john kennedy had managed only a razor-thin margin of victory.was taking over as leader of a country stalled in a recession and beset by problems. the new president promised to get the country moving, but he had no definite program. over the years john kenneth galbraith had provided john kennedy with economic answers. i went through several stages in my friendship with kennedy. in one, he would ask me what i thought he should do. this was when he was a senator. later, he would ask for the economic reasoning. then he acted on his own and didn't bother to call. many predicted that galbraith would join the administration. instead, he became the ambassador to india. walter heller was appointed chairman of the council of economic advisers. he found the president receptive. he was interested in economics. somebody who had known him for a long time, ken galbraith, came in to see me. he said, "you should understand "that kennedy has the capacity to read and understand. don't be afraid to write him." lyndon johnson wanted short memos. he said, "write leng

that sort of the business they are in for commodity-like goods at razor thin margin.t has wal-mart stock done nothing as well? >> when you go back to 2000 when wal-mart was trading 60 times earnings, it went sideways for probably a decade. there is probably not anyone watching that doesn't believe amazon will have much, much higher revenues ten years from today. they haven't demonstrated they can make any real margins. all of this stock has been a strategic bet that beso's play on growth was the play here. there is why it so hard to short this thing when it reached high levels. you can't dwesht i distinguish when people will make those bets, until it breaks down. carter illustrated it for us. that was name in the past i thought, hey, maybe this is it. maybe it will break down and people will see the light. they're not making any money. now we can see not only has that happened, but it has been happening for a while. there doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in the stock. >> i don't disagree. i would think the volatility would be more wal-mart-like. to me when i buy

claire mccaskill played a key role in getting chad taylor to drop out of this race, with the razor thin margin that we're looking at here with the senate any one of these races could potentially turn the map if greg orman is ending up as that person who decides the majority, not only would that put him in a unique position and give him a lot of power potentially, you could see as you say, a tipping of the national balance. >> to questions for you, and i'll try to ask them one at a time, i still feel like i'm trying to wrap my head around this, the first question is about that bombshell you dropped about claire mccaskill. i've been the only person in the pundit class who's been saying she's a likely democratic candidate for president and should be seen as a national figure. this is a national figure kind of move to go into kansas and say, we have to do something strategic here that you may not want to do, but i'm going to talk you into it. why claire mccaskill. >> she gets a lot of credit for being a political thinker. she wants to play that role in her party. it's yet to be seen what her plans

people -- they simply take a cut that someone using their website, unlike amazon, which has razor-thin marginslibaba is incredibly profitable. it has some of the best numbers of any company i follow. the growth here is absolutely astounding. i think it could be a runaway success. the only question is whether the hype has become so great that the bar could already be set high, but the legitimate chinese ipos have done pretty well. however, if alibaba sounds risky. well within the realm of possibilities, thin yahoo's stake would be worth $42 billion. of course, there's after-tax concerns. yahoo may not be the best company annual, once they start to monetize that position of which they are selling 21 million shares. i bet it's higher still our second radiosie sleeper, the rookie running back for the titans, a relative unknown, but following as injury to his teammate in the preseason, his draft stock skyrocketed. you. another chinese internet company 146% year to date. caught the market's attention. vip shop is a chinese online discount retailer. if you like the sound, you should know that it's gr

it is a razor thin margin with big implications for that country. >> it looks and sounds for all the world like a dead heat. nice try with sir tom there. i can't say that i blame him for not disclosing how he voted. >> i agree. >>> we are in washington where the fed has begun the two-day meeting on the state of the economy and what to do about interest rates and more. joining me to talk about the economy and more is senator bob casey of pennsylvania. senator casey, welcome. i want to work my way back to the state of the economy now six years after the financial crisis. i want to begin with a topic that has been of significant interest to you and that is americans who are buying internet, chinese ipos. you know we have a big one, alibaba coming out on friday this week. you wrote to the chair of the securities and exchange commission asking her to look into safe guards and transparency of chinese ipos. what did you hear back? are you satisfied that the alibaba ipo meets your standards of transparency? >> i think to the basic question of my standard i think the answer is no. we are eval

dozen or so seats that will determine the outcome of the senate majority, a lot of those are razor thin marginsffect it. that's what's occurring here in the short run. the statistic you cited about the potential voters who haven't registered, it's appalling and then there's also all the registered voters who don't vote. if more people would be participating our system would not be in the control of extremists as it is right now. that's -- there certainly wouldn't be any sort of a republican wave going on in this election and the whole politics of the country would be a lot better because everybody in the middle which is where most americans are would be having a voice. >> and -- >> not only the senate races but the governor races. i want to get to that quickly because we're running out of time. you know, we talked about the senate races but the governor race, angela, could have a huge impact too. democrats running for governor in five states, florida, maine, kansas, wisconsin and georgia say they expand medicaid if they won. that would cover 1.7 million more americans. i mean, this election jus

due to high operating costs and razor-thin margins, stein is hemorrhaging cash. >> everybody you order from, wants their money in ten days. we don't have the money to pay them. >> i can't turn this business around... this business is two weeks away from closing. this 75-year-old company will close for good. my name is marcus lemonis. i fix failing businesses. i make tough decisions. and, frank, you are no longer the general manager. and i back them up with my own cash. it's not always pretty. >> perfect flavor. >> but this is business. [bleep] is gonna change. i do it save jobs... check you out. and i do it to make money. this the profit. [upbeat music] ♪ [truck beeping] >> watch your back. >> a. stein meat products is a prime beef wholesale business in brooklyn, new york. for 75 years, they've been selling quality meats to new york's finest restaurants and butcher shops... >> that's beautiful. >> and shipping their product all over the country. >> we carry a lot of choice and prime meat. we only carry a high-end product. >> howard mora... >> i also need about 20 prime loins. >> and al

due to high operating costs and razor-thin margins, stein is hemorrhaging cash. >> everybody you ordereir money in ten days. we don't have the money to pay them. >> i can't turn this business around... this business is two weeks away from closing. this 75-year-old company will close for good. my name is marcus lemonis. i fix failing businesses. i make tough decisions. and, frank, you are no longer the general manager. and i back them up with my own cash. it's not always pretty. >> perfect flavor. >> but this is business.

it is going to affect these restaurants because they do operate on razor thin margins. >> and that is. >> do you like domino's pizza? pizza.ve domino's i love pizza in general. >> i have not had in at least 20 years, and i had it one day here on betty's show, and i thought it was delicious. >> it was like a cheese a stuffed crust or something like that. >> yeah. just saying. stembe quickly, tom rg said another thing, if we raise minimum wage, it will push younger workers out of the workforce. >> interesting. betty, thank you so much. really breaking down what your job report means, the valuation and how she feels about domino's pizza. from "in the loop," our own betty liu. >> we are waiting to hear from president obama. it could be any moment now. the president is due to deliver remarks at a news conference at the nato summit in south wales. he and other nato leaders have been there for a couple of days. it has been an important summit because petro poroshenko, president of ukraine, attendance, and he said they negotiated a peace agreement with president vladimir putin of russia. disp

and all of the polls are showing a razor thin margin, the election, this referendum on the 18th.nk people had earlier thought that there would be a no vote and then in recent weeks, we have seen some momentum for those who support independence and a lot of scrambling after government, by business, to talk about the effect that this would have, calculations about their access to oil. i think that it would throw things into turmoil, not just in the u.k. but more broadly in europe if scotland does leave. >> let's hear from tom in georgia. hey, tom. >> how are you doing this morning? host: host: well. caller: i would like to say that sooner or later, reverend wright is going to have to give his blessing or we will be in deep shiite. can they keep our air support? we turned on these people so much like the kurds, i just don't know i don't know if anybody can believe us any more especially with this president and would rather help the president decide. any thoughts? >> well. the way the president articulated it, he doesn't want this to become isis versus the united states. he doesn't w

. >> we see a blueprint and maybe less of an emphasis on food where the margins are razor thin and more of an emphasis on baby products and fashion. is this enough to pull the shoppers in? >> i think it is. you have to look at how they trade. we're talking about dashing for trash. it's all about expectations here. i think there's enough of expectations of good things coming here that targets not a bad play. >> is this a trash to treasure? >> i think it's a treasure. they have been buying back stock and had to put that on pause. that returns now that they decide what to do with their ceo or the rest. but stock was trading 57, 58, insiders were buying stock. it was a great run already at 62. up by 70 at the end of the year. >> it finally seems to have turned. maybe the fact that the home depot credit card issue came out. >> takes pressure off. >> took some of the pressure off. >> what is your trash? >> i think it's coach. coach got slammed for all the right reasons by the way the international growth up 6%. that's only 33% of what's really coming in right now for coach. they have to make

margins at amazon? we know they're razor thin and if they go and do and buy this now they have overhead and wow, wall streetate that. >> it would get stephanie, it would get amazon to its goal of $100 billion in revenue faster margins have never meant a thing to amazon. >> exactly. >> it makes them broader in whatever it is going they're going to be. >> most people voting in real time here about which retailer amazon should buy, say neither. 50% of the folks who voted say, i don't want them to buy either one of these companies. >> isn't radio shack, bob, they could get it for almost nothing. they would do it theoretically post-chast echapter 11, what would that cost them the dollars some. >> the equity is less than $100 million. more importantly the debt trading 30 cents on the dollar. you could cherrypick the best leases you wanted and think about do you want to be in the urban cities, more in the rural areas, where would it help augment their distribution footprint. that's the key part. not the retail showmanship but more of the increasing on the distribution so that they can match a walmart. >> one thing

razor thin 5%. he benefitted from an anti-recall vote that's not necessarily pro walker. >> obviously some of that margin of victory two years ago was reflective of people who just voted against the recall on principal. not necessarily for or against a candidate. >> reporter: the unions have sworn this election will be a vendetta for walker's union bussing act 10. that was largely cemented by the recall vote and isn't much of an issue this time around. burke, a relative newcomer from the trek bicycle family pounced on walker's shortcoming on his promise to create 2 50,000 jobs. walker counters that he created 100 thooirks. >> coming out of the biggest recession since the great depression, everybody created jobs, but the reality is wisconsin is lagging behind. >> reporter: the campaigns are both very careful not to offend the small undecided ranks, so the vice president greeted president obama over the weekend, the democrat dodged the photo-op. and in a state marked by bitter partisanship, the campaigns are surprisingly polite. >> the tactics that usually works wasn't working. >> reporter: the difference

republican congressman tom cotton now has a razor thin lead, just a two-point advantage over democratic senator and incumbent mark pryor. well within the marginry seat counts in the fight for the control of the senate. joe johns has this story. >> the political mischief of halloween is weeks away but arkansas's incumbent democratic senator mark pryor and his republican challenger tom cotton are running hard and already into some pretty scary stuff, fighting over who voted to support the ebola virus or at least pandemic prevention. >> i voted for preparedness. he opposed it. >> i asked cotton about that. he first voted no, later voting yes when he got a second chance. >> it goes to show that mark pryor cannot be trusted when he's calling me pro ebola. >> pryor is a cancer survivor now in his second term. cotton is a freshman and a lawyer, a veteran who earned the army's bronze star in afghanistan. it's a bitter battle over their voting records. frankly, less about the plague and more about the president. cotton linking the man in the white house unpopular here to arkansas's only remaining democrat in congress, $16 million in spending so far, t