Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20140812

Summer. Williams first captured americas attention in the late 70s, the role of alien mork made him a break out star. Good morning vietnam and his comic mania carried into movies, playing a wartime dj in good morning vietnam bought him a golden globe. So tt role played largely in drag, mrs. Doubtfire. Williams im provozational style. But the julliar trained actor excelled in roles including good will hunting. In all williams films grossed more than 5 billion worldwide at the box office. The actors wife released a statement saying, quote, as he is remembered, it is our hope that the focus will not be on robins death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions. A gifted actor and genius whose sudden passing mean those who knew him and those who watched him heart broken. Stephanie stanton, nbc news, hollywood. Joining us now, david poland, editor of city news. Com. He is a new york film editor for variety. Obviously, collectively, the entire nation is talking about this, david and ramen. And theres been so much commentary and the twittersphere, for good or for bad, i already feel like everybody weighing in, is there more to talk about, david . I guess there is, right . Well, i mean, williams really was the coppock and the comic personality that took us out of the nixon era. When it comes down to it. Late 70s. Cynicism and anger was all the range and this guy came out and was this amazing bund of energy and intelligence. He always had something to say but he also was incredibly sincere. Its ironic that 32 years ago, he was there the nice belushi died. I think thats the last time we had somebody that seminole in comedy pass away. Thats the chateau of a very sad, weird foreshadowing. Well, its just unfortunately, drugs and thats something that ive grappled with, ramen, you know, you dont want to point to addiction, but and whether maybe personalities are predisposed to it, whether the addiction itself causes or brings on depression. Its a horrific chicken and egg thing. But to be in that much pain, i think all of us collectively realize that we wish someone could have been aware to reemp out and i mean, theres a famous quote that Robin Williams says right into the camera, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Once again, it highlights if youre in pain, its just you wish you could get help for people that are in pain. The thing with robin was is that he did get a lot of help. He had gone to rehab a number of times. He had that in itself, david, to keep going and then to slip again. And then, you know, to maybe go on and probably the feeling after another bing or whatever, i have no idea what he went through. He was very open with his struggles. And he was sober for many years starting in the 80s. And he went back to rehab recently. He was in rehab over the summer. But i think what we should do today is really remember and honor him. It wasnt just for people out of the nixon era. Robin williams was a comedic icon throughout the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, many millennials on twitter were remembering him for roles in jumanji , hook, president obama issuing a statement yesterday. Even though he struggled and he was very open about his struggles, many people were very aware of his struggles. But sometimes when youre dealing with addiction and depression, its a very, very difficult battle. Youre right. Youre talking 70s, 80s, 9 0s, 2000s. I went to the university of colora colorado. In the 1978, mork mindy put the Downtown Boulder sign street and we were sort of even though it wasnt i dont think it was filmed there, but it put boulder on the map. Thats what i remember first. I remember him coming into happy days. As mork. And i was a little kid and thought, who is this person . He is interesting. I mean, just startling. You were going to Say Something, david . He did his first hbo comedy special in 78. That was kind of the beginning for hbo. Robert cline had done one, but he was the seminole figure for hbos comedy push. That was so different from what he was doing on mork mipdy. And it turned out that he wasnt a great actor at that point, but he became a great actor. He really could do almost anything. And it took a while to find that out. But it was a remarkable thing. It was what belushi had wanted to do. Its what a lot of bull murrays wanted to do. Very, very great people could do that only. Bull murray comes on the show when we were in pebble beach. He stayed for an hour afterwards. And the point he made was if you can do comedy, you can do drama. And it seems like one would be not tied to the other. I think it would be the hardest art form. He said it was easitory make the move from comedy to drama. The other way around the much harder. Much harder. How important do you think it was for Robin Williams to be known as a serious actor . Even though he made his move in comedy, he made the transition well enough to win the october car as a serious role. Particularly that 78 special last night which has not been available from hbo for years. And he was doing he did a piece welcome to the mind of a comic which is crashing. And he did the id and the ego and the iper child and the emotions, he did the entire range of emotional life in a standup comedian. He wasnt a traditional tell a joke comedian at all. He was a living, breathing actor from the very beginning. He used mind training, everything. There has been no one quite like him. A lot of times, being of service for people that are having personal problems, thats enough to give life enough meaning to you know, to preclude some of its still apparently wasnt enough. Which is another indication of what the man has been going through, right . Absolutely. He was very open about it and he joked about his so brighty in an effort to help other people. But, you know, again, i think we should look tow career that he had. All the roles weve talked about, he was the voice of the jeanie in aladin. I was remember a magazine from mork mindy. They would do a scene six times, and the crypt says robin adlibs here. His costar said he was as funny every single time he did it even though it was completely different. And a skill set that was incredible. And thats what a lot of people were surprised on the set of mork mindy. He did improvise heavily. So for robin to create a character that was on lunchboxes and posters and, you know, that was such a popular character in the 70s, the alien. Inspired by jonathan winters, too. As he said many times, he was able to do the same thing. I wasnt aware that he robin had grown up in a privileged home, he said he had parents that were he felt raised by the maid to some extent and played with toy soldiers and was alone talking to himself a lot, i think. He was a very quiet guy. It was almost like you at times he seemed to fragile that you didnt quantity to bother him. But there was always a smile there. There was a great deal of happiness for all the concern about how unhappy he was in this place that is sad and horrible, it only took a second for him to be quiet, reserved separate robin to having something funny to say and a different way of looking at the world. He was a unique individual. Every time you saw him in a private situation, he was, you know, very much there was an energy that was different. Jonathan was much more tough in real life and robin was always kind of you know, he was separate, but he was also happy in a way. Were going to get a chance to see more of Robin Williams work in the months, i guess, and few years ahead, correct . He did leave some film projects behind. He did leave some film projects behind. Hes going to be seen in most notably the new night of the museum film. One movie that he will not finish, the sequel to mrs. Doubtfire, i think one of his biggest hits of his career, he was set to begin production on that shortly. And there was an issue the studio issued a statement saying that the film will not be Going Forward at this time. Well see. It would be hard to imagine a sequel to mrs. Doubtfire without Robin Williams in the starting role. The impact of movies that he did make, in cannes at the film festival, there was somebody doing mrs. Doubtfire, people doing character, people were taking pictures of him wandering around the restaurant. Thats how popular he is, even years later. An enduring character, for sure. Gentlemen, thanks for your time and analysis. Just your feelings. Appreciate it. Its a big loss. Thank you. Thank you. Robin williams, Phillip Seymour hoffman not that long ago. Another tremendously tallaned actor i know many of us saw his films. He completed some work, too. Yeah, including a film thats currently made us a spy. The eternal question is the depression that leads you to the abuse, is it the abuse that leads to depression . If you are depressed, imagine, we talk so much about the issues of Mental Illness in this country. You have all the money that you could need in order to seek help. Youve got people around you. And yet still not to be able to overcome your demons, to show an incredible pain and the struggle. Are you deftined to it . And does it fooel feed your comedy . And thats the thing. Another comic. A lot of comics seem have a very, dark, dark core. What i took away from it is that happiness should be shared. If youre imminently happy, you shouldnt take it for granted, probably, i would think. It looks like theres going to be some sort of News Conference coming out of the west coast regarding mr. Williams death at 11 00 a. M. Pacific time. Im sure well learn more of the details surrounding this specific incident. So coming up, the chaos in iraq. In baghdad, theres a power struggle. The Prime Minister and the president in the north, the kurdish crash with isis. The u. S. Is providing air support. What is the next move for the white house . Plus, were front and center on todays Market Action. Futures are higher at this hour after a meandering day yesterday. The averages are slumping. Well run it down next. In jobs and infrastructure. F do thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. No property tax. No business tax. And no sales tax. Which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. Its not just business as usual. See how new york can help your business grow, at startup. Ny. Gov welcome back. German Economic Sentiment dropping sharply in august. The key industry reading hitting its lowest level since december 2012. The euro adding to losses against the dollar after the zew which is an indication of german confidence in Business Community and likely related to the increase in the russian sanctions. You can see there is a buck 33 and weve been watching to see what happens in the german tenyear yield. 1. 06 is where it stands right now. This is aftera pretty disappointing Industrial Production number of last week . Late last week . Yeah, last week. So there are concerns at this point. For sure. Beyond italy, beyond some of these other economies that the most important and ig best one a stall wart. Is petering. Absolutely. And then recession and you have this whole does anyone ever take a step back and say im going to give you 10,000 is in euros or since its germany. But im going to give you that and you give me 1 and you get it for ten years . And yep yet people do it. It makes me worry about the prospects and everything else. Recently there was a story about the 50year french bond. Because of paris and my we had a guest who said people arent going to stop going there. You better hope that some country is doing okay. But well visit their great country. Its not internally generated. No, its all external. Yet i want to go there and i envy their we work the we lived to work or work to live . We live to work, they work to live. I was there at the beginning of the summer. Why . Rome and the coast. No way. Positano . Yes. Where did you stay in a room . Near the borguese edge. Nice. I said that yesterday. Thats true. I can live for free in my parents living room if i can live in italy. Would you . Thats what you said, yeah. But you would have no idea and you always thats like a exactly. Thats a dig, though. You throw it in like they dont know any better. I think they do know better. 28 dollar croissant, right . And thats if you dont get caught. Google. Lets show you whats going on with european stocks. Nostalgic. You should lay off the pasta. Is germany flat to lower, these are all flat markets, except for italy which continues its rebound by 0. 75 after the massive selloff that we saw. The dow would open higher by 32 points, nasdaq by 9 and the s p 500 by 6. A convoy in ukraine from russia is heading into ukraine on a humanitarian relief mission. The red cross says the has no information on what these trucks from russia are carrying or where there are going. They could be a point of concerns. Ewe kraeb is saying theyre not going to allow any of russias cop voi with these humanitarian aids into the country. Here is the russian stock market rebounding slightly today, around 0. 3 . Its been a very bad july as those tension ves heated up. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki refuses to step aside, this even though the countrys new president has named a replacement. The Obama Administration is calling for the new government to unite. The new iraqi leadership has a difficult challenge. It has to regain the confidence of its citizens by governing inclusively, but also by taking steps to demonstrate their resolve. Nbcs duncan golisani joins us now with the latest. Duncan. Hi. So the question is are we heading into some kind of political showdown in baghdad . This new Prime Minister has been appointed. That appointment has been welcomed by the United States as we just heard. And by the united nations. The question is, did Nuri Al Maliki go quietly . So far, every indication weve been getting is hes going to try to dig in and hold on to power. Yesterday we were hearing about Security Forces loyal to him move across the streets of baghdad and his party said his point lacks legitimacy and some ignore a close political ally that they will challenge this in the courts. That is exactly what the United States does not want to hear. They need some kind of upty in baghdad, a government that can bring sunnis, kurdes and shiites together. Because as far as many countries are concerns, this is the only way this fight with isis is going to be won. You could overrun them on the ground if you want to put International Troops here, but not many countries want to do that. At the moment, the focus is on some kind of unity government. Back to you. Thank you very much, duncan. As long as he doesnt sit down and we end up with some kind of shia on shia battle, a civil war is it more likely at this point . The question is does he bring in his independent militia and try to fight to hold on to power . The reason i bring that up is because the shia on the conference in the south, thats where you could start to see oil prices move. Thats the big concern. All the Oil Production is in the south. There are no indications that he is going to leave quietly. Duncan raises the question if right. Twice he could malign the whole process and hes not leaving. Lets get a turnout on cnbcs chief washington correspondent john harwood with more on the global issues hanging over capitol hill and right before i i look at all the different blogs and stuff, john. Im by partisan that way. Huffington post, drudge, do you think the president said criticism of the syria policy by hillary is horse shih tzu without the tzu at the end, john . I didnt see that. What does that mean . President obama got angry at lawmakers that seshd have armed the Syrian Rebels criticism is so unheard of in your mind that i have to describe any of it to you for you to understand what im saying . Joe, i couldnt understand what youre saying. But who is quoting the president as saying that . This is in the daily by beast, its on drudge. Obama told lawmakers the criticism of his syria policy is horse blank. Not with reference to hillary specifically. It wouldnt surprised me if he said that. Lawmakers or hillary the criticism that he should have armed Syrian Rebels and i saw his comments on that, to think that he could have done back and picked just the right group in the early days when it was coalescing. I see the merit in his argument there to think that were smart enough to handpick and we tried to get people to pick weapons to in afghanistan. It always comes back to haunt you. They get used against you eventually, dont they, john . Whether he said it or not, im sure thats how he females about the criticism. What do you think of hillary i mean, thats well, look, hillary the clintons dont think everything is calculated, but i think the clintons calculate every single that they do unless its a mistake. Well, look, it appears that shes running for president and her independence critical running for president is that she was president obamas secretary of state. The world is now blowing up. So that is a big problem for her. And so shes going to be looking for ways to separate herself from the current Foreign Policy issues. She did that to Jeffrey Goldberg of the atlantic where she said the failure to arm those northern factions in syria left a void that the gee whatdies built. When i interview her a couple of weeks ago, she said you happen, i asked her about her responsibility for the best in the world. And she said well any administration has to read and manage things as best they can and we did that in the first term. In the first term. Were now in the second term. And i think you can expect to see a series of things Going Forward where shes going to try to separate herself from the administration, as anybody would running in her circumstance because voters are very reluctantly to give the same party a third term in office. Obamas ratings are low. Shes going to look for a way to make her mark. She did this on russia, as well, she said the reset worked with russia, but then when putin came back, i told the president we needed to change tactics, and now here we are. She did and room nigh did. He doesnt really listen. Annoy, supposedly theres some spicy stuff about the clintons in that book which book . Ed clines book. Theres nothing well sourced about ed clines book. I knew youd say that. But i still dont think theres a lot of love loss necessarily. If i believe the notion that some people are encouraging Elizabeth Warren to run no, no. No. When hillary says Something Like i remember before things hit the fan, the huff post talked about dont do stupid stuff, how that was brilliant because they did so much presumably did so much stupid things. So they actually said that that is a great obama doctrine, dont do stupid things. For hillary to come out and see to quote that, dont do stupid stuff and say that is not an organizing principal, that is slowing down that is slowing down. That is right there down to the curb on the obama doctrine. Yeah. No, fair enough. Look, thats the point. Shes going to if she runs, and i think she will, she has to find a way to say all the bad stuff going on right now, thats not my doing. We thought Hillary Clinton would be the heir apparent to oba obama. But shes saying all this hawkish stuff. The far left is not going to be thrilled with a lot of this. Bankers, she actually thinks the private sector is a productive part of the economy. I mean, shes got a lot of views that are crazy and theyre antisetical to the new left. Thats crazy. Look, there are going to be some people on the left who unhappy with herr. Hes going to think hillary is too far right. But i think the import of that opposition is going to end up being rather small. We are dwg to see some scary tough happening. There will be criticism on the right and left about what the president does in iraq, too. The more youre reading from experts, these guys cant the air strikes i didnt understand why it wont work. Theres not that many of them. They say its not likely to challenge the calculus for isis. Why not . We can you know, are they not all in one place . Why wouldnt that change the calculus . Well, i think this is a broader problem throughout not only iraq, but also syria. And the immediate question is the one mushl put on the table, which is how hard is maliki going to fight to retain power or is it just is he positive touring for a payoff . Is he positive touring for safe exit somewhere . I dont know. John, real quick, what does the president do, then, if these targeted air strikes dont work . Then hes in a real dicey political position, is he not . Absolutely he is. And i think hes going to continue for some period of time until he figures out or concludes that its absolutely futile and if he candidates that, hes going to have to figure out a way to extricate himself. John, dont be a stranger. You know football is coming back, too. We have a lot to talk about there. Skins are revised. Thats where you break from the pack normally. I dont know what to call them at this point. Skins might be you know, lets not go there. Anyway, thank you. John hardwood. Youve got to get out of here. I know. Coming up, what is it like and not to like in social media . What investors should prepare for heading into these final weeks of the summer. And tesla respond to go Consumer Reports review of its luxury sedan. That stock closing at another alltime high. More squawk is next. Good morning and welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im joe kernen along with mushl Caruso Cabrera and scott wapner. Becky and andrew a off today. You got a middle name . Yeah. Do you want to use three . No. Andrew ross sorkin, and michael wapner. Not scott judge wapner. They do always call me judge. They do. And making if scott was going to read this, he would do. Make one would you read it with the i dont know if i thats hairsy. I give you permission. Making headlines this morning, Consumer Reports has a complain or two for tesla. Last year, it gave the model s like its highest mark ever, top marks. But now it says the electric car is it owns has had, quote, in its words wsh r, more than its share of problems. Now, i think it is helping me. When youre the judge, you you have to know whos who. Only judge judy. I think she makes 50 million a year. That syndicated show does phenomenally well. I dont think judge wapner did that well. No. Consumer reports, though, back to that, says that the car has impressed its staff and has nearly traveled 16,000 miles. But it warns that there have been many quirks that might dampen consumers experiences. Among the issues, the Center Screen went blank and the automatic retracting door handles would not work. Tesla fixed the issues. It issued a warranty. And they said we err on the side of being proactive to ensure the best driving experience possible. That means we are particularly attentive to addressing potential issues, even if those issues appear to be very mine or have low likelihood of causing any future problems. We are so attuned to whats happening to our customers that it seems like anesthesia i am completely distracted by this music. Shares of tesla closed at record high yesterday. They made a remake of that movie, as well. Did you see that . No. Think of the duke boys. Great memory from my childhood, decree. Wailen jennings. Thats right, i was thinking of whalen. Fantastic. In pharma news, exact science is getting fda approval for a noninvasive test that screens for colon cancer. Shooter. Sorry. This guy is going to be on. Tesla, colon cancer and now youre saying shooter . Not only that, but the dna based go ahead. Just a good old boys never meaning no harm. Its a one of a kind test to get regulatory okay. How does it work . Its a dna based test. And its designed for people ages 50 or older. You qualify. Thank you. Or who are considered average risk for colorectal cancer. I had the you had the camera done before you were 40 . I did. Before you were 50 . I did. Not really. But i was a little concerned. Whewee. Do you want me to get my family normally people wait until 50. I just you know, unless theres something there and then youre perfectly you know what . Lets just go there. I figured i should get one. Youre absolute lit right. And it used to be he five years, but now if theres no familial history, it is 10. It is so hot out here right now. No, its not. Only for immature people that cant discuss serious topics you discuss it anytime you want. This is cool. It is cool because do it. To do a dna test, for example, how many if we can find genetic anomalies, how many of these tests will we be able to do . Its going to be good. They will join us live at 7 30 eastern. Okay. Its cool. Then you dont have to get the colonoscopy. He told us about it. The colonoscopy itself is not the issue. The prep is the issue. Youre sleeping during the thing, okay . How about ghee your political tensions . That drug was i woke up feeling better than i did when i went to sleep. That was the same drug that Michael Jackson also went to sleep with. But youre right, it is the prep that is the part that is people dont like. All right. Geopolitical tensions driving the Market Action these days. Today is no exception. Joining us now, michael pollard. Thanks for joining us. Michael, every week goes by and its drama on the International Stage and yet its like we move along, nothing to see here, market keeps going higher. We seem to have gotten over this last hiccup. Ultimately, this comes down to earnings and profitability . I think so. I mean, you know and to happen, you know, the tension, they occasionally may move markets for a day or two. But the longterm trend of the markets is driven by earnings and by dividends and those are still packing in very well. The economy here is in a strong uptrend. The issue that i think investors have to think about in the u. S. Is that more or less half of s p 500 earnings come from overseas. So if europe is slipping into a double dip recession, or if we have preponderance somewhere else with economies, that could have some impact on the u. S. Stocks, as well. And via the german data lately, i dont know if you saw the zew this morning. That was much worse than expected. German Business Sentiment has dropped dramatically, the Industrial Production, youre saying that kind of data could ultimately to u. S. Company earnings . Absolutely. We need to see that europe and in particular germany are showing some revival kinds of drugs. So far, the numbers are looking somewhat disappointing. That suggests to me the central bank has to be somewhat more aggressive to stimulate the economy there. Otherwise, it will have an impact on global economies. If there is a silver lining, maybe that situation is what slows the pace of Interest Rate hikes or in this country, no . You know, only if the u. S. Is in a bubble, then we would say u. S. Interest rates have to go up. We are beginning to see bits of inflation. We are beginning to see a little bit more tightness. Yeah. Hello. Well, you know, saying that, i mean, the long end of the market would have enough autonomy that it would head in the direction that it sees fit based on, you know, the results of economics around the world, essentially. And right now were near the calendar year lows and once again, it seems to be the fed that is directing the long end, but its kind of the opposite world. Because the tenyear has gone down in yields since the 3 at the beginning of the year during the taper, just like the tenyear yield has fallen once qe1 ended and once qe2 ended. So its as though if not for the fed, then there is very little chance of it may be a dynamic economy or inflation taking hold. The s p, on the same hand, along with the geopolitics and the overseas profits, the s p, the only times over the last five years during this rally that weve had trouble is when qe ended and that coincided with trouble in europe both times. Now we have that eci wage data. That maybe got some people concerned and that was the result of the big down day that we had a couple of weeks ago. Kubl that with the geopolitics and this is an interesting time. Thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. When we return, you know its you, right. . Mark mahanny is up next on squawk. Welcome back. Time now for the squawk planner. Ahead of the opening bell, the National Federation of independent businesses gives is Monthly Business report. The Company Behind candy crush, king digital is expected toel ro out results. Thats the squawk planner. Next, stocks to like right now. Squawk returns in just a moment. Ameriprise asked people a simple question can you keep your lifestyle in retirement . I dont want to think about the alternative. I dont even know how to answer that. I mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. I try not to worry, but you worry. What happens when your paychecks stop . Because everyone has retirement questions. Ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. To get the real answers you need. Start building your confident retirement today. Moderate to severe is tough, but ive managed. I got to be pretty good at managing my symptoms, except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. When i finally told my doctor, he said my crohns was not under control. He said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. And that in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. So i can reach ally bank 24 7, but there are24 7branches . Its just im a little reluctant to try new things. Whats wrong with trying new things . Feel that in your muscles . Yeah. I do. Try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. Welcome back. Were coming up on the tail end of earnings season. Close to 90 of all s p 500 companies are reported results including the hottest tech and internet names. Lets get an inside look at that sector plus find out if king digitals results will be sweet or sour. With us on set making a rare east coast appearance is mark mahaney the lead internet analyst at rbc capital markets. Thank you, good to have you in the house. Good to be here. Lets talk king dig. What do you expect . We think numbers should be fine. No clear evidence of major upside or downside. This Company Needs to prove two things, that they can continue to diversify away from candy crush. Can they do that . They have enough in the portfolio . Sure, they do. They also have to prove they can do that while still growing the top line sequentially. If they put that to the the stock goes up. If they dont, the stop doesnt go up. People are worried about zynga and what zynga delivers. Now theres this concern on candy crush. Theyre completely unrelated except they both have massive fashion risk. Thats why it also trades at a discount to the market. Can you put out the next candy crush. Whats the game thats going to really lock in users . Thats a very hard thing to do. What do you make of priceline and the way the market reacts to those earnings . They were good earnings. The outlook was a little conservative. That was the concern going in. Stock traded lower. We pointed out here in our interview with a gentleman yesterday morning we thought maybe the thing would go positive. It did. The right read by investors . I think so. You have to here you have to look not at revenue but gross Profit Growth. The growth there is extremely consistent. 35 gross Profit Growth for four years in a row. When people see that they work through the numbers. They continue to buy the stock. We didnt look at it as a dramatic quarter one way or the other. But the momentum is positive and the stock should continue to trade up. You werent here when we had the guy who started this analyst ratings service. And it happened to be backed by former governor eliot spitzer. But instead of the ii model where institutional investor, its access to the guy, and its weather the Companies Like him, and it has no correlation with stock picking. This just ranks analysts based on their ability to be right about stocks. And mahaney was like the top guy and we mentioned it at the time. So we, when he says hes not just another pretty face. When he says like buy or dont buy or sell the third best stock picker in the entire universe. So we need stock so you know, for fast money. Right down the list. Good. All right, twitter. Silence the doubters . For good . No, not for good. That wasnt the breakthrough quarter. Theres a new disclosure that they figured out again what their maus were and how many were automatic users. Monthly average users . Yes, thats right. If youre going to buy social media stocks dont start with twitter. Start with facebook. Thats one of our top picks in the group along with priceline. We have an outperform on twitter. So its a speculator buy for us. After facebook you buy this. They have a lot of things they need to prove. We think they actually will. We think the debate is wrong on the street about twitter. We think they actually can increase engagement. Theres a lot of things they can do to mainstream the service. We think they will. The stock can go higher. Valuations are much more compelling. Just us media people that think its more i think of twitter as more ubiquitous than facebook. I dont use facebook. But its not more the numbers are straightforward. About 1. 3 billion people on this planet, 800 Million People a day who use facebook. Youre not one of them. People who use twitter is a tenth of that. Mmhmm. But if nothing else, then, with the last earnings report, the twitter show people that you could own both twitter and facebook, that you didnt have to make a distinction between the two when it comes to your portfolio. Because the argument had been out there for some time you cannot own both. Yeah. I think they did prove that. Theres two really nice simple and easy things about twitter. One is that the financial models already been proven. That is facebook. 60 ebitda margins. Secondly this company can dramatically ramp up modernization. Theyre generating a quarter of the revenue of users. And both of those are about a quarter of googles level. Im looking at your list. Ebay outperform, netflix outperform, priceline outperform is there anything you dont like . Groupon is our sell. So thats a company that we think has got real structural problems. This is the company thats a little late to the ecommerce game, its going into an extremely crowded field and its likely to face inflationary online ad pressures. Mark mahaney. In the house on the east coast. Good to see you. When we return, talk more about the passing of Robin Williams, the actor and comedian generated billions at the box office from disneys aladdin to his oscar winning role in good will hunting. A look back at the life and times of Robin Williams when we return. Where the reward was that what if tnew car smelledit card and the freedom of the open road . A card that gave you that im 16 and just got my first car feeling. Presenting the buypower card from capital one. Redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac with no limits. So every time you use it, youre not just shopping for goods. Youre shopping for something great. Learn more at buypowercard. Com chaos in iraq. Leadership clashes in baghdad overnight sparking fears of new troubles in the southern portion of iraq. This while airstrikes continue in the north to try to keep isis at bay. A developing story in the fight against colon cancer. The fda giving the green light to a new noninvasive test for this deadly disease. The chairman and ceo of exact science is here first on cnbc with the details. And the death of a comic legend. Funny man actor, oscar winner Robin Williams, dead at the age of 63. The Entertainment Industry mourning this sudden loss. The second hour of squawk box begins right now. Are we visiting somebody here . No, why . Just seemed like the only normal person around the place. Good morning and welcome to squawk box on cnbc im Michelle Carusocabrera along with joe kernen and scott wapner. Becky and andrew are off today. The Global Markets reacting to weak Economic Data out of germany along with geopolitical tensions in ukraine, gaza and iraq today. The futures suggest right now the dow would open higher by roughly 21 points. The tenyear yield at this point stands at 2. 43 . Not a whole lot of movement there. In corporate news, shares of tesla trading near alltime highs. But Consumer Reports now says the model s has quote more than its share of problems. Its staff has been impressed with some of the aspects of the car but cautions there have been many courts that might dampen experiences. Tesla says it fixed the issues under warranty. The world is mourning comic legend Robin Williams this morning dead of an apparent suicide at age 63. Condolences have been pouring in from celebrities, politicians and industry titans. One of the things that caught our eye this morning, china paying its respects to williams. State tv playing dead Poets Society and here to look back at a nearly four decade career at generated billions, our own julia boorstin. Good morning, julia. Good morning, scott. Robin williams death has been met with an outpouring of grief from around the world from Entertainment Industry giants like disneys ceo bob eisner and filmmaker j. J. Abrams to president obama and even secretary of defense chuck hagel praising williams for his work entertaining the troops. Last night through this morning Robin Williams trended on twitter and on facebook. Both in the u. S. , and worldwide. Williams landed on the scene in mork and mindy which aired between 1978 and 1982 and became a comedic icon with signature improvisations and rapid switching between different characters. But he also found Great Success with drama. Winning an Academy Award for his role as a teacher in good will hunting in 1997. Also winning three Golden Globes for good morning vietnam, the fisher king and his iconic role as mrs. Doubtfire the hit that is so popular its still the most frequently played movie on basic cable. His dozens of film grossed 3. 2 billion at the u. S. Box office and 5. 2 billion worldwide and those numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Most recently williams starred on the crazy ones, a sitcom on cbs which was canceled after one season. A sequel to the 1993 hit mrs. Doubtfire was in the works at fox but hadnt started production yet and presumably will not go forward without williams. Williams had already wrapped shooting on a couple of films that are scheduled for release. Hes reprising his role as Teddy Roosevelt in foxs night at the museum, secret of the tomb. Thats the third film in that franchise due out on december 19th. Another film called merry freaken christmas is due out in november. Joe, people are really going to be watching those films and im sure revisiting a lot of his various movies and tv shows in the coming days. You know, those numbers are staggering. And thats not, you know, what we want to focus on obviously. But, the man had a huge impact on just life in general, but when you look at numbers like that, from one man, it does sort of drive home the point. He was an incredible talent. Julia, stay with us. Joining us on set brent lang variety senior film and media reporter and Richard Roeper a film critic for the Chicago Sun Times joins us on the squawk news line. Where do you want to start or how do you want to start . Its very individual thing. Very difficult day. I mean, he was, you know, you see terms like genius thrown out there. I dont think its disputable that Robin Williams was a genius. He was a comic force that really hasnt been seen before, and probably wont be seen since. And his versatility was just aweinspiring. When you look at those clips, to have the same actor be in mrs. Doubtfire and just hilarious and break our hearts in things like good will hunting and the fisher king its a staggering accomplishment. Its the reason theres been such an outpouring some of that was scripted obviously. But the other thing about it, and anyone that watched him, most of his material probably was developed in the space of milliseconds, not even seconds when you watched how he could how he could improvise or how he could do standup. It wasnt something he thought of even three seconds before. Was it . It was almost instantaneous. No. He had a singular genius where there was no doubt, film roles, tvs, and certainly to standup where there was always room for Robin Williams to do what he probably didnt even know he was going to do until that very moment. It was, the key there so very well said is his versatility. Theres only a few i can think of who could so nipbly step back and forth between drama and comedy like Robin Williams did. Yeah, and he also clearly had a really remarkable wit. If you look at read through some of these oneliners that he said, he was just so smart and so clever, and you see that that was really, that clearness is what drove his ability to improv so well. And if you look at the way that he shot a show like mork and mindy. They just allowed him to improvise. And i think that his ability to improvise, whether it was as mork or as aladdin in the disney animated film really distinguished him from so many other comedians out there and allowed him to connect with so many people with his sort of ability to be all these different characters, all at once. When we look at, brent, we look at movie roles that make people stars. Im always surprised to see who turned down the role. And i think, wow, so it wasnt just that person. I look at, and you think, well theres writers, theres producers, theres creative geniuses that thought of how to develop this. But something about could there have been any of those movies that could have starred someone else, because he really did generate those billions because of the sheer force of his personality and genius. I think youre exactly right. I was talking to Jeffrey Katzenberg last night. When he was at disney he worked with williams on aladdin and on good morning vietnam, and he was saying, you know, this guy he made those movies. Those are iconic roles. Theres nobody else who could have done them. In some ways you look at them. He deserved a cowriting credit. He was just coming up with this stuff off the top of his head. You know, the genie in aladdin, people were actually talking about you know, will he get an oscar nomination he was so good. Richard youre a film critic. What was his greatest film . Is it even possible to say . You know, going through the list yesterday, you could have a list of five or six comedies, and five or six dramas that would be at the top of the list. You cant ignore good will hunting its the obvious choice because he won the oscar. Theres one scene where matt damon asked him when did he know he had found the one woman that was the love of his life, and in 2 1 2 minutes Robin Williams recreates game six of the 1975 world series and has us crying thinking about this woman that he had fallen in love with and demonstrated his range all within about 120 seconds. The only people that were crying were red sox fans. I am not crying when i think of the 1975 i am crowing. Im laughing. You will if you watch that scene again. There was a seventh game, and i remember bench hit a home run in like the third they were kind of well, richard, is there another actor who you would point to who had sort of similar range . A lot of great actors obviously have great range. But one who was sort of born, if you will, as a comedic talent, and one who, you know, arguably will be remembered equally for his dramatic abilities, as well as his comedy . Well, the first actor that comes to mind is tom hanks who is one of the great actors of all time. And you know, hes just a singular talent, as well. But the distinction where Robin Williams has even one more, you know, amazing ability is tom hanks was never really a standup comic. Or steve martin whos done drama and comedy. Robin williams in addition to the sitcoms, in addition to the comedies, in addition to the one hour photo was one of the top standup comics. He was along with Richard Pryor and george carlin. That is weird because weve been making a point, brent and richard, that you can go from comedy its not you wouldnt think it, but ive been told by someone like bill murray you can go from comedy to drama but i dont know if you can go from drama to comedy. Its extremely difficult. We can pick a couple names you mentioned where they fall really flat, great dramatic ators. But, if youre able to age whatever it takes, i guess standup and i wouldnt i just think you cant underestimate the power of this improvisation. I mean its so unusual for studios to allow someone to just go. And say like with aladdin were just going to let you imthis pr this and see what comes. Its unusual to trust someone like Robin Williams to give him that much leeway. They were talking about, i had read in tiger beat magazine when i was little because i was such a fan of Robin Williams when he was doing mork and mindy, they would do the scenes six times and he would do it differently every single time and it was tough to decide which one was actually going to go in the show because every single one was so funny. And thats so unusual and so rare in hollywood. When you look at a lot of improvisation it would be inconceivable to think of those type of films without a Robin Williams. He showed there was a market for that kind of humor and that you could really pull it off in the structure of a feature film. Hanks is a good example, right . Bachelor party hilarious. Hilarious. And then the show where he was a woman . Could the same talent that did those films be in castaway on the beach . Right . Bosom buddies to that. Bosom buddies. Bill in caddyshack which not a single line that he did in caddyshack was written. No . And then last in translation, or any of the, you know thats right. Pretty amazing. Brent, thanks. Richard, appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks so much. All right, coming up julia, too. Julia is do we need to thank her . Shes family. Thank you, julia. Thank you anyway. Coming up, more airdrops of u. S. Aid to some 40,000 people escaping the militant group isis. And while there is more chaos in baghdad over who will leave the country at the same time what does the u. S. Need to do right now . How to get the situation under control. And check out shares of exact sciences. The fda giving the green light to the first noninvasive colon Cancer Screening test. The chairman and ceo joins us to talk about the new Development First on cnbc 7 30 a. M. Eastern time. In india we have 400 Million People who dont have electricity and i just figured that its time i do something about it. What were doing right now, along with ibm, is to actually transfer data through a satellite from our wind farms directly onto the cloud. I think we could create a far more efficient system across the whole network where we could actually draw down different kinds of energy based on when its needed by the consumer. A smarter Energy System is made with the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. Female narrator the mattress price wars are on the mattress price wars are on at sleep train. We challenged the manufacturers to offer even lower prices. Now its posturepedic versus beautyrest with big savings of up to 400 off. Serta icomfort and tempurpedic go headtohead with three years interestfree financing. Plus, free sameday delivery, setup, and removal of your old set. When brands compete, you save. Mattress price wars are on now at sleep train. Your ticket to a better nights sleep welcome back to squawk. Take a look at the futures right now after a couple updates on the street. Albeit a me dandering one yesterday before barely closing higher. Theres the dow an implied open up 22. The s p and nasdaq look like they, as well, would open to the plus side. Among this mornings stocks to watch, intercept pharma, shares soaring in extended trading. The company releasing positive data on an experimental liver drug. A Clinical Trial showing the drug many have had may have had a more benign effect on patients cholesterol levels than first thought. In geopolitical news, secretary of state john kerry says the u. S. Will consider additional military economic and Political Support to iraq once a new inclusive government is formed. President obama under fire by critics for underestimating the threat there. Joining us more on the volatile situation larry korb a senior fellow at the center for American Progress. And a former assistant defense secretary, and Michael Reuben is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise institute and a former pentagon official. Lets approach it two ways, guys. Larry and michael, number one, any of this our own making or the president s own making, that if something had been handled differently years ago, that maybe we wouldnt be in this situation, larry . Or is it i mean the problems in iraq are well documented. Its been, you know, not even just hundreds of years. Is there anything we need to take responsibility here for, larry . Oh, definitely. By invading iraq unnecessarily and under false pretenses, not sending enough troops to control the situation, and then trying basically their civil society, we created this situation where you have the prosecution of these religious minorities. And the other thing is, we put maliki in to power and then kept him in there in 2010, when it was clear he was moving in a very noninclusive way and going after people who arent take it a step further, larry. So that happened, all right. So go to the current administration, and what happened in syria. Any responsibility there for letting this underestimating the problems, and letting it get to this point . People said you should have armed the moderate opposition. Those were a bunch of farmers and bankers. They did not have military capability. Had we armed them, isis would have gotten the same equipment they got from the sunnis even earlier. Because they would have been able to beat these people. All right. Michael, thats the centers for American Progress take. Does the aei have the same take . No, look, Saddam Hussein wasnt exactly known for civil society. And when it comes to the rise of isis, a group which oftentimes isnt only iraqi, and the kurds just killed a chechen the other day, you have a situation where president obama is like a doctor who diagnoses cancer, but waits until it hits stage four before giving any medicine. The fact of the matter is, this problem metastasized largely because we hadnt taken action at a time when we could have had Preventive Medicine in syria. Larry i always like the retro, sort of hindsight view of iraq now. So it was just such a nice, Peaceful Place before we went in there and screwed it up. I mean, you know, with kuwait, and with gassing the kurds, and with a couple of wars with iran and hundreds of thousands of deaths. I really miss that Saddam Hussein character. Well, wait a second. Wait a second. Okay. We ate at Saddam Hussein when he fought iran, okay . But theres a couple when you say we, the same thing the United States did. Right. And yes hes a horrible dictator. I agree with that. But it was a stable we dealt with a lot of horrible dictators, like mubarak, for example. Assad was on our side. The guy who runs syria, in the first gulf war. So by going in they created this chaos the spirit of joes question, larry, is president obama inherited the situation. And what should he have done . And could he have done anything differently so we wouldnt be here now . Is there anything yes, what he could have done is not allowed maliki, who lost the 2000 election to take power. Thats the first thing he could have done. So the United States should intervene in what is presumably a democratic election no, no, he and tell them how to do their business. He lost the election. Okay . He lost the election. Thats what that was the problem. And we still threw our weight behind him. He didnt win that election. He won this one. But he didnt win the last one. It was very clear, even by then, he was not an inclusive leader. Michael any way to this has a good outcome based on what the United States does at this point . Is it our is it in our wheelhouse to try to be the one that decides how to work this out . Or is it an iraqi problem . Well, ultimately its an iraqi problem. But lets also be clear. Its all well and good to scapegoat maliki but no matter how generous he might have been in a perfect world, to many of the sunni provinces inside iraq, it wouldnt have changed the ideology of isis. This isnt a battle about freedoms its a battle about ideology. Giving more concessions to sunni tribalsmen wasnt going to change the misogyny of isis, their hatred, their bloodthirsty hatred of religious minorities. The fact of the matter is weve got to recognize that sometimes terrorism is rooted in ideology and not in just larry, would what is the center for American Progress think the president should be doing in terms of airstrikes or involvement in iraq at this point . Well, its not the center. Its me. What do you think . Basically you want to keep working there . Were doing the right thing because the in kurdistan the peshmerga will fight so thats what happens. The fact of the matter is the iraqi army was much better than isis but they folded because the sunnis up there didnt support maliki. Theyre one of the best trained militaries in the in the region. And so by the peshmerga, theyll fight, were giving them equipment and were dealing with the humanitarian catastrophe which we created by creating chaos in iraq when we went in there. Michael the failure of the peshmergas this last time around we had to step in and help them. Whats your assessment of why that happened . You know i see a lot of problems first of all theres got to be introspection about why all the militaries were training fall apart once we leave. You cant blame ethnic and sectarian division on the failure of the peshmerga to fight effectively what youve got to look at is corruption and nepotism. The president of Iraqi Kurdistan made his son head of special forces and made him a general at age 30 and the fact of the matter is, the kurds didnt fight well this time because they didnt have ammunition. But they could have bought ammunition on the open market, instead barzanis son bought a 10 million mansion in suburban washington, d. C. Weve got to address corruption, which is more corrosive than terrorism throughout the region. Tough to fight isis in the suburbs of washington, d. C. Indeed. All right. Larry korb, thank you. Michael rubin, thanks. Wheres larry . You got me and michael. Thanks, larry. Youre welcome. Theres larry. All right, thanks, larry. Coming up the terminator meets the jetsons. Why the next time you need a bellhop or room service at a hotel a robot could be knocking at your door. Squawk box returns in just a moment. What does an apron have to do with Car Insurance . Every time you tie on an apron, you make progress. And we like that. Because progress is what we make, too. water dripping and dont juspipes clanging ncisco. Visit tripadvisor san francisco. soothing sound of a shower with millions of reviews, tripadvisor makes any destination better. And cialis for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moment is right. Cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30tablet trial. The supply of an experimental drug to treat ebola is is gone. Zmap makes the drug. It says the final doses are headed for liberia to treat doctors infected during the outbreak of the virus. The liberian government made a direct appeal to president obama for the drug. The death toll from the virus in west africa has now topped 1,000. When we come back, a Major Development breaking overnight in the detection of colon cancer. The ceo of exact sciences joins us with the big news first on cnbc. And will investing in theme parks leave you stranded . This weekends break down at six flags leaving passengers stuck 75 feet in the air and putting a industry under the microscope. Thats coming up as well. Welcome back to squawk box. Headlines at this hour, jpmorgan is selling part of its private equity business to two investment firms. Theyll buy about 50 of the Portfolio Companies held by jpmorgans one equity partners. Terms were not disclosed. Google and five Asian Telecom Communications Companies are teaming up to build a Transpacific Cable Network connecting the United States to japan. The partners will invest about 300 million in the project. The network will be named faster. Construction will begin immediately. It should be ready for service in the Second Quarter of 2016. Joe . Thank you. Michelle. There was a time we would have talked about the Nfib Small Business in 15 seconds were going to do that. Because it comes out at 7 30 exactly. Were head nothing 15 seconds. Check out the futures. They dont necessarily move in anticipation of anything. Maybe they will some day at the nfib. Theyre up about 17 points on the dow after we saw yesterday here it is. Small Business Optimism rose in july, it remains well below historical averages though. The National Federation of independent business says its monthly index edged higher. 95. 7, up 0. 7 since 95. The group says the numbers shows Small Business part of the economy is still not pulling its weight as it has been a long time since it dunkelberg tells us that every time hes on and recent economics numbers confirm that. That idea. Small business. Tough. Whats the problem . Well, i mean beyond the amazing conviction the way you delivered that was the incredible way you vamped, as we say, in your leadup yeah, because it had been 15 seconds. Next thing you know, its 5 seconds. Funny that way. How it works. Why dont you vamp here and get to the stupid markets. You got another guy named scott. You going to get confused because his name is scott . I wont. Scott nations from the cme group. Hes chief Investment Officer at nations shares. Scottie, good morning, good to see you. Good to talk to you, scott. Its interesting joe loves that Small Business number, doesnt he . Couldnt you tell . You were all over it, baby. It wasnt the number it was were going to check the futures. Its embargoed until 7 30. We had to do it right at 7 30. Otherwise someone might have that dropdead important info. Cant mention it early . We would want to be right on tune with a market moving number like that. Yeah, but its not necessarily go ahead. Okay. Dont do that on the show. Sarcasm sarcasm equals trouble . It does. Scott how should we be thinking about the markets here after the kind of couple of weeks that weve had and the return of volatility, the geopolitical flashpoints, et cetera . I think we have to look at what happened yesterday, at least in the s p, and be pretty confident. Now overnight, we got german Investor Confidence which was horrible, about what you would expect. Not many places in the world where you would expect Investor Confidence to be even lower than in germany. But it was even worse than expected. But here i think people feel pretty good given everything. I mean we got in the middle of the morning yesterday we got the news out of iraq that maliki is not going to leave quietly, and the s p at that point was up about six and i thought it would actually come all the way back to zero or unchanged on the day given that that news was obviously not good for our markets. I think were starting to see that even in the face of reasonably bad news our market is pretty resilient. Thats probably largely a function of the fact that 90 of the S P Companies have now reported earnings. That earnings are really good, and probably more importantly, in the s p, revenues are better than expected. For several quarters in a row, if Companies Made their eps numbers only because of the stuff in the middle of the income statement. That is expenses they were cutting. Now it seems that revenues are growing as well and were also going to get a bunch of reports from retailers this week, were going to see if theyre finally getting out but for how long can we seemingly ignore whats taking place in europe . I mean, if you have the Italian Economy slipping into recession. And then now you have worries about, you know, the behemoth, germany, having economic issues, as well, how long can the s p ignore that . Regardless of what the earnings are here . I mean at some point its going to run its course. As long as tenyear yields in some of the p. I. Ooncht g. Countries are lower than the tenyear yields here in the United States, as long as that is the case i think that we can, if you will, whistle past the graveyard. Until we start to see some nor flight out of sovereign debt in some of the second tier european countries, i think our market is going to do just fine. But i think that that will be to use an overused analogy, that will be the canary in the coal mine. All right, scott well talk to you soon. Scott will be on futures now at 1 00 p. M. Eastern today only on cnbc dotcom. I wanted to get to Kevin Conyers here about the nfib thing. The breakthrough about colon cancers. The fda just approving the first noninvasive colon Cancer Screening test. A Company Behind the new test is exact sciences, and its good to see you, kevin. Theres a i want to show a oneyear chart because you were here a year ago. Kevin conyers, ceo of exact sciences. So for anyone that was watching, nine bucks, and the reason you were on last time, you have seen some positive phase three trials for this, right . We ran a 10,000 patient study that was published in the new england journal of medicine. And in that 10,000 patient study, cologuard this new Screening Test detected 94 of curable stage cancers, stage one and two cancer. 92 of all cancers. Noninvasively. Colon cancer. Colon. So the stock was at about 9 when you did that. Its going to be at 18 or so today. Market cap is approaching 2 billion. Ive got a lot of questions. Number one, the we know about colon cancer. We know to get a colonoscopy because you have these polyps form and theyre serial mutations over a long period of time that can finally result in colon cancer. What is this detecting . Which mutation is this detecting . Colon cancer does develop over a very long period of time. Precancerous polyps take 10 to 15 years and theyre presumably more mutations occurring as this goes on. Is it testing a mutation or testing something thats its detecting dna mutations. Something called dna methylation and protein. And so a blood protein. So 11 markers altogether. We developed the test in a deep collaboration with the mayo clinic where we identified the markers. And developed all of the technologies, a really difficult test to develop, with the mayo clinic we developed all of the technologies to detect these various markers. Hard thing to do. Let me take one step back. One of the great things that occurred yesterday was the fda and cms acted in parallel for the first time in History Centers for medication. Cms proposed National Coverage decision. Every three years medicare how much does it cost . So we are pricing the test at 599. Which is a great price. How much is a colonoscopy . Medicare were proposing 502. Colonoscopy costs about 2,000 to 2500 on average. So how many is that the test there . Yes, it is. So this is a collection kit. One of the great things about the test is once your doctor hold it up behind the box. Looks like a little garbage pail. This collection kit gets sent to you. U. P. S. Actually ships this directly to your home. So its the only colon Cancer Screening test thats highly effective that can be performed in the privacy of your own home. And when youre finished you call u. P. S. And they come back and pick up the collection kit. In a sealable leakproof container. You sit on how do you . So its really simple. You figure it out easily that goes on the toilet seat. The top comes off. A preservative goes over the sample and then the collection kit goes back in to the container. Youre talking about collecting stool. Were talking about collecting stool. We actually had to put that i think most people figured out, were talking about colon cancer here. And if youre going to do a colonoscopy. The thanks youre going to be doing arent that great either. Back to your point, joe. So colon cancer develops over 10 to 15 years through these acquired mutations, methylation. Like so many cancers. Like so many cancers. If you find a precancerous polyp and remove it we know that it actually prevents the disease. And this disease slow moving. This is a disease we ought to be able to handle. And it kills a lot of people. No problem. How many false positives do you get . You get about 10 false positives in patients with a perfectly normal colon. So thats really reasonable. So they can go get checked if they you know theyll be scared but if its a false positive they at least get it checked and have a full col colonosco colonoscopy. Thats right. You got to get a great guy doing the colonoscopy or he might give you a false positive or worse he may miss a precancerous lesion. And the problem that were trying to fight how often do you very small percentage of time only 6 of the time. But in the compare test curable stage cancer was missed 30 of the time. Five times greater. To put this in perspective colonoscopy is known to miss about 5 to 10 of cancers. So its not that different. Its not that different. Let me ask you a question about the price again because im looking at a story here that says you new test would cost 599. Which you said. Comparing to about 25 for a traditional stool blood test. You said like 2500. Thats for a colonoscopy. Theres a reason that the current blood stool blood test only 25. They detect later stage cancers much better than they detect markers that are definitive for cancer. Its looking for blood in the stool. Will you find a precancerous polyp with this . You can find a precancerous polyp stage one stuff. Even prior to stage one. What do you think the market 15 years before cancer. What is the potential market two years from now, now that its well without speaking to what it is two years from now there are 80 million americans in the average risk screening group. 80 Million People, only half of them are regularly getting screened with colonoscopy. So, the market for this, we estimate, to be at least about 8 million americans per year. Achieving only about 30 market penetration. So assuming that only 30 of people whats that come out to . Did you do the math . Its a big opportunity in the u. S. Only. Thats the math you did . Its a big opportunity. What is 30 drs its a multibillion dollar u. S. Opportunity and a multibillion dollar global opportunity. Are you surprised, the stocks had obviously a great run already leading up to the expectation of the approval. Are you surprised its not up more this morning . Are you surprised . Im surprised because i i dont want those kind of numbers. I dont want to do this. And i worry, can i do this at a Doctors Office . Can someone help me where i just am not that involved with the whole im acting like a child. This is far better than a colonoscopy. Dont get me wrong. Theres a lot of distasteful things you have to do with your health. Catheters, and injections a real focus on the 50 of people who are notcolonoscopy. Presumably they could do it really easily. In fact the American Cancer Society said this year their goal is to increase compliance from about 60 to 80 by 2018. Good. You dont get there without a new test like cologuard to get there there should be urgings with Public Service announcements. Yeah. If were going to worry about how our kids eat lunch this should be a good thing to promote. Katie couric did a col colonoscopy live on tv. Maybe you could youre making a joke about this again. I dont i dont okay. Maybe you know, let me think. Live on television, you know. Yeah. I had a colonoscopy so im all set. Im good. Thank you, Kevin Conyers, well be watching. Stocks at you just saw it up about 7 . Just one more quick question. Theres no prep, so to speak. Theres no prep. No prep at all. You dont have to drink all that stuff . This is a simple, and easy as it gets and its widely accessible. This test cologuard for the first time you can screen a population with the help of u. P. S. Its a big deal. And there is a book that you read as a kid, everybody, you know, poops at some point. My kids have read that one. All right. Coming up. Thank you. Thank you very much. Coming up, the latest roller coaster scare leaving 24 people dangling 75 feet above the ground. It may have been a good time for all of these people to get tested they were probably pretty frightened. Do incidents like this hurt the bottom line . Thats next. And later oscar winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead, if you havent heard yet, in his California Home yesterday. Fans around the world remembering the improv genius. Including the president Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny and everything in between, but he was one of a kind, the president said were going to have more on his apparent suicide in just a bit. Squawk box will be right back. We started zya with the thought that the kid on the back of the bus might have a song that he has in his head but he just cant get out. With the technology of cloud, we change all that. I can sing something into my device, up to the cloud it goes, back down it comes, sounding better. We break down the walls of creation and we give music creation for the masses. Unlock the creativity in anyone. With the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. Welcome back to squawk box. Checking the futures now. Lets see how were shaping up for this day on wall street. Are we going to make it three in a row . When was the last time the dow did three days up in a row. Implied open of 13 points. S p looks like it could be a little higher off the open and theres the nasdaq which outperformed yesterday. Looks like it, as well, will be positive off the open. Making headlines this morning, nascar officials are holding a weekly meeting today, and they are expected to discuss the deadly sprint car race last weekend involving tony stewart. Usa today reports officials will discuss driver altercations, and rules to keep drivers in cars under caution. The paper also notes what it calls the entertainment component to driver altercations. Speedways use the fights in promotions, focused on selling tickets. Michelle . 24 riders rescued after being stuck for hours on the jokers juice ride at six flags in maryland over the weekend. Do these accidents hurt business or is the business of big coasters booming bigger and better than ever . Joining us now is oppenheimer and Company Senior research analyst. Ian, good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Are we going to see an impact on six flags business or the roller coaster business in general . The theme park business in general because of this situation . You know, i think these, what i call them incidents, the incidents tend not to have any impact on attendance. It makes for great social media and i think in todays day and age, youre seeing a lot of social media. For instance i woke up this morning and i know 15 of my friends are feeling blessed today. Ten years i would have never even known they were blessed. Because of social media we now know that. So i think a lot of this is really more blown out of proportion than anything else. You dont see do you ever see a oneday drop in attendance . Maybe the particular park or any kind of ripple text . Oh, yeah, you know, if you see, you know, something more significant, lets just say a fatal toy in a park, yes, youll absolutely see a degradation in attendance. You know, theres been incidents before or accidents before and fatalities. They tend to be relatively localized. To just that park, and then they tend to dissipate over, you know, the ensuing two, three months or so. But yes, you know, initially you do see that. How much of an arms race, so to speak, do you think is going on between these theme Park Companies and trying to come up with the latest and the greatest and the highest and the fastest and the scariest coasters to drive their attendance . Yeah, well, i think, you know, as technology progressed, the rides have gotten more advanced, youre able to do things that you werent able to do before. For instance six flags used to have a wooden roller coaster. They put in a steel track to make the banks steeper and make the ride more thrilling. I think the more sophisticated the rides get, the more technology you add. Im not saying that youre going to see more of these incidents but its almost like your car. The more technology in your car, you know, the more likelihood that there is going to be something that fails. I mean the idea is really to prevent a catastrophic failure. Not necessarily, you know, people being stuck on a ride. And a lot of times people being stuck on a ride might be a safety feature. Theyre not falling off the track and theyre being contained. So data that shows year over year growth when it comes to theme park attendance is 2 to 3 . That isnt all that exciting. Do you recommend six flags at this point based on the fundamentals of the industry . And the stocks big run, too. Yeah. So ive been covering the stock for a long time since bankruptcy, it split twice already its done a very good job. And the idea was never, hey, look, this is, you know, big growth story. Its a relatively mature industry. It does grow 2 to 3 but the pricing is pretty significant. Six flags in particular is underpriced relative to their peers. Theres a big gap where they could raise the pricing. They could reduce the discounts, fence in discounts and get people to pay full price. Its more of a pricing story than a cash flow story, as opposed to lets just say an attendance growth story. Ian thank you so much. Thanks for joining us. My pleasure, thank you. Coming up, can a new Prime Minister in iraq stop the Islamic States from redrawing the border . Were going to discuss with the director of a peace building and human rights clop at columbia university. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 30 of the webs leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter. Com offer2. Take a look at some stocks to watch this morning. Intercept pharma releasing positive data on an experimental liver drug. A Clinical Trial showing that the drug may have had a more benign effect on patients cholesterol levels than first thought. And thats pretty interesting news. And that stock today, the stock up about 58 . When you break down that symbol, wapner, please, for Halftime Report . Dont you think you might want to look at that . I think well talk about that. Are you going to watch . You dont have to force every day youre welcome Speech Recognition Software maker Nuance Communications posting earnings in line with estimates. Revenue, though, missed the mark. In Current Quarter guidance, falls short of consensus. Apples siri feature is powered by nuance. People dont use siri nearly as much have you tried it . I think ive used it maybe once. You can use it for everything. Call home, call do you use it . Yeah, you can use it when you dont you should be using it at times when youre not. Where you can just say, find a dominos or whatever it is. Whatever number that youre looking for. Or call someone you use it . Yeah. You dont do that . I dont do it very often either. Works pretty well. And i dictate all my emails now. You do . You can say some really funny stuff. You may have to change a few words. She comes up with some khaki stuff. At your desk and talking in front of everybody or this is when youre driving . Whenever i will start trying to do an email by doing it that way. Really . Yeah if its ten simple words like yeah, lets do that. Lets make it instead of typing. Its not like the autocorrect is all that great, either. That comes up with some wacky stuff. Exactly. You always have to check that before you hit send. Yeah, you do. Rackspace earnings were in line with estimates forecasting Current Quarter revenue above analyst estimates among the at list an increase in demand for its Cloud Management services. Of course all these stocks reacting to that nfib report that we had at 7 30, as well. Thats sort of in the mix sort of market influencing. Keep that in the back of your mind. 95. 7 versus 95. Should we talk about nfib in the half . Yeah, for sure. At your own peril. Coming up do you want viewers no. Coming up, Robin Williams remembered. The actor found dead yesterday in his home in Northern California, a live update is just ahead. Plus geopolitics in focus again this morning. Former council of economic advisers chair will join us to talk politics and intersection of the economy. Plus robots invading starwood hotels. An exclusive preview of new technology that could change your hotel stay. Squawk box will be right back. D where the reward was that new car smell and the freedom of the open road . A card that gave you that im 16 and just got my first car feeling. Presenting the buypower card from capital one. Redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac with no limits. So every time you use it, youre not just shopping for goods. Youre shopping for something great. Learn more at buypowercard. Com your studied day and night for her drivers test. Secretly inside, you hoped she wouldnt pass. The thought of your baby girl driving around all by herself was. You just werent ready. But she did pass. cause shes your baby girl. And now youre proud. A bundle of nerves proud. But proud. Get a discount when you add a newlylicensed teen to your Liberty Mutual insurance policy. Call to learn about our whole range of life event discounts. Newlywed discount. New College Graduate and retiree discounts. You could even get a discount when you add a car. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Leadership in iraq in question. Airstrikes continuing as isis looks to make its next move. What you need to know about the situation and what it means for markets around the globe. Checking in with the ceo of Choice Hotels. I think you misspelled the word vacation. One of the Worlds Largest hotel chains on the summer lodging season and the state of the business traveler. And oscar winning actor and comedian Robin Williams being remembered this morning. What do you think i should have . Oh, anything thats on the menu. Oh, how about this fly . Whoa his legacy and how he will be remembered, as the final hour of squawk box begins right now. Good morning, vietnam im driving in my car welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. First in business worldwide. Im joe kernen along with scott wapner and Michelle Carusocabrera. Of course, we have played this, im not going to mention for we played in the background for certain guests. This is Robin Williams, doing the classic driving in my car yeah. Im trying to think of who we played this far. I am, so. Oh, hes on, on checking the no. Checking the futures right now, we are looking theyve come down a little. Up only 5 points. You know, so this would be three days in a row. After a couple of dicey weeks. Last week a good rebound week. Week before, got a little bit scary gave back all the july gains at one point. Right . Yeah. Theres concern out of europe this morning, german Economic Sentiment dropping sharply in august with a key industry reading hitting its lowest level since december of 2012. Take a look at the euro. A little bit of pressure 1. 33 it is right now. The german tenyear, there it is, well yielding 1 . Geopolitics dominating the market headlines this morning. A convoy of 280 russian trucks headed for the eastern part of the country early this morning. This comes a day after a deal was reached on an International Humanitarian relief mission. But the red cross says it has no information on what the trucks are carrying, or where theyre going. Mean time in iraq, political leaders are in a battle for power. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki refuses to step aside this even though the countrys new president has already named a replacement. The Obama Administration is praising the new leadership, and calling for the government to unite. Were going to have more on that situation in iraq, and ukraine, and elsewhere in just a minute. And the world is waking up this morning to an outpouring of condolences for the death of Robin Williams. The comic legend dead of an apparent suicide at age 63. His movies brought in more than 5 billion worldwide at the box office. Michelle . All right. Beyond containing the Current Crisis what does the Obama Administration need to do to turn the tide against terrorism in iraq . Joining us now is david phillips, director of the program on peace building and human rights at columbia universitys institute for the study of human rights. Also a former Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs expert at the u. S. State department during the administrations of president s clinton, bush and obama and hes also the author of the forthcoming book the kurdish spring plus cnbc contributor. Good to have you here. How. Before we can figure out what the president should do we have to identify the problem and they seem to get bigger and multiply by the day. Nuri al maliki refusing to step down, incredibly defiant for the last two days even in the face of potentially a new Prime Minister. Could we have a shia on shia civil war in iraq . There have been civil wars between shia factions before. Right now maliki has been replaced. But hes refusing to leave the office. Hes take iing to the courts. Hes made most of the judicial appointments. He also controls the Security Services he has his own militia, correct . And theyve taken to the streets. Theyve closed the airports. Theres a real risk of a coup. If that occurs, that seems to be where we might start to see a big impact on oil supplies, because the south controlled by the shia groups, right . I mean basra in the south so far it hasnt been affected by turmoil in iraq and theres been plenty of it. So we might not see a significant effect. What it does impact on is the administrations plan for an inclusive government in iraq thats going to solve the countrys problems. Why would the peshmerga fail this last time around . They have this mythical reputation, they stood their ground when the iraqi army disappeared. A couple months ago. What happened this time around . They were just seriously outgunned. They went into battle each peshmerga with 60 bullets and faced an Islamic State army loaded with stateoftheart equipment made in the usa and it was seized when they rolled into mosul on june 10th. They just couldnt stand their ground against heavy armor. We had a guy on last hour from the aei who says maybe corruption. Barzanis son buying a place in washington, d. C. Spending a lot of money, suggesting theres money going to places it shouldnt be, and could have gone to better equipment, even if the United States didnt provide it. You can speculate all you want about that. The fact is the peshmerga are capable and loyal and motivated. If they have the equipment to do the job theyll be able to defend the country. What happens with these targeted airstrikes that the president has now launched . Do you think it will work . And if not, what is the longerterm strategy to deal with this developing crisis . It has worked already. I mean isis was on the verge of taking erbil. A city of a Million People. They would have gone in, and slaughtered thousands. So, it came just in the nick of time. But air strikes alone wont rule back the gains that isis has made on the ground. You have to arm the peshmerga, not with covert cia shipments but a robust train and equip program run through the pentagon. They need training. And they need to coordinate with the peshmerga so youve got an air and ground force operation that can stand against isis. Does any of that require boots on the ground . It does not. Peshmerga are the boots on the ground. What it requires is the political will in washington to make decisions to stand behind our friend and ally the iraqi kurds. You tried to get in to erbil this past weekend, correct . I got right up to the pushish iraqi border. All the flights were canceled. I wasnt able to get in. Theres a huge regional humanitarian crisis. Including the aziddies who were stuck on mound sinjar. The fact that weve dropped humanitarian supplies has helped to save lives. But they still need a humanitarian corridor to get off the mountain. Into a sanctuary. You talk about what can be done when it comes to the United States helping out the kurds to push back isis. What about the Political Drama under way in baghdad . Is there anything the United States can or should do there . Weve already called al abadi. The new guy. And congratulated him. Probably the less we do the better because iraqis will react against u. S. Intervention. Malikis already played that card, saying that this move is an unconstitutional effort thats been run out of washington. Our whole strategy for dealing with iraqs stability in the future is based on an inclusive government. We might just have to come to terms with the fact that iraqis dont have any tradition of consensus politic and they just are not going to continue as a viable state in the future. In which case were going to have to look at who are our friends in iraq and instead of trying to placate our foes and adversaries work with our allies. Youre talking about the kurds . Of course. I was reading, as well, where theres pressure on cameron in britain to get involved in some way, shape or form with us. Does that change the dynamic at all . Does it make decisions for our president any easier . Does it change the strategy that could be used there, if more of our allies are involved in whatever process this leads to . Both the british and the french have stepped up and said they would join a humanitarian airlift but theyre not involved in any military action beyond that. The big question is, how is turkey going to react . Turkey is a nato member. A frontline state. Its already set up a comp on the border for iraqi turkmen. So far we havent heard from ankara about how theyre going to assist the situation. In the background theres speculation that the turkish government sympathizes with isis and has a history of supporting them and helping their logistics. If the benefit from the airstrikes is limited, and now i see that it gives jihadists another reason to feel good about whats theyre doing because its against us again, its against the United States again and almost enboldins people to want to join up because here we are, you know, interceding again where they dont want us. Are the benefits outweighed by the actually giving more . You know, it almost induces people to join us with isis, doesnt it . Ryan crocker who used to be our ambassador in baghdad called baghdadi the head of isis incarnate evil. Our involvement isnt going to motivate them any further. Their goal is to kill shiites, because of the divisions between islam. And anyone who is prowestern like the kurds or the minorities theyre already are going to be targeted. I guess theyre already seen as u. S. Friendly. We should point out davids got a book coming out where before all this started predicted that kurd stan would become independent. At some point rather soon. And youre in a race against time, because it looks like its happening. So biden went from a buffoon to write about what we should have done in iraq in the first place, right . Bidens plan for the partition of iraq has been mislabeled. He was always talking about decentralization. And federalism that distributes power from the center so you think it would have been a better idea . It would have worked . At the time it was the right thing to do. In fact the 2005 constitution made arrangements for that. The problem is that maliki came into power in 2006 and he refused to have a referendum on kirkuk. He refused to distribute oil revenue to the regions. So all of the arrangements that were embodied in the constitution essentially broke down. Now youre saying that that plans dead on arrival, you got to go full division of the country is what youre suggesting . That plan was overtaken by events. I think you have to continue to try for a Political Fix that brings iraqis together. I just dont think its going to be possible. Particularly given malikis recent action. And if its not possible you need a fallback plan. Which is looking to Iraqi Kurdistan as a prowestern entity that serves as a security buffer. And a framework for the United States does the u. S. Have a fallback plan do you think . It looks to me like were flat footed in response to these events. Were reacting as things are occurring on the ground. We dont have a fallback plan. We need to start thinking about the future. All right. Doesnt look like we have a plan a or a plan b. Thank you, david. Good to have you on. All right, thanks. All right. He just signed it. Coming up but it kills you if i Say Something against hillary, wellesley. Yes. Its all about wellesley. It is. Coming up, how one of the Worlds Largest Hotel Companies is faring this summer. The ceo of Choice Hotels joins us next. Later the remembrances pouring in this morning following the death of Robin Williams. The actor passing away yesterday at the age of 63. A live report from the west coast minutes away. As we head to break, check out the squawk box market indicator. The cadillac summer collection is here. During the cadillac summers best event, lease this 2014 ats for around 299 a month and make this the summer of style. In todays market, a lot can happen in a second. With fidelitys guaranteed onesecond trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 Market Centers to look for the best possible price, maybe even better than you expected. Its all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. Im derrick chan of fidelity investments. Our onesecond trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. The most important time of the year for the hotel industry, what do bookings tell us about the health of the American Consumer this Summer Season . Steve joyce is president and ceo of Choice Hotels. Take a road trip across the country, and you wont be able to avoid seeing his properties. Brands include comfort inns, quality hotels, and econo lodge. Ill be darned. Look at all those. Among like there are. Theres a bunch of other, rodeway, suburban, he tended, mainstay. I just stayed in one of your comfort inns, dude. Hopefully we took good care of you. It was awesome. And there was like a buffet breakfast the next morning. Free. That i was gorging on the free wifi. Free wifi i noticed. Free parking. And it was a suite that was as good as like the Embassy Suite where this one is up in upstate new york. Where is the racetrack up there . Saratoga. Yeah, saratoga. We go up there for a family thing and stayed ive been there several times. Good job. Its franchise. 100 . And how many rooms total in the u. S. . Well we have almost a half million rooms worldwide. So its 450,000 in the states. When we talk one in ten hotels. We have, because were cnbc so well talk you know, ritzcarlton sometime, or well talk fairmount and we dont always necessarily talk you know the motor lodges on the freeways. Was it the same dynamic after the financial crisis with you . You know whats funny is our business actually held up better than some of the other companies. And so, were big leisure components. Weve got a lot of people that are vacationing. Were obviously, because we represent the 99 . Thats people drive to your hotels. Were the hotel chains people drive to. Were doing several things. Were not only on the road but were also not providing resort accommodations you know, where people want to be. You know, beaches and National Parks and everything else. There was a pool at our comfort inn. And if youre driving your ford vehicle you can book a room hands free. From your car . From your car. And it was a lincoln that i was driving. This is really hitting home. Okay. My serious question is rev par i guess occupancy came back for all the big chains and luxury chains, rev par still is not where it was . No, no, no. This is the year where its gotten back for everyone . Pretty much everybody. Prices level the Luxury Hotels and the urban hotels came back first. But we had a huge quarter. We were up almost 8 . And so one of the strongest performances out there, and so as a result, you know, the American Public is feeling good about their jobs. Theyre feeling good about their financial condition, and they are out there traveling. We did a survey, our folks told us they were going to take two vacations this year to drive and stay in our hotels. Is that different than yes, its up significantly over the last couple of years. So its actually, its good and were doing lots of different things. Were trying to reach out to the newer kids. Weve done vaca gone carca. What does that mean . A video, one of the biggest things on the internet if you know it might be a buyer here in a second. Im sorry. We can dress you up its happened. Anyway weve got look at that. 10 million views on the internet. With these and what it is is theyre redoing vacations gone bad and theres a big contest and reenact the ones that wins. This is for the hipster crowd . The millennials, the younger, my kids. We didnt talk about the hands free reservations. The ford you would know that if you werent trying to have an implosion on set from spilling i didnt talk about it. Well how do you make it was great. Its franchises. What if you have some, you know, bad owners that well you know, we have a lot we have 5,000 hotels in this country. Not every one is perfect. But we have a lot of people overseeing them. You ever do Undercover Boss . I have done Undercover Boss. You did . I absolutely did. What did you find . Did you get bed bugs . We did not have bed bugs. You didnt go through any of the rooms with ablack light . I have done that several occasions. We let consumers tell tell us what they think of the hotels and we put that online. We call that verified reviews. We also have inspectors, independent inspectors that go out. And we also have our own people in those hotels regularly. We have a pretty good idea. Were not perfect but we try hard. What would you pay for the highest level room at your at any of your the president ial suite if you have one you dont have any president ial we have hotels we have hotels in new york that want a busy new york, you know, weekend you could pay you could pay 400, 500. But at a comfort inn in a normal place in the midwest in cheyenne 79. No way youre over 200. Youre paying, 79, 89. With breakfast. With breakfast, parking and free wifi. We are the value oriented brands. In new york were the value. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good to see you. Thanks. So what was your disguise undercover . They shaved off my mustache, which has remained off. You dont have a mustache. I had one since the time i was 12. But then are you undercover right now . No, im not undercover now. There was a vote in the company and im the only one that voted for the mustache. Coming up next remembering Robin Williams. The latest from Northern California following the actors sudden death yesterday. News conference scheduled for 11 00 a. M. Pacific. Acclaimed actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead yesterday afternoon. The medical examiner now in the process of conducting an autopsy. A News Conference scheduled for late deer in california. Nbcs jennifer is live in california where Robin Williams resided. Michelle, its still shock and disbelief in this neighborhood. Were here in front of Robin Williams home that he shared with his wife. His wife making the stamgt that she hopes that people will remember him for his body of work, and all of the things he did to make people laugh, rather than the way he died of an apparent suicide. She was the last person to see him alive at about 10 00 on sunday evening. The next day, paramedics were called. He was found unresponsive, he was pronounced dead about noon on monday. And as you said the medical examiner is working on cause of death. Although preliminary indications were that it was a suicide and it was some sort of apparent asphyxia. Williams publicist had said that he had suffered from depression, and williams himself was very vocal about his past struggles with addiction, and drugs and alcohol and hed gone to rehab as recently as a few months ago. Again, Robin Williams dead at the age of 63. And press conference later on this morning. Hopes to shed some light on what else may have happened. What might have led to this. But thats the latest from here in california. Jennifer bjorklund reporting live. Appreciate that. When we return, former bush economic adviser ed lazear is with us. His take on the state of the economy and the growing issue of tax inversions, could they actually be good for america . Squawk box will be right back. Welcome back to squawk. Abercrombie fitch upgraded to buy from hold at steeple nicklaus. They fight a favorable change in the merchandise mix. Kate spade on the rise this morning. The Company Reported an unexpected profit for its latest quarter with analysts having predicted a breakeven performance. Kate spade also boosted its guidance for the full year on surging sales. And head phonemaker skullcandy saw its shares upgraded to hold from underperform at jefferies. Though jefferies says the road to recovery is a long one. It does see sustained fundamental improvement. Joe . Okay. You should just move that water i dont know. Take the sharp objects away. Yeah, are you were all set now . Okay. Im good. One of the hottest one spill is enough youre testing the eleven trok inning one of the hottest debate in thats what dp said. One of the in washington on wall street right now should American Companies be allowed to avoid taxes by moving their headquarters overseas . Mark cuban told us he wouldnt invest in companies that do that. But he had just gotten out of an operation, and was still i think underen es theesh yeah or something. One republican commentator said inversions could be good for america. I can see how youd argue that it could force some action. In that way it could be good. The argument is once the Company Moves overseas the 100 million that they would have had to repatriate and pay taxes will be reduced. Now the 100 million they invest in the United States is a full 100 million. Ed lazear served as one of president george w. Bushs economic advisers. Eddie, ill talk to you about that in a second. Im kind of more interested in what you always talk about, and we can get an idea about employment based on jolts. Because were now, you know, i heard biden, Vice President biden say its the greatest job creation period weve ever had in the history of the world. I think he said at one point. I mean, if you add up months, and how many it had been on the surface it looks good. But theres more ways to look at it. Theres, you know, parttime, and theres participation rate. The jolt number that you always look at, gives us a better picture. Why . And what is it . Explain it. All right. Well jolts actual stands for job openings and Labor Turnover survey. Its an index thats been around for almost 15 years now. Its not one that gets as much attention as you know your monthly job report. But it does tell you some things that the job report doesnt tell you and in particular what it tells you is the number of hires in any given months and the number of separations. So it gives you a much better picture as to whats going on in the economy. And theyre pretty astonishing facts that one gets from looking at jolts. And heres probably the most astonishing. In the typical month. In a good month, we would have, say, approximately 5 million hires, and 4. 9 million separations, which gives you a net gain of 100,000. But the 100,000 is tiny relative to the gross number of hires that you have. So, all of the action is coming from hires. And the reason thats important is that what it says is if we do anything to slow down the rate of hiring, were going to have very dramatic effects on job growth. And thats really the Important Message there. So has the jolts number confirmed that things have gotten much better in the last year . They have gotten better. But it also tells us how far we have to go. So, if you look at the jolts number, in the very worst month of the recession we had 3. 6 million hieshs. Now, thats an important number by itself because what it tells you is that even in the very worst month of the recession, we were still hiring at a rate of about 40 million a year which is about a third of the labor force. So its not like no one is hiring. Theres certainly plenty of hiring just at a lot slower pace than we see in normal times. Where are we now . Right now were up at 4. 7 million which is good. So were considerably up from where we were at the trough. But, if you look at the peak, where we need to be is somewhere in the 5. 2, to 5. 5 million range. And so, were only about, you know, half to, i dont know, 60 of the way back to where we need to be. And for that reason we know that we still dont have a healthy economy. You mentioned that sorry joe i just want to make one more point. You mentioned a couple of other numbers that we look at. The number that i like as kind of a summary of whats going on in the labor market is the employment rate. Thats the ratio of the number of people who have jobs, to the total number of people in the working age population. And that number is still at about 59 , even correcting for demographics, and the aging population. That should be about 61 . So were still about 5 million jobs below where we need to be. All right. The reason i didnt immediately go into inversions is ive just gotten frustrated because both sides actually, its not really both sides. Its really just being demagogue, i think, by left but i see what theyre saying. The president cant get a tax reform deal done. I dont think. So why even pretend why even talk about what we really should do, when youre not going to get to do it anyway. And hes just saying, were not going to have any Corporate Tax base left by the time its all done, so lets just put in a stopgap first, and then try and maybe do the longterm so i almost understand what hes saying. Although its frustrating. Because we should want to have a place that attracts capital. And its not just taxes here. We should be building facilities here. By not allowing companies to incorporate or to do inversions, that doesnt change that theyre still going to build manufacturing elsewhere. It doesnt change any of the other outflow of capital that we need to do. So its really us from traiting that were not addressing the crux of the matter. I know you think that just this palliative stopgap measure isnt the way to do things. Its actually counterproductive because it takes our eye off the ball fixing it. Absolutely. I agree with everything you said. In fact, i think that even as a short run measure it goes in the wrong direction. The way i like to think about this is in terms of baseball. Suppose you know you see that too many balls are being hit out of the park. Well, you know, the obvious thing to do is to move out the fences. What the president is suggesting is, telling each batter that its his patriotic duty to bunt. You know, thats not going to work. And it also is going to ruin the game. And thats exactly whats happening here. What the president is suggesting is that we move in the direction of stopping capital from flowing. You simply cant do that. Right because its not just our companies deciding to try and move somewhere with an acquisition over there. Our companies are easier bought by companies elsewhere with lower tax rates, because they can make our companies are valued more under their tax structure over there, so were going to continue to lose stuff based on and you cant what do you want to do . Not allow Foreign Ownership of companies now so were going to thats going to be the next thing we do to fix this . Right. And this is a very general point. Its not just inversion. What we know from all of the academic studies, and theres virtual unanimity on this, this is not just the right wing guys saying this, we know that the most mobile factor of production is capital. Thats the thing that can move most easily and it does move easily and it moves in response to tax rates. So what happens is if you raise the Corporate Tax, you have the most distortionary effect on the economy because capital can flee, and does flee and thats what we see. So if you look at even studies by the oecd which is hardly a right wing organization, they argue that the most distortionary tax is the Corporate Tax. When the president talks about tax reform, for the most part what hes talking about is higher taxes, not a restructuring of taxes. Thats not the right way to go right now. Ed, lets switch gears to the Postal Service. Ben garrett . No. I got it. 2 billion loss in the quarter. Yeah. I dont know, what what needs to be done . I mean, the mail gets there every day. Yeah. But, you know, the good thing is that the Postal Service actually does produce a pretty high quality product. So if we compare our Postal Service to those around the world we actually do a pretty good job. And we were doing that here on the set before the set were making fun of me. From a business standpoint. No. The Postal Service cant get out of its own way. You cant defend i mean, to spend that much money to get michelle is saying hey we get the mail every day. 8 billion a year. 8 billion a year. A lot of countries spend that money and they dont get the mail. Heres the thing, though. The problem is this. The Postal Service has a monopoly on first class mail. When you have a monopoly, you either can use it to make money, or you can use it to subsidize someone. In this case what the Postal Service has chosen to do is to subsidize. So the question is whether those sub sid whether those subsidies are sufficient for the economy. I tend to not like subsidies in general. I think that it tends to cause distortions in the long run. My view is that the Postal Service unfortunately is an aging entity. In a defining industry and there are good substitutes for it and over time its going to die a slow but probably appropriate death. How much time . Were talking about something thats lost, has recorded a loss in 21 of the last 23 quarters. This is what people are going to be talking about, right . Theyre happy to get their mail. I love my mailman. I love my teachers. I just dont like the people running it. You know. Thats right. The bureaucrats that have no accountability. Yeah, well absolutely. And i mean look. The Postal Service could, if it wanted to, earn higher levels of revenue, simply by restructuring their prices. Bulk rate mail for example is priced low. That could go up. So there are a number of things that could be done, perhaps should be done. Youre suggesting a private competition is the way to go here, when you use words like the Postal Service has a monopoly. Is that what youre suggesting . Yeah, exactly. And weve already seen private competition. Obviously the reason that even first class mail as you know has declined in terms of volume over the last year, thats just a reflection of two things going on. One is electronic mail, and the other is mail that takes the form of u. P. S. , fedex, other express Mail Services that are good substitutes for first class mail. So, again, i think this is a you know, this is essentially something thats going to correct itself over time. The issue is whether were willing to bear the cost in the short run, and who knows how long the short run will be. You know. But, look, in terms of budgetary problems this is an annoyance but its not a major budgetary problem. The major budgetary problems are on the entitlement side, not the Postal Service. Theres plenty we could be doing to get our budget back in line and the Postal Service may be one of them but its small potatoes compared to what we need to do to get our budget back on track. Thank you, ed. I appreciate it. Before the end of the show im going to try and play some Postal Service for you. The band. Okay. Such great heights ive ordered that up. You know def jam right . The front man is also the front man for never mind. Anyway is there crickets again . I understand it with wild wild west. But this is now. This is you should know this is saturday night live theyre big. No . When we return martin. Well play that. Room service will never be the same. Robots roaming the halls in one hotel ready to fetch everything from food to extra towels, were going to tell you where its happening next. And have you accepted the ice bucket challenge . Getting blasts of cold water for a good cause is sweeping the nation. Well explain why when squawk comes back in a minute. Over 1. 2 billion eyeballs are on us during the two weeks at wimbledon. True tennis fans want to know whats happening. They dont want to just see whats happening, they want to know and understand why its happening. Anybody can just put data up, but we want to get a reaction, make it far more interactive. We rely on the cloud to provide that immersive digital capability. Give fans more then just the game with the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. 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With fidelitys guaranteed onesecond trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 Market Centers to look for the best possible price, maybe even better than you expected. Its all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. Im derrick chan of fidelity investments. Our onesecond trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. Welcome back to squawk box. The futures right now are suggesting that we would have a slightly positive open. Not anymore. Theyve fallen. Dow would open lower by three points. Call it flat across the board. That nfib. Youre right. That moved it negative . Here is crude oil. The reason were showing you this the International Energy agency says the oil market is well supplied and that is despite conflicts in key Oil Producing areas. The savior the big increases in production from north america, wti at 97. 21 lower by 87 cents and brent remains low 103. 45, lower by more than a buck. I thought you were going to segue from jolts with lazier to enfebruary. Liesman loves that nfib. He does. Hes going to be mad that were making fun of it. He is. Were not making fun of it. Were not making fun of it not him. I love him, too. You never know whether hes going to have a mustache. Starwood is sending in the robots. The aloft hotel in kuper tino, california, will soon begin using robots to deliver stuff to your room. Josh lipton joins us now with more. Guys, i want to introduce you to my newest friend, alo the botler. Yes i said botler. Were here at the hotel part of the starwood family. They think this could be Game Changing technology when it comes to providing and services their guests. Heres how this technology really works. So a guest would call down to the front desk, order a tooth brush, a razor, or a towel. The front desk employee loads up the botler, types in a room number and sends it on its way. It uses wifi to call for an elevator, makes its way down the halls and calls for the room when it has arrived. Once the door room opens the botler can tell and opens up to reveal the items requested. This is just a Pilot Program here at aloft. But the senior vp of the brand tells us if successful he hopes to see the program in nearly 100 properties. The robot itself is designed by startup savio which has received funding from the likes of google ventures. The companys ceo thinks hotels could be just the beginning. Theres always places, hotels, elder care facilities, hospitals, that have a few hundred robots maybe but no significant numbers. We think thats just a huge opportunity. Now starwood is paying for this Pilot Program and has an exclusive contract with the robotmaker through the end of the year. But maybe the best part guys of my friend alos service is that if youre happy with this services, he actually only accepts tweets as tips. Back to you. Ah. Speaking of which, so how much does it cost . I mean its got to be does it im assuming the reason you would do this its cheaper than hiring an employee. Well, no word on cost. The hope is that the central costs come down it would only cost a few thousand dollars. In terms of how it works the employees the companys saying his purpose isnt to actually replace employees but rather the idea is he sort of takes over the small tasks so they can focus instead on more customer facetoface relationships. Got it. Okay. Cool stuff, josh. Thank you. He sounded like r2d2. Coming up tipping into jim cramers Tuesday Morning radar. Plus an ice bucket challenge right here on cnbc. The viral sensation raising awareness for lou gehrigs disease. Executives from biogen set to take the plunge today. The details and the importance of the effort still to come. Its monday. A brand new start. Your chance to rise and shine. With centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. With our visionary cloud infrastructure, Global Broadband network and Custom Communications solutions, your business is more reliable secure agile. And with responsive, dedicated support, we help you shine every day of the week. Centurylink your link to whats next. Welcome back to squawk box. The futures are suggesting a flat open right now. The dow would open higher by two, s p by two, the nasdaq by two. Let us get down to the new york stock exchange. Jim cramer joins us now. Jimmy, i was looking at, i understand this intercept deal now. Remember when it went up in the first place. I guess theres some really bad Liver Disease thats like cirrhosis almost but its nonalcoholic. Right . Its 5 . Right they call it nash. Nonalcoholic. And its horrible. I think you need liver transplant eventually from it. Intercept had this great drug that seemed to work but then it came out that there were some bad cholesterol increases with people taking it. I guess they some new data showed that the bad cholesterol increases were didnt last long, or that it wasnt as bad as they thought, and its up like 50 . This is a pretty big deal today for intercept. Yes, it is. I think this is one of the things weve got to get used to. You had a great guest earlier, exact sciences. There was another situation where initially the fda was very cool on it. Then you talked about the false positives. But the false positives are the ones that just say listen you have to have the coggenoscopy. Intercept looked initially not so good. I want to try to ask about what happens initially you get this setback and then you just keep plowing on and this intercepts going to be a very big drug. This is the kind of drug, kind of company that i think that janet yellen was saying dont go and get involved in. Yeah, right. I wish i were involved in it. Its 5 billion before this move today. Will move up almost 50 , so that moves it, you know, thats in one day pretty big. The thing with the colon cancer, theres a cms thing, and i think its 590 is what it costs, and cms is willing to do 502, 502, so everybody could do that. If you know youre not going to get a colonoscopy, why not do this for 500 . Totally great. Theres innovations that save the system money. I remember when we first on mad money said exact science has to go through. It was rejected. We had the ceo i mean, how can you reject this . People dont like the colonoscopy so they dont get it. Now theres no choice, heres the optionsment i think its something that saves the system instantly. You wish washington would recognize this is something that came along so fewer people have colon cancer. Fantastic invention. Before stage 1, markers for po pollyps. You cant guarantee the kbie doing the colonoscopy would find them. You could do both. I know. This is great. You have guys on, just, oh, yeah no. These are the guys who save the system money and save lives. Fantastic stuff. You have a colonoscopy, right . Yes. Just one. Would rather have this thing. Me too. Loutly. Thank you. Thank you. All the rave, for a good cause, the viral ice bucket challenge coming to cnbc. The details after the break when squawk box returns. Ons. Tdd 18003452550 you read this. Watch that. Tdd 18003452550 you look for whats next. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, we can help turn inspiration into action tdd 18003452550 boost your trading iq with the help of tdd 18003452550 our live online workshops tdd 18003452550 like identifying market trends. Tdd 18003452550 now, earn 300 commissionfree online trades. Call 18886282419 or go to schwab. Com trading to learn how. 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Well be joined in a couple hours by a few dozen other researchers to take the challenge involving a couple dozen of these dumped on their heads. Well see that. This is a challenge thats swept the nation. President obama has been issued a challenge. Well see if he takes it. The Als Association says they raised 2. 3 million from this since july 29th when it began. That compares with 25,000 raised in the same period last year. This is raising awareness and funds. Back do you. Are you going to do it . Reporter we shall see if ill do it, and well see if your favorite cnbc faces might take part in the challenge. Check that out on Halftime Report later. What . On your show . Yeah. Did you know this . No. Uhoh. Dude, are you going to get wet . Getting out of here now. Is that why you spilled the water . Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Reporter thank you, guys. 60 years since lou gehrig gave the speech, and they got every first baseman to read part, and finally showed my mother died of that actually but i showed my kids the speech, and that was phenomenal. He was playing every day, and he was only, like, 39 years old. Retired young. That was ad lib what he said about it. Im the luckyist guy on the phase of the earth, just got teared up, and i saw joey, he did it, and all the different mlb guys from today read part of the speech for lou gehrigs and said, i know people think its a tough break, but he was never seen again in public and died a few years later, 4 is 1. Its not a pleasant way to die. It shuts down your muscles that control your breathing, and its harder to breathe and swallow. The guy who started this ice bucket phenomena was a pretty celebrated, i believe, College Baseball player up in massachusetts who was diagnosed with als at an incredibly young age, in his playing career in college, and hes now sitting in a wheelchair, and they started this whole entire phenomena thats just absolutely captivated the country. And i think its ive done work for muscular dystrophy benefit in new york, and als was part of it, but just muscular dystrophy diseases, there is a Cutting Edge Technology now where the gene is truncated or the protein is truncated so it does not work, but they make the message run past it. Fix one thing, and they are actually almost ready now to cure the worst wow. Type of muscular dystrophy based on genetic engineering. We really are on the cusp as we saw today with the colon cancer and intercept. Well see the biogen folks on halftime, and i have to watch my back. I think you have to do it to yourself though, arent you . The video though showed other people dumping it on. Can be selfinflikted. She tried to out me to get me to do the thing with the school test live. I challenge you. That was universally challenged. It was. I challenge you to do this today and you wont do this, spilled water on our equipment, and thats the equipment, you dont even care. First of all, i didnt say i wouldnt do it. Im challenging you. My shows over. Are you going to watch the halftime show,. Ask carl icahn to do it. Yeah. Together. Yeah. Could you imagine . Or ackman. Should have after the herbal life presentation i think. Okay. What . Before we go, a couple headlines, corporate shares, shares of tesla trading high, but the model s, quote, has more than a share of problems. Staff has been impressed with some of the aspects of the car, but caution theres many quirks that dampen consumer experiences. Tesla fixed the issues on the model s under warranty. We have a lot more on those stories coming up in just a little bit, right, joe . I cant believe the perverts we have watching on twitter. Why . The world is waiting for mcc to do the ice bucket challenge. What are they referring to . Join us tomorrow, squawk on the street is next. Good Tuesday Morning, im Carl Quintanilla with david faber, and we are trying to build on two up days in a row as the dow is flat year to date, down six or seven points, analyst calls on retail, and apple working on a new ipad, fascinating Pharma Trials as well, the threeyear note option in a