threats were made against his fellow police colleagues. i want to show you the front page of the st. louis post dispatch, which is tracking the developments in ferguson in its backyard. a story about the ferguson commission is being put together by local leaders. it will meet publicly and frequently to resolve ills exposed by the michael brown case. it is being called an opportunity, that is the headline from the st. louis post-dispatch. numbers out on holiday sales from black friday. retailers across the country. here is the front page of the today, weion of usa will talk about that our next segment of the "washington ."urnal we are joined by david french of the national retail federation

to go through numbers. later on the, "washington .ournal" carmel martin is here first, the center for strategic and international studies last week held an event looking at the world energy outlook. here's a bit from that event. [video clip] that today.o see , i giveature told us you a budget. putting co2 in the atmosphere. which is a certain amount. this, yout more than jump on the threshold and get ready to be in a different world. then we look at where we are as

of today. human beings have already consumed. we've consumed half of the us.et given to we are at the top of it us. we, putting a lot of carbon in the atmosphere.- in the if we continue with our current policies, which takes into the new policies in place. , we are completely exhausting the budget given to us. emissions in 2040, 80% of

admissions in 2014 has been determined today -- investments we are making today. we are looking at the future. if we do not have a major change in the energy investment trends, we may well say goodbye to the we've had for several centuries. host: to watch the event, go to c-span.org. we turn to david french, senior vice president for governor relations at the national retail federation. he joins us to talk about american shopping habits. while this through the numbers .rom the black friday weekend total number of shoppers and the average amount spent by shoppers are both down this year. numbers are down a

little bit from last year. reflects aat strengthening economy. that they can find their deals through the holiday season. cyber monday deals are going to .e pretty good today about 50% of american consumers went shopping this weekend. we were protecting reflects a strengthening economy. 150 -- we 150 millioning americans and we had about 103 million. host: the total number shopping .own by 5.2% from 2013 explain why you think this represents a strengthening economy. guest: consumers know the best .eals are over this weekend

they've been focused on shopping. it is the retail super bowl. that is why they are so focused on promotional activity. as the economy has gotten .etter, there is more money folks are confident they do not have to rush out this week and yet -- this weekend. earlier permissions earlierso saw here at we saw a spreading out of these spending. host: any concern about seasonal employment? guest: anecdotally, employment is picking up and folks are hera spreading out of -- retailers are going to employ about 800,000 seasonal employees. ist we are hearing is demand

outstripping supply in certain markets. host: let's talk about cyber monday, what are your expectations? guest: we are expecting strong, down a little bit from last year. the best deals are today. we are very optimistic folks are going to turn out. host: david french is the government relations senior vice president at the national retail federation. and to take your comments questions. we are going through the sales numbers from black friday weekend. if you want to call in, join the conversation. .emocrats can call 202-585-3880 republicans can call 202-585-3881. independents, 202-585-3882. outside the u.s., 202-585-3883. you noted a big part of the sales drivers is the use of

.mart phones by shoppers on whether online shopping is up to the task or safety use? guest: retailers take the of paramountrity concern. retailers work hard to ensure that their information is protected. we expect about 25 million people will shop using smartphones this cyber monday. that is about 19.3% of shoppers. many retailers are optimizing and have optimized websites to make smartphones easier to use. host: going back to the question of data security, what are retailers doing to help shoppers be confident that we are not more stories of credit card data facts and

identity thefts. guest: good question. in stores you will see more smart pen pads capable of handling chip cards. roughly 20% of u.s. terminals today are capable of handling a smartcard. that is a larger penetration than the number of cards .vailable many retailers are able to handle the next generation of cards with agent. host: when are those going to be in mass use. how many people have the old card? guest: most americans still have the old cards. the card industry has pledged .ew or cards this year we expect to see more and more as expiration dates cycle through. it is important to point out that the card technology is

older than i am. it dates from the 1960's or 1970's. it is fraud prone. criminals now that the card data is easy to counterfeit and they can go and spend it. the important thing is making the cards less fraud prone. the industry has chosen a path that a culture enjoys -- they call chip and choice. on the cards themselves, you work for the national retail federation. can you give a sense of how badly the retail federation has been hurt? are their numbers? four anecdotally.

host: that is a great question. retailers value their customers themake the question of and partly to retailers. we had been urging the card industry to make them more secure. it has taken a long time for the .ndustry to move forward host: as we go through black friday, cyber monday and other shopping issues here the phone republicans,n, 202-585-3881. mark from michigan.

caller: i am part of the generation that grew up being told to never give up personal .nformation they created a day to do that. .merica, wake up they are stealing your money, goodbye. you: david french, how do respond? guest: customers want to shop in different ways. retailers are willing to find ways to meet the customer wherever the customer wants to be. i mentioned how often people are phones. use smartways 20% of consumers are going to use smartphones. the computer people, 84% of americans are going to use their home computer in order to shop online. the question of whether or not

is a questionrs most americans got comfortable with more than a decade ago. host: kathryn in staten island on our line for phones. 20% of consumers are going to use independents. you're on with david french. caller: i would like to know onre you get information unemployment. my granddaughter found a job. , theyired a 10 people give them 25 hours every two weeks. how are people going to shop? it is so expensive, the bills and everything else. can you explain that? do you want to start with seasonal employment numbers?

if you can go through how that is calculated and also talk about how you calculate the lack friday numbers. don't a survey of hiring plans. expecting about 100,000 holiday positions this year. no question the economy has grown more slowly than everybody would like, including retailers. the employment numbers have picked up throughout 2014. we expect that as the economy strengthens more people will be .ble to find jobs host: from the wall street journal, black friday spending .ell 11% that story having a chart with it on the average amount each shopper spent this holiday

weekend. thearing this weekend and title versus online sales compared to 2014, 2012, and 2011. talking about those numbers and your questions about retail sales. nancy is up next, new hampshire, on our line for independents. caller: hi, how are you. guest: good, how are you. iller: one of the things wanted to touch on, nobody has mentioned any about how the weather affected sales. hampshire we got hammered with our fourth largest power outage ever. were without power for a good chunk of the weekend. there werehink that some other states that were impacted by some brutal weather. guest: absolutely.

up and down the northeast, there was a serious snowstorm on wednesday and thursday on the east coast. shoppers were impacted. host: did you have a follow-up question? caller: that was it. everybody is talking about sales being down but nobody has mentioned the weather. diana in new go to jersey. you are on with david french as we show viewers more headlines lacks friday sales fall and doors open earlier and cyber monday gears up to give online shoppers -- height -- to tell thise gentleman who represents the retail industry that some of us consumers are getting offended that you are so commercializing our holidays. you are disrespecting our consumers by making me wake up and interact my thanksgiving

dinner. there is no mention of a religious holiday. ands all about profits people and family. if you respect me, you would not make me go out and ruin my holiday. the retail industry is horrendous as they treat their workers. no benefits. you go in the store and there are not enough people to help you. or it is the opposite here you go into the store and there is no one there. you're looking for help. i just think the retail industry should respect the consumer better and then we would feel like spending our dollars. thank you.

guest: there are a lot of different people with a lot of different approaches in the holidays. that is often why shoppers like to thank -- like to shop on thanksgiving. retailers are there to please and serve customers. the question of retail employment. this is really an interesting subject. there are a lot of myths about retail employment. retailers hire a lot of employees. when the federal government takes those numbers and cranks out income reports based on those numbers, they calculate retail employment based on the entirety of retail employment

rather than focusing on full-time salary employees. we ask a university of georgia economist to take a look at the numbers. the reality is retail employment , the benefits and salaries are on par if not better than other industry groups. we represent retailers both large and small in every different segment. approximately 95% of our members who are single store operators. america'spresent largest members. today is cyber monday.

the editorial board of the washington times wrote about the issue of cyber security, which we talk about with david wrench a little bit. of cyberarrival monday, hopes retailers rise on the function of networks crucial for commerce. the potential to deal incomparable harm to the nation. the more urgent the need to insulate the information systems from destruction. every day must be cyber security day. take french is here to your questions and comments on the issue. we are talking about it in relation to internet sales today. good morning. caller: good morning. my call is based on what the

lady from new york stated about seasonal employment. i think it is candy coated. they are making 7:25. they may not get $25 a week. it is hard for people to survive on 720 -- $7.25. i just wanted to comment it is not all it seems. there is a lot of utilities that plusery high in price, your rent and food. that is my comment and i hope i was not being rude to you. employment is for many a solution to the problem. but it is also a way to transition to full-time

employment. it is not necessarily a dead end, one-time job. for many of people, it is an opportunity to kill gaps in their unemployment history, it may be an opportunity to take your job when you are in college or taking a break from school, or maybe you're caring for an elderly relative. there are a lot of reasons why seasonal employment works for people. the reality is retail is a seasonal business here in order to meet customer needs and be there to serve the customers, it is important that we surge the employment. compare holiday

shopping to other countries holiday shopping? guest: other countries are starting to do black friday. countries that don't have thanksgiving? guest: yes. the uk'sticle that starting to see a surge in black friday. it is just another friday, but all of a sudden, it has become a signature shopping holiday in the u.k. host: we are talking to david french and his thoughts and comments about some of the issues facing the retail industry. an issue that congress may be dealing with in the coming days and weeks is marketplace fairness act, something up for a vote in congress. it is a piece of legislation that would allow states to collect sales taxes due on purchases made by consumers within those states on remote sellers in other states.

the process would require states to simplify their sales tax election was. it would remove a constitutional issue related to commerce clause. this all goes back to a 1992 decision where the supreme court -- outsidetates it wasorders, they said up to congress to solve the problem. some key members of the house and senate are against the marketplace fairness act. ted cruz has come out against it. how does the national retail federation feel on this act? is misconceptions

about what the act does and what it means. people react very viscerally to the issue. in reality, the mainstream is mrs., they do not understand why they're all mine competitors are getting up to 10% price break in competing with them outside their borders. because they do not have to collect the sales staff. mainstream businesses, the mom and pops across the country, are selecting sales taxes from day one. they would very much like to see their online competitors have to deal with the same kind of loss. host: specifically about this marketplace fairness act, he marked -- for the direct cost for simmers, it will cost

business owners both time and money. online retailers will have two codesd with the sales tax of 45 states and 9600 local stations. think about the virginia back to tax school holiday. how can small online retailers possibly keep up with the reflection of a should of 10,000 jurisdictions. they just have to do it in their own states. many states -- sales many states have tax laws that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. there is certainly no reason why an online seller should be

preferred or protected when a mainstream retailer is exposed to those burdens. consumers in montana do not have to pay sales tax. aeve is really protecting small percentage of online sellers and exposing mainstream businesses around the country. we mentioned ted cruz and this piece. he called it a burden directed at the little guy. this legislation to be on the floor of the senate house. guest: 69 senators voted for it and we have very strong bipartisan part. in fact, we have continued to have bipartisan support in the senate.

with very little time left, it is difficult to predict if it will come up. if it does not pass in the next couple of weeks, it would have to go back to the senate again in the next congress. david french is here to take your questions and comments for the next 15 minutes or so. north carolina on our line for democrats. good morning. are you with us? go ahead. yes i am. i would like to know if he knows the history behind black friday. after slavery, people in my grade, they prosper.

those in that area got upset and they decided to do something about it. a whole black community was light out. they was murdered. as a massacre. that is where the name black friday comes from. , the, here we are merchants are prospering, but nobody ever asked where did that word come from. guest: that is different from the history i heard. i understand black friday to trace back to philadelphia, think in the 1960's. , the police officers of that era would often refer to a throng of shoppers coming down on the friday after think giving as black friday, meaning it was a bad day to work. that name ended up sticking. let's go to market in

california, on the line for independents. questions. are you a 501(c) four group? the second one is for people to in these stores like kmart and sears and what have you, i heard that you have to work like a wednesday, and they cutday, ,our hours like the week before so they kind of make it so you don't get the 40 hours or the .vertime i know it is happening.

also, it is happening as far as bus drivers like greyhound and stuff like that. on the organization itself and how it is classified? guest: 85016, a trade association. comment on what may go on in any specific retailer, but overall, especially during a holiday weekend like thanksgiving weekend, many to make sure above they are fully staffed area there are certainly some regulatory issues like implementation of the affordable care act, which has led some retailers,not just to look at their work force and examine whether or not 30 or 40

hours a week makes sense because of the thresholds in the law. but i cannot comment on what is going on individual read ehlers. -- retailers. has there been any recommendations? we are lobbying for a 40 hour work week as opposed to a .0 hour work week to responsibly handle unemployment like full-time unemployment. david french is with us for about the next 10 minutes or so, taking your questions and comments. pam is up next or washington, maryland, on our line for democrats. i was wondering if they're considering how the ferguson event is a acting things.

are askingacks blacks and supporters to not shop on the holiday because of the surrounding and killing of black youth. they will see this as a perfect time to show this thing for how they are being treated nationwide. have they considered any of this? certainly the discordant ferguson is very troubling and we are and send about what is going on there. i think it is a tangential reaction to look at shopping and say that should somehow be an appropriate response to what is going on in ferguson. a lot of shopkeepers and mom and pops depend on the holiday season in order to survive. folks continue to

shop and continue to support their local businesses. businesswas small saturday. people supported their lookers -- local small businesses and we hope that continues and we similarly hope we can address, as a nation, the concerns in ferguson in a constructive way with open dialogue. south carolina on our line for republicans. caller: good morning. great to see you on c-span. i want to get back to what you're talking about. production, cyber security -- protection, cyber security. goingd stuff about ships in some form in animals. do you know anything more about that? thank you. guest: the card industry is putting small microchips in credit cards.

they are very low-power chips that can be read by inserting the card into a chip reader. than thee different slight few are currently used to doing. it has to be inserted in the card and held there for a small modest time while the chip is red. we are encouraging them to move into the next step. they want without a plan called chip enjoys, which would give the ability to sign a signature. we encourage the card industry to abandon ship and chance and adopt a fully protected standard that would include a personal identification numbers like you would use with your atm card so when you use the chip card, you also have a second level of verification that only you know. relationshipthe

between the card industry in the retail industry? guest: they are partners of ours and we work with them. we have our differences from time to time. but we certainly value the partnership. be one of theis differences in terms of how fast we are moving to that knowledge he? technology?at guest: this is one of the differences. not much input from the retailers. we would like to see more of an even partnership, because we think we can be constructive in setting up practices that will work for us as well as the card companies area -- companies. host: sean is next. caller: i think the shopping will be not as busy this year if you want to go into the stores. most people are actually ordering online this year.

my coworkers went in for black those atd they got ridiculous prices. i believe it will be a heavy season for people who work in the shipping industry. thank you. i want to wish you guys a happy -- holiday. guest: shop early is one solution. last year, we saw the shipping industry reach capacity. there were several retailers that had trouble getting their last-minute sales in the hands of consumers, because of that. retailers have adopted different strategies this year. some retailers, like macy's, are doing same-store delivery. many items, you can pick up in your local macy's on the same day.

sorts of other fulfillment options, designed to make it off some of the burden on the shipping industry. host: on twitter -- we use an outside firm to conduct surveys. publicly traded companies disclose sales after the fact and there are other sources of information as well. richard as of next on our democrat line. good morning. are you with us? put richard on hold and come back to him. in the meantime, debbie is waiting in ohio on our line or republicans. good morning. good morning. a lady called in about ferguson and their dollars not being

been. i think justice was done. that little guy should not have been doing what he was doing to the police officer. common sense tells you you have to have respect for authority. working on thanksgiving, i agree with the one caller. emily comes first. you are trying to accommodate customers in the family. that is old. -- bull. no one wants to interrupt their dinner to run after customers and be insulted. i think we need to get back to the bible. ferguson brought the u.n. -- we will hold off on the ferguson debate. some of the concerns about honoring traditional holidays, how do you balance those? what are you saying to retailers to make sure they take some of those concerns to heart, but

also fulfilling the wishes of the customers who do want to shop? customers drive retailers and it is not the other way around very if we did not have shopping onmericans thanksgiving, retailers would not be open. host: tony, independent, you are on the line. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i am calling in reference to the comment made about walmart and employment. the color walmart employee working for a holiday season. quite a few seasonal employees. those people will not be employed after this. i am part-time employed with full-time hours.

as far as seasonal workers, it may help out in the short term, but after a few months, they will not have those jobs. that is my comment. thank you. certainly, the need for seasonal employees goes away butr the holidays here at many retailers do look at seasonal employment as the place where they hire their full-time employees and certainly not just walmart but many retailers across the country will make decisions filling full-time positions with them. on ours footer page -- you -- on our twitter page -- bringing up the issue of cost of living and efforts to raise the minimum wage, where does the national retail federation stand on some of those efforts?

that is a good question. many retailers have different strategies for compensation within their workforce. i mentioned earlier we represent approximately 95% of our members are single store operators and a minimum wage increase is felt to retailer. in a larger another important statistic even 22% of retail employs all teenage workers in the country. a better way to think about the minimum wage is that it is really a starting wage. when you increase the minimum what the and above value of the job might be, you make the risk of more teenage workers being employed. first time workers will have a harder time finding a job. tot: five states voted increase the minimum wage in

midterms. do you have objections on what that would mean for retailers? it reflects individual preferences in those states and individual retailers will -- it may have some consequences in terms of slower job growth, but it is too early to tell. french is a feat -- senior representative. you can go online to see reports on black friday sales numbers from over the weekend. we appreciate your time this morning. up next, carmel martin will join the political and legislative agenda for congress we are joined by kevin from the hill to talk about the latest from the white house to extend a series of individual and corporate tax rates. -- tax breaks. ♪

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> tonight on the communicators, the cofounder of paypal. click the single overarching the book is>> and that people should rethink competition. most is this books tell you how to compete more effectively. mine tells you that perhaps you should not compete at all and as a founder or entrepreneur, you should aim for something like a monopoly, a company that is such a breakthrough that you have no competition at all.

>> tonight at 9:00 eastern. and compton, who recently retired as abc news white house correspondent, on her over 40 years covering the white house and the administration's of gerald work through barack obama. >> listening to a group of second graders go through and any interrupted the president and whispered to him. i was stunned. president,rrupts a in front of second graders. the president stood and said he had to go, and he went and then we heard, we discovered, that it was two plane crashes in new york. we are now out of the parking lot outside a school and they said, stay right here and the president will talk. i said no, there are live cameras in the cafeteria and he will have to speak there. he did not want to scare the

children. but he did, he said it wasn't apparent terrorist attack. the door slammed, and then the pentagon was hit. >> sunday night at 8:00 pacific on c-span's q&a. joins us nowmartin to discuss the progressive agenda in the 2014 congress. looking at the house and senate controlled by republicans i -- for at least the next few years, what expectations should progressives have about what can get done and should be moved in the 114 congress? cant: i am skeptical they get a lot done based on recent history, but i hope they will dress the needs of the american people. i think americans want to the government auctioning and moving to legislation that is helpful to them, the top