carol: welcome to bloomberg businessweek. stars of the annual design conference. how states are paying the price for allowing discrimination, and why central bankers may be running out of ammo. let's go meet the editor. i am here with the editor, alan .ollack you highlight super thinkers, thinking on the -- working on the next big thing. that includes the folks at

industrial light and magic. they are looking to build virtual reality for "star wars." they have people all over the company. they have put them under an leaderve and she is the to bring in the expertise and create entertainment you are familiar with, but in a different way, using new technology. carol: when you see the millennium falcon, it looks like it, it is as real as it can be. like you are feels in it. they are doing extensions of " star wars." some of this is experimenting with this at so far. they showed us some clips and

you could imagine what it would feel like to be looking around as they center of the action and see some of these characters you have seen. carol: you highlight the underground event planners. they create these crazy parties and in unusual and illegal places? ellen: they are famous for having thrown a speakeasy thing on an abandoned building. they believe risk, taking risks opens your mind to new experiences. they took some of the speakers it was inrange boat san francisco and they took them boat.s strange

all of the signs were in icelandic or norwegian. was bizarre. carol: inside, it was a victorian bar and they were serving very stiff drinks. helen is creating unusual spectacles in major cities. she designs experiences. she had her audience in tears. she talked about a project she in where she brought, northern ireland, she brought protestantsd together and they built a tower and people were able to go in .nd write messages eventually, they set a bonfire and they've earned it down.

an emotional story. it is emotional what she does. i spoke to the reporter on this story. brad: she brings together artists to transform cities. she does this through lighting projections, sculpture, a parade. she is a uniter of creative public who disrupts the and the public thanks her for it when she is done because she delights them with what she has done. when she proposes to stop a major intersection in london with a parade, no one says sure. really good at taking no -- she has become really good at not taking no for an answer.

at the conference, she had everyone crying over a project. she brought david best out to londonderry, i place that has been in conflict for decades between republicans and loyalists. up on at the sculpture hill. everyone came out and they expressed wishes for peace and itn they burned it down and began this catharsis for this community. all tearing up. carol: it sounds moving. what she did in london, bringing traffic to a stop, it was called the sultan elephant. what was that? ton: it was her 30

, egg came elephant through the central districts of london, past buckingham palace. it was one of those moments when a whale goes up the river and everyone stops to say -- did you see that? everybody had to stop and get a look at it. there are a million people taking time out of their day. it see this magical moment had come out of time to take over london. what she does is she makes people -- by recruiting them to help her do these things. here is her trick. them a task. she says we need somebody to in.g the roofless bus

--,ially, the person says but when he understood he had the expertise to take part in , in the end, he was the biggest proponent. the of what she doing is lighting the public. she is converting people to become part of the arts. in some ways, that is more powerful. creating images is a big task. i sat down with robert vargas. you want the pacing, a variety of photography, scenes, different visual experiences. a challenge for the design issue

is it is more or less 25 profiles. you need to think about each story, what is the way into meeting a person that will point out what is most interesting about what they do and give the reader a visual experience that is varied and surprising. is beautiful. want to see.you you want to meet him. in a different case, we have a piece on this group that does experimental design. so much of what she does is experiences.g site

you want to place her in an environment that matters. dynamism and a scale shift in the issue. that is the way we thought about putting these things together. how difficult is it deciding among the pictures? >> it's very difficult. next up, north carolina learns the hard way, gay rights are not a choice. we will talk about the businesses providing anti-lgbt legislation, plus more highlights on the design issue. a designer says people are more important than plants in his parks. to soundhow you how

smart at a technology conference. that is up ahead. ♪

carol: welcome back. bloomberg businessweek looks at the corporate backlash of the north carolina lgbt law. in light of this, north carolina j governor is asking lawmakers to tweak but not remove the anti-gay law. actsu have heard musical say they are not going to play there. rolled they have not

back yet. it is never clear whether governments are going to respond to this once it is a law. we are seeing incredible momentum around the country. last year, there were about 100 laws introduced. this year, there are about 234 states. this allsee legislature long. until the end of the year, this is going to come out again and again. well-known companies are saying we do not agree with these laws and we will back out our operations. talk about that. if you have one or two, but then you have 34 states threatening to do it, you cannot do business -- you cannot not do business in 34 states.

it is unlikely they can stop doing business in every state that has this viewpoint. 28 states in the country at already don't have basic rights. commerce inof the the country. country of how far are they willing to stop it from increasing. congress or the supreme court has to decide whether or not this is a universal right that to lgbt people. if it is, every state will have to comply. that,y cannot determine individual states will get to determine what happens in their state. that is where we are now. most of these laws are not successful. governors have vetoed them in south dakota and georgia and there is a lot of pressure on governors in other states.

state laws versus city laws. do municipalities have any say over what happens in their cities? >> that was the argument in north carolina. after charlotte passed the law that gave more rights to transgendered people, north carolina put together a law that says cities cannot do that. you have the religious freedom laws, laws that are specifically dealing with whether or not oneone can use the bathroom their birth certificate and then ,ou have these laws that whatever the case, it will be decided by the state and not the city. while some states are pushing back, creating these policies and laws, other states see opportunity. governor tweeting

out if you want to come here, we will take you there. they are a state that has extended put connections -- extended protections across the board. carroll: does it end up in supreme court? >> unless you have an election that results in a democratic president and congress, it will probably be the supreme court. there are so many issues at the state level to get them brought forward and all decided. it will probably require a few more years of cases. carol: next up, why bankers may be coming -- may be running out of ways to boost the economy and wine and may not be bad. and, how to get your money out of china without breaking any of beijing's roles. that is ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪

carol: welcome back. we look at the limited power central bankers have won it comes to stimulating growth. >> they have worked hard with what little powers they have and have saved the world economy, but what they can do is provide a lot of money out there. people have to use the money and they are not. that centraly bankers are not superheroes. you there is a great cartoon. beanticipate they can superheroes, but they cannot. i think about mario draghi. he says we're going to do whatever it takes, so they set a precedent. >> there was no one in charge.

booste has to give the and say we're going to say things. having laid that out there, what does whatever it takes mean? europeans have to learn to boost their own economy. peoplehave to borrow, have to invest, to build new things. they are not doing that. carol: what about the bank of japan? they have done a lot. it is not just global central bank issues. the political system has a lot to do with why the economy is not working.

carol: what is whatever it takes mean for the federal reserve? they have done quantitative easing and kept rates low. has done a good job. she just moves ahead and it is a lot of making people call him, but also putting them -- making them ready for something that is going to happen. carol: you can pump a lot of , but if companies and consumers do not put it to work, then what? >> people are having trouble .orrowing money people are not spending money. they are afraid to. carol: what else needs to be done? >> it is not what they can do,

it is with the rest of us can do. companies need to invest. a cartoon created as a friendly reminder to file your taxes. >> it was world war ii when --ryone started to having when everyone started having to pay taxes. they did not know if middle-class americans would know how to file taxes. they blanketed the country with posters warning people you need to pay your taxes. they also created something called the w-2. that was a tool to withhold the money from your paycheck during the year. you had to file to get it back. tell us how you decided to tell the story the way you did.

a fun way to explore the history because taxes are unpleasant. up, can stock trading be free? we have tested out an app that has helped people save money in trading commissions. plus, why you may soon see more females in the cockpit. ♪

carol: welcome back.

still ahead, getting your money out of china. why baseball fans may hear campaign slogans, and how to sound smart at a conference. it is all ahead. i am here with the editor. there are so many more must reads. let's start with markets and finance. thehave a story about chinese mainlanders getting money out of china. people want to get their cash out, just for safekeeping. of -- if youis and china, it is of

difficult to do. one way they are getting their money out is they are buying insurance money out. they do it with credit cards. you buy the insurance with a but it takes many swipes. you have to do it in individual transactions. we had one woman have to swipe 800 times. it shows some of the worries they have trying to get their money out. a story about air traffic in ata, the demand is growing crazy levels. femaleans they may need pilots. as people move into the

middle class, they travel more. there is a lot of demand for pilots and planes. they are running out of male pilots. they may have to turn to women. there are not even that many women pilots. the people sitting in the cockpit are mostly white men. they are beginning to try to recruit women. you have to have a lot of time and they are to become the pilot of a big airliner for a major airline. before womenhile reach the cockpit, but they are recruiting women. you talk about robin hood, a trading app. they are dedicated to providing a free way for people to buy stocks and sell stocks.

carol: no commissions. app that is aile commission-free trading platform. it offers zero commission on stock trades. it is simple. right for industry disruption and these guys are going after it. carol: how do they make money? they charge small amounts of interest, they invested and get a little bit of interest, just like every other broker. they loaned money to their customers. it is like having a credit card for the stock market. there are companies that

do this already. how are they doing it differently? the online brokerage industry was one of the first innovations of the internet. that stop innovating. $10 or $12 aat trade. is -- the fees you are paying today is lower than the 90's. they are saying zero trade commissions and they are after the millennials. they are trying to get people to invest their cash into the stock market. these guys come from a background where they were working with the big institutional guys.

>> they are physics graduates, supersmart, running their own business. they were building trading platforms for hedge funds and investors. impacted by the occupy wall street movement and they felt he needed to do something to address the concerns people in their generation had over --re and ability to finance to have the finance industry work for them. are looking at this model, it is different, to get an idea of whether or not it works. , he ran his trade works for a long time.

he said this is a fantastic idea. it has been tried a couple of times before. he likes what they are after. e-trade has not push their price down at all. are after. who they he wants to push his algorithm on to whatever platform he uses. they don't support that yet. of someonethe realm who has a day job and wants to put their money into use in the market. carol: time will tell how successful robin hood will be. they have gone mobile with this. >> it keeps them clean and simple.

you wake up, you get on your phone, and it feels like your money is in your hand is how he wanted to present it to customers. carol: photographs say a lot about the people the magazine is profiling. tell us what is involved in doing something. you have this one, build a chair in three minutes. the visuals are compelling. , they are trying to take a regular chair and make fits in a shipping box and arrives and there are no tools. it is supposed to come together in three minutes. myself, tracy, and a few other members of our team got a studio in brooklyn and assembled the chair. carol: how many takes did it take? >> only four.

carol: pick another one. i like this one, the architect of highline. what i thought was interesting he was talking about was how he built his park around exhibitionism. our idea was to hire paparazzi nd shoot his part in l.a. we hired a paparazzi and he walked around the park over the weekend. carol: when you have to do an difficult isow that? what is involved? >> it takes a minute for the fontographer -- for the photographer to make a connection.

his stature seldom has time to spend with you. this was a studio visit. next up, the gadget review startups spawning copycats from hot media companies. if you're worried about when to apply the term a lineal, we will show you how to sell my be smartest guy or gal at the conference. that is all ahead. ♪

carol: welcome back.

in this week's technology section, the magazine profiles wire cutter. smith. jerry >> they have an interesting business model where they have the reviews and a button where you can buy the product they are reviewing on a third-party site and they get a cut of the sales. that is how they make money. they have some advertising, but most of their revenue is generated by their photos. about 150 million dollars in e-commerce sales. they get a cut of that between 4% and 14% of the sales. they have 60 people. they do not publish that many articles, but that is not with their articles are about.

it is about recommending things you like and by carol: and they get a cut of the sales. --it is about recommending things you like and they get a cut of the sales. >> it is about getting as much traffic as you can. they don't get that much traffic. publish that many articles. if you buy the product, they get paid. if you don't like the product of they do not get paid. some people might say they have interest, but vestedesponses we have a interest in recommending the best products we can. if you recommend garbage,

you might do that once as a consumer but you will not go back and they will lose credibility. consumer reports does in-depth testing. technology, it is but they did a review of windshield wipers, they have locks.views of bike they have tested waterproof iphone cases. toy go to extreme lengths enlist the experts. they do interviews with engineers and chemist and all sorts of experts, to get the smartest people to review these products for them. , buzz feed,r media they are getting into this. hearst is getting into this.

the web is maturing. sustaining on advertising alone is getting harder and harder. you are starting to see these waitbig publishers saying a minute, maybe this is a business we should try out. buzz feed has just started testing this out. says they make more than $150 million in generating e-commerce activity. is a smallerer site and they are doing about as much as what gawker is making in e-commerce. it is a small site with an interesting business model and people are trying it out now. fox sports has a plan to get a piece of campaign advertising dollars. the use ofsaw was

big data to help decide where they can buy ads. campaign was buying ads in off-peak hours, targeting people in that way. , most of them are using this data analytics to decide things. fox news iswith there data, they are not part of the traditional data set. they are having to fight to get consideration. what does research show about folks who watch sports teams in terms of them running a political ad campaign? local sports viewers are similar to local newscast's, except they are more likely to be undecided voters, more likely

to remember that ads, more likely to be persuaded by that. the study would say they are better than local news on viewers. they are making the case that if theare wanting to reach citizens who have not made up their mind, local sports is the way to go. does this mean in terms of dollars? $4.4 billion estimated for political ad spend this cycle. a big share of that is going into local cable. it is a lot of money. fox sports is competing against hg tv and all of those. even if they can get a small share, they will be better than they were a few years ago. if you look of the ad spending

already, we have seen contest in places like florida and the share going into local cable versus the broadcast stations has increased compared to 2012. the analyst i talked to expect that to continue throughout the cycle. we will show you how to impress your peers at your next conference. that is ahead. ♪

>> welcome back. schooled himself on how to sound like the smartest

guy at a conference. is deployed to make people sound smarter than they are, to make jobs and tasks sound more important than they are. and, do a nice job of alienating people so you don't really know what we are doing. that is the point. carol: i feel like i need a translator when i go to a conference. you highlight words. which ones jump out at you? sam: we hear it a lot. particularly if you spend time around tech companies. they talk about making things immersive. it just means not bad. opposite of immersive. it just means good and people want to use it. instead of saying good, we call at emerson. we used to call it dynamic. internet of things, we

talk about this all the time, about the internet controlling everything. points for iranian hackers. carol: that is terrible. if we are talking about expanding the internet, we have to make sure it is secure. if you put it in places where you have not locked down the securities -- carol: millennials comes up a lot. : i am not a millennial. too much time is spent thinking about the millennials. everywhere.t them every company is all about the millennials. it means anyone under the age of 30. may be in means we do not

understand them, or making sense of them. i feel generational definitions are lousy. ishin each age group there diversity. you cannot give them one label. i want to pivot to something else. what does that mean? means plan a did not work we need a plan b. ashink we described it retreats, flee. balloto make something -- something bad sound good. -- sam: sometimes you have to be wrong to be right. carol: may be big data will

help. big data, which we used to call databases, you can't call it that. it sounds boring. it is like saying our technology is a carbon base. it is a different kind of data. is different data than the small data we used to work with. big data is just data. carol: block chain. sam: nobody actually knows what it means. we just use it. carol: it is true. i am guilty. i think i have used it once or twice. basedt uses block chain

-- you know, the preferred currency of internet criminals. in an elevator pitch. can you give me a line from that? sam: would you invest now? bloomberg businessweek is available on newsstands and online. we will see you back here next week. ♪

♪ >> coming up on "bloomberg best," the stories that should the business week around the world. the imf cools the forecast for global growth, and there may be a chill as earnings season gets underway. >> ugly, ugly. >> a big transport deal goes off the rail. big banks say they are cutting back, and facebook is making a big bets on buying. >> we have the ability to get news, interact with shops. ramy: from global trade to interactive capital to interstellar