former auto engineer behind me ryno -- behind the ryno. he says it is somewhere between an electric bike and electric motorcycle. the ryno accelerates when the driver leans forward and slows when they lean back. it stays upright thanks to software that knows where the center of the earth is, keeping the bike and the rider balance. >> it relies on your own sense of balance and gives you just enough stability so you can pilot the bike. is track and road-ready an appearance only. how fast does this baby go? >> we want to keep it a 10 miles an hour because we want to keep

it pedestrian-a friendly. >> hoffman got the idea seven years ago when his daughter asked him to build a one-wheel motorcycle she saw in a videogame, but the ryno almost did not make it out of their garage. lastwas down to my thousand dollars before we got our first investor. >> a $1.3 million injection allowed hoffman to start production. the first rynos will ship to customers later this year and cost $5,300 each. >> i'm feeling great. is the ryno just a novelty item? >> we don't know. that's what we are trying to find out this year. >> stay with us. another check of the market movers is on the other side of the break. "bottom line" returns in just a moment. ♪

>> get the latest headlines at the top of the hour on bloomberg radio, streaming on your tablet, and on bloomberg.com. that does it for this edition of "bottom line." i'm mark crumpton. thanks for joining us. past the hour. that does mean bloomberg tv is on the markets. let's get you caught up on stocks and where they are trading. just about an hour after the fed released the minutes of its latest meeting, we saw stock simply take a leg up as the fed tried to reassure folks or discuss reassuring folks that rates were not going to aggressively rise sooner than

the economy was ready for. we are seeing a similar reaction in treasury movement. we see yields go up a little bit, but not an enormous change still in the fixed income market. yields on the shorter end of the curve were actually coming down. i actually want to start with you, lisa, because that was an interesting bond toward -- board we just looked at with the shorter end moving down and longer and moving up. what does that tell us? >> etiquettes a bigger response at the short end of the curve -- i think it is a bigger response at the short end of the curve. this is people who got nervous when janet yellen spoke, and this is where everyone has been hiding out. what happens if they rise rates sooner than people expected? that is a huge concern in the market. meeting notes came out today and

showed people -- "you know what? the fed is very concerned about the economy getting some speed under way and being able to get ." its own footing that seems to be more of the priority now. >> it's amazing, the times we have seen this where the fed indicates that reads -- read -- reit's are going to go up, and that you get some sort of reassurance in some form and stocks go back up. >> stocks were sort of an rebound mode all day today and led by the momentum stocks that had been causing so much turmoil , and that leadership just exaggerated itself after the minutes, so it is interesting to see how these biotech and internet and really sort of speculative momentum stocks -- how sensitive they are to momentum -- how sensitive they are to rates. we are seeing stocks like facebook, biogen really in the

leadership right now, and even some momentum stocks that were down before the minutes turn .igher -- tesla, amazon.com stocks are really loving it for .ow that may only last until the next fed speech, but to me, it is interesting that what really spooked the market last time in march was not so much the meeting itself, but janet yellen's press conference afterwards where she hinted that while the tapering will probably be finished by the fall and then rates will increase six months after that, that is what really spooked the markets. it's interesting how they handled that. obviously, they are minutes of the meeting, not the press conference afterward, but you almost wonder if they were trying to address her press conference afterward. >> anticipating that she was going to get some kind of timetable. thank you for giving us reaction to these fed minutes.

we'll be on the markets again in 30 minutes. "street smart" is next. ♪ >> more on what the fed said in just a few minutes. "street smart" starts right now. >> you are watching the most important hour. a a lot of upside in today's market. up 137 on the dow, 47 on the nasdaq. coming up, we are going to talk about medicare millionaire. a small group of doctors are bringing in some pretty big paychecks. but is this a massive abuse of our system? he might be the most