Feel a Little Something . You had that, joe, two weeks ago, right . Exactly what you had. You didnt you remember i remember bridesmaids, right . Im not sure what all that came out of. I had both going. You didnt have both going . You are the just you were hurling. I was, i was. In the middle of the night. I had to send an email to the producers. Its very weird. Its not even a 24hour thing. No, i will say it was going by when the show was still going on. We have a pro gun advocate on. You didnt throw up when okay. By the way, a viewer has offered to take me shooting in new jersey at a shooting club. I saw a lot of stuff. Im taking him up on it. But we have news to get him up to. Some people hold that Second Amendment thing, they actually think it means something. They took a little bit of offense. Anyway, theres a lot to talk about. We are going to talk about the latest fiscal cliff developments out of washington. But before we get to that, why dont we start with our day anticipates top story. The i. C. E. And the nyse are in talks. The numbers put the price tag at about 8 billion. We watched this now, you said you were watching this last night with kudlow, right . I did. Did you think david faber . Did you think when was book ending . On this, it went up last night. I dont know why this chart is showing no movement. It went up six points. Yeah, right. That wouldnt even bring those because we watched. Faber was talking about that last night. Maybe if we show the prior day. That was the prior day. Theres a glitch or something. That was the prior day that didnt show the after hours trading card. It was right about 720 been i think, wasnt it . And all this followed and its a big story. Well, it is. Its interesting because its Nyse Euronext. And this isnt the first time that i. C. E. Did this. No. You will are ebb that i. C. E. Made a joint unsuccessful bid for control of the nyse last year. When the two withdrew their offers, they cited regulatoregu. Interesting, though, as margins get thinner and thinner, you see more of this consolidation. Right. Less of a chance and we can talk to david about this at 7 00, but this transaction will be stopped by regulators. Interestingly, this is being driven more by the derivatives world. Has nothing to do with the set that is our you know, the exchange. But why does it go back down there . Thats weird. It shouldnt go back down. Did you see, i tweeted that i would be doing kudlow and i said, apparently andrew gave something to kudlow. And people were writing in all this, you know, weird stuff. I was just saying that you were sick, maybe no, maybe kudlow has the same thing because it goes around where people work. But they were how did andrew give it to and does that kudlow is going to turn into a liberal . They were saying those really weird things. You did a great job, i have to say. I was drinking gatorade and chicken masa ball stew. You were . Yes. I love it. So do i. Its carby, though, isnt it . Yes. Anyway, lets get to washington news. House Speaker John Boehner is calling a vote on his socalled plan b. It would block tax increases on everyone january 1st except for those making more than 1 million. Boehner hopes it will pressure the president to make concessions. He can call on the senate to pass that or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in history. Others are arguing that republics have painted themselves in a corner. Take the deal. You are hurting people in order to give another advantage to folks who dont need help. And as of this morning, the fiscal cliff countdown, standing at 11 days. There it is on the board. We run it now even on the side of the screen during the day. Its one of the things, you say to yours, it is coming. Theoretically. The end of the world countdown is one day. Once we get through that we did pass that. We did. The journal has an interesting piece about small businesses. The president s plan would affect only 4 . But did you see how much of the income from small bess that 4 represents . 56 . Oh, really. Wow. And then the boehner Million Dollar only affects 2 of small businesses, but its still 40 of the income and, you know, the journal is able to find some people that said, you know, ive made between as the guy who own is it who pays himself under that system not under the corporate system, i made over 500,000 but less than 1 million and they wont sxan. They were able to find people that even though they say only 4 or not under the its dpunny because everybody on the left hates grover. And grover, now theyre making fun of him for saying its okay to do this. So they dont like it when he wont raise it and when he says it doesnt constitute a tax raise, they think that he backed off on his pledge or is finding a way around it. Yesterday when you were asking for the leftists to start screaming and they were yesterday. Did you see the pictures of president obama and nancy pelosi saying the idea that they would take the cpi is infuriating because they say it takes money away from those who are most in need. The president s plan gives a bimp to those at the lowest end of the spectrum. Crudeman, and huffington post, we still have a long way to go to the middle. You think . We can still stay way left and be to the right of the huffington post. But the thing about the boehner that they vote on today, it doesnt necessarily mean its going anywhere in the senate. The president said ty theyre not taking it. But if it shows that boehner can corral his caucus, then it shows he can do it with the president does. Which means if the president wants a deal, he sees boehner can corral his caucus. And the president said, were only a couple hundred billion away. The stimulus was 800 billion. This is a couple hundred billion over ten years. But 2011 was the same story. 400 billion over ten years. I know. And boehner had three to one. And now boehner said suddenly one to one seems like a good idea. Well, if you include the cuts that have been affected including interest, savings on interest. I think thats what did it. But the hard core guys, were going to have harry wilson on. Did you see what he says about those kutsdz . No. The deal boehner was close to clast year was so much better in terms of putting us on the right path in terms of revenue that he likes well, then they should have taken that deal the last time around. Well, the deal on his side, but the deal went away with the 400 billion. The irs is warning more than 1100 million taxpayers could face refund delays if fiscal cliff negotiations fail to hit the emt. That number is greater than estimated. Typically coming agrees to just the tax for inflation to prevent unintended taxpay herbs from being hit by it. But this year, the amts fate is tied by the fiscal cliff negotiations. You cant even imagine all the consequences for how this is going to pay out. Lets get a check on the markets this morning. Yesterday, you did see a drop in the stock market. The dow was down by close to 90 plus points. S p futures up by about 3 points. If you take a look right now at where things stand in europe, youll see that the ftse is barely higher. But you do see a bit of a decline for germany and france and modest moves across all of these markets. The bank of japan easing Monetary Policy again today, announcing an increase of its asset buying and Lending Program by more than 118 billion. That move was widely expected as part of the reason that you had seen the yen under quite a bit of pressure, yesterday, at least. Youll see right now that in japan, the market there actually closed down by just over 1 , 1. 2 almost. The hang seng and the shanghai composite were slightly higher. Oil prices this morning, youll see right now, are down by about 4 cents to 89. 94, so you have things to pick up in those prices over the last couple of days. And the tenyear note at this point which yesterday was yielding above 1. 8 , dropping down to 77. 2 . Finally, take a look at the dollar and gold. Yen is at 83. 99. Gold prices this morning with all these movements in the currency markets up by about 1. 10. Winter storm draco is moving across the United States threatening retailers and Holiday Travelers. Paul, we know that sometimes the storms could be a good thing for some retailers, particularly if youre selling things from home depot or the likes of those. What is the storm shaping up . And what does it mean . Theres always a good side and a bad side to weather events during the Holiday Season. But i think the biggest impact is the fact that last year we had no weather. It was completely mild. We had literally no snowstorms and for a lot of retailers, they benefited that because traffic becomes a huge issue. So anytime you lose a day or two, its not good. Today is just going to be chaos and sort of the chicago area and that whole metro area. So well probably lose a day or two. And then is it moving here to the east coast for the weekend . The good news is by the time it moves through over the next day or two, the east coast will be pretty dry. So i think the last weekend of the year is going to be good from a traffic perspective. It is going to be much, much colder. And, again, thats a tailwind for retailers to the point you just made. Because last year while traffic was up, demand for seasonal goods was way down. This year, that final weekend, which is a huge shopping weekend will be colder. There may even be a flake or two that falls on christmas day. So that part of it is a bit of a silver lining. Although were looking at potentially a bit of another storm that could impact that post christmas sale. What storm is that . That one, if we were to name it, it would be winter storm euclid. The forecast models are still shaky on it. But its a storm that would impact chicago, potentially the snow and those kind of things. Still in the fiscal month of disease which could, again, take a haircut off of traffic for the 408 day shopping season. So maybe good news for a pair of retailers who may have had problems trying to sell things like sweateres and coats . Absolutely. The comparison to last year is so easy because last year was one of the warmest decembers on record. And while traffic was good for qsrs and optimal retailers benefited, the people that are the Department Stores and things like that that are selling Seasonal Items sort of were lagging as it related to selling those seasonal clothes. And this year weve had a much easier comp. November was colder. First part of december was warm, but now were going to sort of finish the Holiday Season with temperatures where they should be this time of year which is going to help move those products. Paul, thank you very much. Its good to talk to you. Thanks, becky. Draco was a greek legislator, the first legislator of athens in ancient greece. And he replaced the prevailing system at the time of oral, law and blood feud by a written code of rules that could only be enforced by a court. The first court system. So the rules, because they were written, were hard to get around so they were draconian rules, which is where draconian draco. Wasnt he in harry potter, too . He was also in harry potter. I dont know. Was he . I think he was the bad kid growing up. And, anyway, with that out of the way and the world hurdling to an end tomorrow, still to come, if you want to know whether or not you should be optimistic about a fiscal cliff deal oh, draco malfoy. Oh, yeah, the young bad kid . The blond kid. He was so good he was bad. Check out the markets on any given day and were going to do just that. Tell whats happening with the fiscal cliff. [ penelope ] i found the best cafe in the world. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What else . You wont just find us online, youll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. So when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. Because personal Service Starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our support teams are nearby, ready to help. Its no wonder so many investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Welcome back to squawk box this morning. Take a look at u. S. Equity futures. See how were setting up the day. Dow would open up about 36 points higher. S p would he about 3 points higher and the nasdaq opening up 9 points higher. Toyotas 2013 camry receiving a poor crash test rating today from the Insurance Industry group. Meantime, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ordered high marks to hondas redesigned accord sedan. The 2012 camry has been named a top safety pick. This year, only two cars received ratings of good in the test, the 2013 accord and the 2013 suzuki kashasi . Is that how you say that . I dont know that one. The most dangerous rating was assigned to gm and it was to stakeholders. Well have harry on to talk about that. We have to figure out how much taxes would have been paid if they didnt have the ability to never pay a tax, too. Dont we have to add that on . And the same thing with aig. And citigroup. But the Companies Never went bankrupt. I happen. And they still got the. Do you want to do that . I dont know. We dont have to. I was jus just thinking about it if we were worried about taxpayers. It probably counts up, particularly when youre looking at i dont want you to do extra. Id like to know it. All right. Lets get back to the winter storm pounding much of the United States. Reynolds wolf joins us with the latest. Is it draco, dracko . Whatever way you choose. Its draco. Lets call it draco. This is piling up with a lot of snowfall in parts of the midwest. Got rainfall in parts of the southeast. We have tornado warnings in effect for parts of arkansas. But the snow is really the big story where visibility is almost nonexistence in part of iowa. In des moines, i spoke with a guy at the National Weather service there. He was saying visibility, couldnt see anything. Its hard to see. Its awful. Imagine being out on the roadways. On parts of i80, its startling. Could see up to 12 inches or more near green bay. Southward of chicago, chicago has gone 290 days without any measurable snowfall. That could change today. Later this afternoon, we expect the temperatures to drop 2 to 4 inches in chicago. Neighborhood north might get more. Its rain for millions of americans, but that snow in the upper midwest is quiet. As we make our way towards the west, youll notice dryer air moving into the Central Plains and out west we have another storm system affecting the pacific northwest. It could be up to a foot of snow in portions of the cascades. Back to you guys. All right. Reynolds, its actually draco. I did look it up. I cant keep the two straight, but draco, traco. You guys make the rules and ill just follow you. Not relate t to the lawmaker at all. Lets check on the markets and the economy. Mark vitner wears suspenders and its managing director oh, and it was before you came up. And all you really need, what are those things called, andrew . Which . Flare. Flare. Thats right. You can have them and one of them can be rise above. Joining us, lou brien is joining us from chicago, a strategist at drw trading. Mark, believe it or not, yesterday i watched General Electric lower two Straight Days because apparently some people are downgrading it or at least making some negative comments. And maybe already about the fiscal cliff. Art, do you think thats actually happening to the economy at large because were not in 2013 yet, but because theyre already cutting back . Well, there may be some relation that growth is going to be slower in the Fourth Quarter, in the first half of 2013. And just about any resolution that we get on the fiscal cliff. And, you know, i think that the there was a lot of optimism at the start of the week and it faded a little bit. I dont think all that much has changed. Theyre probably not going not going to get a final deal done until the early days of january. And that way, theyre able to that way theyre able to say theyre voting for a tax cut instead of a tax increase and everybody is happy. Really. So who wants to go over the cliff more, then . Both sides . I think they want to get a little bit over the cliff. Both of them. Both sides. Technically theyre a little bit over the cliff, but if they get it done before the Congress Ends noon on january 3rd, i wouldnt be surprised if they voted on the morning of january 3rd right before the Congress Ends. But its going to get done and we know that taxes are going to increase. Were going to see some minor trimming around spending probably changing the adjustment of Social Security, maybe some eligibility requirements on medicare. But the relatively minor changes there on spending and putting off the sequester, the net result of that along with Social Security, the health care taxes, ending of federal funding for Unemployment Insurance, thats going to shade about 1. 5 Percentage Points off of Economic Growth in 2013. So were starting from a position where we didnt have all that much growth in the last year and were going to shave 1. 5 . Well get a little bit of a payback because theres some relief that we finally got a deal. Right. And you could unleerve some of the maybe analyst fears, dan, some Corporate Cash maybe, lou, do you think that we can offset some of the yeah. If you had a credible deal that puts the u. S. On a longterm plan thats a big if. It is a big if. Its not going to be a longterm plan, is it . I agree with you. Short of that, we were going to have to come back and revisit this until there is a credible deal. I think what mark said i agree with. No matter what we come up, bl be some amount of more taxes and less spending. Ahead of that, it is a longer deal for the economy. If they would to get a longer term deal, we could see over the long run the path that were on. As it is now, were going to react in a binary way to a result or no result on the fiscal cliff. Then the reality sets in next year that theres higher taxes and lower spending. All right. We did have an election, lou, and the side that wants really to you know, people want to keep what they get from the government. And if that is what the country wants, thats what the country voted for, we needed enough money to pay for what the government is. People voted for more government and mow we have to pay for it. Is that a problem . The path that were on is probably more the problem. Arent we just cutting out increases . Were just lowering the increases. Were not really cutting anything, are we . Exactly. Exactly. And then on the one hand, you see the austerity thats going on in some of europes periphery and were often mentioned as far as the debt totals and amounts of interest that we have to pay and similar in the same breath and yet were trying to skate around this without any sort of any sort of real problem. You know, were still you know, if the deficits are a bear, were still looking across the aisle and sizing up whether we can outrun the guys across the aisle rather than trying to slay the deficit there. Theres another great piece in the journal today. Every morning when you wake up in athens and greece, you check the weather and then check the strikes, which ones are happening on any given day. Theres three things that you want to know whats happening. And i dont know, everything grinds to a halt. Strikes and slowdowns happen every week. Tax collectors have given up over there. But thats why we you know, thats the reason why we probably need to get a handle on some of them stuff. No . Thats part of it, although i dont know how much that has changed. I was in paris a few years ago and that was the way it was over there, too, to look at where the strikes were to take the trains or the subway. But i think were a long way off from there, but i think that brings up an important point. The fiscal cliff and the resolution of the fiscal cliff is not the end of the process. Its just the beginning. I mean, if churchill was around, he would say maybe this is the end of the beginning once we get a resolution. Were going to have to make further moves towards austerity. Were going to have to steadily whittle away at deductions and push taxes higher so that we get revenues of the share of gdp closer to 20 . Because its not so much that, tas are too low. Its that our tax system is inefficient. And whatever we do, whatever changes we make, theyre fought likely to raise as much revenue as the government is counting on. There are all sorts of ways, when you hit the upper income households, there are all sorts of ways to avoid higher taxes. Thanks, lou. Thanks, mark. Thank you. When we come back, i. C. E. And nyse deal talks. A merger could come as soon as this morning. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Omnipotent of opportunity. You know how to mix business. With business. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above. And still pay the midsize price. I could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. Yes, you could. Go national. Go like a pro. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Good morning, and welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im top story, ice and the nyse are in merger talks. The transaction is expected to be funded a third by cash, onethird by cash and the remainder by stocks. The number puts the price tag at backside 8 billion. And as this story as david was talking about last night, ended up about 6 above where it has closed yesterday. I. C. E. Was indicated higher, as well, on this news. A few names to watch today in the stock market, including herbalife. Hes shorting the stock calling the company a pyramid scheme. Today he will be outlining his argument. Herbalifes Michael Johnson responding on cnbc. We think they misunderstood our plan. They said we were recruiting and paying for recruiting. We dont do that. Thats what a typical scheme is that weve been addressing. We dont have that issue. Im going to be sitting down with bill ackman later today after his presentation for an interview that youll be able to see during the fast money halftime report. Shares up for plaquerock unusually today. Peter joins us from the jeffries Trading Floor today in new york. Peter, you have a lot of different scenarios, but the most likely scenario that you think is that the blackberry fails, there is no acquisition on this and the cash firm continues . Yeah. We think it costs about 1 billion to launch these devices. If successful, we think an access possibility goes up. If not, we see the Company Become much, much smaller a year from now. How do you measure success . And when we we know on this . Well probably know around around may next year. Success would be call it 3 to 5 Million Units in the First Quarter out of the gate and 5 Million Units plus after that. To us, that would be a very good launch. For anybody who is actually a blackberry user still, what do you say about these things . If theres a takeover, does that mean blackberry continues . Whats the longterm outlook for the company . I would suspect that if youre a blackberry user, theres very little chance that your service is going to be cut off. That is a key cash flow driver for the company and anybody who would want to buy isnt concerned about the cash flow stream. If you are a user, youll be able to upgrade to these new devices, if youre a consumer, anyway, pretty easily. For a business, it will be more difficult. Despite all of this is thoughts, they risk reward scenarios that dont look all that great for reading through what youre saying on this, you did upgrade rim from an underperform to a hold and you raised the price target from 10 to 5. Why is that . Well, when we first had our underperform rating, the chance of a success or the support we thought was virtually nil. And then in early november, we started doing carrier survey work around the world. Was stunning. We came back with 40 or 50 carriers saying they were going to actively push this device, they were going to support it, provide comarketing dollars and really key in store placement. So me and to us, that was very, very, you know, surprising. And so that caused us to upgrade the shares and upgrade our target. Shares were up 17 last week. Who would be the most likely acquirer . Samsung and microsoft would be the two most likely. Microsoft because win 8 continues to struggle and samsung because theyre trapped in the google ecosystem. At some point, they fear google could compete directly with them. What would be a likely takeover price . If its successful, the takeover price will be a lot higher, call it 20 to 30. If theyre under successful, well probably see a takingover in the under 10 range. If you are convinced that somehow the blackberry ten software is not up to snuff for whatever reason, why would a samsung or somebody else want to buy it and try to compete with android, which youre saying is clearly the better operating system from what i gather . Well, no, actually, we think bb 10 is a solid operating system. Whats neat about it is it can emulate android apps. Youll have your android apps, about 300,000, available and youll have your 10,000 bb apps. It does provide advances that current android oss do not. Okay. Peter, thank you. We appreciate it. My pleasure. By the way, this programming note for you. Research in motions ceo will join us live on squawk tomorrow at 7 30 eastern to him. If you have comments, questions about anything you see here on squawk, squawk cnbc. Com is the address. Coming up, tis the season for lastminute holiday deals. Coming up, our next guests are making their way to the set and making their way in business to help you find theco founders of hockster. Theyre going to join us on the set. To offering you tdd 18003452550 lowcost Investment Options tdd 18003452550 like our Exchange Traded funds, or etfs tdd 18003452550 which now have the lowest tdd 18003452550 operating expenses tdd 18003452550 in their respective tdd 18003452550 lipper categories. Tdd 18003452550 lower than spdr tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 and even lower than vanguard. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 that means with schwab, tdd 18003452550 your portfolio has tdd 18003452550 a better chance to grow. Tdd 18003452550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd 18003452550 commissionfree, from your schwab account. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 so lets talk about saving money, tdd 18003452550 with schwab etfs. Tdd 18003452550 schwab etfs now have the lowest operating expenses tdd 18003452550 in their respective lipper categories. Tdd 18003452550 call 18004schwab tdd 18003452550 or visit schwab. Com tdd 18003452550 to open an account today. Tdd 18003452550 funding is easy tdd 18003452550 with schwab mobile deposit. Tdd 18003452550 investors should consider tdd 18003452550 carefully information tdd 18003452550 contained in the prospectus, tdd 18003452550 including investment objectives, tdd 18003452550 risks, charges, and expenses. You can obtain tdd 18003452550 a prospectus by visiting tdd 18003452550 www. Schwab. Com schwabetfs. Tdd 18003452550 please read the prospectus tdd 18003452550 carefully before investing. Tdd 18003452550 boproductivity up, costs down, thtime to market reduced. Those are good things. Upstairs, they will see fantasy. Not fantasy. Logistics. Ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems. Ups . Ups. Not fantasy . Who would have thought . I did. We did, bob. We did. Got it. Welcome, everybody. Right now you can see futures up about 45 points for the dow jones. In the headlines, Bernie Madoffs younger brother is expected to face a judge today for his role in the multibillion dollar ponzi scheme. Apparently victims of this scheme are lining up to watch this happen today. New social media app hucsster allowing users to flag items for when they go on sale. Explain what this is for those who havent downloaded the app and need to go and do it right now. Hucster is a platform that tracks specific items across your favorite retailers and let us you know when they want. So theres something i want, like a vitamix blender, you would put it in and it would track it at the cheapest retailer . Well, we would track it for coupons, promotions at your favorite retailer and anytime the price drops, we would let you know about it. What is the hottest item of the Holiday Season . There was a vest from j. Crew that recently sold out, but you probably probably 30 off or so. We had about, i dont know, a couple maybe a couple dozen or three dozen for a novelty item. Men or women . It was for women. It was black and white herringbone. It was a cool vest. Do retailers like what you all have doing or do they hate it . I would think, great, you bring in traffic, but you have people waiting like vultures until they come and get it. We were former retailsers ourselves. So we met at j. Crew. Were helping solve for the abandon shopping cart. Retailers want to sell these products to you and if its too expensive, youre not going to get pushed into it. But i might buy it if i really want it, but if i know you guys are telling me when the sales are, theres no way im going to pay full price. Were not going to guarantee inventory. If you really want it within youll have to get it. Have we got there yet or no . Yeah. Were gathering from really interesting data, especially around the holidays. Certain items that we would think never go on sale, like your uggs boots, right, you can get a great deal on those. So were starting to really understand where are the hot items that, you know, you really can wait on or there might be somewhere you just buy right away or your going to miss your chance. Do you guys do this with help from the retailers or do you have boughts that search the sites . Right now were searching the sites. Retails have started reaching out to us because they find it as a way to get their interested partys attention. Right now, nobody is opening their emails so they can we get their attention about whats going on out there. Interesting. Hottest retailser right now or one or two is that is a loser that you didnt expect . Theres some really cool ecommerce suppliers. Ason is a Popular Online retailer for womens items. Do you know about that . No. Huckster, youre going to give it a good connotation with this, right . Yeah,st huckster, were the modern day retailers bringing this to your inbox. You are made for these types of interviews where theres a like you knew about the place where theres a place with the Airline Tickets where the prices go down . Yeah. Its called forecast. You know about these things. I do. And youve heard of this . I have. And they talked about this on television. On our show. They might have talked on the today show, as well. Its kind of cool, i have to admit. It reminds me sort of of groupon, but not really. No. No, not at all. Do you do this for all products . All product across the board. Its not just retail. I want this. Its not specifically apparel and accessories, but were seeing home goods, electronics. I like the uggs idea. I didnt know they ever went on sale. Yeah, nordstroms. Good to know. Happy holidays, guys. Were going to have you back when you get the forecasting going on. Then i really want to know. Do mens uggs ever go on sale . Yes. Do you have a pair . I wore them to the christmas party. You were in jamaica. You wore mens uggs. You wore your macrame jeans, too . What was left of them. Making headlines, check on the uggs for me, will you . Huckster will track them for you. Thats what im talking about. These are getting ive worn them so much, tier getting worn out. Making headlines this morning, google agreeing to sell set top tv boxmaker motorola home to aris group. The price tag is 2el 4 billion in stock and cash. The shares jumped on the news after hours. And a swiss newspaper reports that roach may have reached a deal to buy alumina for 66 a share. The agreement hasnt been finalized yesterday. In septembers roachs 51 share bid was called woefully in adequate by the ceo of illunima. And still to come on squawk, harry washington, his advice to washington on how to rise above and settle the fiscal cliff plus, u. P. S. Expected today to be one of the busiest for the year for shipping. Were going to have a live report from a package sorting nalt. Then, at 8 00 eastern, aman whose name is synonymous with the flat tax. Steve forbes will be our taxmaker of the hour. Its a new day. If youre a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. The only underarm treatment for low t. Thats right, the one you apply to the underarm. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. Axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. Women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. Report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur. Tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. Do not use if you have prostate or breast cancer. Serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer; worsening prostate symptoms; decreased sperm count; ankle, feet, or body swelling; enlarged or painful breasts; problems breathing while sleeping; and blood clots in the legs. Common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. See your doctor, and for a 30day free trial, go to axiron. Com. Sfx sounds of african drum and flute look whos back. Again . Its embarrassing its embarrassing we can see you carl. We can totally see you. Come on youre better than this. All that prowling around. Yeah, youre the king of the jungle. Have you thought about going vegan carl . Hahaha you know folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. How happy are they jimmy . Happier than antelope with nightvision goggles. Nice get happy. Get geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. [ penelope ] i found the best cafe in the world. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What else . Sleigh bells ring are you listening in the lane snow is glistening one of you, too . Yeah. Beautiful sight were happy tonight we are still getting mileage out of kayla tausches piece about how some companies are aging you visually so that youll start so that youll start saving up for plastic surgery. I guess. Anyway, they did andrew yesterday. Then on kudlow last night we did a benjamin, was his name benjamin button . Yeah, yeah, yeah. They showed me currently already aged and then they went back and showed 20 years ago on cnbc. But then they also, which was not nice, because you were worried about the lighting. Look what they did heres know at 107. But they did i cant believe you guys let them do this to you. Im kind of smiling at the beginning but by the end, see, if they start casting for just focus on that 107 like a zombie. If they start casting for walking dead. You think you got a shot . Absolutely. Look at that. Now the reason that i even bring up walking dead is in the last week, ive seen a discovery on discovery tv channel a a real the serious look at, that they do things, if theres some airborne virus or something got out of a lab or something that something similar to a Zombie Apocalypse is possible. And weve got the end of the world tomorrow so people are talking about, you know, that a zombie situation, and i just want to be im ready. Because i know what ill look like. Andrew, did you see your pictures, too . I saw them briefly. Did you hear what i asked, at 107, will you have learned anything from me by then . Probably not. I still dont think probably not. You already know everything. All i know is too big to fail. If kayla comes near me with a camera, im running. You look distinguished. Sort of a distinguished zombie. By 107 its kind of tough. The skin really if im if i look like that when im 107, im okay. Are you worried about how you look at 107 . No, im not. Im not either. Im ready to look like anything. Notice, by the way, we both have hair at 107. I will have hair. I will have hair. I will find a way. So funny. Its going to be this color, too. It will be. Fun story, 18 million theft victim was a canadian mabel syrup cartel. Great story in the nthe new yo times this morning about a theft of maple syrup. How do you steal syrup . On trucks. Its an inside job. Its a huge commodity business and theyve been stealing it over time, literally siphoning off syrup. You always pick articles in the New York Times. You always do. I do the wall street journal. I do the New York Post. No, you you saw me looking at the cover of the New York Post this morning. Yeah, i did. For all the wrong reasons. Leering at it. Do you have a deal with ponch to continually look at to plug the New York Times stories youre saying . Yeah. No, i dont. But i thought it was a good story and it is a good paper. Pinch . Its ponch. Thats the guy on chips. Okay, im sorry. All right, you know, i was looking at a story out of the usa today eric estrada. About how the military has all of this video, and the air force is now seeking some help to go through all this video and kind of get a better idea of what they actually have and theyre reaching out to espn and other experts in video analysis. Of what . A flood of video footage thats been coming through and theyre reaching out to people from drones and stuff . From drones that are flying over. So they have tons and tons of footage but they need to have better ways to analyze all this footage. Nobody can figure out what it is and how do you do anything with all this intelligence. Yeah. You have all this intelligence, the way of interpreting, figuring it out and taking all this video and really finding a way to scan through it. Its not like documents. Its amazing what we know about geography. Im shocked at those gps devices when i see them. I mean its how good they are . Yes. Like scary. You can almost watch people in their homes. You can, in fact, on our street, weve had the google truck drive down our street, matt saw it out in front when he was out in the driveway and the google truck comes by with the cameras, and scans everything youre doing, so you can wind up thats how that guy wound up like naked. I have a friend with a mini drone, they now sell for 280. What . Its like a helicopter thing, has two cameras, hooks up to your ipad or iphone and you can fly it in the air, fly it down the street. And spy on all of your neighbors . You can do whatever you want with it. You can be a peeping tom. That is really creepy. Theyre disrupters. Well get them on the show. But you need to fly it. You need to fly it. Because you know those helicopters that you buy to fly, they act like theyre really fun and easy to use. No, no, no, this thing really flies. Theyre like sflieing a real helicopter. Not easy. They shouldnt fly. We are approaching the top of the hour so were going to slip in a quick break. This mornings top stories, including david faber on talks of an nyse eyes deal all coming up. Plus hes a restructuring specialist. And a former member of the president s Auto Task Force. So how would harry wilson get uncle sam to turn around the car, and keep it from plunging off the fiscal cliff . Find out next. To the best vacation spot on earth. all the gulf it doesnt matter which of our great states folks visit. Mississippi, alabama, louisiana or florida, theyre gonna love it. Shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. Thanks, karen. Love your mississippi outdoors. I vote for your florida beaches, dawn. Bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. Were having such a great year on the gulf, weve decided to put aside our rivalry. Now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. The beaches and waters couldnt be more beautiful. Take a boat ride, go fishing or just lay in the sun. Weve got coastline to explore and wildlife to photograph. And theres world class dining with our world famous seafood. So for a great vacation this year, come to the gulf. Its all fabulous but i give florida the edge. Right after mississippi. You mean alabama. Say louisiana or theres no dessert. This invitation is brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Wheeling and dealing. The it least breaking news on that deal that could shake up the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Talking to avid the fiscal cliff at a standstill. I hope the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. Right now, what the country needs is for us to compromise. Former white house chief of staff john podesta is here on what both sides need to do to rise above. And joining us this morning is maeva adviser ceo harry wilson. Get his take on the big business topics of the day as the second hour of squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody, welcome back to squawk box on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. In studio with us this morning, sharing his thoughts on the fiscal cliff, the economy and other topics is harry wilson. Harry, by the way, is also a yahoo board member and former Auto Task Force member under president obama. Great to have you here. Great to see you. Got a lot to talk about including whats been happening with the futures. Yesterday we did see a downdraft in the markets. Dow was down by almost 100 points. This morning the dow futures are rebounding, up by about 45 points above fair value. In our headlines this morning a deal may be announced as soon as today that would merge New York Stock Exchange parent Nyse Euronext and Intercontinental Exchange. Our david faber reports that the deal on the table would value nyse and euro next at about 35 a share. Davids going to have more in just a moment. And the fiscal cliff battle that is expected to escalate today with the house set to vote on speaker boehners socalled plan b. That would keep taxes from rising for people with incomes below 1 million in the event that no fiscal cliff deal is struck. The president has said he will veto this bill if it passes congress. The seasons first winter storm, draco is slowly making its way across the country. Its dumped more than a foot of snow in the rockies and drivers in iowa have been told to stay off the roads until noon today. Also disruptions in air service are expected in chicago today because of high winds and poor visibility. And our newsmaker of the morning, ice in talks to buy the nyse. David faber broke the story. Thanks, andrew. Late yesterday, of course, we started to get word that we might very well get a deal this morning. This morning we may be, who knows, as little as not too many minutes away from an official announcement based on what im hearing. Again, to go over the terms, it would appear that ice is going to acquire the New York Stock Exchange in a cash and stock deal. About twothirds of it will be shares of ice. Onethird of it will be cash, if you back in to the map you more or less get Something Like a ratio of 0. 17 or so shares of ice, throw in about 11. 25 or so of cash, again, not exact science here, and that will get you to right around that 33 level that my sources indicate is the price that has been agreed to. Unclear whether both boards have officially signed off on the deal. But, again, as of last night, it was very, very close to being inked and being approved by those boards of directors. Then we move into questions that we dont have the full answers to as yet, until we actually see a press release, should we get one. One would anticipate that there be significant synergies between these two companies, of course, given their product mix, and how many can be taken out of the business. One cost i doubt will be taken out, probably right here. We all know the politicians get very, very upset if you talk about anything that has to do with the floor of 9 New York Stock Exchange. Guesses are that will remain open. But again, well see in terms of management, structure. Ice has been built into a Larger Company than the nyse. And Market Capital closer to 9 billion, to the 5. 5 billion at the nyse and putting that company in a position to do this. Its interesting when you look at the ebitda of both companies, theyre virtually identical. But it is the multiple ebitda that ice gets to put it in a position to buy the nyse. I wonder if we get the deal at 33 how shareholders will react. Its a significant premium, no doubt about that, to yesterdays price on nyx, which was right around 24 a share. But not that much above its 52week high, and so one wonders what the take will be on the part of investors. Ice shares, though, for their part, well see how they perform, they may go up if we get really significant cost synergies there. Although they would seem to be taking on perhaps a lower growth business, and the multiple might come down, so that may be something of a push. Again, a number of questions, andrew, that we have as we always do at this point. Were waiting. We may hear something. My guess is as soon as the next half hour but well just have to wait and see. Of course, this will be a powerhouse across so many different products. Interest rates, fixed income, equity and stock desieve riffs, commodities, energy, all of that trading united under one brand with a headquarters in atlanta . David, my big question, i dont know if we know the answer is, duncan, ceo of New York Stock Exchange euronext, what happens to him in all this . Not scleer. Not clear. You know, we know hes been committed to trying to figure out a future for this company. Two years ago negotiating a deal, faced headwinds but he doesnt seem to have stopped doing that. Not clear what his role will be. Will he continue to run the New York Stock Exchange operations of the combined company . Its possible hell be the chairman. From what im hearing he will not be ceo of the combination. That will be, my guess, is mr. Spreker, as you might expect, given they are the acquirer and hes been building this company through acquisition for some time. David, did ice consult with you guys on the set of squawk on the street about whether this was i mean theyre basically taking over the big board, right . And thats you know, do you get a premium for the new set down there or anything . They didnt even ask you about that. Are you going to theyre not going to have my seat. Are you going to tender . Are you in favor of the deal or they didnt even ask, did they . They have not how about carl . What about carl . Does he care . I dont know what carls opinion is. He is up there, getting prepared, as he always does, for the show. I didnt have a chance to ask him. Carl is very focused in the morning. Wonder if theyll change that sign behind you which says Nyse Euronext. No, theyre not going to change that. I dont know the name of the new company. Will they go with ice and have the nyse . They Congress Figure out a name with deutsche boras. Ice baby. Whatever happened to him . Hes become a realtor, hasnt he . Didnt he was just on cnbc. Didnt we have him on and he talked about real estate. Realtor. Realtor. Is he selling Nuclear Sites . You know. David, got twice, david, in less than 12 hours. Youre a little punchy, i would assume. No. Im all right. I look 107 but im all right. I look very pale here. I am going back to get a little talk with those guys at ice were going to work with them. Atlanta, really . Atlanta is pretty cool. Although that is where the whole Zombie Apocalypse started. Wasnt worked out that well for cnn. Its also where vanilla ice started his career. In atlanta . This is all coming together. Its all coming together. All right, david. It all makes sense. I get it now. All right, faber. See you later. Can washington compromise in the next 11 days to keep the country from going over the fiscal cliff . Joining us this morning our guest host for the next two hours, harry wilson, chairman and ceo of naeva advisers and is a former Senior Adviser to president obamas Auto Task Force. Great to see you, harry. Thanks, joe. Good day to have you here. Youre a genius restructuring type guy. You have nothing to do with diamonds, thats harry winston. Get that out of the way first. Looking at the fiscal cliff, you had some interesting comments. Boehner had a much better deal for his side last year, right . Right. Was that really 31 . Remember simpsonbowles is 31. And the president couldnt go all the way there. The republicans north of 31. And i think most people think a deal could have been done in that zip code. What is this deal now . In reality because everyones got there it drives me nuts when i hear one side say its this much in cutting. One side says we are giving away so much and the other side says you havent even begun to negotiate with us. Whos telling the truth . I think the best Case Scenario is 2 1 2 to one if you include all the sequester cuts and all the cuts talked about, none of which are really enforceable. Both sides have talked about scaling back the sequester. The absolute best Case Scenario is 2. 51 and i dont think it gets there. If we go over the cliff . If you get the billion dollars of spending cuts which people are talking about. If me meet somewhere in the middle. Plus the sequester. Where is the president right now, 2. 51 . If you include the full sequester. Which i think wont actually come through. A trillion dollars in cut . The trillion and a half from last year plus the trillion that hes talking about now. Right. So that would be the 2. 51. Thats dependent upon all these things actually coming through. What is boehner whats his . If you look at it. Theyre only a couple hundred billion apart in revenue, so its actually not that far apart. Killed it last time. Were at least 400 apart this time. Two different things. One is whats the probability of a deal . The other is, is it a good deal . The deal probably is pretty decent in either last week of december, more likely the first couple weeks of january. The worst part about it, my opinion, its a bad deal. Why is it a bad deal . Doesnt deal enough with spending. Take the absolute best Case Scenario were putting between 3 and 5 of projected spending over the next ten years. Of the future spending. Which is increased spending. Right, exactly. So its all just paring back increases . Basically, yeah. Were still growing faster than the rate of inflation on spending. And thats when you factor in entitlements and nonentitlement spending. I look at it and say there is so much more we could do on the spending side today, before we ever get to dealing with the increases. And so i think, you know, could you cut 4 trillion in spending over the next ten years . I think thats easily doable. I came up with a list from a bunch of sources, the New York Times. Tom coburn, the total 2 trillion. Without a lot of work and without a lot of pain. And so, the problem is that boehners allowed himself to get into this debate where its really defined much more about the president s agenda, which is more focused on tax increases, than really addressing the spending problem. You know, i can argue from the president s side. And heres the argument. We arent coming close to raising enough money to fund the entitlements that weve already promised people. So were going to have to cut back on the promises that weve made, and still raise revenue just to make good on on those scaledback promises. And people want a lot of these entitlements. When you ask them, they say i want Smaller Government but they want all these entitlements. We voted for we voted for more government and bigger entitlements. You know i dont think we did. I think mitt romney didnt make the case, look, basic problem was we had a guy as a republican nominee who was a good person, and a Good Business person, and a terrible president ial candidate. And he, despite the fact that obama had all the Economic Statistics stacked against him, romney didnt make the case to the American People. So you dont think that how do you read an election, you can swing it any other way, but how do you ever say you have a mandate on something if youre going to say when you win the election, it doesnt mean what you thought it was going to mean. Because we had a lot of people telling us ahead of time, look, this election is going to be a deciding factor. This election is going to tell us something about what the people want. Two things. One, remember, i said i thought romney was going to lose all the way through. Because i thought he was doing a terrible job making his case for his side. My side. So, thats one piece of it. So im not surprised by the outcome. But it was really his failure on the merit was the case. The other piece of it is, i mean, ultimately, the president did win decisively in the electoral college. Republicans kept the house. They lost barely any ground, even though they picked up a huge number of seats in 2010 of freshman that should have been vulnerable in 2012. And in the senate we barely lost any ground despite the fact we had crazies saying terrible things in different parts of the country in seats that should have been winnable. I think the house and senate were effectively tied, and the president was a more appealing and better candidate than romney. But again, if the elections arent deciding factors, what are . What is . When do you ever get to say that this is a vote in the way the country wants to go . When you can get two houses to vote and then sign it into law. But do you think there are some other issues and we talked about whether the party needs to have a bigger tent. Even time magazine. Whether thats whether the issues, as opposed to the person. See, of course, the parties would have a bigger tent. That wasnt my opinion the deciding factor. Yes the parties should do a much better job of reaching out to people who arent white men. How could romney have been more appealing . He didnt put himself out to explain his case, and the people that worked for him were, i think, totally incompetent. I had dealings with a couple of them trying to get them on here, and, like a lot of people they saw that first debate and said, who is this guy . Never seen him before . Why had no one seen romney before that, because of these people running him . Because they had a theory of the case that the election was only about indictment of the president. Only indictment of the president. Thats all they need to run on and many people said, for years, that thats just not true for an incumbent president thats reasonably well liked. And so he never made the case, maybe in the first debate you dont see it as americans saying, i like what im getting from the government, im willing to pay for it . I think theyre definitely not saying that. They might say, i like what im getting from government i want the 2 to pay for it. Thats what i like, they brag about getting 51 want to raise taxes on the 2 . Wow, youre great sales people. How did you do that . You got people to agree to raise taxes on somebody else to fund your benefit. Right. Thats wonderful. Anyway, checking the futures. Right now, and taking the markets. We had a rough session yesterday, well get back maybe half of it. Up next, more on the possible ice nice tieup. Ice nice . And then the midwest getting ready for drakeo. An update on how this huge vampire how this huge snowstorm, sorry, will affect your Holiday Travel time. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. So we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, inbranch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our teams have the information you want when you need it. Its another reason more investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Ray deal may be announced as soon as today that would urge the Nyse Euronext and Intercontinental Exchange. Our david faber has been reporting on this deal. He has been reporting the deal on the neighbor would value nyse euro nex at about 3 a share. We are looking for news any time today. Stake a look at the stock chart. Joe you were on the air when it happened. He called in, and here it is. News pending. They did pulse it for news pending. Wonder what that news might be. Well see how it affects squawk on the street. Thats what im thinking about. How it affects us. Harry wilson is our guest host today. Harry one of the things weve been trying to figure out is the situation with gm. The news that the treasury is going to be scaling back, or getting rid of a lot of these shares over the next couple of months. That gm is saying the premium for us, but its still not enough money to make treasury whole on these numbers again. Whats your sense after someone who went through all of this on the Auto Task Force . I think ultimately the governments goal is always to get out. And this is, in the zip code of the original i thought it would take up to five years. Were 3 1 2 years into it. And so i think its a good thing netnet. The shape of it is that unfortunately it will leave a shortfall ultimately for treasury. Probably when its all said and done somewhere between 9 billion and 12 billion. The Unemployment Insurance costs for the people who would have been lost their jobs had gm not been restructured and saved would have greatly exceeded that. Really . So just on that alone. Okay, i havent heard anybody say Something Like that. I think the most commonly accepted number is 1 million jobs for failure of the Auto Industry. And unemployment benefits, 300 million a week. Its about 12 billion so just that alone is the gm cost. But how much in future taxes dont accrue to the treasury, because how much i saw this in your notes. How much do future taxes get paid by the employees . Then you can add that back in. Im not including any of that stuff. What did we decide the tax loss carried for . I dont remember. Goes out years. And they can ford, gm gets to compete against ford without paying any taxes ever again. Thats the nature of having. But they never went bankrupt. Gm did. Yeah, but ford was they went through this ford was smart enough to avoid it. This the equivalency of what is aig for example. Yeah. Thats a company that didnt go bankrupt. Okay. But it was sort of governments organized bankruptcy. Which is slightly different. I disagree. I disagree with that. You dont think theres any moral hazard cost to it in absolutely. And then also the senior debt holders. Do we know senior debt holders actually by law are going to be protected ever again now . Again, thats a great mix, right. There was an issue at chrysler and gm, got paid 117 cash. Got paid in cash even though a bank trading in the 40s senior debt at gm, senior debt holders were subordinated to the union . No, Senior Security creditors were paid 117 cash in gm. Bond holders with the Union Retiree claims the subordinated dead holders were even with who did you say . Parapasu. Parapasu . Thats so rich. What are the calories . Tiramisu . Parapasu. I dont need that. But then that deal was improved. When would you have sold if you were in charge . So, if you were purely a Financial Investor you wouldnt have sold yet. Look for the full rebound of the Auto Industry and great visibility in the economy. And of course the government wanted to get out much sooner than that. And so that was the balance of treasuries and striking ever since 2009. I think that the i think gm a year ago i was on. I said gm was dirt cheap. Stocks up 38 since then. I still think its really cheap. So i think you see a stock somewhere between the mid 30s. That would have been a time. They still got 15 months to sell, right . They got a little optionality in the time. You think its going to run . This announcement unto itself creates an overhang. I think the overhangs been there since day one. But if you know its coming off. It was up two bucks yesterday. But they were talking about 300 million is about 15 of the stock outstanding. People say that government stayed out of gms hair but i nowakerson, which was chafing, couldnt pay anyone, couldnt bring in talent. Because he had to clear the government. It was hard to manage gm. I think thats true. I think certainly acerson and the team would like to get they cant even say how much they want. But it wasnt so much a government getting involved in any decisions, which wasnt happening. It wasnt involved in the initial selection. What it was was t. A. R. P. Related restructuring which could be a lot lower than 27 if the government was involved in the decision. Absolutely. No doubt. Lets get you a few names to watch today, including herbalife. Bill acer man says hes shorting the stock calling the company a quote, pyramid scheme. Ackerman plans to outline. Herbalife responding. We think they misunderstood our plan. We dont do that. Thats what a typical scheme youve been addressing and others have had concern with. We dont have that issue. Im going to be sitting down with bill ackman today after his presentation today in new york city. Youll be able to see during the fast money halftime report. Google agreeing to sell a set top tv boxmaker called motorola home. The price tag is 2. 4 billion in cash and stock. Era is a georgia based equipment maker and the shares jumped after hours. When we return a major winter storm wreaking havoc across the Central Plains. Draco will make Holiday Travel difficult. An update right after this. And then its your tools of the trade. Oil, gold and more as we get ready for another day on trading on wall street. Squawk will be back. [ male announcer ] ive seen incredible things. Otherworldly things. But there are some things ive never seen before. This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. And at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. Come to the winter event and get the mercedesbenz youve always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 glk350 for 399 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What el im meteorologist reynolds wolf. Welcome back to msnbc squawk box. You have this area of low pressure, trailing cold front. Everything is going to be driving eastward. Weve been seeing some scattered showers and storms, even some tornado warnings in the southern half of the storm. Its going to be the top half where youre going to see the rain showers and snow showers across parts of the corn belt. Stay tuned here at c innocence and well keep you up to speed on all of this. Take a look at the snow fall totals. Des moines anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of snowfall. Even more near green bay. I got to tell you, in chicago where theyve been snowfree for quite awhile, 290 days they could finally see some snow, 3 to 6 in the northern suburbs, downtown about 2 to 4. Big picture today, again the rain is going to continue for much of the eastern third of the country, with the exception of the eastern seaboard. Again you can expect partly cloudy skies, new york with a high of 42 degrees. Much cooler air behind the system, and snow pile up. Atlanta possibly thunderstorms there. Miami 83 degrees and partly cloudy skies. Meanwhile for the center of the u. S. , you can expect drier air in the central and Southern Plains and back out west, again, more snow. Thats a view of what you can expect. More updates coming up. Youre watching squawk box on cnbc. Welcome back to squawk box, everybody. In our headlines this morning, we have a plethora of economic numbers for investors to ponder about this morning. In about an hour well be getting the labor departments weekly report on initial jobless claims, along with the final estimate of Third Quarter gdp. At 10 00 eastern time we have three reports that are out. The december Philadelphia Fed index, the november index of leading economic indicators, and november existing home sales from the National Association of realtors. And the house is set to vote today on Speaker John Boehners plan b bill, which keeps bush era tax cuts in place for those making less than a Million Dollars. That is designed to keep rates from rising if no fiscal cliff deal is reached. The president has already said that he would veto that bill. Obviously these talks on how to avert the fiscal cliff have at least seemed like they are stalling at this point. Joining us right now to talk more about it is john podesta, former white house chief of staff and chairman of the center for american progress. Our guest host today is harry wilson, he is maeva Group Chairman and sea. John, welcome to the program. Thank you for joining us. Good morning, becky. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you. Are we correct in our assumptions that things look to be stalling out a little bit, at least from all the rhetoric weve heard on both sides . Yes, really actually quite incredible. Because i think we all woke up monday and looked like there was progress being made over the weekend. Continued progress being made on monday. They looked like they were coming together and all of a sudden, you know, they did a uturn and decided to have these votes today which i think makes the whole thing much more complicated. You know, john, youre a former chief of staff, id like you to put on that hat for a moment, and if youre the person sitting in the white house, how do you salvage this at this point . Well, look, i dont think the president can chase the republican leadership, because theyve, you know, ive decided to kind of jump in to the volkswagen and race around the Capitol Plaza for awhile. I think theyre just going to have to go through these votes and then see whether boehner is serious about coming back to the table. The president put a very serious offer on the table, one that i think has, you know, got some criticism from his own base and his own allies. But one that was quite serious involving entitlements and coming down on the revenue number. And now its up to boehner to try to restart these talks, if the president chases him i think it will just reinforce bad behavior. John, you could say the same thing about leader boehner, though. That he has put an offer on the table that has infuriated part of his base, as well. Obviously we knew that both parties were going to have to be alienating some of the people that were far left and far right to reach any sort of a compromise, because there are people in both parties who dont want to see compromise. But, was it a mistake i agree with that, becky. And that might have been a good point on monday. But thats not relevant today, when hes putting tax plan on the table that only raises 300 billion, 69 of the benefits go to people making over a Million Dollars. Thats not a serious offer. But, john, it may not be a serious offer. But my question is, is it a mistake for the president to come out with his first plan, his very first plan that was something that was laughed at at the table by people who thought they were in serious talks at that point. Did we start too far apart to get to a point where we can reach some sort of an agreement . Well, i dont think so. If you go back to the president s first plan, it was 1. 6 billion. Thats against, you know, theyre moving baselines. Thats against the simpsonbowles target of 1. Billion. So youve spent a lot of time sitting around that table talking about the quality of the simpsonbowles plan. Sure. The president was below that. And now hes come even further below that. To 1. 4, and now looks like 1. 2. But the proposal didnt look like the simpsonbowles plan on both sides. The thing about simpsonbowles is it infuriated all sides because it was so steep in terms of tax increases and so steep in terms of the cuts at the same time. That is the one thing where you can bring everybody together, bring everybody something that they really, really hate. You know, look, you know, i obviously think the policies the president s pursuing are better than the ones boehner is pursuing. If you look at the bam of whos been more serious, i think the white house deserves the credit for having, over the weekend, put a very serious proposal on the stable. And look, boehner looked like he was moving to a serious proposal on his side. And then, as i said, i dont know what happened. But obviously didnt think he could bring his caucus along so hes going to these votes. I guess the charitable interpretation would be that he has to get people to sort of get over the hump of voting for a tax increase and then maybe he could do a big deal. But it is befuddling right now. Right before christmas, with, you know, people are sober as a result of newtown, that theyre going through these political antics today, its crazy. Both sides, harrys going to comment on this. One side says were compromising more. Thats what you just said. The other side says weve compromised more. John, a little whimpering from paul krugman does not make a carping from the left. You forgot about huffington post. Social security sellout. Youre carping from the left hasnt been close to the pressure John Boehners been under. I mean, come on. And just from that fact, we need some real outrage from, you know, patty murray, or you know, all the usual suspects before i believe that the president has given up as much as boehner. You take it from here, okay . Well, john, its harry wilson. One thing thats really interesting to me, theres been a lot made about the fact that the president s proposal is closer to the clinton era tax rates. But very little has been said about the fact that no one is close to the clinton era spending levels. So, as you know, when you were in the white house, the budget was last balanced, spending was around 19 of gdp. Even under the republican proposal its way above that. So how do you get comfortable that well ever get closed to a balance budget when spending is 15 to 20 higher than the last time we were in balance . Harry, i think thats an excellent point. There are two factors there, maybe three. One, very much higher defense topline. Second, the results of the recession are still being felt in the budget today. Receipts are still down. And spending is still up from the high level of unemployment. That will hopefully come back to normal over the next year or two. And then third, weve got a bigger entitlement bill. And so i think you got to try to find restraint in all those areas to bring spending down. I dont think its likely to be down as low as it was in the late 1990s, because of the demographics. And because, quite frankly, i dont think the defense bill is going to be at that level again. But i think that we can bring it down, we need to bring revenue up. And i think we can get on the path to a balanced budget and fiscal discipline. Lets pick that apart, though, a second. Because of the three things you mentioned. One was revenue related, not cost related, right . Well there are costs related to the recession, yeah. Fair enough. On the revenue side. And then at this point, at least, and on the defense side, i believe defense spending at the end of the Clinton Administration was not was around 3. 5 , 4 of gdp, which is about what it is today. And so, the real issue really is the third point, entitlement spending. Which was Something Like 9ish percent of gdp. And now its dramatically higher and is growing higher still. Isnt that fundamentally where the emphasis needs to be on both sides of the aisle . I think most of that is in health care. Most of that is in medicare. There needs to be restraint in medicare. You know, my think tank put out a plan to save 385 billion over the course of a decade in health care savings. How is it doing . Were trying to be serious about that, largely through trying to produce better delivery with more delivery reform, more accountable care, more value based medicine. More special in the Health Care System. We got to bring those costs down. We also kind of we need to expect a little bit more from wealthier medicare recipients. So i think theres got to be balance in the plan. And i think that in the end of the day, thats what the a big deal is all about. Its trying to get, you know, find both sides come together on that. But clearly there has to be revenue in this. John, if the president calls you up, and said, look, i need your advice, where can we give, right now, if we have to give a little to make this all happen, what are the what would you be willing to offer up . Well, you know, i dont think again, i think if youd asked me that question on monday, i might have had a different answer. Today i think he has to just wait to see what those votes are. And then wait for boehner to see if hes ready to come back to the tail. You know, theres been some discussion about, can you move the number from, you know, hes already conup from 250 to 400. Could you go to 450 or 500 . Could you . Could i . You know, i would regret doing that but, you know, i think that the fiscal cliff consequences are, you know, are substantial and would cause a lot of pain in the economy. So i think is 39. 6 locked . Could you go lower . You know, i dont again, they have to put the revenue on the table. If they want to come down from 39. 6, how are they going to do that . Are they going to cap deductions . They are going to, you know, we, again, my the way i would, i think, move is to convert deductions to credit so that you have equal basis across the income spectrum, equal value, as it were, between the wealthy and the middle class with respect to deductions. But i think they have to come forward with some ideas at this point. If the president just keeps chasing them, i think its a, you know, its a hopeless and endless and youre just reinforcing what we see now, which is a stalled process, and stalling out. Hey, john, want to thank you very much for joining us this morning. And hopefully well talk to you again very soon as we continue to kind of see how things play out. Im sorry you guys will have to work through the holidays on this topic. A lot of people will be working through the holidays. But john, thank you very much. Great talking to you. All right. Okay. Coming up were going to have more on the story of the morning. The northern Stock Exchange euronext in talks to sell itself to Intercontinental Exchange. Both stocks are halted this morning pending news. Were going to bring you any developments as they come to us. Plus, at the top of the hour, steve forbes, of forns media, hes going to be joining us for the remainder of the show. Were coming right back. [ male announcer ] how do you trade . With scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. Fully customize it for your trading process from thought to trade, on every screen. And all in real time. Which makes it just like having your own Trading Floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Try our easytouse scottrader streaming quotes. Its another reason more investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Its another reason more investors are saying. So as you can see, geicos Customer Satisfaction is at 97 . Mmmm tasty. And cut very good. People are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. So were taking you behind the scenes. This coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. Its not real. Geicos Customer Satisfaction is quite real though. This computeranimated coffee tastes dreadful. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Someone get me a latte will ya, please . Welcome back to squawk box. Its the busiest day of the year for u. P. S. As consumers race to get packages shipped in time for christmas and avoid paying extra fees. Nbcs Janet Shamlian is at a u. P. S. Hub in louisville, kentucky, with more. Janet . Andrew, good morning. This is crunch time for the delivery industry. Here at u. P. S. , it is the busiest delivery day of the year. Something like 28 million packages. The volume is phenomenal. Thats almost double what they do on a standard business day. And if you break it down by the second, by the second, 300 packages a second. And its been such a mild winter, and here all of a sudden comes a big old winter storm rolling from west to east. Theyve got five fulltime meteorologists here in louisville who have been watching the weather. Theyve already made some contingency plans to ensure that all these packages get to where theyre going. For example, in des moines, iowa, they are going to divert the sort there, from there, where theyre expecting 8 to 12 inches of snow, to here in louisville, where theyve got their massive world court hub. The whole tenor and nature of the Delivery Business has changed with online shopping. Peak period used to be about a month or so. Now its almost compressed down to a week as shoppers who used to be Online Shoppers about 20 of the business is now 40 of the business. And theyre waiting till the last minute 237 so can you still get it there . Absolutely. At least for u. P. S. , if you ship it by tomorrow, nextday air, it gets there on christmas eve. Much different from the past few years. And all these Companies Like amazon and zapos are now setting up distribution hubs closer to world court here in louisville so that they can fulfill customers needs at the last minute. Its pretty phenomenal operation were taking a look at throughout the day today. Andrew, back to you. Thanks, janet. Joining us now to talk more about the boom in ecommerce one of our very special favorites, michael rube rn. Thanks for having me. You are i said say the ceo of kinateic which owns rue la la, fanatic, and shopper. Absolutely. Well, first of all, how is business before we get into i was going to Start Talking about packages that are rolling out . Its been a Great Holiday for ecommerce. And thats been the steady trend every year. Each year gets bigger and bigger. Its been a little bit different this year. Because . Thanksgiving weekend was the biggest percentage of sales on thanksgiving weekend than any other year before. We did 7 of our sales for the year and fanatic is our largest business, thanksgiving weekend. And then the last week or so its been incredible. In aggregate, record sales. What kind of discount are you doing . We discount at fanatics on a very limited basis. Rue la la, another business that we own, gives tremendous value to customers every day and gives great restaurants. But were really, most of the merchandise has been fullprice business. The reason i ask you, we have these guys from hukkster in this morning, they now have a service that literally allows you to put in a product that you want, and they will then go find the cheapest version and tell you whenever anyone lowers the price and i feel like in this new world, everybody just cares about the price. They dont care about the loyalty of actually going to a certain shop over another. Maybe amazon with the amazon prime where youre locked in, that helps them, but after that, im i worry about it. Know, my belief is that there will be a lot less retailers on this planet in other decade than there is today. But fundamentally, if youre selling thirdparty merchandise, which is what most retailers do, youre in a race to the bottom. And with tools like hukkster and so many tools online its so easy to find out where the best price is. So then what happens . Many retailers will go bankrupt. Amazon will capture more share. Online will capture more share. If youre selling thirdparty merchandise youre in a battle to lose. What do you think about the reverse thing thats going on here, which is there are people, ecommerce sites that are deciding they have to be in bricks and mortar one way or another . Im not a big believer in that. Well be more than 1. 5 billion online in our three businesses next year. Growing 30 plus each year. Some of the Fastest Growing Ecommerce Companies in the world. I, its not for me. What do you think . You havent bought anything online ever. You dont even know where the credit card goes. Thats the thing. I try to put it in i got it stuck where the disk goes and it doesnt swipe. Maybe its the card. Sometimes the thing on the back if you went to fanatics, got a playoff jersey how big is that game coming up . Its a big game. For uss, its rg3, rg3 and rg3. Are you a steeler fan . Whats the hottest product . Rg3 is the number one selling jersey in the history. What is . Rg3. We could actually just change the name of the company from fanatics to rg3 jerseys. Whats the people upon a jersey . We sell everything at the profit prices we dont mark things up. Rg3 to put it in perspective has sold, i think, weve sold probably more than 100,000 jerseys this year just of rg3. One player. Its been insane. Have to leave it there. Mike rubin. Whats that . Greco is very jealous of rg3. Is that what his problem is . You see what happened to the giants over the weekend . They didnt do so well. The producer weve got to go. You think its all about rg3. Hes mad. He said lets get out of this interview. Peyton manning is also pretty big. Andrew luck. Thank you, being equal opportunity. Incredible, isnt it . Its big. Theyre doing great. Quarterbacks make a difference. Andy dalton. They sell a lot of jerseys. They do. But they make a difference. I mean im not even going to say it. Sanchez. Say it aloud. I wont say who some of the worst sellers are. Oh, please do. I wouldnt say that. Nobody buys. I could tell you last year put them on sale . Last year, with complete transparency, last year tim tebow was our number one selling jersey. How about this year . He would not be in the top theres 1500 players in the nfl, hes not in the top do those go on discount . Hes not in the top 1400 . Im embellishing. He went from the top to the bottom which is unfortunate. But it is what it is. Wow. Okay. Thank you. We should pick some of those up for if you like you could send them for christmas presents for everybody at your friends, family, people youre not friends with. You cant unload . We actually have 20,000 or 30,000 you ordered too many . We might have. Okay. Well work on it. Thank you. Up next, ice in talks with Nyse Euronext for a possible deal. Well talk to one of the top analysts on the street about what it might mean for the exchanges. I always wait until the last minute. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What e welcome back to squawk box. We have been waiting all morning for news pending on this potential transaction between ice and New York Stock Exchange euronext and now we are going to turn to richard who covers the exchanges. A, first of all, surprise for you that this is happening . Not a complete surprise. I mean, after duncan, you know, tried to do the deutsche bourse deal a year ago you know he believes in bigger, you know, exchanges to trade of a number of different products asset class. Our own david faber reporting that the price tag 33 a share. Are you happy with that . Is that a fair price . Should it be higher . Should it be lower . Yeah, i think its fair for the nyse. You know, i know you talked earlier, the nyse stock i think was closed last night, or around 24 bucks. So its a premium. Theyre facing a lot of headwinds in your honor. You know, whether it be, you know, regulatorywise with changing, you know, rules over there in trading, and taxes, as well as the economic situation. So there are more costs on clearing costs that they have to come up with, as well. So this the price i thought was reasonable for the nyse, if it comes true. And just put this in context. You know, they tried to do this a year ago, with deutsche bourse, then ice, and nasdaq came before. Where does this put nasdaq . Nasdaq, you know, the deal really everybody, or what ice is interested in, is the futures business of the nyse. Everybody thinks the nyse and cash equities but its really the futures business over in europe that the ceo of eyes wants. So in regards to nasdaq, and cash equities, theres still sort of the, lets just say, not the favorite child right now. So i dont really think it does anything for nasdaq. Theyve been pursuing their own strategy to diversify is there a transaction for them . Is there a transaction for the cme. Is there a game of dominoes thats going to happen as a result of this . No. I dont think i say no, because this is a special deal that is very complementary. I dont think youll see other exchanges coming in on the nasdaq. Not on nasdaq. But im just saying more broadly. Because there was talk, as you remember, a year ago, just seemed like every exchange was about to merge and then all of those transactions, for one reason or another, fell apart. Yeah, youre absolutely correct, andrew. Most of them were blocked because of antitrust or a lot of the sovereign, you know, country issues. This you dont have it. But with a lot if someone from outside the u. S. Tried to acquire nasdaq i think there could be some political pressure. Here you get two exchanges that fit complementary. Real quick, duncan niederauer, our sense is he will not be the ceo of the combined company, maybe hes the chairman. Well find out when the news does cross the wire, if it crosses the wire, whats your sense on that in terms of the management of this company . I strongly agree with david on that. I dont think if the deal comes together, i dont think duncan would be the ceo. Jeff speaker is known as probably the most innovative ceo in the Exchange Industry right now. I think duncan, you know, i think that the deutsche bourse deal, i think he wants to leave the nyse a better, bigger place with a its his legacy. But i dont think he will be, if the deal comes, hell be the ceo. Okay. Richard were going to leave it there. We thank you. And we will await this news, and hope it comes soon. Still to come, weve got steve forbes, the editor in chief and chairman of forbes media. Hes going to give us his views on the fiscal cliff. Hes in squawks green room prepping for his appearance as we speak. And then, looking for a lastminute present . I know i am. How about one of these mcclarens . They start at about 225,000. I dont know if my credit card can handle that. The companys managing director joins us with a very big unveil. Squawk is back in two minutes. Tdd 18003452550 lets talk about lowcost investing. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were committed to offering you tdd 18003452550 lowcost Investment Options tdd 18003452550 like our Exchange Traded funds, or etfs tdd 18003452550 which now have the lowest tdd 18003452550 operating expenses tdd 18003452550 in their respective tdd 18003452550 lipper categories. Tdd 18003452550 lower than spdr tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 and even lower than vanguard. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 that means with schwab, tdd 18003452550 your portfolio has tdd 18003452550 a better chance to grow. Tdd 18003452550 and you can trade all our etfs online, tdd 18003452550 commissionfree, from your schwab account. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 so lets talk about saving money, tdd 18003452550 with schwab etfs. Tdd 18003452550 schwab etfs now have the lowest operating expenses tdd 18003452550 in their respective lipper categories. Tdd 18003452550 call 18004schwab tdd 18003452550 or visit schwab. Com tdd 18003452550 to open an account today. Tdd 18003452550 funding is easy tdd 18003452550 with schwab mobile deposit. Tdd 18003452550 investors should consider tdd 18003452550 carefully information tdd 18003452550 contained in the prospectus, tdd 18003452550 including investment objectives, tdd 18003452550 risks, charges, and expenses. You can obtain tdd 18003452550 a prospectus by visiting tdd 18003452550 www. Schwab. Com schwabetfs. Tdd 18003452550 please read the prospectus tdd 18003452550 carefully before investing. Tdd 18003452550 president obama pushing for republicans to accept his debt proposal. Take the deal. But the gop firing back with plan b. The house will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every american. Well ask steve forbes which side will blink first in this high stakes game of political chicken. A deal that could end more than 200 years of independence for the New York Stock Exchange. The latest on merger talks. Are you procrastinating on your Christmas Shopping . The mcclaren automotive is here with some lastminute gift ideas for that special 1 er in your life. The third hour of squawk box starts right now. I want to be a billionaire so bad i love the things i never had i want to be on the cover of Forbes Magazine welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. First in business worldwide, im joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. Amazing. Twelve hours. Twelve hours. I mean as sick as youve ever been and then never felt worse. What would you rather have, the week of feeling sort of crappy . I would take the twelve hours. As someone who was ten days. During those twelve hours. Actually i dont want it. Now that ive gone through these last 10, 12 days. Who would have thought id like pedialyte, by the way. Our guest host this morning, who hasnt had it yet. Shake your hands first . Yeah. Harry wilson. Hes going to have his entire digestive system restructured. He was a member of president obamas Auto Task Force. Hes currently chairman and ceo of the maeva group, and a yahoo board member. Pretty good for yahoo was that your idea . Dans idea. More from him in just a minute. First heres your Morning Headlines from becky. Our david faber reports ice and the nyse are in merger talks with the potential deal valued at roughly 33 a share. For nyse. Shares of Nyse Euronext and Intercontinental Exchange are halted pending news. Hmm, wonder what that news might be . The transaction is expected to be funded a third by cash and the remainder by stocks. The numbers put the price tag at about 8 billion. Possible merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Intercontinental Exchange brings up regulatory questions. Two big exchange mergers in the last year were opposed by regular laters. Joining us is former s. E. C. Chairman harry pitt. The current ceo of cal rama partners. This deal is a little bit different, correct . This one might past with muster . Yes, i think this one has a fairly High Percentage of likelihood of passing. Doesnt raise the same problems because of the antitrust issues that really defeated the last several efforts. But the interesting part here is what it really says about Equities Trading and how that business has really changed drastically over the last decade or so. It does. And also whats happened to the New York Stock Exchange, which has effectively become a wasting asset. Its kind of sad to see what was once the premiere exchange in the world now selling for what is a relatively low price compared to historic value. But it does mean that equity trading is not the wave of the profitable future. That really belongs to derivatives and futures. Is this just something that happened because of whats come about with the machines . The rise of the machines, fewer people on the floor, how margins have been compressed . Is this something you could have seen happening ten years ago no matter what, or something that could have been or should have been done to change that . Well, i think its a combination. Technology has changed the landscape, and i think that before the regulators were able to digest all of the technological changes, the market it place had changed. And trading in volume for equities securities has largely left the New York Stock Exchange, which has become more of a forum for small transactions and dark pools have become the forum for larger transactions. You know, harvey, you raised some interesting questions, at least in the notes that ive seen on this, that when you look at a situation like the ice acquiring a much bigger nyse, what does this tell you and what concerns do you have about this process . Well, i would analogize it to the conundrum of the dog that chases cars, and the question always arising, what would the dog ever do if it caught one . Ice is a limited franchise. Its been growing rapidly, and its obviously well managed. It does not appear to have any real interest in the equities business of the New York Stock Exchange, and so we will see, i think, in subsequent transactions the nyse cut down to size, and the equity business spun off. What do you expect to see from the s. E. C. In terms of how they would weigh in on this deal . I think that the s. E. C. Is going to examine this in terms of ensuring that those who rely on the New York Stock Exchanges regulatory apparatus continue to get the value of that apparatus. But years ago, most of the regulatory functions of the nyse were spun off anyway. And at this point, i think it will likely be a fairly pro forma approval. Harvey, i just want to go back to this idea that youre suggesting ultimately the equity business gets spun off, which means ultimately i imagine the floor gets spun off, since thats what it represents, in so many ways. If it gets spun off, what does that mean . Where does it go . Is that a merger with somebody else . How do you think about that . The difficulty is the most logical buyer, and the one thats been trying to acquire it is nasdaq. The question, i think, is whether the antitrust authorities are going to allow that kind of merger, because it would create a behemoth of equity trading in the u. S. , on exchange markets. So i think the questions going to be, who will buy this equity business . But i think there will be a lot of buyers lining up eventually, particularly from overseas. The value there, though, just on the brand, and the floor, is not there. You would think that would maybe be an enhancement of some sort to somebody else like an ice . The value is in the name. But i think this transaction is the first step in ultimately putting the final nail in the coffin to what that value is. As i said earlier, its been a wasting asset, and this transaction will make that a reality, i think. All right. Harvey, thank you very much for joining us today. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Lets get a check on the markets. Weve been watching u. S. Equity futures and they have been indicated higher this morning after a bit of a selloff yesterday for the dpau. You saw it down by 90plus points yesterday after some big gains on monday and tuesday. This morning you see the dow futures indicated up by about 43 points above fair value. S p also four points higher than fair value. Overseas in asia, a little bit of a selloff in japan. Remember, though, the nikkei did see some Massive Gains the day above. In fact closed above 10,000 on wednesday for the First Time Since all the way back to march. Overnight it ended up closing down by about 121 points, or make that tuesday. Wednesday was the selloff. Where am i . No, no, no, wednesday was the big move up, thursday was the selloff. Theyre 12 hours ahead of us. In europe at this hour you can see that there are barely any gains anywhere across the markets. Relatively flat for both the ftse, the cac, and for the dax, saz well. Again, all of these kind of waiting to see what happens in washington. Things got derailed and boehner today is going to were going to have a vote in the house on the plan b, which would, you know what that would involve, things kind of got retailed this week. I dont think ive talked to steve forbes in quite awhile. Steve, its great to have you on. Everybody knows who you are. A lot of people, you know, since november 6th. Theres usually seven stages that happen to people. Shock and denial and then theres a lot of pain, usually, then theres some anger, theres blame, theres depression is usually number four. But eventually, theres reconstruction, and then finally acceptance and hope. And im just wondering where you are in this stage right now, because im going to posit something to you. John roberts threw obama care back to the american public, said its up to you. Its going to be the law of the land now. Its more of entitlement. Its going to be a huge, additional entitlement. All these other entitlements you could argue that people want these. And that if were going to keep these, were not paying for them now, even if we cut back on them, were still not paying for them. So we need to pay for them, the election decided that. No . The election decided was the public doesnt know where this country should go. You know, steve, thats what john harwood used to tell me about obama care. That they didnt know what was good for them. And its bad when you tell people they dont know what theyre doing because they dont understand it. They on one hand reelected the president. On the other hand they reelected a house of representatives which is against tax increases. And this whole debate right now shows that the republicans lost ground from the getgo after november 6th by letting the democrats define the terms of the debate. When you have Southern Europe going into severe recession, france and germany about to go in recession, japan already in recession, our economys beginning to wobble and will wobble early next year, putting an any kind of tax increase is absolutely preposterous. You havent done something so foolish since the early 1930s when every country raised taxes as their economy started to decline. The republicans should change the terms of the debate. For example, they should have just throw it back at the president , how pass a bill in the house saying you cant use medicare money to fund obama care. Love to see harry reid block a vote on that one. And how about the no changes in benefits for medicare and Social Security. The white house is quite willing to throw seniors under the bus under that. So the republicans should have gone on offense, joe. I cant tell where im going back and looking at which one of these. Youre somewhere between denial and anger i think, still, steve. You have not reached acceptance. Acceptance of hurting an economy i know. Is not what the political bob novak, the great political dont the American People deserve this . They want their entitlements, weve got to pay for them. There are various ways you do entitlements. For example on the Social Security, you dont have to change any benefit formulas, including cost of living for those on the system, about to go on the system. For younger people you can introduce a new system where you own your own personal accounts, turn liability in to an asset. In terms of delivery of health keir. We assume the Current System is going to last forever. We need a new consumer Oriented Approach to health care. The people they elected arent going to do any of these things, steve. Because the primary republican candidate, mitt romney, for all of his great virtues, did not put forth the way Ronald Reagan did sharp alternatives to what the president was proposing. So they got to define it. Maybe we need to but does anyone really here think that its going to help the economy no. Taxes. Maybe we need to see, once again, be reminded of what happens when certain wrongminded policies are actually put into and we end up where we were in 1980. What it is the Republican Party, bob novak, great bob novak, great political journalist, said god put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they dont do that, then they cease to have a useful function. If the Republican Party cant have a progrowth agenda and learn to get learn to put it forth in a way that boehner already gone too far in your view . Hes already gone too far with what hes offered . Since he hasnt put anything positive on the table hes stuck with what he has today, and whats going to rescue the republicans on this is the president refuses to accept their surrender. Its like, you know, on the missouri after world war ii. A lot of people have said that. Hes refusing to accept the surrender of the of john boehner. Ive heard that. Is there ever a time where you think taxes are appropriate . Not when you have a weak economy. So if i told you in three or four years from now the economy was getting better, would you come on this broadcast and say you know what, im willing to go a little higher because i see some of the issues that we have . The way you raise revenue is with a vibrant economy. The tax burden on the american skhe today is now too high. Were stuck in at best a 2 growth mode when he should be growing 3, 3. 5 which we go for 200 years. We see whats happening in europe. We see what higher taxes have done there. Japans been a binge tax increaser, raising their top rate, doubling their National Sales tax which is why the government got thrown out. So why should we put the same poison in our system . I mean we know from the early 80s the way to get an economy moving. And the other things that hasnt been mentioned at all, because its such complicated subject, is Monetary Policy. A stable dollar. When you say the early 80s, and clearly the market went on a run, but if you look at some of the employment issues in this country, there are people who would argue with you, about the early eight if is and what ultimately happened. And the inequality issues that resulted, and the hourly wages that came into im just making, just putting it out there. The United States, the largest developed economy in the world, grew at a 50 rate higher than the developed economies of weste western europe. Absolutely true. Job creation and everything else. In terms of wages, health care is going out of control because we dont have real free markets in health care and thats taking up more and more of the wage bill that normally would have gone in to cash wages. So if you dont get consumerism back in health care, that thing is going to consume more and more. Because we dont have free markets. So you dont think that just to say that if you want to live like europe, if thats what you want, thats what, you know, like you deserve to get it. Thats the conclusion you can come to, with what happened in that election is, okay, youve made your mind up, American People, now heres what youre going to get . Youre not willing to say that . Thats the acceptance that im talking about. No. When you dont have a party that puts forth a good, stark alternative, positive optimistic alternative harry said the same thing. The way reagan did in the early you dont buy you think the country is still center right . People were confused by this campaign is that the exit polls show most americans dont believe in big government. But they dont want to give away any of their entitlements. They want reform of entitlements. In terms of Social Security they dont want to reform someone else. They paid and paid and paid into it they want someone else to pay the taxes. On Social Security and medicare, the deal they were told was, you put in money during your working life, you withdraw it when you retire. The fact the federal government botched the funding of it, in a scandalous way, is not the fault of the American People. A lot of people take a whole lot more out particularly if you look at medicare. Something like four times the amount that you pay into it. That is the crazy way washington financed this thing. And their positive reforms of medicare would deal with that. And instead of trying to take benefits away now, lets change the Health Care System pep but nobody wants to see Something Like, when you ask polling, they go crazy about the idea of raising the retirement age by a year. But you dont have to take benefits away from anyone whos on the system. The key thing is no you dont. Change the system for younger people. But that is the thing that doesnt poll well, either. Which i cant believe. People go crazy when you say youre going to raise the retirement age by a year, 35, 40 years down the road, which is what simpsonbowles did, and people went nuts about that. Its not going to affect anybody. When you go before an audience of young people and ask if they think they really go to have medicare and Social Security. They dont think its going to be there. So if you put reforms saying this is going to give something for you by changing the system today. Look at aarp, though. Aarp, yeah, theyre in bed with the big government. Yeah. So you wont tell me which stage youre at . I tried to bring you to my stage. My stage is acceptance. Because i see whats happening. Ive been through all the other ones. Im staying away from psycho babble and focusing on progrowth. Youre in anger and denial and shock still, i think. Oh, joe, im on goodwill for all men and women. Merry christmas. Okay. Coming up, taking the pulse of holiday retailers. The ceo of Chase Card Services going to tell us how this years shopping season is shaping up. Still ahead, squawk goes high performance. Mclaren is putting us behind the wheel of some race inspired cars that wont leave the show room for less than six figures. Find out whos buying and what the company has planned for its 50th anniversary. [ male announcer ] this is amy. Amy likes to invest in the market. She also likes to ride her bike. She knows the potential for making or losing money can pop up anytime. Thats why she trades with the leader in mobile trading. So shes always ready to take action, no matter how wily. Or weird. Or wonderfully the markets behaving. Which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. Welcome back to squawk box everyone. Take a look for shares of eloqua this morning. This is a Marketing Firm which is currently halted at this point. 17. 92 was the last trade. A little over four months after going public this company is being bought by oracle for 23. 50. The company went public on august 2nd at 11. 50. Total value of the deal is 871 million in cash. Wonder why they didnt want to try to buy that company before the ipo . Maybe wanted to see how it worked out. Lets get a check on holiday retailers. Chase holiday pulse tracks average ticket prices, transactions volumes and Sales Volumes each year. How is 2012 shaping up and where are people shopping . Joining us Chase Card Services ceo eileen serra. Good morning. Its all ecommerce. Thats what we keep hearing . Thats right. It will be chase holiday pulse tracks all of the aggregated purchases from 50 of the top online retailers and look at things like average sales per day, transactions and cost per transaction. What were seeing is continued really strong growth in the online channel. Consumers love to shop, in their homes. And so are we seeing a specific days . We always talk about black friday. Now theres something called green monday. Theres cyber monday. Are those the days . Are we seeing it in different way now . I think what were seeing is those are really strong days, but what you see is the beginning of that week, and the end of the week, its really broadening. So just to give you an example for black friday we started seeing very big uptick in sales on thanksgiving at 6 00 p. M. So its not just friday, its beginning thursday. Same for cyber monday. So bricks and mortar, big loser in all this . You know, not really. You still see continued strength in the brick and mortar stores. Retail federation estimates 4 growth this year, versus online, which is about 12 growth. So i still see, you know, value in both channels. But consumers love the convenience, the ability to price shop and the great deals you get in the online channel. Explain this to me. Average ticket prices continue to go down. While sales volume and transaction volume continue to grow. Whats happening . I think its about one word. Free shipping. If you think about it, in the past, you know, there werent as many Free Shipping offers. And consumers when they start to think about their shopping, you know, a lot of people dont want to pay when they can drive to the store. And more and more retailers have both provided Free Shipping, but also have reduced the threshold with which you get Free Shipping in terms of your purchases. Whats going on there . Is that cutting into margin . Is there a deal theyre baking into the cake with u. P. S. And others . How is that happening . Because i see it all the time. I use it in my own shopping. Im not a retailer so i dont know how they thought about their economics overall. I just think theres such an incentive in creating loyalty in that online channel. Think about it, you shop online. You know a lot of information about that consumer. So im sure retailers factor that into their economics. Last piece of this. The social piece. Im thinking of twitter and facebook and a lot of these deals that you keep seeing. I keep seeing flashing across my screen one way or another. Is it actually working . You know, hard for me to say if its working. What i can tell you is consumers more and more are sharing the offers that they get. So its very common to see a consumer go to facebook or twitter, like a retailer, and then if they get the special offers they share them with their friends. Thats part of the socialization of shopping. So i think, you know, i would expect well continue to see that. Eileen, were going to leave it there. Thank you so much this morning. Thank you. You buy stuff online . All the time. Everything. Amazon . Amazon a lot. But, you know, i almost do almost no storebased shopping. Wow. Hmm. Even this time of year. We have some breaking news. David faber standing by with the news that i believe he broke yesterday, now coming to fruition. We had a lot of details on it, thats right. To be fair, others as well were on top of that story. It is now official the nyse is going to be purchased by ice. That upstart, if you will, of a number of exchanges. Only went public back in 2005. The deal worth about 33. 12 a share if youre keeping score at home. Of course that will change depending on how ice shares open this morning. It is 0. 17 of those shares plus 11. 27 a share in cash equating to again about 33. 12. 8. 2 billion deal under way the nyse will become a part of ice and nyse shareholders will own 36 of the combined company. Given it is onethird cash, and twothirds stock that will be delivered to those nyse shareholders under this agreement. An agreement, by the way, that does provide a significant premium for those shares. A bit over the 52week high. But a lot more than stocks are trading in. Only yesterday, as you see from it the earps that we now have for you, are on the deal. As for some other specifics, what we like to call social issues, jeffrey sprecker, the current ceo of ice will be the ceo of the new company. Duncan niederauer will be president of the new company. Im saying new company because its still unclear, at least, according to my sources, what theyre going to name this thing. Duncan niederauer also im told will be ceo of the nyse as a part of ice. And you will have what im told are dual headquarters. Most of the operations, my understanding, will be in atlanta. But at the end of the day you do want to appease the politicians who are very, very sentimental, of course, as you might expect, and focused on the nyse. The Trading Floor itself going to remain asis. They are talking about earnings, or i should say synergies, cost synergies as much as 450 million. They expect that to be achieved by the second full year postclosing so that will take place over about three years. They expect to close this deal, perhaps Second Quarter or so of next year. Again what were hearing is 80 of synergies will release closing. Of course theyre talking about significant savings on technology, clearing, duplicative expenses, things of that nature. But one would have to imagine there are also going to be job losses associated with this, as well. Unclear where those are going to come from. But when they talk about synergies of that size, thats what you have to believe. Synergies driving a lot of the positives of the deal, as you might expect. It will be interesting to see how ice shareholders respond. Because, as i pointed out earlier, this is a fastgrowing company that gets a higher multiple than does the nyse. It is now going to become, perhaps, a slowergrowing company than it had been. So you have those significant cost synergies, but you do wonder whether the multiple may contract as a result of slower growth, guys. David, real quick. It says here ice intends to explore an ipo of euronext as a content for european based entity following the closing acquisition of Market Conditions exist and european policymakers support the offering. Can you explain that . That is, you know, euronext, those other exchanges in europe, they its not an antitrust issue. It just doesnt quite fit is what i sort of picked up, andrew. And so that would be the strategy theyre going to at least try and embrace if they can. Taking that thing public. We have some other questions, hat happens to the nasdaq which failed in its attempt to buy the New York Stock Exchange after it had agreed to a deal. Weve got ten seconds. All right. Im done. Thanks, faber. All right well see you. Coming up breaking economic data. Weekly jobless claims plus the final read on Third Quarter gdp. Mmmm tasty. And cut very good. People are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. So were taking you behind the scenes. This coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. Its not real. Geicos Customer Satisfaction is quite real though. This computeranimated coffee tastes dreadful. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Someone get me a latte will ya, please . Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What e . [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. Get the mercedesbenz on your wish list at the winter event going on now through december 31st. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 e350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Welcome back to squawk box. Yes, we have data. And yes its a little bit old. This is our third walk around the block on Third Quarter gdp, and, of course, jobless claims. Gdp actually gets an upgrade. Even though were finishing up the Fourth Quarter, and a month from today well have Fourth Quarter gdp, 3. 1. 3. 1 upgraded from 2. 7. So we have a three handle, and i think we should all take a picture of it. Might be awhile before we have one again. Consume sun, 1. 6. You know, this the consumption number is highly important, and a couple of ticks better than we were looking at on our last look. Now as we look at the price index, that hasnt been revised at all. That hovers at 2. 7. The personal consumption expen expenditure nailed down at 1. 1 as well. Jobless claims moves from 344,000 up to 361,000. So were looking at up 17,000 on initial jobless claims from a slightly revised number originally reported at 343,000. Lets look at a little bit different time reference on the continuing claims. That is 3. 125 million, in essence a drop from 3. 21. Our last look. So that was really kind of a surprising jump on gdp. Surprised me, im sure theres inventory issues that put it there. The dollar is big talk today, of course, as we actually see a day where the dollar isnt doing better against the yen. And of course, there was no target on inflation, but its just a matter of time with regard to the bank of japan, and what they have done on the second day of their twoday meeting. Back to you. Wow. Rick, im with you. The three handle on gdp. That is something else. Yeah, i wish my blackberry could take better pictures because i dont know that were going to cut this baby in half, i think, when were looking about one month from today, you know, close to it when we get our first look at Fourth Quarter gdp. Didnt know how good it was when we had it. Rick, thank you. Thats right. Great to see you. When we come back well have more from our guest host harry wilson and mclaren is here with some Stocking Stuffers just in time for the holidays. These Stocking Stuffers will set you back at least 200,000 apiece. If anyone on your list has been nice enough for a mclaren 12 spider, well, like to hear what theyve done this year. Were going to talk to the companys managing director at 8 40. Covered call strategies to generate income . With fidelitys new options platform, weve completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. To get a list of equity options. Evaluate them with our p l calculator. And execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket. Im greg stevens and i helped create fidelitys options platform. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Its official, Nyse Euronext and ice announcing a merger. The deal values nice at 33. 12 a year. Its a cash and stock deal as weve been reporting. And ice says its committed to preserving the Nyse Euronext brand and the nyse building in new york. Well, thats good to know. Lets get back to our host host this morning, harry wilson, chairman and ceo of maeva advisers. Hes a former Senior Adviser to president obamas Auto Task Force. Weve had debate on twitter about some of the things you said earlier about gm. The idea that a million jobs could be lost, people have taken issue with that, saying there was only Something Like 200 something plus jobs there, even if you add up the auto parts manufacturers, it still was only 650,000 jobs at that point. Excuse me. You dont have a cough i dont, i have a wireless mike. Everybody gets to hear all of this. There have been a lot of people who have taken a lot of debate at this point. Were also part of this auto task group. Would there have been a problem just letting them go through normal bankruptcy . It did go through bankruptcy. Done through a chapter 11 process, which happens all the time. So thats a misunderstood concept. You know what the question is. The fundamental issue, and this is instead of government involvement. This is the part mitt romney really screwed up. I said this many times, there was no private capital available in 2009. Veteran position. We tried everything we could, every bank we could, every equity firm we could. The hedge funds it wouldnt have been liquidated. It would have been liquidated. Other Car Companies would have bought the facilities . We tried. We had conversations with potential buyers, including ford. No one was interested. No one had the capital because they didnt know where the bottom would be. Things are worth something. Once the fear of the financial crisis had papsed what you dont know is how long would that have taken. Right . If we were at a point when s p was at 660 and then you saw gm start to liquidate . Where would s p have gone . What would have happensed to the financing markets . No one knows the answer. The reality was in march of 2009 no one had the happen to do the financing, and only would have gotten worse. In a Perfect World you dont do things like this. Of course not. In a Perfect World you dont end up with right. But companies, you know, you cant succeed if you cant fail. Unfortunately. No, no, but thats the other part of the story misunderstood. People did fail at gm. All the stock holders got wiped out. Entire Management Team got replaced. Half the board got replaced. But the complaint that comes back is they were dealt with too generously. The loss carried forward. Should they be allowed to have held those loss carried forward which puts them in a much better position competitively. The people who were parapasu, overwhelmingly to approve the deal. Literally overwhelming. Ironically no one talked about it then. Because no one thought theyd ever make a profit. Remember everybody said its never going to work. The company will fail within two years. Two years they had record profits. So it would have it was a situation where we didnt think about this and if we had maybe we would have taken that part off the table . Im just saying, it was a side issue relative to the overall deal. Would you have done that piece of it differently . Out of i dont know. At the time treasury owned 61 of the stock. The fact that gm had a tax benefit didnt matter that much. But ultimately its just a side issue relative to the fact that somebodys doing 15 billion. Close to 15 billion of ebitda and thats really ultimately the testament to its financial wherewithal. Hmm. When he says it you have to almost believe im. I opposed the chrysler deal. The president went forward with that. That was because i thought on the merits youre not a democrat. So youre not just going to rubber stamp all the right. In fact youre a republican. Exactly. All right. Harry, thank you. Well have a little more with harry still to come. Coming up, squawk goes behind the wheel with mclaren auto motive. I think leno has some of these cars. We will show you, big car guy, you know that, you heard of him, jay leno . I know. Were going to show you that the car thats been described as sevenfigure technology with a sixfigure price. I probably shouldnt even say the f word, ferrari. You can say it. I can . Mclaren is calling one of these cars behind us the ultimate supercar. Its a concept car but i think its almost done. Its the longawaited its an f1 successor. Right. And its making its debut in the u. S. This week. The company showed off the p1 to a select group of clients last night and now we have it right here at cnbc headquarters and weve put them in order. Thats it there, is it not . Thats correct. Sneaking around. Its a total secret in there and i accidentally rolled down the window. They came running over and rolled it back up. This is mclarens managing director, Anthony Sharif . Or sheriff . It really is sheriff. Tell us about the p1. We cant buy it yet . No, you cant. But its going into production next year. Its alled p1 because when you qualify in pole position or you win a race youre in first position which is p1. Its the successor to the mclaren f1 which is a car we made 0 years ago. Back then it was a Million Dollar car. Now an f1 is selling at auction for 5. 5 million, 6 million. P1 goes on sale now. Were talking about an order a day for people who are putting down deposits and were soon going to be run out. Whats it cost . 125,000 initially. You wont tell us what it costs. It will be over a Million Dollars. Under 2 million . Under 238. Tell us about it. Does it ill ask for you. Does it come with a an automatic transmission or is that it has a sevenspeed dual clutch transmission which you can press a button and its fully automatic. I can drive it. Im going to go stand by it. Because you cant understand how low this is to the ground. Were not saying how many horses. Ive got a lot on my tie. A lot more than that. Over 500. Look at this. Well over 500. Under 1,000 . Low. Cant say. Could be 1,000 or more. Does it how does the door open like the other ones . Youre not allowed to open the door. I just made a big mistake. We cant see the interior at all then . You can get down here. It Takes Technology that we used in our formula one race team and brings it to the road and to the track. This car will be the quickest car around the track of any production car ever made. Im amazed at how low it is to the ground. It comes up just past my knees. Can you tell me zero to 60 . I cant tell you any of the performance numbers. Why the tires have no tread . Thats just for the show car. We made those especially so i shouldnt drive that in the snow. The brakes that you see which look like a mirror, those are actually production brakes that have already driven about 1,000 miles. This is technology that we cant talk about but is yet to be used on an automobile. Thats an amazing looking theres no back seat. Are those windows legal . No, theyre blocked out so you cant see the interior. This is one we can afford, probably, andrew, if the entire company were to i love this. This is my favorite part. Get into it. Sit down . So this is the 12c spider. Were just launching it now. This is one of the first cars to hit the u. S. But theyre coming. Weve got a nice long wait list for the car. And this has all of the technology and performance that the coupe ash a has and crucially because we have a carbon fiber construction the rigidity is the same as the coupe. So theres really no difference between driving the spider as driving the coupe. Thats unique. You can press a button and what does it look like . If you press a button, put the top or do you need to actually put the top on . No, no, no. Its fully automatic can i press it . Yeah, you can try. That one which one . The thing that looks like a window switch. This . Yeah, yeah oh, no no pull it up. Here we go. Its an ejection seat. There you go. Wow. A little over 600 horses . Now will it keep going . Youve got to keep pulling. Im pulling. Its a 616 horse power. Over 200 miles an hour. See that is cool. Because thats a convertible that doesnt look bad when you put the it looks like thats cool. The best thing is you can actually with the roof closed you can open the rear window, and so with the roof closed you can what is this going to cost andrew . This is about 260,000. 260,000. And thats you get everything with that . No, thats the base price. But its a bargain compared to the p1. It is a bargain. You call it a coupe . Yeah. I was just pronouncing coupe my entire life. Coupe, however you like. This will be on sale for just over a year. Weve delivered over 600 in north america so far. Its a huge success. Its the quickest car in its segment. It has a carbon fiber construction. A lot of formula one drive technology. 0 to 60 in about three seconds and a quarter of a mile in under 11 seconds. You said you can roll down the back so you can still hear the engine. Must be a really cool sound, right . You sure can. Let me finish closing up the back . Yeah, andrew, you had to keep your finger on that thing. Here we go. Might open now. Open up. Thats okay. We can open it and start. Yeah. All right. Ill back up with my mike back here. Wow. Its pretty. I think youre talking to me telling me we need to go, right . We do need to go. Cant hear. You square for the quality, not at the quality, i mean its not going to be like some british car where you got to drop the engine to change the wiper blade, right . You make this car in our Technology Center just outside of london, the same place where our formula one cars are designed and built. Great, thank you. Thank you very much. Great to see you. When we come back were going to head down to the New York Stock Exchange and talk a little bit more about the ice buying nyse. [ kitt ] you know whats impressive . A talking car. But ill tell you what impresses me. A talking train. This ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what its carrying, while using less fuel. Delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. After all, whats the point of talking if you dont have something important to say . You wont just find us online, youll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. So when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. Because personal Service Starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. Our support teams are nearby, ready to help. Its no wonder so many investors are saying. [ all ] im with scottrade. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What else . Welcome back to squawk. Bill acman says he is shorting shares of herbal life, calling it a pyramid scheme. Today, he will be outlining his argument at a presentation in new york. Herbal life ceo Michael Johnson responding yesterday on cnbc. This is a legitimate company. Mr. Acmans proposition that the United States, better when herbal life was gone. The United States would be better when bill acman is gone. Off to see bill acmans presentation after the show and sit down with him after his presentation for an interview you will see during the fast money halftime report. Ask him, honestly, bill acman for his opinion on whether any of the stuff that herbal life actually sells i know it doesnt hurt you, but is there anything i shouldnt get involved . Whatever it is, it has been around for a long time and been could controversial the entire time but still around. So i mean i will ask. Are there positive things im sure he will have an opinion. Ask faber or cramer. Stock exchange, jim joins us now. Wanted to talk to you about the herbal life. Ever taken it . What are you on, jim . You on herbal life . You like the ceo. I think Michael Johnson is a passionate man, the ceo, a strong case for his company. No one wants to hear a guy is going to come on tv and tell you why he is short and give you a preview of short the day before knock it down, make accusations about puts and whether acman bought puts, always good to asks. I think acman says he didnt this is a real battleground. There are people, including herb greenberg, always looking into what the company does, whether the product ends, how much ends with the consumer versus how much it ends with distributors. You know what look, i think this one is unless you have a smoking gun that can prove definitively this stuff does not end up with the consumers, i think it is he said she said. Herb greenberg. Looking at herbal life a long time. Done the best work on it, i really want to defer to him and doing a special on it. But this is really one of the most impassion deed baits i have ever seen. I thought Michael Johnson showed great faith when he came on our air during street signs and laid out why he thinks its a good situation. Obviously, the ceo, but his attack on acman and acmans attack on him is he said she said. Very interesting. The founder or owner die or something . What am i thinking of . You remember long ago . Yes, he did. Been around a while. Johnson came from disney. He is david to just got here, i know the nice is probably nyx is a bigger deal. Herbal life is without a doubt one of the truly great first day of the battleground that i have ever seen and would advise individuals, be careful, this one is too hard for anybody to navigate. Faber is more more familiar with another type of herb i think. No, im kidding. Whoa. Thats the pot calling you the kettle black. Touche. Dont go anywhere. Going to put a couple of cubes over ice in in my bong . In your bong . Wow. That is not a bad idea either. The last word from guest host harry wilson. Squawk is back after this. I always wait until the last minute. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Welcome back to squawk, back to our guest host, harry wilson, for the last