>> i am just green. >> i'm john heilemann. with all respect to john harbaugh, everyday we work is just like being back in college. >> it is our year in review part one. we will be running through our list. today is our six to his political stories of the year. obama and the good economy. the establishment party the po-po, and the world of flame.

isis, ebola, russia. enough calamities to fit into a twisted cover of the 12 days of christmas. of all the global hotspots, which creates the biggest challenge in 2015? >> some of them have gotten better. we have withdrawn from afghanistan. we can turn off the lights in north korea whenever we want to. i'm going to go with russia, because it's economy is really. and a volatile, unpredictable dictator under a lot of pressure. >> that is a reasonable assertion. i think there is an equally good case to be made for the threat of isis, which is a huge cancer in the middle east. it is not a group whose capabilities we do not understand. there are a lot of people concerned about some of the brutality we have seen from the group will suddenly make its way overseas, possibly to the united states. >> there is still no way to control the power that they have

on social media. when you can be had an american journalist and sees time on cable television and really frighten people, we see the toll that can take on obama in an election. >> your talking about a group that is violent, nihilistic, and has a lot of money unlike its predecessor, al qaeda. you may recall that president obama slipped on an invisibility cloak and was rarely seen or heard until he announced a breakthrough with china, to give refuge to immigrants and an interview like this one at npr. >> i sent the beginning of this year that 2014 would be a breakthrough year. it was a bumpy path. a lot of the work we have done is now beginning to bear fruit. it gives me an opportunity to start focusing on some of the other hard challenges that i did

not always have the time or capacity to get to. earlier in my presidency. >> the question is for 2015, whether obama can continue this resurgence. i think the answer is that he cannot. if he is willing to continue to make it clear to the gop that he is going to do what he wants to do on questions of policy. but it is also clear that there are things he wants to do that they want to do. too and i think this period postelection has strengthened his presidency rather than weakening it. >> the other thing that strengthen him is the economy suddenly growing again. we have a booming's market. -- stock market. the problem with your analysis is we have another factor next year, which is the gop congress, which obama will not be able to control. it can spin out of control, and they can seize the news cycle in a way they were not able to during the lame-duck at home.

>> he only has about 10 months to work. in terms of bipartisan deals. but there are still places that yes shown where unilateral action is possible, one of them would be to close gitmo, something he has wanted to do for the past six years. some of the things he can take off his bucket list that people would can -- consider a historic achievement. >> it will enrage the>> republican party, make no mistake. whether that will prevent them from cooperating on things like trade. >> one reason he is making more face time with americans is because after years of anxiety high unemployment and scarcity, companies are hiring, growth is blazing, and the market is up. if the market continues to

accelerate in 2015, the question is, what are the broad white partisan political implications of that? if suddenly we have a gdp growth of 5%? >> one thing we are beginning to see is obama's approval rating has begun to take up. the cnn poll last week i the highest it has been in a year and a half. it is also good for hillary clinton. you may disagree with this. >> i would never disagree with you. >> here are my. -- theories. if the economy is not in the tank, the republican party will have to come up with a positive agenda that is more than slamming obama. whether they do it by circumstances, it is going to have to come up with something better. >> the problem is having a good economy is the only way the democrats are going to will the white house for three consecutive terms. if the economy is in the toilet lord clinton will have no chance.

republicans need real policies. in the context of a good economy, they are going to have to make that move. you cannot be anti-barack obama. the question is, what clubs may have in their back. -- bag. i do not know what their policies would be, including this one. >> part of the reason you see excitement around candidacies like a jet bush is here is someone with a mind for policy not just demonizing obamacare. >> i will tell you who growth is bad for, the populous wings of each parties. where there are areas where you are dealing with not abundance optimism, but pessimism and fear , populists do not tend to be the one in the drivers seat. >> we are not going to get a president ted cruz? [laughter]

>> also making a big comeback this year, the reestablishment wing of the gop, specifically mitt romney and jeb bush, who is basically running for president and has been the subject of a lot of media since he's said so. he let a hypothetical nomination contest with 23% of the vote. let's not forget the plausible candidate to helped the gop in the midterms. whether there will be a bad -- that flash, i do not think it is going to matter very much. partly because of the things we were discussing before. when you have a solid, growing economy, those establishment candidates will have a stronger position. the fact that mitch mcconnell and john boehner wanted to get things done in congress, not because they want to work with barack obama but because they want to win the white house in 2016, all those things gave a of power to the establishment and

made a part for the populist to gain traction. >> true, but what did we learn from the lame-duck session? >> you make me feel good with true, then you just stick my face in it with the "but." >> republicans almost lose control of the spending bill, and john boehner had to get a number of democrats to get these things past. he does not have the power you suggest to tap down this tea party wing. the question is can he balance the tea party and liberal democrats without having things spin out of control? >> he has a more conservative caucus and a playbook. it goes in both directions for boehner. by far, the biggest story of winter has been the police killings of unarmed black men and the controversies they have inspired. it has been doused in coverage thanks to new york press swarming around bill de blasio

and nypd, and it speaks to racial divides across the country. josh, my question to you, given the emotion we have felt over the past few months, do you think this story will fade in 2015 become more controversial? >> just two weeks after michael brown's killing, and the like there was going to be a bipartisan effort to demilitarize police. as so often happens, it just spun out into crazy partisanship. i do not see this getting better in 2015. i think it will get worse with each police shooting getting swarmed over on social media. >> part of the problem is that one of the things that we learned is that this happens with shocking frequency around the country, where unarmed black kids -- they may be innocent, who knows.

but michael brown brown and eric garner were not isolated incidents. and the glare of the media is on it. here in new york, this story bill de blasio, bratton, giuliani, i do not think it is going to go away at all. it will come back with a vengeance in january and february. it could be dealing with with this for much of the first half of next year. >> there is no reason to think it will get resolved. >> is a confounding problem. that is a pretty dark story. you might think it is a pretty dark year, but in two key areas of social relations, a consensus in stubby forming around tolerance and progress. marijuana and gay marriage. gay marriage is now legal in well over half of the united states. there are some backlash on both fronts that could play out in 2015.

but it seems only a matter of time before pot and same-sex marriage are legal nationwide. it is a generational thing. when you look to the polling kids today think pot should be legal and anybody should be married who wants to. it is an actuating table washing across the country. >> and washington is not involved in either of these things. gay marriage, which could get decided by the supreme court this summer, the national before the year is out. >> the other thing is you have seen gay marriage happen. it is further down the road than pot legalization. but gay marriage has been driven by generational dynamics. pot will be driven by generational dynamics and economic dynamics. as the money pours into colorado and washington, no state in the country -- >> there are no republicans or democrats opposing it because there is no contingent fund get it -- >> apart from the ones who are

uptight. when we come back, fred wilson venture capitalist who financed witter explains himself in more than 140 characters. ♪

>> our guest tonight is a blogger and successful venture capitalist, a member of the technorati, a mediocre rummy player and a new york knicks fan. fred wilson, thank you for coming on our show. if our to talk about technology trends that intersect with public policy let's start with the one on everyone's mind the interview, cyber security, economic espionage. what do you make of what just happened, and what do american companies have to do to keep it from happening again? >> they have to harden their systems. sony was a porous rock they could get into no problem.

they have to harden their systems. this is what everybody is going to be doing to everybody going forward. we just have to be prepared for it. and you have to harden your systems so it is hard to do it to you. >> are your systems sufficiently hardened at this point? >> very hardened. >> are we getting a glimpse of the future? the movie stream $15 million. >> i heard $18 million. >> and you have it in theaters at the same time. are we going to see more of this? >> the reason it has not happened today is theater owners do not want it to happen. they want movies to premiere in theaters. they do not want movies available on the internet in the same day. i think this is an indication you can make a lot of money putting a movie out of and in theaters on the same day. i think we will see more of it happening.

>> you watched the interview last week and. did you pay for it? >> i rented it for six dollars. i bought it for $15. when i couldn't do either of those things, because i was in a foreign country, i bit-to rrented. >> move on to net neutrality. you are a big fan of the president's policy. >> the internet needs to be open for innovation. anyone who can get on a server should be able to get into business and should not have to negotiate with monopolies to get access to potential customers. i think what the president said is we are going to keep the internet open for innovation. >> how does the republican congress coming into power next year influence the net neutrality debate? you have a new power balance. >> they are pushing for title x. the president says let's

regulate the internet under title ii, which is the pre-existing regulatory -- >> i feel like a dummy. i do not know any of these terms. [laughter] >> the democrats love regulation, and the republicans hate relation. the republicans say if you are going to regulate the internet you're going to do it under title x, not title ii. >> so this plays out over the next year. who has the advantage? >> and whose side is the technology community on? >> most of the technology community is on the side of the president, but i think the community is also wary of too much regulation. so i would say that the technology community for the most part is in favor of net neutrality, but they want it done in a way that does not allow the fcc and regulators to screw up the internet. >> let's move onto one of the

big stories in 2014. bitcoin. how does that spool out in 2015? our cryptocurrencies going to be a stable currency? >> there was a report that bitcoin was one of the worst currencies of the year, down 80%. i am long on bitcoin. i think it is sort of a 10 year story, not a new one or two years story. i am very bullish on it in the long haul. i think there are a lot of growing pains. technology has not been as -- adopted as quickly as some thought it would be. but i think it is a good time to be investing in bitcoin. >> always the biggest technology story in the past year was the story of the rise of uber. it really became pervasive around the world. also the subject of a lot of controversy in terms of local

regulation, the people but also the company has created a lot of columns for itself in terms of public image. a lot of public relations difficulties. what do you see in the future for uber? will they be the google of transportation or trip over his own shoelaces? >> i think it will be the google of urban transportation. i think i have solidified that market position. doesn't mean there will not be a bing or yahoo!. there will be multiple players in this category, but in terms of becoming the breakout leader they have achieved that. it will be hard for anybody to topple their market position. >> was the big threat to their business? government? competitors? >> i think lyft and sidecar and halo are fighting or second and third place in the market. the biggest problem that uber has is the incumbents, the taxis

and those aligned with the old system are now using regulation and government and lobbying to try and kick uber out. it seems like this happens every week. and the reality is they have their own snafus, like people doing bad things. drivers doing bad things. this is all part of what happens when innovation goes mainstream and new systems get adopted by millions of people. sometimes that stuff happens. >> only a few seconds left. i know you have been politically active, a donor to a lot of candidates. when you look at the 2016 presidential race and you think about the investment community who do you think among the democratic and republican candidates, who is going to get all the heat for that sector? >> i think the establishment

candidates like jeb bush and hillary clinton will get a lot of the money. but i summary like rand paul who has a very libertarian, pro-innovation, anti-regulation approach, is interesting to a lot of people, including me. i do not know that he will necessarily rise to the occasion, necessarily. but i think the -- a lot of people like we has to say. >> is there anyone who scares the tech community, ted cruz? >> yeah. [laughter] >> fred wilson, thank you. when we come back, we will reveal the winner of the best bit of the year award. ♪

>> a lot of news organizations are focusing on the best world leaders of the year. what about the ones who really matter -- the bad ones? it has been a huge year for thuggish strongmen. kim jong-un the shot a la star but one has outshone them all. which is why vladimir putin is our despot of the year. >> president, peacemaker, animal lover. vladimir putin has won many contest, and now he has won 2014. a strong man with a vision for the future. he began with a difficult challenge. ukraine was threatening to cut ties. but he stepped in to save a historic friendship, sending aid workers into crimea and picking up a prime piece of real estate for mother russia. now the russian people can enjoy this paradise whenever they please. fresh off that victory president clinton made more use

of military equipment, which created lots of jobs by shooting down a civilian airline. it solidified his role as the strongest leader of the most important country in the world. >> russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. >> the best dam gas station on the planet. remember when oil prices started falling? that is not a problem for a country with a diversified economy. they have oil and gas. sure, the ruble is falling, but that is a classic putin long c on. yes, there were some bumps in the road, like when early capitalist automakers said they would stop manufacturing in russia. russia can always start production of soviet era automobiles, like the cl112 sports car. and he had a victory left where he offered up potent political analyses. >> the bear is not needed.

then you can stuff the bear. >> wise words indeed. congratulations to vladimir putin, our despot of the year. he will always have the memory of the sochi winter olympics. >> you have to love matt negro -- negron. we will be right back. ♪

>> a lot of attention devoted to the missing airplane today, but nowhere more delightfully then fox news, where a host suggested that the plane was brought down by the metric system. >> let's talk about the differences. when we think about temperature, it is fahrenheit or celsius kilometers or miles. everything about their trading

could be similar but different. >> we are live 24/7 on bloomberg politics.com. up n

>> i am pimm fox. welcome to a special edition of "taking stock." we will go inside the business world of music, sports, fashion and media. boys ii men discuss the biggest issue in the music business, how to pay artists fairly in the internet age. jeronne maymon explains his fight to stop the trauma from concussions on the field. entertainment media king jerry springer defense and fans from those who call them lowbrow.