Elected president in my opinion, the market drops 25 . We are americans. We believe in making these investments to create lots of opportunity. We are happy to do it. All were saying is if you make it big, i mean really big, i mean one tenth of 1 big, pitch in two cents so everybody else gets a chance to make it now lets welcome in Lee Cooperman, joining us today from florida, should let you know we invited senator warren to take part in this conversation with us today and we have not heard back from her campaign Lee Cooperman, as you can see is here its good to see you thanks. Youve created all the problems for me the whole thing started at delivering alpha im not a political analyst, im a financial analyst. It was your words, not mine, lee. Yeah. The only i would like to modify my words a little bit first of all, i want to say the significance of an event for the stock market is a function of what the stock market is discounting at the time the event occurs the market at 3,050 wherever we are at the moment is basically assuming a trump reelection if the stock market if its starting to look like Elizabeth Warren has a reasonable chance of winning, the stock market already will be down quite substantially and they will open the market if they open the market after 9 11 they will open the market no matter who winses the presidency. I think people shes very i think people understood you were being a little hyperbolic when you said it wouldnt open and made the point on squawk and elsewhere that you thought stocks would go down 25 if Elizabeth Warren became president. This whole thing has escalated now between the two of you with this letter, why did you feel so compelled to write this letter directly to senator warren, lee . Well, you know, aristotle i think observed that basically the last virtue of society is tolerance and indifference, and so i preach engagement and i feel shes taking the country down a wrong path. I noticed today in the wall street journal they had an editorial that said warren has a fantasy plan what shes peddling is total complete bull. By the way, that comes from somebody who believes in the progressive income tax structure, who believes the rich should pay more, okay. I have no problem with that. What we have to do as a nation is decide on what should the maximum tax be on wealthy people and move it there and deal with our issues i have no problem with that. As ive said in my letter to senator warren, i have no problem working six months a year for the government and six months for myself which implies a 50 tax rate my guess is she want morse the wealth tax is a bankrupt concept. 14 or so nations that have tried it and theyve dropped it. I mean its a nightmare. The for 50 years, weve been promised, you know, simplification by the irs. This would be a nightmare. It would be a nightmare. Every year you calculate your net worth and give 2 to the government thats ridiculous. Gold would surge because people would find gold as a place to hide their wealth. Its just the wrong idea its a bankrupt concept. I think that her and Bernie Sanders are presenting a lot of ideas to the public which are morally and socially bankrupt. We will get into i came across we will get to forgive me this one second. I came across a quote this morning, beautiful, its from a economist associated with the hoover institute, an africanamerican, and he says, since this is an era when many people are concerned about fairness and social justice, what is your fair share of wha someone else has worked for . Thats the essence of the argument i have no problem with a progressive income tax structure, no problem paying more, the fact of the matter is, i read somewhere Elizabeth Warren is worth 18 million. What is she going to give to society . I plan to give all my money back i have a fabulous family that works with me. They were part of my decision to take the giving pledge i told them at the time my plan was to giveaway all my money, not half giveaway all my money. And then my game plan is half im going to giveaway in my lifetime and the other half to my family as a legacy in the form of a foundation where they can meet periodically and giveaway the money so so. Go ahead im sorry. Finish your thought, lee. Well, i dont need Elizabeth Warren or the government giving away my money. Tell me what you think the maximum tax rate should be stop talking about 2 where you are basically misrepresenting the facts. Its 2 of wealth. Just think about this. If jeff bezos wealth with is tied up in amazon stock hes going to be forced to sell every year 2 of his stock regardless of what the outlook is for the company. Its wrong its going to lead to inappropriate actions and the economy that are counter productive. Youre not the only one, by the way, the only one who makes that point in fact, i was going through twitter this morning before, you know, in preparation for our interview and mark cuban, the other day, said a very similar thing. Wonders about the impact on the stock and other liquidity markets if people like you, other billionaires or bezos or whoever is forced to sell stock, for example, to raise cash to deal with a wealth tax i dont have the problem of concentrated wealth. Im diversified. My problem is i think what shes recommending or suggesting is morally wrong. I pay taxes on my income while i was earning it i paid 37 federal tax, depending on what state you lived in, your state income could be 10 or more the fica tax the obama, you know, tax on investment on dividend and interest income, i paid the medicare tax i paid all the taxes what i have left is tax paid money. She wants to take another bite at the apple and its wrong. Im big on quoting people this morning. Will rogers had a great quote. If we got one tenth of what was promised to the state in the state of the union speeches, there wouldnt be any inducement to go to heaven. Will rommers basically she and Bernie Sanders are promising things to people not achievable we have the best Economic System in the world yes, rich people should pay more in taxes the question is how much more. You mentioned the wall street journal, warren has a fantasy plan that was their oped about how she plans to finance the medicare for all people are coming to your defense. An oped on cnbc. Com who used to work for you who comes to your defense, but a piece from vanity fair over the weekend, headline, cranky billionaire scolds Elizabeth Warren for not being nicer to rich people i mean you do realize that youre giving Elizabeth Warren an opportunity to hold up your letter and say, see, and shes going to say similar things, heres another billionaire who is unhappy with paying their, in her word, fair share in taxes. Shes picking the wrong look i mean, i cant use an expletive, youll blank me out and get mad at me. Its bull. Complete bull. Shes screwing around with the wrong guy because basically i want to give it all away, not 50, 60 . I want to control the decision i dont need the government giving away my money and the idea of vilifying wealthy people is so bogus theyre appealing to the masses. Every billionaire i know made their billions by providing a productive, useful service or product. Thats why they made their money. And then they take that money and they give it back to society. Whether its bill gates and mel lin ga gates, whether its warren buffet, whether its Mike Bloomberg who developed a fantastic machine that is ubiquitous in the financial community. Everyone i know that struck it big, ive written in my letter about Bernie Marcus. He and ken langon gave back billions to society and employ 400,000 people and 3,000 of the employees are millionaires you know, 25 years ago i was honored by a charity, at my request, congressman jack kemp who is deceased, spoke at the dinner and he said, in america, people dont hate the wealthy. They want to be them and warren and sanders are basically trying to make boogiemen out of wealthy people. I just its counter productive its wrong you said you think that the wealthy should pay more. You dont have a problem paying more youre in favor of paying more in taxes than what you pay right now . Yeah. I would say so i have no problem with that. We have to agree, i think i said this on your program, september 19th, my effective tax rate 34. 2 . Florida res tent the only different is longterm capital gains. Seven or eight years ago on squawk box, one of your segments i basically said, they should get rid of the carried interest its not justified seven years later carried interest is still in place irs section 1031 that allows these real estate guys and gals to roll over their property sales into other property cost basis, get rid of it, okay tax rate change. I have no problem with that. I just have a problem with vilifying the wealthy. They should not be vilified. They shouldnt be praised. They should be treated like everybody else also i have a problem if you ask Bernie Sanders what the marginal tax rate should be on wealthy people he would say 90 . Elizabeth warren, peddles this 2 bologna 2 of wealth, not of income. There are other things we could be doing its going to be impossible to enforce. Just think about it. Every year somebody is going to calculate their net worth and write a check to the government. Its crazy. You said youre in favor of a sur tax on millionaires, the socalled buffet rule. Wow ho how would that work . Well i once asked i dont want him to get upset with me, it was a private conversation, i asked warren buffet what he thought, if you make a Million Dollars a year, 35 , over 5 million, i think he said 40 i have no problem with that. As i said in my letter to Elizabeth Warren by the way, since she never read the letter, never gave me a thoughtful response, the letter was respectful of her position very conciliatory. A desire to work together, which i want to work together, not confrontational in any sense we have problems in the nation, have to deal with the problems and the question is how do we deal with them basically, i never heard from her. Shes repeat 2 . Leon, you were able to succeed because of the opportunity in the country gave you, why dont you pitch in a bit more as everyone else has a cans at the American Dream i dont want to talk about myself im a philanthropist with a small p. Bernie mark, ken langon, Michael Bloomberg, david ruben stein, theyre philanthropists with capital p. I only wish i had their money to giveaway more. Would you meet with senator warren in a heartbeat. I dont have any amenity towards her. Whatever you know they just have a different philosophy and theyre in the sound bite business. Ill repeat what i said a moment ago, i dont want it to go past anybody. If we got one tenth of what was promised to us in the state of the union speeches, there wouldnt be any inducement to go to heaven. Will rogers. This economist, again, i repeat, since this is an era when many people are concerned about fairness and social justice, what is your fair share of what someone else has worked for . I have no problem giving it away in the end i want to control the giving but, you know, my plan i basically said before, and again this is not about Lee Cooperman or Elizabeth Warren per se, its about whats the best system for the country to operate with. We have a lot of problems. We have a lot of division and we need somebody to bring everybody up lee let me do this. Our satellite feed is giving us a few fits let me take a quick break. Let us work on that for a second and come back and get more of our conversation into this i want to make sure that technically speaking, were okay because were having a little suthe. Well be back with Lee Cooperman after this this is the age of expression. But shouldnt somebody be listening . So. Lets talk. Were built for hearing whats important to you, one to one. Edward jones. Its time for investing to feel individual. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Were back with Lee Cooperman. I think we have our technical issues squared away. Thanks for your patience. I hope my perils of wisdom have not fall on deaf ears you say you are in favor of eliminating tax loopholes and talked about philanthropy by yourself and people you admire what about when it comes to loopholes around Charitable Giving you wrote an oped in the summer you took issue with the way some are awarded through Charitable Giving how do we deal with that i dont think that we need anything new i believe, you have to ask an accountant, you cant giveaway and get a deduction for more than 20 of your adjustd gross income, depending on whether it was a public or private charity. We have enough rules we have the rules in place we have a 37 tax rate at the top end. They want to make it 40 or 45. God bless them you know let them be voted by congress. I think the wealth tax will lead to unnatural actions and makes no sense and peddled as a soft 2 its 2 of your wealth every year in 50 years, jeff bezos will give up all his interest in amazon to the government i have a distinct feeling that bezos will giveaway his money over the years as Mike Bloomberg is, warren buffet is, and theyre probably better stewards of their capital than the government as simple as that. How do we deal this comes down to the heart of everything that weve talked about and why senator warren has talked about the policy and the manner in which she has, how do we deal with she is trying to get elected and shes going to sound bites its unsound economics. But there are other there are that may be true and thats your point of view, thats your point of view and perhaps some others but it gets to the heart of the issue of income inequality in this country and how are we supposed to deal with that . In your letter you say the focus should be on income opportunity more broadly rather than inequality do you think income and education and education. Do you think income inequality is an issue that needs to be dealt with yes but the income inequality has been part created by the government strangely enough. You know, in 2008 mr. Bernanke understood the economy was going down the toilet and had to rescue the economy and determined the best way is to get wealther the economist wrote about, 5 of change in wealth works into consumption. The best way to get wealth up to get the stock market up and succeededed in doing that in grand fashion. The trouble with that is, that a vast bulk of the stocks owned by a handful of the people and so theres been a disproportionate benefit to those of us that own stocks i believe look, theres no one answer, no one answer, but promising people things that are not achievable dont make sense. You have to ask yourself, what kind of Economic System do you want to be in . Do you want to take 90 of the wealth away from the people that have made the wealth doesnt make sense to me we have a prosperous Economic System and tweak around the edges to improve it. My answer has always been faster Economic Growth absorb the labor force and basically education. My family and i are very involved in something we call cooperman scholars where were providing College Tuition money to 500 qualified children, newark, new jersey, largely of color, and, you know, the average lifetime earnings of a College Graduate exceeds by well over a Million Dollars over a lifetime than nonCollege Graduate not everybody should go to college. Some people are better off being plumbers, carpenters, electricians, automobile mechanics but we have to provide that opportunity to those that are academically qualified and give them that education but you just said we have a prosperous Economic System the problem some say is that its not prosperous for enough people, that those at the top i dont know. Last time i read the figures basically, you know, say what you want to say about donald trump, but what he can say very fairly is since i became president 5 million more people are at work. We have the lowest level of unemployment amongst black and minorities in our history. We have the highest level of employment in our history. Okay i have other issues with the president but basically i have to say on the economic side, hes accomplished a lot. Is it perfect . No we dont live in utopia. Do you support his reelection . Thats a different conversation let me just say this, that if i was the president , now i pissed off warren and sanders now you want to me to do the same to the president. I think its a natural its the natural question, the place to go. Okay. Well, we have a closed Ballot System but im a guy thats will to wear my heart on my sleeve, okay if i was the president and, of course, im not, but if i was not prepared to change my dialog and treatment of the people, you know, mitt romney is not a jackass. Hes a distinguished american. Rex tillerson is not dumb as a rock he was a bright guy that ran exxon. You know, john mccain was a true war hero but, you know, he has to become a president for the entire country and not just his base. So if i was him, if im not prepared to change my behavior, i would take a victory lap and not run again. The country of western singer kenny rogers his song the gambler know when to hold them, know when to fold them tell the president why are you putting up with all this abuse, all of it is not unfair, some of it is fair, some unfair. Im waiting for Walter Cronkite to come back from the grave so i can get my news objectively. I dont need it from cnn or msnbc, i dont need it from fox news we dont have News Services anymore. We have propaganda machines. But the stock market is at a record high. The economy is growing i mentioned a moment ago 5 million more people at work created in his presidency. We have a record high employment, record low unemployment amongst minorities. Taken a tough path of opening up trade dialog with china. I focused the discussion on illegal immigration, reduced government red tape and promoted deregulation i bolstered our national defense. We need a unifier in that position and because the country is being torn apart. So let him make his own decision i am not in favor of the impeachment inquiry. I want the American People to decide in november of 2020 what the future should be i think i mean i think people can not only see the emotion on your face but hear it in your voice when you talk about this, lee. Why . I care. Thats it. All that you have said of where the economy is, where the stock market is, the wealth that has been created since the president was inaugurated through the stock market appreciation, you still think it would be a better idea if he did not run for reelection at this particular time . What i think i said, you know, youre looking to get me in trouble but what i said if he was not prepared to change his dialog, and his treatment of the people, okay, he could accomplish what hes accomplished by being president ial the way i say it is following, you really are going to get me into a lot of hot water, okay, but, you know, his program is very analogous to Ronald Reagan, a beloved president. When reagan rap ran for president he said i will get the government off the backs of the people ditto for President Trump. He said i will restore the lost prestige of the United States of america after the carter years by rebuilding our defense. Ditto for trump. The third thing reagan said, he couldnt do, balance the budget. He figured out quickly you couldnt balance the budget, you couldnt balance the budget if youre Building Defense and lowering taxes so he said the hell with the budget and bankrupt the soviet union. The comedian that made a living mimicking Ronald Reagan in his period of office was joe piscopo. Reagan invites him to the white house for a drink. Okay President Trump says, alec baldwin and meryl streep you have no tall lnts, saturday night live your ratings suck, its not president ial. What would it cost him to say im sorry you feel the way you feel, give me the next four years to prove you wrong and i enjoy your talent. We need a unifier. Let me and i dont need Elizabeth Warren telling me that im a deadbeat and that billionaires are deadbeats. The vilification makes no sense to me. The world is a better place because of bill gates, Michael Bloomberg, david ruben stein, ken langone. This is idiocy this is appealing to the lowest common denominator and basically trying to turn peoples heads around with promising a lot of free stuff you know the world doesnt exist. I dont know if the transmission came through well or not, but i want to repeat for the third time, Thomas Sowells comment since this is an era when many people are concerned about fairness and social justice what is your fair share of what someone else has worked for . Im going to give it all away. Shes picking on the wrong guy what is the fair share is it 50 . 60 . 70 . Let them state it that way the wealth tax is crazy. It doesnt make any sense. Its going to lead to unnatural activities its been tried in a lot of other countries and should be noted it hasnt exactly had the most successful outcome in other places as well. Its tried in 14 countries, if i believe 10 dropped it just think of the nightmare it creates. Every year you calculate your net worth. I dont know what the hell my net worth is and i dont care. I care i dont care about all these forbes 400 surveys im interested in what people do with their money, the creativity, the use of the money and the helping of less fortunate people let me ask you about this whole idea of capitalism if i could. Ray dal leo who by the way is going to be on the network tomorrow and im sure is going to not only react to the things that youve said but expand on some of the things that he has said himself in the past, including from a recent 60 minutes interview where he said, quote, i think the American Dream is lost for the most part we dont talk about what is the American Dream and its very different from when i was growing up. He said he was in favor of the rich paying more in taxes. He also said so am i. He said the current form of capitalism isnt sustainable what are your thoughts about that too intellectual concepts for me america has done well since 1776 with a capitalistic Oriented Society and we are the most prosperous economy in the world and we think the model somehow is broken. Its ridiculous. We have to try and arrive at certain fundamental beliefs. If i said to you, i worked all year long and everything i worked for the government took away you would say that doesnt make any sense if i worked all year long and took away 90 that would make sense to bernie. If i took away 70 it would make sense to somebody else the majority of taxes in this country are paid by wealthy people as it should be as it should be. I believe in the progressive income tax structure what should the maximum tax rate be on wealth epeople somehow the idea of working six months for the government and six months for myself appeals to me intellectually and the other 50 that im keeping i intend to giveaway whats wrong with that picture i think Bernie Marcus and ken langone and Michael Bloomberg and warren buffet would all say the same thing im not authorized to speak for them but i know what these people are doing i read the gifts theyve made. I mean, ken langone is possibly leading the whole change in medical School Education by being the leadership gift of 100 million for 600 million fund that provides free tuition to medical School Students at nyu. Thats on top of a gift he gave of 250 million. Bernie marcus who is into fish, marcus aquarium in atlanta, 250 million. And Michael Bloomberg i cant keep track of everything hes given away terrific human beings. There are many people watching and making maybe to most, i dont know, who are watching this who agree with you. Were a network that champions capitalism and all it stands for. But there are people like dalio and benioff excuse me i dont know what dalio is saying i will listen intently when he appears and says the rich people pay more i have no problem with that im advocating for that. Sure. You dont do it through a wealth tax you do it through coming to an agreement what should a tax rate be on wealthy people. How do we fix, if you indeed think it needs to be fixed, how do we education and faster Economic Growth faster Economic Growth and education. Education. As said to you before, the average lifetime earnings of a College Graduate is well in excess of a Million Dollars more than nonCollege Graduates it also gives these kids a sense of selfrespect. Theres no free lunch. You know you can take all the money away from the wealthy people and not still deal with the problems, you know you can take all the money away from the wealthy people. Were running a deficit of over a trillion dollars a year. Nobody is paying attention to that were going to be in the soup one of these days, you know, the amount of debt being created is enormous i dont have all the answers i have a view of the stock market, i have a view of the stocks i own i dont want to be involved politically. Never given serious money to politician, i would rather give it to poor kids and medical care im not into the political system if you check the records, im not a big political contributor. You have you have a knack for finding your way into it, though, whether it was your letter to president obama years ago it was your fault it was or Elizabeth Warren. If i see something thats being done thats wrong i have to i have an obligation to speak up im not looking to pick a fight. I can only tell you that i got hundreds of emails, i responded to all of them by the way, in the last several days, and all but one agreed with me one i thought needed to have an improvement of his vocabulary the way he referred to me. I wrote the letter to president obama went viral on the internet and had thousands of elon musml agreeing, one guy said i wish i knew where you lived i would put a bomb in your car i didnt call the fbi. I didnt take him seriously. I feel i have an obligation to speak out. Im a qualified guy to speak out. Im giving it all away they cant threaten me they want to raise the taxes raise the taxes. You see whats happening in new york, the out migration of people, you know, Governor Cuomo says people are leaving new york because of the weather bologna. Theyre leaving new york and new jersey and connecticut because of tax burden. Okay and so theres an adjustment process. There will be an adjustment process to the wealth tax. The wealth tax is morally wrong. Youre taxing money accumulated by people after they paid their taxes. Youre penalizing success. That is not what made america great. We should give more opportunity for poor people to become rich i hope penalize i hope we have the the opportunity to hear from senator warren about many of the issues that you raised in your letter to your point you feel she didnt address really any of the points she made in her rebuttal. I was told by somebody i wont tell you the person who, but the person i say this knows who im talking about told me she was very appreciate of my letter because it focused more attention on her, not my game plan, my game plan was to focus attention on her idea, and that she did not read the letter. She gave the letter to a staffer and that and i can only say from a behavior i could believe that because all she did is retweeted the same tweet she didnt say hey, lee, its very nice that youre a generous, wealthy guy. You know she just tweeted the same tweet. Im only looking for 2 . 2 is not the issue. The issue is get rid of the loopholes. They cant the government is paralyzed, get rid of carried interests. Seven years of discussing this and nothing has happened section 1031 get rid of it take the 37 and raise it. Okay on wealthy people. I believe in the progressive income tax structure i believe on my brothers keeper i have no problem with any of that i get emotional because its so stupid, the dialog its very divisive and the idea of vil linnizing billionaires you explain it to me guy like bill gates, i dont know bill, i had dinner with him once, Mike Bloomberg and warren buffet over the giving pledge, but, you know, he dropped out of harvard, he had a vision, about a computer system, hes worth a zillion dollars, hes got the gates foundation, thats supposed to be, you know, admired. Not criticized what the hell did he do that was wrong . He improved the world. You know i try i ordered something on amazon yesterday jeff bezos not made it more convenient to shop and brought down prices . You know, he should be praised for what hes done, not villainized. Just the world is upside down. The world is upside down and is what it is and we have to come together we have to come together why dont we leave that part of the conversation there. I think youve good, good, good. You certainly made your points whats not upside down is the stock market right. We hit dow hit a new high today. Youve said many months, as far as i can remember, lee, that the market is fairly valued. Is it fairly valued today . Is it overvalued or given all thats going on is it undervalued . Let me say this, firstly, the conditions for a big decline as ive said consistently are just not present. The declines come about because of accelerating a problematic inflation, they come about because of a hostile fed the fed is too easy, furthest from hostile the market smells an oncoming recession. It comes about because of investor exuberance. The market has been disciplined. I have to give it credit you know, ive given a lot of of visibility to john templeton, but he said, bull markets are born in pessimism, grow in scent missile, mature in optimism and die in euphoria. You know, the only place i saw euphoria was the ipo market but thats been corrected. Look at bhaepwhat happened to w and beyond meat. So the market has been very disciplined. I would say i think the market is fully valued. I dont think the conditions for big decline are present. Do you feel speaking you dont feel like the conditions for a big upside run are there either i mean if i tell you the fed is you could engaged you could get it, but i would say a big move from here quickly, 5, 6, 7 quickly, by the end of the year, call it 3250 youre knocking on doors on euphoria and i would get a lot more defensive personally i think the big decline will come if we have a recession or if we see a big change in the washington leadership, we fail to get a deal with china or we see a big spike in the price of oil. China and oil will dictates the near term performance of the market and oil has been very well behaved and china, the president seems intent on coming up with an acceptable deal beyond this year, i have to say im becoming concerned i think the aggressive policies that were pursuing are pulling demand forward which should mean the returns would be less. So, for example, we have a reasonably fully employed economy, yet the deficit is going up that should not be happening the deficit should be going down were running a definite of a trillion dollars and pulling demand forward i dont understand i agree with eric rosengrin, i believe his name, and easter george, i dont understand why were cutting Interest Rates the economy is growing a trend, wealth is at a record high, consumers are reasonably optimistic, businessmen are buying back stock theyre buying back stock because theyre not investing their money elsewhere. Thats one of the problems with the trade war, right exactly you know, in a perverse way, the slowdown of the economy was caused by donald trump in the sense that he threatened tariffs. Against china, i understand. Against the eu against canada, against mexico, i dont understand okay this created a great deal of uncertainty in the Business Community. The Business Community did not know where to put the supply lines, where to build their plants they cut back on Capital Spending okay once this clarifies, you know, cap x follows demand if demand rises and cap and utilization rise cap x will pick up but right now the economy is being carried by the consumer. But we have a situation where the three major Central Banks are easing, eu, china, and america, valuations are not extreme and recession doesnt seem to be in the cards. Profits are rising at a modest rate the conditions of big decline. Youre asking me how high is high, i dont know but i would say 3250 this year would represent to me euphoria a constant theme ive had with you as recently as september 19th is were in an abnormal world depending on the day its 12 or 15 or 17 trillion of sovereign debt were in negative interest rate. That doesnt make any sense. You dont rent money to germany 30 years and get back less than you lent them. Its crazy in the height of stupidity, keep doing the same thing and hoping for different results. That negative Interest Rates for japan hasnt helped the economy. Negative Interest Rates have been exported to europe. Europe Interest Rates where they are should resort to a trillion dollar fiscal stimulation plan to get the economy growing theyre getting free money but they keep dealing with Monetary Policy thats being exported to the United States. We dont need negative Interest Rates in the United States. I have the gang here with me s the gang is here with me today too. I know they have have questions for you if i can bring them into the conversation i would love to do that. Start with Joe Terranova sa rat is here piece najarian, jenny as well. Lets start with joe if we could. Good afternoon, lee ive listed on to all the conditions that youve highlighted whether its the china trade dispute, the potential headwind from oil, and it seems to me it all comes back to the election as the biggest concern. If you go back to 1949, im sure you know third year of a president ial cycle the average return for the s p 500 is 16 . The problem is when you get into that fourth year, so really, it becomes about the election and lee, can we have an election, because i cant remember one, where you have social justice, a referendum on the deportment of the current president , versus the economy, versus the stock market doesnt the performance of the economy and the stock market always win out in the final result well, the stock market reflects the economy if the economy continues to grow the stock market will be fine. You know let me say this, i have a cautious appraisal of 2020 im not bearishly situated 30 cash, 70 invested im dealing with real money, my money. When i was a kid if you why told me i would keep 30 of my money in cash when yielding is 1. 5 i would tell you youre nuts im worried about the shift to the left in the country. Im worried about Market Structure. You know, the Market Structure has been destroyed when i came to wall street 50 odd years ago and joined Goldman Sachs and had a great run and fabulous firm, basically they traded stocks at 50 cents a share and the volcker rule didnt exist commissions are zero and we have a volcker rule so the Brokerage Community doesnt stabilize. 50 years ago the New York Stock Exchange handled 80 or 90 of the volume today 80 of the volume is off the board. The specialist doesnt stabilize. No longer an uptick rule which gives rise to all the High Frequency quantitative traders running wild and basically exaggerate the upside, buy strength and exaggerated the downside, sell weakness. The Market Structure has been destroyed. But at the end of the day you have to go on the assumption if the economy does well, the stock market will do well. Im worried about the debt buildup and theres nobody out there, nobody is talking about debt you know, Stan Druckenmiller and ken langone spent time talking about it on college tours. Kevin wash but nobody is talking about it the republicans arent talking about it the democrats arent talking about it theyre talking about social justice and the right tax rate theyll be i believe in capitalism, im a capitalism with a heart. The best Economic System is capitalism and Winston Churchill said, you dont make poor people rich by making rich people poor. Okay he also said, to paraphrase, the main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity the main vice of socialism is the equal distribution of misery i respect ray dalio, a man like myself took the giving pledge i believe and done very good things with his money. I dont think hes recommending socialism. We have to deal with the problems this is why i took the giving pledge i want to give it i have the greatest joy i get in life, is to see my kids and grandkids grow up in good Health Philanthropy can do. Excuse me. The last i have to be is emotional but i dont know if i answered your question i think the election is very, very important and if we tilt to the left its going to be a very big negative for the stock market it will be a negative for multiples. It will be negative for profits. I think Elizabeth Warren comes across to me as a hater basically. She wants to do something damaging to business, damage to wealth people, she seems to resent wealthy people. Bernie sanders the same. I see it differently let me the final question because were having some technical stuff again. Since youre ending with what you just said about Elizabeth Warren given all that you said and how you think about it and how others think about it maybe who are watching this interview do as well, her message is resonating somewhere shes in some polls leading Vice President biden. That in and of itself must Say Something about the way that the country or certain parts of the country are thinking about issues today do you think she can win i would say i only know what i read in the polls. I hope not, but the polls say 40 chance or Something Like that we cant afford her because i cant imagine that congress will go along with her ideas. So well have four more years of gridlock but as the President Trump has shown, a lot of latitude, you know, initiatives that they can do without the support of congress we need different kind of leadership and shes not the leadership that the country needs. There are Many Democrats who, you know, ill be honest with you, im apolitical. Amy klobuchar impresses me as being a sound person look at how poorly shes doing in the polls because the Democratic Party is so far to the left ill tell you a conversation i had four years ago, i went to Michael Bloomberg, ive known michael 30 odd years, very worthy competitor, was a partner at solomon and i was at Goldman Sachs, i said michael, if you run, ill work for you, ill vote for you, and ill give you money. His response was, very gracious of you lee, im not running. 56 multibillionaire divorced jew running as an independent cant win, im not running, i am not [ inaudible ] the Democratic Party are too far to the left. [ inaudible ] im not a left or right im a centrist [ inaudible ]. Republicans in the past. In 2016 i effectively wasted my vote and wrote in for mitt romney okay ill vote the man and vote the issues the president has done a very, very excellent job on the economy. Hes not done a good job people he has to fix got to be a of his base. I dont want to be auto subject of his tweets. I know. It is what it is. Let me do this. Because were having some technical problems i apologize to you and to everybody for that the last part of your answer there i hope to talk to you soon and i thank you very much for coming on halftime to talk about your letter, this conversation thats so important and i have a feeling isnt going away any time soon. Hopefully well do it here. Thank you thank you for having me. Youre welcome. Thats Lee Cooperman, joining us today. Coming up shares of under armour taking a beating well talk about the reasons why and your trade is on it, mcdonalds as well today Halftime Report is back after this change healthcare is the leading independent Healthcare Technology company that provides data and Analytics Driven Solutions and services. Change healthcare is thrilled to be joining the nasdaq family. Every day we are working on behalf of those who expect more from the Healthcare System. Our customers and partners push us, inspire us, and make us better. Together, we make the Healthcare System better for all. Servicenow put our this changes everything. Youre right sir. Everything. No not everything, i mean youre still blatantly sucking up to me gary. Brilliantly observed, sir. Always three steps ahead. Six steps ahead. Sixteen. So many steps. You done . A million steps ahead. Servicenow. Works for you. That could allow hackers devices into your home. Ys and like all doors, theyre safer when locked. Thats why you need xfinity xfi. With the xfi gateway, devices connected to your homes wifi are protected. Which helps keep people outside from accessing your passwords, credit cards and cameras. And people inside from accidentally visiting sites that arent secure. And if someone trys well let you know. Xfi advanced security. If its connected, its protected. Call, click, or visit a store today. Welcome back to the Halftime Report. Mcdonald hes confirming its global chief officer david fairhurfai fairhurst is leaving this is after easterbrook is leaving after confirming a relationship with an employee. The stock is down 3 stock was already kind of broken, right . Recently what now what now for mcdonalds . I think away from the issues that easterbrook had and everybody can draw their own conclusions, i dont think it matters all that much. His relationship with the franchisee frayed a little bit because he was putting so many cap x requirements on it but the guidance coming in wasnt in charge of the u. S. Franchisees. If i own the stock i wouldnt be selling it because of this stock is a double under easterbrook. I wouldnt be selling he put in a lot of good things he brought this giants he mentored this guy i would stay with him. I dont know if im buying because theres another shoe to drop maybe this other person leaving is that other shoe the lesson here fundamentals have weakened somewhat can the lesson of investor psychology and how to react in situations like this parallel at all to intel you got bob swan now stock has been a home run. A home run. I dont know that this one is necessarily in the same shape. The problem im seeing this was a stock trading at 213 a share a month and a half ago the idea is right now what did they do on earnings . They missed. They missed on revenues. Was it getting stretched a little bit my opinion was yes i have been in mcdonalds a long time i got out early. I felt like where was trading in territorial of a multiple of far too high they attacked everything exactly like they should under easterbrook. I think they can continue to do that the game has now changed it was different than when easterbrook took over. Everybody is in chicken. Everybody is going into breakfast. So this is not the same company that it was when he took over where they made this 100 , 90 run. This is a much different mcdonalds with huge competition. I also think given the valuation of 24 times earnings if you hold this and look where the market is youll have people take money off table because you dont know whats going on natural sort of disruption of a well regarded ceo. Its a perception, but for new capitalyoure going to wai and see to where the new direction is you know the ceo will have his own its mcdonalds the head of the u. S. Has been driving it like you said if theres another shoe to drop, there could be a kitchen sink here when you miss earnings theres more behind it history will tell you something is going on. Something going on and history the telling you is separate from the situation and i think you can look at mcdonalds or intel or General Motors or proctor and gamble these are professionally managed companies. I dont think you make your decision based on this i think you make it on earnings, on the multiple. Lets kick around this under armour deal. Its getting hammered, joe, today. No one owns under armour on the desk ive traded it many times its egregious overvalued how you can own under armour with the history of missing wthe governance issues that theyve had. Kevin plank just insured not that long ago by putting in different class stock. Lulu is growing. Nike is growing. Hasnt had these same issues under armours Revenue Growth is negative why would you own it at this multiple thats many times what the stories are . And the fact that they are still massive short. This is why its a trade the idea is as you watch this stock move around mostly to the do you know side it moves to an accelerated move to the upside theres a lot of reasons why this is a great trading stock. Where theres smoke, theres fire even if it turn out theres not there will be so much sentiment overhang on it who knows what comes out of the federal accounting probe its disclosure aspect of the probe itself that is seemingly the most troubling jim kramer was great this morning. It wasnt a disclosure hey we got caught. Now were going disclose it. They didnt come out with it firsthand. In both instance under armour and mcdonalds, again, its about perception not about what strategy is youre in such a good marketplace right now, why do you need to buy yourself down in both of these Public Relation nightmares lets kick around another stock. Well get to final trades. One oak. You guys own it. Up grade to a buy by Goldman Sachs. Talking energy its great. One of the best. Up 15 this is about natural gas liquids and the lead that oneok has in it. Its performing well its late stage in the cap x cycle. Ive been long for about six months and im staying with it weve owned this is in 2017 i think what i like so much about this particular report is it highlights theres a lot of value in mlp space a lot of these stocks have a 5 yield, a lot have 6 p 7 p 8 yield. Theres value to be had. Lets do final trades i got some absolutely massive stuff going on in efxi huge i mean massive beyond what you could ever expect. But on top of that how about baba i like what were seeing 35,000 upside calls bought baba very short term. You have unusual in the eem and efxi massive too not just little trades these are 250,000 trade. Huge, huge massive trades. Okay. Were getting a little more offensive. Yeah. Steve on baba, it was good. Started buying it last week. When the offering comes maybe this monetary hong kong will drive the stock higher ross was quoted as saying they could soon started selling to huawei are you over your limit pretty big position apple still my biggest position. Nice. Jenny company diversified this Company Reported earnings last week. Well managed company the management is consistently excellent at allocation. They always put shareholders first. I like chevron. You saw the move in exxon as well this is a high Quality Company jpmorgan in my opinion continues to be the most important stock in the s p 500 you said that before on squawk the other day the yield curve continues to steepen. Federal reserve is telling you not so much that they are not going to cut again but they will not raise for many years to come we got leave it. Thanks so much thanks for watching the prom the xchange begins right now thank you. Welcome, everybody heres whats ahead. From industrials to tech to financial stores hitting all time highs what got us here, what pushed us even further and is there still value out there. Under armour having its worst day in two years theres a revenue cut and weak sales hit the stock. A look ahead of whats in it for the company. Retail sector worst enemy may be the calendar we begin with todaysrecord breaking rally a lot of positivity out ther