america's economy just had the worst quarter in three years. don't panic. i am take cing a look at the big picture to put it in perspective for you. amazon goes to war with a major publisher over the price you pay for ebooks but there is so much more at stake than that. i am talking a best selling is author of the bone collector. forget necessity. i am talking to a real mother of envision about what it takes to get your product idea sold in stores. i am ali velshi. this is "real money."

this is "real money." you are the most important part of the show. hit me up on facebook.com/ali velshi. follow both of these because i give a lot of information out on these two handles. america's economy contracted in the first three months of the year. you can see it right here. this is the first time in three years it's happened. don't panic. no one is all that surprised at the gross domestic product of the nation fell by annual rate of about 1%. >> that's according to the newest government estimate. i say, "estimate" because these things change. we are going to get another estimate of this in june. the usual suspects are to blame, by the way. the harsh winter weather prevented buzzes for restocking for the nigh year and sapped rail trade, housing market, but that is behind us. it is springtime in america. many economists are predicting a

rebound as high as 4% for the months of april through june to make up ground lost during the winter months. no one is predicting another three-month downturn. we used to think about recessions as two conseci've been quarters of negative growth. we don't do that anymore. we have to feel a recession. this doesn't feel like one. pick-ups in manufacturing and services and as you have seen it, job growth. we look at gdp. the broadest measure of goods and services out there to get a grip on the size of our economy and its growth. generally speak, economists believe gdp growth needs to be around three ye year. it's a healthy middle class that fuels growth through spending. higher demand for goods and services, increase output, creating more jobs, more people spending. activity. >> that's the hope anyway. right now, the united states is

forecast to grow its economy by year. it's a little less than where we should be. but still looking up in the right direction. >> there is any shortcoming probably has something to do with the squeeze america's middle class still feels five years after the recession. how do we compare to the rest of the world? how much stock should we put in these gdp numbers anyway? mary snow's got that. >> when it comes to measuring economies around the world, the u.s. ranked number 1 and its measured by gdp, gross domestic product. the same measure of goods and services dismissed in the first quarter of this year as a fluke. how does the u.s. measure up against emerging markets like china and india when it comes to gdp growth, it lags far behind. the forecast for economic growth in the u.s. is 2.8% this year. far lower than china's 71/2 % and

india's 5.4% forecasted growth. calculate gdp growth based upon population and there is a dramatic change in the equation between the u.s., the world's largest economy, and china ranking number 2. >> the typical chinese is a lot worse off than the typical american until terms of per capta gdp or income. >> gdp or the value of everything produced per person is roughly $1,500 in india. in china, it's 6700. in the u.s., it's 53,000. the u.s. economy is most closely compared to the u.k. and germany. the way countries calculate the numbers can make a big difference. in the u.s., starting last year, the government started accounting for entertainment originals, which includes things like seinfeld and other long-running t.v. shows. intellectual property products are included. italy has other ideas. it wants to make the gdp look bigger by including things like

prostitution and drug sales. nigeria recently changed the way it calculates its gdp and leapfrogged ahead of south africa to become africa's largest economy. it calls into question: how useful is the gdp? >> it is a limited measure. i think it should be interpreted with some caution but it's the best we have. >> so why does it matter? a country's gdp has an influence on its ability to attract investments and to borrow money at low rates. bottom line: the gdp isn't perfect, but for now, it's the best tool available to measure economic growth. mary snow, al jazeera. >> u.s. businesses held back on investments and pulled back quarter. >> will change as we get deeper into 2014. >> that's according to sam kaughin. sam, good to see you? >> thank you for having me. >> before we moved in to that, let's address what mary snow was talking about there. gdp is all we have. people admit it's not entirely perfect. is there anything on the horizon

that can replace it as a measure of economic growth? >> i think it is the best we have. in the case of the first quarter, you got the strong sense of the winter storms for example. you have the strong sense of inventory pulled back. >> that's a good ref presentation of what happened. >> what do you make make of this? i characterized what i said economists are saying that we expected it to be -- this is worse than we expected it to be. we expected it to be bad in the first quarter. we expect it to rebound the rest of the year. >> i think that's right. it was obviously a weaker number than we saw in the first, in the first estimate of q1 gdp. the reason for the weakness was a good one, that inventories were weaker than they had been and, in turn, that suggests a bit more rebound in invent towards later on. we had two rapid inventory building late last year. it looks as if the inventory correction from that is over and done with. >> let's talk about housing. it's the place. it's a touch point for so many people to the economy. even if you are not buying or selling a house. it's like gas prices. we know what's sort of going on. when it's good, we feel good.

when it's not good, we feel it. what is your sense of housing? >> house prices are rising quickly despite the faltering demand we have seen over the past year. what that suggests is that there is apply constraint. if it were just demand weak, you would see prices faded. they are not. prices are going up about a percent a month. >> that's important for confidence and spending and it suggests that again, the softness that we have seen in actual home sales has been more related to supply side than not. >> some will argue home prices have a lot more to do with how wealthy we feel. i would argue job creation has greater impact, at least psychologically on americans. we have seen the numbers that economists have said we would like to see in job creation or at least we have started to. we are not necessarily seeing the quality of jobs that we would like. >> there has been higher -- there has been faster job growth in low wage industries than in high wage industries. >> that's negative for average hourly earnings and overall

encloses in some ways. in others, it's useful for coming out of the recession that we had. it will be more able to employee the less employable as the lower wage industries build up. so, i think it's a mixed bag. we have seen very -- you know, improved job growth over the last six months and that's obviously helpful to housing generally. >> what is the danger, though, if we go too far down this road creating low-wage jobs as you are right we get more numbers out of low wage jobs than we do out of middle waged jobs, but it's not ideal for consumption for the economy. >> right. it's not. we are looking at soft inflation, also. >> that's helping consumer purchasing power. i think for now, the bigger focus is probably still on the unemployment rate coming down and job growth picking up rather than -- rather than the direct measures of wages. optimistic? >> i am. i think a number of things have changed. just since the start of the year. first of all, commercial and

industrial lending has come up e things the fed has done over the last years and years is starting to filter more quickly into actual lending and into actual activity. i think that's an important support for cap ex and for jobs and incomes. >> that's perfect to leave off there because we will discuss that later. sam coffin, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. amazon and one of the biggest book publishers are lobbed in a standoff over prices. you are caught in the middle. so are best-selling authors like jk row ling and jeffrey defer. i am talking to defer next about it. chicken sausage and a 3-way bidding war. keep it right here. bidding war. keep it right here.

>> i'm joe berlinger this is the system i'd like to think of this show as a watch dog about the system... to make sure justice is being served. with our personal liberties taken away from us, it better be done the right way.

>> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. rosie perez >> i had to fight back, or else my ass was gonna get kicked... >> a tough childhood... >> there was a crying, there was a lot of laughter... >> finding her voice >> i was not a ham, i was ham & cheese... >> and turning it around... >> you don't have to let your circumstance dictate who you are as a person >> talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america

looking for the latest book by authors like patterson or connelly? if you are like me, you probably look for it online. they have nearly killed off the competition from book chains and neighborhood bookstores that amazon by some estimates now sales as many as half of all books, physical and electronic in the united states. but a long running spat over pricing of electronic books between amazon on one side and hashet which owns little brown and hyperion books is getting in the way of you finding some of the books you may want to buy. amazon is slowing down shipment of some hachette titles and some new hachette titles say they take weeks to ship as the site tries to re-direct you to alternative titles. if you want to pre-ort a hachette title coming out later

in the year, those pre-order buttons have entirely disappeared from some upcoming hachette books. what's going on is a dispute over pricing for ebooks on amazon. who sets the price for a book? and how much of that price gets publisher? at stake are the bigger profit margins on ebooks, about 75% compared to the 40 percent on a hard cover book sale. the bigger question is: how today's book publishers sell books in the digital age. amazon appears to have the upper hand after a court ruling ended conclusion among book publishers to set prices on apple's ibooks app once upon a time, it was publishers who set the prices we pay for the books we buy. the legacy of that is when you open up a book, the price is often printed on the cover or the jacket. now, retailers have the upper hand. the question is: which side are you on? the publishers who want the right to set the price or amazon which says it's negotiating on

behalf of you, the customer. in fact, amazon released the following, quote. when we negotiate with suppliers, we are doing so on behalf of customers. jeffrey deaver is the best selling author who publishes with hachette he has written 32 novels. almost every single one i have read. one, "the bone collector" was turned into a film starring denzel washington and anyolina jollee going up against serial killers are methods, his latest book, the skin collector, i won't spell it out but the title does sort of speak for itself. read it yourself. unfortunately, it's one of the hachette titles you still can buy on amazon. good to see you. >> thank you. good to talk to you. >> you wrote -- you posted on facebook on may 14th right before the book came out, you articulated what this problem is for your readers who would have been trying to get the book, particularly if they were going

to try to pre-order. >> let me tell you what. so you're interested in buying my book or another author, hachette author. you go to the amazon page of there is a picture of the book. this is if the book is out. you are sing the pre-orders. that's a different issue. if you look in the upper right happened corner, whereas that would normally be priced at 30% less than the discount, less than the regular price, maybe 40%, no. it's either full price or a very slight discount, but then you look up at the top banner and what do you see? you might enjoy these books at much less cost, come ppetitive authors. >> that's one big problem. the other big problem, of course, is that my book ships relatively soon. there are some, as you were saying, that do not ship for two or three weeks. >> i saw that. you never see anything on amazon that says takes weeks to ship. it's out of stock or available. if it's available, you can probably get it tomorrow. automatic. >> but there are actually -- but they are actually re-directing to a similar author?

>> yeah. >> somebody who would have bought your book? >> exactly. these are low tactics. let me tell you what the problem is. there are two issues that i think your viewers should be aware of. one is the underlying substance of the problem, and that is simply: cutting the margin of purchasing when amazon purchases the right to sell books. money. >> that's not unusual. but what happens in a relatively frail industry to start with, which is what the book world is like now, by eroding the publishers' amount that they make, well, they are going to have less resources to find new talent, to market good books, to edit the books, because these books take a lot of time. it's a very labor-intensive creative process to get the books in the best form they can and get them out to the market. if that keeps getting eroded and eroded and eroded, we are going to lose maybe not the great big sellers now but we will lose new talent, lose folks who are, you know, maybe on the border line.

sell. >> my sales are certainly down. i am not concerned about myself. i am concerned about the young author who this is the one chance they have to get on amazon, their first book, and are they going to maybe end the career right here? >> a realistic possibility. >> does this make any difference? you said your sales are down. does any of this negotiation affect how much an author makes? >> this negotiation will ultimately affect that because if we are paid, of course, on the basis of how many books we sell. we get a percentage. >> that's how the royalties work for your viewers who may not be familiar, there is usually an add vance paid, which a long time ago meant the author would have a chance to sit down and finish the book which happens sometimes now probably more frequently the advance is paid after the book is finished but still needs to go through an extensive editing process. >> advance is then set up against the royalty payment. >> right. >> the royalty payment comes in based upon experts of books sold.

to the extent the publisher makes less, we authors make less, too. >> amazon said -- it's released a statement where it says -- i read out there, when we negotiate with these publishers, we are negotiating on behalf of our customer to get the best deal possible. tell me your thoughts. >> i disagree. customers are going to buy an ebook, as you had mentioned, this dispute is largely about the ebooks and e books pricing. customers going to buy an ebook. will amazon pass the cost saving on to them? they have great revenue but not so good in the earning department. i have a feeling much of the cost quote savings" will end up on the blip at am zon. even if it doesn't, if they split a bit of that with the customer, what difference will a two or three sent or however much it is -- how much difference is that going to make? the big problem is that by taking money away from the publisher, customers are not better served because they are

going -- there are going to be fewer good books and the quality of the books will suffer. >> this is an industry. for? >> 35 -- since i was 11 years old but making a living at it for 30 years. >> this business, most americans would not understand the publishing business. it's a complicated, bizzantine business model which is evolving. there will be some change because we are selling so many digitally. what's the best outcome here. >> i should back up and i purchase things on amazon. >> sure. >> i sell books on amazon. i consider them a partner in this whole process. this is a glitch that i think will be worked out eventually, but as, when i practiced law on wall street, you would come to loggerheads, bump chests and it was time to take a deep chest and say let's be realistic here let's address the issues on both sides and one of the sides i think amazon is speaking from is its own business model. i don't know what their margins are, but they obviously, there may be something wrong. i think we need to focus on the

fact that people want books and by not producing them, by not selling them the way we ought to be, the very fragile industry will be in worst shape. >> one of the reasons i love your books is how much detail you get into. i wonder if this story line will make it into one of your books in the future. you are good at explaining these things. jeffrey deaver, thank you. >> thank you. >> loans are a big part of america's growth small businesses borrow to expand. i am looking at loans, interest rates and what's wrong with the mortgage market right now coming up. plus, america, china and the global rates for gas and oil. i will tell you why the next frontier for that could be africa. stay with us. ♪ families ripped apart... >> racial profiling >> sometimes they ask questions... sometimes they just handcuff people... >> deporting dreams... destroying lives...

>> this state is literally redefining what it means to be a criminal alien fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> they're locking the doors... >> ground breaking... >> we have to get out of here... >> truth seeking... award winning investigative documentary series fault lines the deported only on al jazeera america

americans are borrowing more. the number of locations being issued, picking up in the united states. >> that's for the most part. data from the federal reserve shows a meaningful pick-up in credit card and corporate borrowing in the almost two months since april 1st. the value of loans issued in both categories have surged by 11% compared to last year. the u.s. is also experiencing a continued increase in car and student loans. mortgage loans, not so much. they are down 6% in the same time period. leading up to the financial crisis, james ferryingham was noting fannie mae and freddy mac.

he is with deep knowledge of america's credit markets. good to see you? >> nice to see you, ali. >> let's talk about about this mortgage thing. why is this happening? rates. they are -- they are a lot ago? >> sure. >> but they are still low compared to most things we have seen in the last four decades. not enough to cause people to go out and get a mortgage to buy a house for some reason. >> i want to point to all of the other very positive indicators because loans in general are going up. >> right. >> it's good news. we were worried at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, the data was bad economically. we were blaming the weather. when the weather improves, you better see a bounce. we are seeing a bounce. you were asking about mortgage, which is the one drag still in terms of loan growth. >> what do you think that is? i heard one theory that says people who bought their houses and got a 3 and a half or 3 and 3 quarter % mortgage don't think four and a half is so great. we have done with that rush, with that fear that if i don't

get my mortgage, i'm never going to be able to get it. >> i would argue and i am arguing against the data here up. >> you think this line? >> this green line should go up very soon. it hasn't yet. i think in part, mortgage is crisis. >> yeah. >> now, it's the last part. they are nervous to be lending, especially in the current regulatory environment where the regulator is pushing them on capital. so you see these other asset types, faster cycle, less risky for the banks. they grow before the mortgages. when the barpingz open up, i think you will see this green you will see this green line increas increase. >> corporate is flat lining, growing about 12%. you see auto, student and other loans and you see credit cards. which of these are the most banks? >> the purple line is what really counts here not just the banks. they make a heck of a lot of money on our credit card loans. fat margins. it's good when they are lending more and making more money from

those loans because the then they will lend even more in these other categories. >> this is interesting. you are saying something that's entirely counter-intuitive. my viewers will say, i hate the fact banks make money off of credit cards. you have saying that gives them money to lend to other people. >> that's right. so they make more earnings, levels. >> that's what i think in part is what's holding back mortgage growth. eventually, it's good . >> does this worry you at all about the economy generally? is there something dangerous about the fact we are putting more on to credit cards, banks are giving more loans? or is that a good side, we are feeling strong? >> it's a great sign because when credit card growth bounces like this, this is money that's going directly into consumer spending, direct ingredient which we have been talking about earlier being so important to this recovery that is happening. >> right. >> and when i look at this chart, i think, what a relief. the weather is cleared. we have had a bounce in loans. >> okay. so you see this as positive. auto, student and other loans,

indicator. they are smaller investments than a house but serious investments in people's lives, businesses futures. >> exactly and less important in terms of the size of the loan market there. the green one, that's the daddy. >> yeah. >> when that improves, then you will see, as you say, sentiment improve. but, also, growth in general improves most but credit cards are important as is the corporate. >> tell me about this. this is not one we follow as closely. what does this say? this growth? >> companies in general are thinking about increasing their cap ex as we call it, their spending, borrowing from banks. in a lot of cases, they have credit lines that are p pre-arranged by banks but they have been leaving a loan. >> got the access. they don't take the loan? >> they don't take the loan. we call that a utilization rate. the utilization rates have been very, very low but just this quarter, you are starting to see them increase at a lot of banks, which means the businesses are pulling down the loans which were always available to them

but now they feel confident to take on that leverage. business? >> they see the opportunity to get a return on the investment from the money that they are boring from banks. >> there was one line we didn't put on here. it's home equity lines of credit. doing. >> that's low? >> it's a much smaller pool, mortgages. >> okay. >> what's hurting right now in terms of loan growth and the housing-related. ? >> home equity loans and mortgages are still concerning. another line on here that's commercial real estate. >> that's not doing badly at all. it's the house that has to improve. we are looking at another quarter where it hasn't yet. i expect it to. >> james fotheringham at petrarca capital management. not just general mote orders recalling cars. ford is recalling 1.4 million vehicles. most involve power steering issues with ford explorers, escapes and mercury mariner

suvs. they are giving heightened securicrutiny to safety issues. gm recalled 15.8 million vehicles this year. there is a new player in the food merger wars. pilgrim's, poultry producer pilgrim pride for hillshire. tyson foods has upped pilgrim pride's $6.4 billion proposal with an offer to buy hillshire for $68,000,000,000. earlier this month, hillshire proposed buying pinnacle moods, aunt gem mijememiah. >> that's unlikely, especially if either bid go through. i am going to need a chart to explain that. that was complicated. china is on the hunt for energy. it's going around the world making deals to get it. when we come back, we will look at what this means for the

united states. motor city meets steel city. how pittsburgh escaped troubles detroit faced. how it can turn around its fortunes. that's coming up next.

>> weekday mornings on al jazeera america >> we do have breaking news this morning... >> start your day with in depth coverage from around the world. first hand reporting from across the country and real news keeping you up to date. the big stories of the day, from around the world...

>> these people need help, this is were the worst of the attack took place... >> and throughout the morning, get a global perspective on the news... >> the life of doha... >> this is the international news hour... >> an informed look on the night's events, a smarter start to your day. mornings on al jazeera america >> i'm joie chen, i'm the host of america tonight, we're revolutionary because we're going back to doing best of storytelling. we have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we haven't heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism you may have heard that china's economy is cooling, even so, it's on track to grow more than 7% this year, breakneckcock compared to the united states. all that growth requires energy. china doesn't produce enough of it at home to meet its growing needs, especially for oil and natural gas. >> that's one factor that drove that recent mega natural gas deal between russia and china, the culmination of a decade's worth of talks. >> that's one example of how china has been pushing beyond

its borders to find new energy sources making it a major player in global energy markets. patricia sabga has the story >> reporter: after 10 years of negotiatio negotiations, china strikes a $400 billion natural gas deal with russia. while in the south china sea, chinese coast guard boats joust with vietnamese vessel over oil drilling rights. polar strategies with a singular aim of meeting china's growing energy demands. >> their appetite is huge whether you talk about oil or natural gas. the chinese have to import a tremendous amount >> reporter: china is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal which accounts for more than two-thirds of the country's energy mix. the appetite for oil and gas is increasingly foracious. last fall, china overtook the united states as the largest net importer of crude oil and other liquid fuels.

demand that has forced beijing's political leadership out of its comfort zone to help state-owned sources. >> the government in the last 10 years or so has been backing up what the national oil companies are doing. and so you will get, you know, prime ministers and the presidents going overseas delegations. >> china's national oil companies rely heavily on oil for loan, lending money for countries in exchange for oil and gas shipments. by the end of 2012, china had struck such deals in russia, central asia, africa, and latin america, including a 40 bill i don't want dollar loan to venzuela for 600,000 barrels for crude oil and products a day. china has tapped its vast foreign exchange reserves to purchase energy assets in nearly 30 conduct trees including oil sands and shale gas projects in north america. >> beijing has used raw power to assert its claims over energy reserves in the south china sea. >> they want to make sure that

their oil and gas is coming in from as many routes as possible which has the least possible interference from other powers, especially the united states and example. >> the bulk of chinese oil i ampots through the strait of hormos. >> it is building up the bluewater fleet to keep crucial sea lanes open with only one aircraft-carrier to america's 10, definitely navigating key. atricia sabga, al jazeera. >> china's long turned to africa for natural resources, timber and cotton and oil. a recent survey by the african development bank and the united nations development program shows foreign investment africa is expected to rise to $80,000,000,000 in 2014 with china's investments fueling much of that growth.

>> that's expected to help push africa's economic output up by 4.3% this year. even more, 5.7% in 2015 mark schroeder is the vice president of africa analysis, geopolitical intelligence firm. he joins us with more on china and its relationship to africa mark, good to see you here? >> good to see you, ali. thank you. >> let me get this out of the way. there are a lot of people that think that china is doing stuff in africa that america and other wetter than powers are sort of missing an opportunity on. is that true? >> well, china certainly sees the opportunity. it has mobilized billions of dollars, mobilized the full government to back that investment, to really be a comprehensive and pervasive presence to extract industry continent. >> it's expanded beyond extractive industry. >> yes. >> china is involved in engineering, in massively gridlocked cities. they are building highways. they are building this high-speed train in kenya

between nairobi and mumbasa. and in west, africa, they are being a parliament building. >> it started with the extractive industries but it has transitioned to adding other components to the economy. for china, it's win-win. they can export surplus labor from home to africa to help finance and engineer and construct these massive infrastructure projects, roads, projects. you name it. it's all across thecounntinenco they link the acquisition of public sector, public sector infrastructure projects that represent a massive economic opportunity for china. >> some africans are complaining not only is china exporting its excess professional capacity. it's actually exporting labor in some cases. africans are saying do you want to build roads? we would like to use our labor. >> that is correct. >> that's the criticism and the controversy that china brings to

africa is that they can throw billions of dollars to acquire these concessions but then they bring labor and management and practices to these projects. and that sdmrasz the labor pool from these african countries that then brings the political africa. >> we are typically used to whether it's the world bank or the imf or the u.s. government particularly its practices that prevent american businesses from doing business in places or with governments or companies that are corrupt from getting america into africa in the same way. china goes in, doesn't seem to have those kinds of issues and, by the way, doesn't typically attach the rules that western organizations attach to giving loans. some africans like that. >> that's right. it's an easy choice for a lot of african governments. they can go to the chinese. the chinese easy government says, we will give you top-level political cover. we will give you the best price. we will put, you know, the billions of dollars on the table right now. if you turn to the americans or another western government, you are not going to have the same options.

it will take more time to go through that investment approval process. it's going to take more time to raise the capital. you know, so for african governments, dealing with the chinese is pretty easy and nice. >> when i put that to the americans and the world bank, they say that is not our responsibility to give people loans without conditions. we want improvements in governance and it's good for africa to have that. >> it is absolutely good for african governments. this is a part of the process of democratization. >> that's good for the people of africa and, you know, we certainly see a lot of issues between inequality and kind of malgovernance and china is contributing to that. >> does it strike you as change that will africa will have high-speed rail line before america? >> that's a good question. south africa pitching high speed rail. >> do you think they will get it before america does? >> well, you know, the chinese will construct that.

>> mark unloader, vice president of africa analysis at strat 2306rdz russian president vladimir putin has created what some say is a eurasian union. they signed a treaty to create a trading bloc binding former republics in the old soviet union. goods, capital and workers will be able to move freeway. they will follow joint policies on energy, ag culture and transport. the combined annual output will reach $2.7 trillion, smaller than europe's largest economy, germany, but the new grouping will have a lot more energy resources to exploit. armenia and gir yokrigstan, ukraine scrapped closer trade ties with europe under pressure

from russia which was trying to woo ukraine to join the new eurasian union instead. >> we reported on detroit plan to eliminate the blight infecting the city. as it goes through the country's biggest municipal bankruptc detroit has become a symbol of urban decay. not too off from the motor city, many people believed pittsburgh would face the same fate that detroit did. instead, pittsburgh became a symbol for revitalization because the steel city found a way to turn itself around. john terrett has that story >> reporter: racing out of the fort pitts, a city known for bridges is a center for financial services companies, medical centers and high-tech industries. pittsburgh's mayor said it had to be flexible to survive when the steel industry left town. >> you can bomb a city. you can burn a city. you can flood a city. or you can tear the economic

heart of a city out. as long as you invest back into the people who believe in that city, the city will come back. >> the mayor says he has talked with detroit about recovery there. motor city needs two to $3 billion to clear blight. it's earmarked 400 million. unlike detroit, pittsburgh never accepted federal government cash but nevertheless, its taken 30 years to roll back from when giant factories like this, now city. >> today, only these old stacks from the u.s. steel homestead works stand in honor of a once-great industry that employed tens of thousands of people. the city raised $300 million to develop this charging mall that names. how has pittsburgh raised the cash? >> jeremy waldrop says 5 and a half billion has come in, in the past eight years. >> we have just seen a real influx of funds.

it started with our local companies, our local businesses doubling down on downtown pittsburgh and committing to investing in this region. we have melon, u.s. steel, companies like that that call downtown home. the then you couple that with foreign investment. >> google's making a major investment in pittsburgh expanding its operation here the mayor says invest in arts, culture and people, and the big name companies will follow and bring with them well-paying jobs. >> google's example is one of many. microsoft, intel, disney all wanting to make a home in pittsburgh. companies realize it's because of the strategic advantage we have, which is talent. >> john terrett,a al jazeera, pittsburgh, pa. >> a professor at the university of pittsburgh and at the innovation practice institute. michael joins me from pittsburgh. michael, i don't want to give

you a big head about this. but you are part of the solution in pittsburgh. it's the fact that there are universities, medical centers, hospitals, the eds and meds we talk about is what pittsburgh started to lean on. >> that's absolutely right. >> tell me the story. were you in puts burg at the time when everybody thought pittsburgh was basically the way we think of detroit? >> i moved to pittsburgh in 1998. i am a native of california. i grew up in the silicon valley. i went to law school there and practiced law there. i made a career change and came to the university of pittsburgh to teach on the law faculty hear about 15 years. >> the folks in california must have said, are you nuts? >> pretty much. and everywhere i went around the country, giving presentations at conferences and so forth, they gave me funny looks. why would you give up the sunshine and the west coast for the smoke attacks and grid of western pennsylvania? >> what was your answer

>> i was determined to make a great new career and life for my family here but i walked around pittsburgh at that time, and really scratched my head because coming from the outside, i saw a resources. i saw financial wealth, a legacy of the city's industrial heritage, immense engineering talent, technological prowess, great institutions, the universities, the medical systems, transplantation practice that had really put the university of pittsburgh medical center on the map in the 1980s and 1990s. and i saw a city that wasn't moving. it was really, if you compare it to a ship, it was dead in the water 15 years ago. >> what is it that stimulated it? what got it going? because today, when you talk to people from pittsburgh, look, there is no city that's done. i mean pets burg has its issues. there is no question. this is a city on the move. it's a city that folks are proud of. >> there is no magic bullet. there is there is no magic formula, nothing you can bottle and say this is the answer that puts burg put together.

it's a number of different things moving in synch. number 1, you had in continued investment in those eds and meds. the le leadership, people investing strategically across a broad range of technology disciplines and other things to make them into world leaders starting with the you university of pittsburgh and carnegie melon and there are a number of great colleges and universities in the region. second, visionary leadership at upmc health systems, the medical side and the related healthcare delivery systems, clinical practice, research areas that accompany all of that, bringing in massive amounts of research dollars from the federal government and elsewhere. no. 2, visionary leadership in the city's philanthropy community, pittsburgh benefits from an enormous reservoir of philanthropic resources that are the legacy of the industrial heritage of the city and those

organizations, those foundations, are extremely helpful and influential and wealthy in supporting business communi community, in supporting the arts community, supporting the neighborhoods, and visionary leadership in those organizations played a key role meds. >> yeah sglrpings. >> number 3, you had the fortitous discovery of the marcellus shale formation and energy exploration could come back to western pennsylvania and play a big role in certain communities. >> that's a big deal. there is prosperity now outside of philadelphia, well into ohio. the region around pittsburgh is feeling prosporous now. >> next, you have the fact that piltz burg never got too full of itself. the hayday of the dotcome boom, we had our share of high flying internet companies, high-tech companies in the late '90s and early 2000s. but the real estate market here

never took off. the economy never stoked out ahead of itself. when things came crashing down in 2008, 2009, pittsburgh didn't have that far to fall. so you didn't have the massive foreclosure problems here for example. >> yeah. >> you did in a lot of other cities, underwriting by the local banks was in comparison to their peer institutions more careful and wiser. >> allowed us to hold our position relative to a lot of our peer communities. >> you got the last laugh on those folks who said: why did you leave california for going to pittsburgh? >> now, when i go -- now when i go to conferences -- and it's not just around the country but around the world, i get knowing smiles and nods from my colleagues and friends. >> good to talk to you as always. >> thank you very much. >> michael madison, university of pittsburgh law professor. let's tell you about a great idea for a product. you are not sure how to get that invention sold in stores. a woman who wrote the book on it literally. keep it right here!

i think that al jazeera helps connect people in a way they haven't been connected before. it's a new approach to journalism. this is an opportunity for americans to learn something. we need to know what's going on around the world. we need to know what's going on in our back yard and i think al jazeera does just that. r wa.

al jazeera america, take a new look at news.

>> move over, soccer moms, make room for america's newest phenomenon, inventor moms, the focus of a book by entrepreneur tamara monasof, the mom inventors' handbook how to turn your great idea into the next big thing, haimed at helping people, investors moms specifically turn their solutions to every day problems into successful products. i spoke with tamara and asked her about the latest edition of the mom's inventor handbook. >> it's a second edition. everything has changed in the whole world in terms of business and bringing products to market. later. >> right. features. >> who had originally read the first book. >> that's right. they have brought their products to market.

on video, they can scan the qr codes in the book and their stories come to life and they show their challenges and their struggles as well as advice. >> this is inventor mom's handbook for the digital aiming in a lot of ways because that's where the barriers to entry for an investor mom are lower today because of the digital world? >> absolutely. >> sure. >> who has a product idea. it's the roadmap, the roadmap that i wish i had when i started out and it really does walk you through all of the steps, all the way through selling and raising money and... >> i have the impression that people who invents things on their own go into sky mall as opposed to things that get out there. how do you figure out you have an idea that's worth it? >> fauflsz you have to do market research. oftentimes mepeople don't know what that means. it teaches you how to analyze the market for your product. you have to at the beginning, look at the pricing and the production costs as well as your profit potential and who your competition is. people get so skated about their

ideas that they oftentimes just rush to market without really understanding the landscape. >> how many -- what percentage of people's ideas are actually viable? is there a way to figure that out? how do i know? i think there are people who are inventors always coming up with neat things. one of your premises here is that moms can be very inventive. >> absolutely. and the thing is, it's really, you have to ask and find out if people are interested. one of the things i love telling people to do is to get online and go into blogs and see what people are complaining about and then see if you can come up with a solution to their complaint or if you have an idea and you really don't know if people are interested, you can go on there and say, hey. i have this problem. how are you dealing with it? and hear what people say. it's a fantastic way to gather really important market research and validate your product. >> there seems to be a good now. i go on a site called the grommet, which is sort of people's i hopeventions? >> i love that. >> and ways to solve problem, look at etsy, more on the creative side.

there are outlets for people who production. >> it's really exciting. it's the whole landscape has changed now through catalogues, you can sell, you can sell online. you can sell and not only in retail but it's a lot easier to get into the big box stores today because they have local purchase programs. they are eager and looking for new products and so right in your own community, you can do tests in your local, you know, sam's club, wal-mart, whole foods. they are looking for products. >> is it your sense that people who invent products should try and produce and distribute and market them themselves or should somebody? >> it depends upon what your goals are. some people thrive on running their own business. it gives them energy and they love it and coming up with new ideas and building their product lines. other people, they want to profit from their ideas but they don't want to go into business and so that's licensing where manufacturer. >> in this day and age, you can sell this to a manufacturer who is manufacturing across the world as well. >> absolutely. that's another thing.

there are resources like ali baba.com an incredible marketplace to go out there and see what exists and how you can fill in the gap. >> one of the things i find on kickstarter, there are products that sound viable and interesting and people want other people to fund them. inventions? >> i am so excited about crowd funding. yes, absolutely. because not only is it an incredible platform to raise money without risk but then, also, what an incredible way to do market research? if people are like pounding on the door saying, i want that. i want that. when is it going to become available? >> an incredible way to validate your product. >> one never knows these books are useful. you do know yours is. 10 years later, you are talking to the entrepreneurs what time are some of the great stories? >> a lawyer wanted to create yoga clothing that was comfortable and fashionable. she left her corporate job, and she actually created yoga

clothes called epiphany out of recycled water bottles. it feels like silk. she is using incredible resources to create these products, these every day products. also, pet product, a why used the book 10 years ago and he had sass squash pet beds. he sellsthems worldwide. there are these two sisters who created the beasty bag. it drys wet electronics if your cell phone falls. brilliant? >> gets wet. incredible. it ex track the wait water out. what's exciting is that the different variety of products that are available and, also, in this edition, i can talk about food and how you can bring food products to market as well as plastics and textiles. >> you have called it the mom invent orders' handbook. the stuff in here is useful for everybody. what's the big no-no? what's the one thing people keep

running into that you would like to tell them don't do when you inventing. >> people think the first step is getting a pat he want. it is not the first step. the first step is really understanding if there is a large enough market for your product and whether or not it's going to be a viable business that you can make money. atenting can be useful. but it is not necessarily essential, and they can easily be designed around, so unless you have something really specific that can give you that kind of security, a lot of people don't even get patents. there are thousands of products on the market that are not pat he wanted. >> thank you for joining us to talk about this. >> thank you for having me. >> tamara monosoff, author much "the mom inventer's handbook". >> dsw's stock got kicked to the curb in one day's trading losing more than a quarter of its market value in one session. the question is: why? i am going to search for an answer when we come back.

consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting.

>> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america a drop much 3.7%. it lowered the sales outlook for the whole year. >> doesn't sound good. like we have been reporting on this show, this winter was nasty and americans didn't feel like

fighting snow and wind to buy some shoes. no big deal? tell that to dsw's fickle investors. the share price fell 27% in one day's trading yesterday wiping out $800 million in company value. the stock recovered about 5% in today's trading. still, what is going on? dsw is following the same ol' script many companies do. it reported weak sales and blamed it on the weather. other companies took a hit, too, for weak winter sales. investor reaction to dsw's figures looked pretty extreme to me. i am not in the business of recommending stocks. i don't follow dsw closely but the company makes money. it has positive cash flow. it carries reasonably low debt and even pays its stock investors a dividend. maybe, just maybe, this is more a case of invest orders getting ahead of themselves. perhaps dsw was never worth the 48 bucks a share it reached 5 months ago and investors realized it. i will follow this for you on a regular basis. that's our show for today. see you tomorrow.

♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. hello and welcome to the news hour, it's good to have you here with us and i'm in doha and these are the top stories, ukraine defense minister says defeating separatist in the east will go on despite killing of a senior general. hundreds of syrians are leaving fearing a major battle is coming between troops and rebels and chaotic scene in north african territory and several