>> live from pier three in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west." here is a check on your bloomberg top headlines. apple is making it official, getting into programmatic advertising. the company is opening up its advertising platform to enable automated ads, making selling as more efficient on mobile devices. china slashes interest rates for the first time since 2012 and

that sent stocks and oil prices higher around the world. meanwhile in europe, ecb president mario draghi says they may broaden their asset purchase plan as the inflation outlook slows. >> we need to create a business environment where new investment is attractive. this, in turn, would help monetary policy to reap its full effects. >> those comments calling for the euro to weaken. it slid the most in a year against the japanese yen. the u.s. says the number of new ebola infections in liberia is declining thanks to the effort of u.s. troops and medical teams. the director of the cdc says he opening up of new units and better training has been very effective. the cdc is also working on lowering its estimates for new ebola infections. a controversial uber executive is said to retain the support of their top executives after

remarks made about targeting journalists critical of the company. at least two major investors and senior management are firmly behind michael. he has been central to their growth of raising money and expanding the ridesharing service internationally. it has been more than two months since apple released its iphone 6 and six plus. still, people are standing in line to get their hands on the device. the question is, is this a lack of supply, excess demand? gene munster from piper jaffray is with me from sunny and warm minneapolis. one of our producers and i walked by the apple store on powell street and saw a line of people still waiting for the phone, two months later. what does that tell you? >> it tells me that demand is outstripping supply. ultimately, this dovetails with

the work that we do on a weekly basis. we check 80 stores and we find about 40% of the iphones are sold out [no audio] >> that was gene munster. let's go to a quick commercial break and see if we can get him back to talk about this wild issue. more on that when "bloomberg west" continues after this. ♪

>> this is "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. this is my iphone. i ordered it the first day it was available and it took about six weeks to arrive. it turns out i'm not the only one. some are still waiting for theirs. g munter is with me to talk about the issue. i ordered the iphone 6 plus with the most amount of memory in the

gray color. it took me about six weeks to get it. is that a common experience? >> it is. there are certain carriers that have better inventory, but ultimately, the supply has been really tight. the reason is, the demand seems to be better than the people had thought. it is hard to figure out which is driving what. one thing that we can do is measure at the apple stores how much inventory they have of phones. typically, two months after a product launch, they should have 100% of the sku's in but right now it is at about 60%. two months later, it is still not widely available. >> are there certain components in the 6 and 6 plus that suggest it is not a supply issue? >> the components that they have -- i think the components are

relatively easy. based on some of the comments that apple had on a conference call, they did not seem to say there were any issues on the production side. there was not anything dramatic on the component side. as of the third week in october, things were fine. unless something short-circuited in the last few weeks, which is unlikely, i think this is probably driven by continued healthy demand. >> is the 6 plus worse in terms of supply than the 6? what does that mean for apple's margins? >> recently, we have seen the 6 plus supply improving and the 6 supply tighter. what we think is going on, if you look at the early adopters, they tend to spend more and get the bigger formfactor. i think we are starting to slowly drift back into more mainstream. that is why you are seeing better availability of the six plus and tighter availability of the 6.

ultimately, down the road, it will probably be 70% of units that will be the smaller iphone 6. >> and that is smaller margin? >> the gross margin is comparable. it might be fractionally lower but the gross profit dollars are less with the 6 because the asp is lower. apple is happy or two so you either one, but they are probably happier to sell you a 6 plus. >> does this matter for apple, were they going to sell everything they made this quarter anyway, or is this material enough where they will have a much better quarter than they expected? >> there is a governing factor on how big the december quarter can be, and that is the supply side. the idea of having some gang buster december is not a reality.

that is consistent with what their guidance was. they probably had a good sense of what they could do when they gave guidance in october. the reason this is important this really pushes the cycle into 2015. for investors, that's the big question, when to get off, based on the peak of the cycle. having another potentially strong quarter with the march quarter as something material for investors. >> apple does not really have weak quarters anymore, but among the weaker quarters for apple historically. >> usually we see after the product cycle that the march quarter has a big step down. especially this year when you have the title launch and the december quarter, not a ton of catalyst. i think getting some of this demand shifted over into the march quarter should be positive. ultimately, what it comes down to is that their guidance for

march should be more optimistic than what the street is expecting. that is when the real substance it's the road. we will be getting that about the third week of january. >> an interesting story, this iphone adoption. gene munster, thank you as always. president obama outlined his plan for immigration reform and they do not include some of the key goals of the tech community. how this impacts silicon valley with former san francisco mayor willie brown. ♪

>> this is "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. president obama's plan for immigration reform is not a widespread overhaul that the tech industry was hoping for. notice we -- noticeably absent

was the update on the foreign visa. it will make it easier for foreign-born entrepreneurs to work in the u.s.. how will this impact the city of san francisco, home to so many tech companies? joining me is the former mayor of san francisco willie brown. what did you make of the president's speech? >> long overdue. i don't know how many months ago that the u.s. senate, by a partisan vote 68 senators said we ought to solve the problem and here is how we can do it. the house leadership, headed by mr. john boehner would not allow even a debate to take place. the president needs to get a dialogue going. his action last night does that. >> there is a lot of criticism still raging about the use of an executive order to do this because they could not get something through congress.

in particular, after an election where a lot of pro-immigration candidates lost. >> the question is not so much about whether you are using executive order because you cannot get something done in congress. you are using the executive order the same way the executive order has been used by all the predecessors on this issue. politicians are amazing, really. they are very reluctant to do anything that is earthshaking and controversial. 12 million or more people in this country, 6 million of them in categories where they should already be in line. it is amazing how members of congress will not do that. the president is empowered to respond to questions and problems and that is why you have executive orders. he is exercising that privilege period. and he has done it within the context of what the u.s. senate

has already asked. he also said be clear, you want to act act. i take my executive order back. you cannot get any better than that. >> republicans have been supportive of expanding the h-1b program, letting people come in from overseas working in technology. from a political standpoint, you brokered a lot of deals in sacramento with a very contentious group of people. do you see this as a negotiating ploy for the president? >> that is part of the leverage, but you understand what the president did by virtue of his conduct. people that were born here, to parents of those who were you legal immigrants, so to speak, that bertha gives you a right. we ought to keep that family together. while i'm not giving them

citizenship, i am allowing themselves to declare themselves, pay taxes, fill out forms, and get in line and wait for the opportunity to be a citizen. that's an appropriate thing to do. clearly, the thing that is the sexy performance category of high tech workers getting special visas that is something that everybody can sign onto. the president, i'm sure, is going to be willing to trade his signature on that for the consideration of these people who have no leverage. >> it was interesting that his focus on people without the means to lobby in particular and not so much the economic impact of workers particularly for tech communities, which many thought they would here. >> he did not do anything to slow down the process by which tech workers now qualified. he just did not do anything to accelerate it. the advocacy, obviously, in the tech world and in some

republicans world is that you accelerate that, because we are taking the cream of the crop produced in other nations, to allow them to work and be productive in our nation. by the way, it applies not only to that crowd, but also people in the health care world. all of that leverage needs no one to speak for them. these people who mr. obama spoke for last night are people who need a voice. >> we have some sound from the speech last night. >> the actions i'm taking are not only lawful, they are the kinds of actions taken by every single republican president and every democratic president for the past half-century. to those members of congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better or question the wisdom of me acting where congress has failed, i have one answer. pass a bill. >> that really speaks to the

pollock ticks of it and the political tone in washington. >> i'm sorry he did not do this eight months ago. why would you leave it out there for 500 days when the senate has already passed it and when the other guys say i am not going to allow to be taken up? >> why did he do it? >> as usual, president obama is incredibly cautious executor, so to speak. he really tries his best to allow people to reach a consensus before he steps out there. he has never been known for being the guy that initiates the action before there has been real serious discussion. he is now in a position with two years left where he needs to do all that he initiated, if he is going to do it at all. >> for the technology community and those you want to keep employed, him waiting six months is a big deal. his employees -- the technology

companies need those employees now and not later. >> that is why i said it is a long time coming but it is here. he should have done it months ago. >> always good to see you. thank you for the important topic. many social enterprises are driven by a social mission. many find funding through crowd funding. maybe it's the vehicle needed to get these great ideas off the ground. so i asked dana pregnant about the kinds of campaigns she is seeing on the crowd funding platform. >> we are seeing a broad spectrum, social onto printers innovators, inventors launching their products and businesses, artists using it to put out a film. we are seeing a lot of nonprofits and individuals raising money for personal causes like to pay for a funeral. >> i want to focus on the social

impact business. it occurs to me that venture investors fundamentally are seeking a return on capital and that the investors you are bringing in our sometimes seeking more than that. they are looking to do good. we all want to do that, but it's interesting, some of the investment you have seen. >> we have campaigns where one company is creating and all sets to emulate famous female scientists like marie curie. >> barbie was not a scientist? >> not yet. they are doing some exciting things about partnering up with some people. >> my girls have such a love for the story of american girl dolls, this fictional story. >> these are amazing women that have pioneered science and tech knowledge he but we never heard about them. >> kite patch is an amazing

idea that came out of uc riverside. it is a patch that is on your shoulder that limits a scent which makes you invisible to mosquitoes. they used indie gogo to raise over $500,000 to launch the brand and the product into the market. >> what is it about this platform that is bringing these investors and different goals? >> on indie gogo, it is not investing, but contributions in exchange for perks. we found for reason why people invest. people passion, for dissipation, and perks. i would consider the first two more altruistic and the second two more selfish. indie gogo unlocks all of those motivations and that is why you see so many social impact businesses being successful. >> let me at a 50's, phony.

when i was investor, i was responsible for finding some shorts and other sorts of things. when i look at this platform, i'm concerned about the possibility of companies that, with that magical pain, snake oil and so forth. i understand the legal implications, but what do you do to try to get rid of that? >> we believe in giving everyone an equal opportunity to get off the ground. we built in fraud infrastructure on the back end, some algorithms to check anything suspicious. we know that we are unleashing new ideas and innovation. the definition of that is creating something new that has not existed before. >> there have been criticisms of him -- i do not want to call it fraud. but a company which was controversial. a product that apparently did not do what they thought it would do. there is a suspicion out there

that people will use other things like this that provide magical cures to raise money and then take the money. >> we coach our campaign owner to talk about their goals, what you're trying to achieve, the work you still need to do, and why you are money this way. a lot of times we will use indie gogo as a way to get feedback to see if this is something that people want. there is a lot of communication that goes back and forth and nobody is forcing anyone to fund. if something feels out there and they are not comfortable with the science behind it, they do not need to fund. but if they are excited, they should be able to. know what you want to make happen. >> when you look at some of the social campaigns that have happened what does that do -- how do you follow up on that to make more happen? >> more social businesses? we continue to share everyone's stories, we leave the campaign

open so that campaign donors can educate their funders on the status of the project. we encourage communities to form around ideas and be part of the next product that comes out after that. >> that was the indie gogo cofounder and chief developing officer. amazon is changing some of its rules for workers at its warehouses, but still faces demand for better wages and conditions. what right do the amazon workforce have, and is the company of using their power? first, let's get to some bloomberg on the markets. china is off to the races. >> china really is why the markets are skyrocketing today joining the global spree that we have seen in terms of all of these big economies jumping in with their forms of monetary easing.

the markets are really rallying. the s&p is up about .3%, being driven by higher by material and industrial stocks. utilities and telecoms are lagging. we are back at the top of the hour. ♪

>> you are watching "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. it looks like aereo is toast. they are filing for bankruptcy protection. the supreme court agreed with protesters that their service violated her ramming copyright protections. joining us now from new york is an analyst from rbc capital markets. this aereo has gotten a lot of attention. consumers seem to love this thing. what is the lasting take away from the end of aereo? >> i think it was a really

interesting product from a consumer utility perspective. i don't know how many subscribers there ultimately were. i think the court documents that discussed some of the subscriber base showed us it was not a particularly enormous base. change in the media ecosystem is painful, there is clearly an innovators dilemma. the great innovation tends to come from outside of the system. i think aereo's contribution at the end of the day was probably a push to continue to make the media ecosystem evolve, to see some of these ala c la carte products to see if that could've been a catalyst, or maybe the hbo products. i think they were a catalyst, but ultimately they did not fit

within the regulatory landscape. but maybe they help to push and change the regulatory landscape. >> the networks trying to keep people from consuming their service the way they want to. i wonder how long they can fight that off. is the way that aereo died scare potential followers from doing this again? >> if consumers really wanted to consume the broadcast networks on a standalone basis, they could put rabbit ears up and watch television. i think part of it was really about a lighter bundle. what if i just want the broadcast networks and i don't not -- don't want the rest of cable but i want the utility of modern distribution? you are starting to see some of that.

charlie ergen will be launching his subscription plan on dish. you are seeing the evolution of virtual cd's on the sony platform, rumors with some other telecom players. i think they are being pushed. i don't think they would be involving with this kind of disruption from outside of the system. and you are right, the premise of the question is right. ultimately, the consumer wins. the existing ecosystem pushes back as hard as it can and then the consumer wins. i don't think the guys at the telegraph company were thinking we need a bunch of telephones. >> my big buggy whip investment is not paying off. we spoke about this notion of what the consumer wanted in march. listen to what he had to say. >> my last company created technology to view -- measure

viewership in millions of homes but when you begin to look at the data, it was shocking. the majority of the people watch seven or eight channels and half of them happened to be broadcast channels that are free to air. prices keep escalating, technology does not keep pace. people are sick -- consuming more content online. people are cutting the cord and exposing their interest from moving away from the traditional model. >> what is interesting to me is that he went after the belly of the beast as opposed to nibbling on the edges, the way that uber might. i wonder if that approach dismantling a big regulatory environment, was doomed to fail? >> when you look at the players involved, barry diller was ultimately the money behind this. i think he was not afraid of a big battle at the expense of some massive disruption. they were all ready to live with a binary outcome.

even chet with the promise of massive disruption. they did not mind around the edges, they took the big swing, but you know there was a potentially good binary outcome for them if they were right. i think they will -- were willing to live with the risk of being wrong. what he said was probably correct. the average consumer does much the bulk of their content through eight or nine channels. the issue you have, and the flaw in the logic to me, is that those eight or nine channels -- we probably do all watch the broadcast networks, particularly for sports, but those other five channels are different for everyone else. my five are different from your five and different from someone else's. without the bundle, it is really hard for all of these niche channels to exist. at the end of the day, what i

think, some of this is a solution looking for a problem. the bundle is a pretty good solution. >> david, thank you very much. interesting stuff. our labor disputes surrounding amazon warehouse is going to impact the company's bottom line? that and much more when "bloomberg west" returns. ♪

>> you are watching "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. amazon has just settled a complaint with the national labor relations board. the agreed to change their rules to allow warehouse employees to communicate about day and talk about their working conditions without fear of retaliation. this as the supreme court considers a separate suit on whether workers should be paid for time waiting in security

check out lines. they are also facing pressure from germany. with me now is the author of a book on amazon, as well as a visiting professor from new york. is this a notable decision or settlement with the nlrb? >> it is notable because these provisions are ubiquitous. one of the parts of the settlement requires amazon to change and update its code of conduct, which is overbroad. it prohibits employees on its face from talking to anyone distributing unauthorized information to people who are not authorized to get that information. on its face, it would prohibit them to talk to unions about their pay, the terms of their work. those provisions are ubiquitous. a lot of employers have those terms. the fact that this settlement is news and there are employers

with those kinds of overbroad provisions, i think that is a piece of interest. >> so maybe this resonates beyond amazon. the culture of amazon is fascinating. you can sort of see them going the big into these things, but when you go into these for film that centers, -- fulfillment centers, it is anything but. the first time i visited one of these massive warehouses with row after row of stuff and these people walking tens of miles a day picking these things and putting them back, it just looks like backbreaking, exhausting work. it made me think that i went to college. >> i don't know that this brings those workers any closer to unionizing. what we have seen over the past 15 years is amazon really fighting any unionization effort tenaciously. hiring law firms, making it very strenuous.

you have to consider how these centers are set up. they have 40,000 workers in the u.s. but they hire 80,000 temporary workers over the holidays. there is always this vast reservoir of people ready to take your job if you start talking to the teamsters or the afl-cio. there was a group that tried to unionize earlier this year in delaware, and they got crushed. the vote was 21-6. you are not on very stable ground and this will increase the education of workers rights. i'm not sure that amazon will be that much more normal. >> i agree. amazon has worked very hard over a long time to prevent unionization, even small ones. the unions especially the machinists union, have tried to gain toehold, even with tiny 30-person groups. amazon takes those efforts very seriously because they see them

as being chips that could be laid out for future efforts. you could say this particular one, even though it was not anything big -- just one employee in an arizona warehouse who complained about the fact that he was reprimanded allegedly, for complaining about lack of security in the parking lot, which affects a lot of people in the warehouse. he also complained about these overbroad policies. you could say that is not really a victory because amazon back down but you could say it is a nice toehold for unionization efforts because it shows that, with one person come and minimal effort they got the mighty amazon to capitulate in certain respects. that is a nice toehold. in part, you can see past effort is unsuccessful in this one being a little more successful. but i do not want to sound to austin -- optimistic on any front. >> why does amazon have rules

that won't let someone talk about parking lot security for fear of his job, what does that tell us about the culture of amazon? >> they are very fearful of any unionizing action as zev said. they will say they prefer direct relationship with their employees. they are relying on a $13 an hour wage in a low margin business. they like to d staff after the holidays. the business is very seasonal. they do not have applicability if they are unionized. they will fight tooth and entity that from happening. >> if that were not enough of a threat to employees, they bought this robot company for $700 million. what do you make of the move to use robots and automate their factories? >> robots probably complain less about lax security, so that is one way that on its face, they could replace employees with a

robot. they could avoid some problems with unionization. i will say, amazon is more brick-and-mortar than people think. they think i'm amazon as an internet company, but they do have a lot of associates nationwide to the extent that fear of unionization is something that will drive them toward creating a robot workforce -- i don't think that is what is driving them. i think there are other costs associated with human capital. labor costs -- the fear of unionization is not something that is pushing toward that effort. >> i talked about what it was like for me, thanking god for my education, when i saw the fulfillment center and amazon. what do you think when you see one? >> not so fulfilling. i agree, i'm happy i'm not working there. i think they are difficult jobs. this might be an instance when

we think that collective voice in the workplace is a good thing because these are people who might not be able, on their own, to represent their interests very effectively. brad is right, amazon is not unique in their response to unionization efforts by saying you don't want a third-party intermediary humming between us. it is almost like a lover saying, just keep it between us which i find very odd and weird that a company could think that this would work. we knew -- don't need an intermediary. it should just be between us. i find it odd that anyone would find that to be an effective argument. >> thank you very much. bottom line into the top of the hour. as always, mark is a new york. >> china's central bank cut interest rates. will it be enough to re-energize

the world's second-largest economy? we will have analysis. and why don't americans use all of their vacation days? we will ask our guest about a novel approach he has come up with to take some time off. >> maybe it is because people like us just love being at work. >> that is really just not it, cory. >> [laughter] before that, agriculture, many industries are right for disruption. one person hoping to solve some of the world food challenges by growing plants in the air. ♪

>> i'm cory johnson. this is "bloomberg west." sam grobart got an exclusive look at some of the technologies and innovations that may disrupt our lives in 2015. today we are talking about

farming. one new jersey startup found a way to grow food without soil. it could play a major role in the nation's food supply. this is the year ahead. ♪ >> we truly believe this is the disruptive technology for the farming industry. if we are talking about feeding a planet of 8 million, 9 billion, we need a new paradigm of how we grow our food. this is it, this is the future. >> inside an old nightclub in newark, new jersey, david rosenberg and his team are on the verge of an agricultural revolution. >> we are able to take the seed and grow in 16 days what would otherwise take 30, we have 22 crop turns a year. in the field, there are three. we can do that using 95% less water, zero pesticides

herbicides, fungicides. >> they are using aeroponics, a vertical system where plants grow in missed. >> we have a tray covered in a cloth. this is our growth media. we see it on top of the clock. >> 48 hours later that is then fed into the vertical farm and then moves further into the system as the plants grow bigger. >> the leaves are given a specific spectrum of light at a specific intensity and frequency and we are also optimizing oxygen and carbon dioxide, optimizing temperature ph relative humidity, to create a perfect growing environment. >> beneath the lights and leafy greens is a system of nozzles that gray mist onto the roots. and then over two weeks after the process began, the plants are ready to harvest and be even. >> two days we have grown 230 different products.

the taste is fantastic. we optimize for taste and texture, so if you want a peppery arugula, a sweeter taste, a harder or softer leaf we are looking at all of those parameters. >> right now, a vast majority of leafy greens in the u.s. are grown on traditional farms in california and arizona. plans are doused with pesticides which ends up not only in our food but in our environment. >> 70% of our freshwater contamination comes from agriculture. it is the runoff from all the fertilizers and pesticides that go to our freshwater streams that lead to algae blooms that lead to dead zones. >> right after harvest, leafy greens require immediate refrigeration and shipping all over the country. it is a flawed system with high rates of spoilage and contamination, which is why aerofarms is bringing the farm to the city.

one of the companies vertical systems is already in use at phillips academy charter school across downtown newark am aware growing leafy greens outside in winter is impossible. >> we are harvesting the plants right now. we are trying not to get a lot of stems. >> we are about enabling local food production at scale. given the high trend toward urbanization, seeing where the nouns are. >> it takes grown locally to a whole new level. >> aerofarms is going through massive expansion. they are currently converting an 80,000 square-foot factory into what will become the world's largest vertical farm. they say it will produce enough baby leafy greens for 80,000 people. it is not cheap though. and that is the big challenge for aerofarms. >> depending on the size of the farm it can be a $20 million or more project when you take into account site prep, working

capital, as well as the capital expense of the farm. >> it is a cost that has, so far, cap | me out of the places that they needed the most. >> it is a viable technology that works. we are going to do everything we can to make it available all around the world. >> but for now, aerofarms is keeping their focus at home, trying to reach local customers only a few miles from their facility. in 2015, they will be launching a branded product, ensuring your arugula was picked just hours earlier. >> that was sam grobart. you can watch the special all week. lots of really cool stuff. now it is time for the bwest b yte. what is the number? >> 10. the number of rainy days in san francisco. >> that's it? >> potentially the number of

umbrellas you have if you cannot find yours. >> i have one with your logo on it. it has a chip that allows you to find things like your lost keys, but what is with the umbrella partnership? >> we partnered with a company called the blunt umbrellas and they were interested in building the world's first smart umbrella that you can find a time it rains. often times people leave their ability on summer or cannot find it when it is raining. >> my friends would come to my place all the time in new york and i had dozens of umbrellas that people would be behind. it is interesting that you are going to an oem model. >> we believe if you purchase something, you should own it. you should be able to find it when you use it. >> interesting stuff. thanks for joining us. good stuff as always. you can watch more of "bloomberg west" throughout the day and evening. we are on the west coast at 3:00.

much more next week. thanks for joining us. ♪

>> this is "bottom line." to our viewers in the united states and those of you joining us around the world, welcome. we health coverage of the stocks and stories making headlines today. peter cook has details on the u.s. senate hearing focusing on me fed relationship with big banks. phil mattingly examines th