results which just came out a few moments ago. comp sales down. there were expectations for a slight gain for comp sales. julie hyman has more of the largest restaurant chain. >> the golf continues to struggle. you know a lot about the company having gone inside mcdonald's. they have been expanding their menu and tried to get their value opposition right and have been having a lot of trouble with that in recent months. in fourth quarter, comparable one/10 of ay percent. analysts were looking for a gain of half a percent. worse.u.s., things were it is a larger drop that had been estimated. europe was worse, asia-pacific, middle east africa, all of these regions were worse. now the company says it will try to return cash to shareholders and if it can't get its intercept it will help things out by giving shareholders a little cash. it will return $5 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks over the course of the year. that is the authorization that the company is giving. in the meantime, the company announced late yesterday it would be appointing a new chief marketing officer from pultegroup. she was maybe going to try to also help the effort to improve mcdonald's, whereas the numbers show, the struggles continue. >> it really does. they have a big ship to turn around. i want to bring in our cohost for the hour, the former nbc universal ceo bob wright. he headed nbc universal for 2 decades. hired by jack welch, right? >> yes. >> tell us about this huge story we heard from netflix. they are adding 2.25 million what theys on top of had in the prior quarter. are they strong enough now to say, hey, we can change our pricing strategy? >> probably. they have changed their pricing strategy, i believe, in ireland. i think they have the opportunity to do that. they're getting in the deepwater. they say they can handle 60 million or 90 million customers. you are really in the deepwater at some point in your -- in here. >> what do you mean by deep water? >> when you start to reach 50 million people, any change you make has got a really calculated . they had a bad experience not too long ago with a lot smaller .ase it has to be calculated, but i think they can do it. the thing about the whole netflix issue is they have to really pay attention to the neutrality.- to net this supreme court case is very important to them. >> you are talking to us before and saying that if you use the post office you pay for as many things you ship and how far they go and if you use the telephone company, you pay for the minutes you are on an how long were calling. bet these -- yet these we operators can put across as much bandwidth as they want. >> it came about as a way to help the web get started but the web is long past getting started and there is no other business -- this is all privately owned lines. there is no other business that has restrictions like that. generally what happens is that you have these things happen and if there is going to be a complaint about mispricing or misuse or getting -- not paying too much, that is where the government comes in. they have cases and if they can't resolve the cases, they pass a law. that is what should happen here. i get -- i'm sure you do -- about every month i get a note from verizon saying "you have exhausted your data plan." they don't get that bill. >> the key is, bob, we are all paying for it. netflix or not, in our internet subscription costs we are also devising netflix -- all subsidizing netflix's business and they're making a lot of money. >> they will have to pay something. as you get to 50 million, this is in or ms. dan with. -- enormous bandwidth. >> i want to read what reed hastings said on the conference call about next new -- net neutrality. so clearly this would be -- forhat is a lot of words one screen at 8:00 in the morning. >> he says he will fight for net neutrality. >> that is like general electric saying they will make refrigerators in seattle, which they don't. the customer can pick them up. it doesn't work that way. thatwas just going to say it seems like they are trying to use old rules and a new model. telephone service -- no one thinks about long distance. it is the same price and matter what. whether this is a private system -- >> that was done on a private basis. >> it was a monopoly originally. >> they came to the conclusion they could afford to do that. >> also a government decided to break the phone monopoly and the companies had to parse out various geographical regions, which have been put back together. >> you only have 2 real phone companies in the united states. net neutrality? what does this mean, this idea of net neutrality? >> anybody that is putting material on the net can be charged -- can't be charged more than the consumer in terms of the regular monthly bill. if you stand away from it, it is a ludicrous concept. it is all the carriers, whether they are verizon, at&t, comcast, it ties up the whole system. listen, people, should pay what the market will bear and you should let the market make that call. you shouldn't be saying that. if i want to go into business, i put every television show in the world on -- about another concept and maybe there is a connection. ebay-paypal. carl icahn, activist investor -- i want you to break out paypal. who's dismissed as paypal doespt -- whose business paypal disrupt? mastercard, the banks? shareholders of ebay, if you want to own paypal, that is great. if you want to own ebay -- >> similar breakups like that have proven to be -- >> beneficial to shareholders. >> not my idea, but they must have looked at this one million times. they probably should spin off. >> let's listen to carl icahn. he spoke with bloomberg television. >> there is no reason they should be together at this point. i think it would be helped by a management team that is separate and can go their own way, and i think the multiples would go up dramatically and also the health of the company would be better. be thats argument would they play off of each other, that ebay needs paypal as much as paypal needs ebay. and some of ebay's business does help paypal brother account. paypal grow their account. >> nothing would stop ebay from entering into a long-term agreement with paypal. >> that's right. these companies can continue working with each other, right? ebay shareholders would benefit from paypal spinoff. it is not like they aren't allowed to work together. obviously, every time you use ebay paypal makes her transition -- transaction user. >> bob, do you use paypal? >> yes. >> would it matter to you if it was separate from ebay? >> not in the least. you wouldn't even notice. if they separated 5 years ago, i wouldn't know. >> i use ebay and paypal religiously. >> and bitcoin -- >> i buy a lot of things, obviously. motorcyclist, you can buy parts -- >> i said recently -- this is not a plug for my book -- >> you are allowed to plug your book. >> "work smart." i am processing the transactions through paypal. i'm a very small margin -- -- small merchant -- >> can i buy one through bitcoin? >> how is the paypal service working? >> it is very confusing. personally, i like that there is an ebay component to it. i know a little bit more than others because we cover these companies, but there is a little bit of a comfort factor with ebay as the overall parent. >> look what happened to that point when it was separated -- to bitcoin when it was separated. >> >> that's true. > we got more. we are not going anywhere, are we? >> no come staying right here. >> coming up, late-night television wars. jimmy fallon, what is he going to do with the rain i schedule -- the late-night schedule? ♪ >> we have got some big names ,"ming up on "in the loop including it greg maffei. boy, has he been busy with this deal. we will be talking to greg maffei in the next hour. we're back with our cohost for the hour, former nbc universal ceo bob wright. and,lps to acquire bravo though and was there for the -- bravo and telemundo and was therefore thursday night and "must see tv." s" being onefriend program i would never want to miss. so the war -- not a war, but the messy deal with johnny carson leaving and jay leno coming in. there will be another switch next month when a jay leno leaves and jimmy fallon takes his legs. will it be a drama? >> it certainly was a war, difficult and ugly. >> i tried to be nice. >> i don't think that is the case this time at all. has been extremely practical and the way he handled this and has given plenty of time and i have not seen any negativity. rs arefallon and seth meye 2 really talented people and they will bring a whole new energy to nbc as well as late-night. this is going to be a very long-term run. >> they are very funny, but i'm were a member when watching johnny carson and watching david letterman was something you would stay awake for. now you don't have to. i watch jimmy fallon in the morning -- >> i was going to say, you don't watch it in the evening. >> do you watch it late at night? >> no. way past my bedtime. >> what is your bedtime? >> depends. >> what is your bedtime? >> i tried to get to bed by 11:00 or midnight but i'm not watching tv. >> new appointment -- no appointment viewing. >> know, if i want to watch to me fell and i watch it on my ipod. want to watch jimmy fallon i watch it on my ipad. >> nbc can package it, match it up and send cut it it to mobile devices and use it for all kinds of purposes and i think it is way, way beyond the confines that television -- >> can that be said about the olympics coming up in sochi? nbc paid a lot for that and the idea is that they will be able to use this in so many -- >> not as much, though. for one thing, lindsay vonn is not going to be there, so why do i want to watch? [laughter] a lot of people aren't going to go because vladimir putin is a bigot and he is running the whole thing. threats --rorist sadly probably the biggest reason to watch dylan picks. >> i went to south korea -- watch the olympics. i went to south korea in 1988, the first own excitement it in person. ofhad a tremendous drop out people because of the so-called rights. the koreans took all those people and send them to the other part of the country and when we got there it is like nobody dropped a penny and it was a spectacular olympics. when we went to barcelona there were all kinds of issues with the people outside -- there were all sorts of groups -- >> there were separatists. >> they were bombing them actually bombing. filleda boat and it was with -- nothing happened during the olympics. >> and you got to see michael jordan play basketball. i wouldn't do anything to see -- went to athens and a lot of people drop out of athens because of worries of attacks and nothing really happened. this is not an unusual situation. the olympics have had those issues many times and still move on. >> it is still worth the amount of money that nbc paid for the rights to broadcast the olympics? >> that is hard for me to answer. it is certainly very expensive but it is a trademark for them. they have an extremely good sports organization which benefits greatly from their exposure to that and it carries over into nbc sports channel now , golf and other stuff they do. i suspect they are pleased about it. they know going into this that the russian winter olympics in a place nobody has heard of is not going to be the first thing undermined. -- on your mind. >> we had an interview with the director for coverage of the nbc olympics. here is what he set about making money off of that coverage. >> we are able to monetize it in a way we haven't before. all competition will be streamed live. we did that in london as well for the summer games in 2012. the people who were engaged in olympic content, whether it was streaming or online or on apps, were more likely to watch television, whether it was in prime time or the afternoon or nbcsn, our sports cable channel. >> is that true? streaming? >> yes. i don't know financially how well that is but it is certainly true that they can do that. nbc has control -- to your question -- as to what can be streamed. they have to have that as part of their deal. it is like the sponsors who aren't really the official sponsors trying to get a little bit of the reflected lori. -- reflected glory. >> they probably wish they had china controlling -- >> has the cost of these voting events gotten out of hand? >> it is truly astronomical. >> what is the cost now versus when you are doing it? >> about double. >> what about nfl? nflmuch further with prices? >> the nfl is the most successful television business ever. nfl generates more money from television rights than anybody else, any programming company, any studio, anybody. this is the most unusual development than any of us has seen. >> this goes to the point of whether, if you are not a sports fan, you are still paying for all that sports program on your cable -- >> thank you for subsidizing us, betty. i appreciate it. >> it keeps him home and safe. [laughter] >> the least you could do for me, you know? >> this goes to the point, how much is too much? >> what is going to happen thursday night? you have been talking about 600 million to 700 million. 8 games? >> the nfl network was only created a while ago and they built is thursday night up and now they're going to -- they're l the rights tol this tonight because they still have all those games simulcast. >> i remember when thursday games, when it came out, it was one of the grid is things that ever happened to me in college because i could watch football one more day of the week. friday, high school games. saturday -- >> had to do your homework. >> the average time spent watching television in the united states per person? >> i'm guessing it's not. >> 5 hours a day. >> does that include ipad -- >> it takes up about nine years of your life. >> i have a friend who watches football on the ipad even when he is driving. >> the nfl is my favorite television program. >> we are going to continue the conversation. more with bob wright and more with us. coming up, gary kelly and the state of the airline industry. ♪ >> you are watching "in the loop " live on bloomberg television and streaming on your phone and bloomberg.com. i am matt miller. 26 minutes after the hour, we onk at "on the markets" bloomberg television. futures are down ahead of jobless claims numbers. nasdaq futures are doing a little bit better but we are seeing more of the old economy businesses fall in asian and european markets. commodities are coming down and that is drawing down on s&p futures as well. betty? >> all right, thank you so much, matt. southwest airlines reported record fourth-quarter earnings this morning with a net profit $754 million. this is the company's 41st consecutive year of property. with us is our cohost for the hour, former nbcuniversal chairman and ceo bob wright. also joining us is southwest airlines chairman gary kelly. pimm with us as well. gary, great is you again. >> hi, good morning. great to see you. snowstorms we have been hit with an thousands --flight test relations, flight cancellations, how badly is likely to hit your airline? >> mainly i am more concerned for our customers. we just hate the disruption that .auses our employees are resilient and have persevered and in terms of the effect every year, we have whether an weather affect. effects.r and weather we had a solid first quarter and a record fourth-quarter and a .ecord december from that aspect we will manage through it and the employees have done a marvelous job. >> mr. kelly, could you give us a breakdown of how the company is doing in terms of revenue per and greg and what the costs are that you are facing -- breakdown with the costs are that you are facing? >> revenue per available seat mile and 2013 was a record. we were up 3.8% for the year. or 3.8% for the fourth quarter. 1.8% for the year. we had some ups and downs in the economy and 2013 -- in 2013 and to have that kind of performance, i was very pleased. hopefully we will see a continuation of that revenue stream in 2014. a lot of that depends on the economy. by now the outlook is pretty positive. on the cost side, the main culprit is fuel. for the first time in a long time, we have seen fuel prices moderate. that is our expectation for 2014 as well. we have other cost pressures we are working hard on and our employees did a great job controlling our costs in 2013. >> you said recently at a conference that you are determined not to let cost force you to shrink your airline, that you are determined to continue to grow. how do you do that without substantially raising fares from competitor airlines and other same time putting in fees? how do you do that without putting those fees in? >> if you take out the effects of view on the fourth quarter, our costs were down slightly -- the effects of fuel in the fourth quarter, our costs were down slightly. you look for ways to become more and more efficient. the main initiative we have aircraft is to deploy that are more efficient than the ones we have previously operated -- more fuel efficient, more maintenance efficient, that are for the better gauged market. it is working extraordinarily well. the other thing that is going on at southwest is we are integrating airtran airways, and that process is by definition inefficient. we will eliminate inefficiencies. i think we have great opportunities to control costs going forward. >> gary, it's bob wright. how are you? >> hi, bob. real well. >> this is a question about the airline industry, because you have a great operation, and it is really distinct from most other airlines. most of your competitors have opted to keep the sticker price very low and then charge for .verything else under the sun the result of it seems to be that the stock of airlines have never been higher, never been stronger. cannot continue where people are looking at $99 -- 10 that continue work people are looking at $99 and another $99 of specialties? is it going to revert back to where it was where people say, let's just have one price and get it all in/ when does this end? madness.it is customers hate these fees. it is one thing to pay five .ollars for a beer it is another to pay $150 for a bag to be checked. customers love southwest airlines. we have huge fans that support us, very loyal to southwest because we are straightforward, we are honest, we are transparent, and that is what they want. they don't want change or bag fees. i have always that it is a gift of that has been handed to southwest that our competitors offer products the way that they do. there is a limit, early, to answer your question, to hell for this -- to how far this unbundling can go. obviously, we had record earnings and we are at the top of the industry in terms of our financial performance and it proves that our approach works and we are the most profitable airline for over 43 years. i think it is a really good approach. >> i want to thank you very much, gary kelly doma chairman and chief executive of southwest airlines, joining us from dallas. >> initial jobless claims coming out in the last few moments. julie hyman has more. >> an additional 326,000 jobless claims last week. i was a little but lower than was aen estimated -- that little bit lower than had been estimated. we are coming out of the period of holiday volatility where it is hard to get accurate read on what is going on in the economy with jobless claims. the fact that it is remaining low could be a good sign you. we have an index of activity in in chicago area, that coming lower than estimated by economists. >> thanks very much, julie hyman. larry summers sounds off in davos, switzerland. we will get tossed from the former secretary of the treasury. ♪ >> in terms of revenues, dell was the largest company to go private. we had a long, drawn out process, but it all got done and also well that ends well. founder andthe dell chief executive michael dell speaking to our own tom keene in davos, switzerland at the world economic forum. he was talking about taking the company private in only 13. it may be 2014 but a lot of questions linger about who will lead technology companies such as microsoft. when steve ballmer leaves, who will occupy that position? our guest for the hour, bob wright, former chief executive of nbcuniversal. matt miller, glad you are here, too. n.b. you can play along -- >> i talked to alan mulally on the time. he was rumored to go there and he told me "i will stay at ford until at least 2014." he may have been in talks when he told me this but now microsoft has to find somebody should who could they possibly choose? >> they could choose a lot of people. maybe they could choose somebody at microsoft. they have 2 ceo's on the board. >> which is one of the reasons alan probably wouldn't have gone. >> paul allen is always nearby. >> paul allen, bill gates, steve ballmer. all those guys are nearby meddling. >> is extremely intimidating. they would have to attract big-name person. i don't know if that is what they really need. they could get somebody from oracle, microsoft, happened is others.-- half a dozen they could get read hastings. he is on the board. if you're going to pick somebody the president of ford, you will have to guarantee that he has got some independence. i think that is a very hard thing for bill or steve to do. that is what you are seeing and that is why it is taking so long. jcpenney?out somebody from apple kind of ruined the company for a while. but the interim ceo -- he is very good, and experienced merchandiser. this is not about tricky merchandising, it is about basic merchandising a. s kind of a sear situation where they have a meltdown and there was a lot going on besides merchandising and maybe other people on the border handling that. you don't find many executives, retail merchandising executives, who are also experts in real estate, selling, and leveraging. they have to get through this period and could go to nordstrom , neiman marcus, kohl's. >> they've got to semper fi. >-- simplify. has prices closer to jcpenney. >> what about executives in the media business? the head of dow jones resigned. i want to make mention that bloomberg competes with dow jones and financial news. -- in financial news. what are the skill sets that you need in order to run a company like this now? >> i think you guys need to do some homework and find out why he resigned. >> i think he resigned because he was trying to have the dow jones product compete against the bloomberg terminal, and obviously, i have a bias from but he did not do well with that and had to step down. .> rupert is very hands-on you can't succeed if you are not simpatico with him. >> that is what you said about microsoft or it is difficult of the live shows of someone who built the company. >-- difficult to fill the shoes of someone who built the company. >> he is still running it. they have done a tremendous job with "the wall street tunne journal." >> we're all fans. >> i don't know what the economics of that are. >> when we come back, larry summers is going to sound off from davos. ♪ >> some of the biggest name in the world economy and finance are in davos, switzerland this week. that is also where we find our own stephanie ruhle, who got his it on with former treasury secretary -- who got to sit down with former treasury secretary larry summers. steph, that's wonderful. tell us more. >> i'm here with larry. everybody is speaking about income inequality. are you saying "give me a break"? you have been talking about this for years. you said it is not about income inequality, it is about opportunity and. is that what we are missing here? >> you know, stephanie, generals fight the last war and davos sometimes discusses the last issues. inequality is a big issue and will be with us for a long time. there's always going to be inequality in a market economy. what troubles me more is lack of opportunity. it is the fact that if you look at the cap in, for example, college attendance between children of the rich and children of the poor, it has gone up over the last 2 generations. if you look at the gap in life expectancy between children of the rich and children of the war, it has gone up. if you look at how many people in the united states are able to go from the middle-class to the upper class in a generation, those mobility rates used to always go up every generation. now they are not. what is the prescription? there are many parts of it. partbly the most important of it is doing something about the quality of our public schools. it can't be right that so many of our kids are left behind in public schools. wecan't be right that provide incentives for teachers in a way where we are not able to attract the most able young people into teaching. it can't be right that we talk so much about the importance of science and technology education but across this country you can't go into a chemistry lab without getting sick because nobody has a budget to fix the ventilation system. we can do better. funding.is also no nih people don't vote to spend. >> people need to recognize, and our leaders needed to educate them, that yes, there is a budget deficit, but that is actually not our biggest deficit. our biggest deficit is in that we are borrowing money at 2.5% for the next generation. our biggest deficit is that we .re not educating our children our biggest deficit is the deferred maintenance on the nation's infrastructure that we are bequeathing to the next generation. at aiggest deficit is, time of unprecedented potential in the life sciences, we're spending 25% less than we used to in a smaller economy on the life sciences. those are the deficits that we about and weking should be focused on. we have had a misbegotten focus on the budget deficit, which is only one concept of the deficit and only one part of our moral obligation to our children and their children. >> what you are asking for a whenral shift in americans the government is not necessarily doing that. when i look at the fed, almost shivering at the unemployment rate -- almost cheering at the unintended rate and ignoring rate,rticipation shouldn't we look at all the people who have dropped out of the labor force? >> look, i think it is hard to know where the jewel of this economy is, and there is a lot of work -- where the potential of the economy is and there is a lot of work disentangling all the statistics. here is what is certain, the fraction of the adult population that is working has improved only barely since the summer of 2009. marginally. we have millions of people who we always assume would be working right now and who aren't . that is a terrible loss, and it has to be a huge priority to establish enough growth to get them working again. that is what the focus ought to be. there is no one owner in our system. that is why we call it divided government. it is the response ability of the president, the responsibility of the congress, the responsibility of broader society. if each of us were thinking about what we could be doing and what contributions we could be making to growing this economy, that would be an important start because the focus on growth and a focus on investment for the long run is what we need. you know, that is also what we need if we want to be a fairer society, because it is going to be much, much easier to take a piece of a growing pie and use it to help those who have been left behind than to take something away from somebody in a stagnant pie. growth is really where it's at, stephanie. >> but, larry, here we are with fortune 500 ceo's and they can't make long-term investments and they're sitting on tons of cash because they have shareholders who don't have long-term expectations but how can everyone shift? jeff bezos is one of the only ceo's out there who was starting to change the way productivity is evaluated. >> well, some of it goes to our .ccounting rules some of it goes to creating success models. those who have invested in jeff bezos have been a lot more successful than those who invested in people who were managing quarter to quarter. some of it goes to issues with what activist investors are pushing for. yes, shareholders do have important rights and there is that ist activist say right but when activists make it only that cash for the next quarter and not growth for the next decade, they are selling their fellow shareholders short. that is a talents we have got to do a better job of striking in this country. -- that is a balance we have got to do a better job of striking in this country. >> are you negative on his overall population of activist investing? >> i think they make an important contribution, but like all pendulums, there needs to be a weight and a counterweight and there also needs to be investors who are. to stand with managers -- who are prepared to stand with managers who are prepared to take the long view. that is where substantial returns will be earned in the future. >> when you look at the market and when we get the jobs numbers, people are positive, negative. do you even look at that number anymore or do you think it is not a valuable piece of data? >> no, it is certainly a valuable piece of data. no one piece of data is decisive and you have to look at all the various announcements, but probably the monthly jobs numbers are the single most informative monthly economic statistic we get, but it is only one statistic. >> but the fed come have they made a mistake i pending themselves to that number and not taking into account the dissipation -- not taking into account participation? mark carney's in the same situation in england. >> i think in general making policy, it is very important to recognize the uncertainties that line the future. i don't agree with former defense secretary rumsfeld on much, but when he coined the hease "unknown unknowns," was capturing something very real. in policy it is also is a mistake if you tie yourself to a mast of anyone number or any single statistic. we can't know what the future is going to hold, and how different numbers are going to evolve. >> there is not a different measure you would use? >> i don't think it is a matter of this measure versus that measure. i think it is a matter of interpretations have to be made broadly on the basis of many different statistics. i think it is always tempting to provide clarity through specificity. clarity is very important, but if you provide to much -- too much clarity through specificity, you can easily run into problems down the road when types of outcomes you didn't anticipate materialize. the delphic oracles were always very careful in the way they spoke, i think there are lessons in that for all who are involved in policy. >> larry, unfortunately, we have to leave it there. i wish we had more time. betty liu, i'm going to send it back to you. i'm here fortunately with the former treasury secretary larry summers. >> stephanie, thank you so much. there are plenty of great guests that stephanie is going to be bringing, including the ceo of coca-cola, muhtar kent. he will be joining her in just a few hours. pimm? >> google has partnered with the autism speaks. they will be holding an investment conference to help train entrepreneurs. bob wright and his wife cofounded autism speaks in 2005. you just heard former secretary of the treasury larry summers talking about income inequality and the various challenges facing young people. one of the challenges is autism and it does not seem to have had the same level of attention that other challenges have. >> i think we have improved awareness of autism a great deal. but that accept is action has to be take -- but the next step is action has to be taken. i'm constantly amazed how we don't see that. the death of this little boy -- >> tell people what happened. >> he is in public school, a special class, doesn't speak, he is autistic. i think he was 12 years old. in a school where he is ound er special conditions, he walks out the front door, a guard stopped him, and sends them back into the school without calling any administrator. the little boy finds an open door on the side and walks out and apparently walks across the street into a park and we find out fell into the east river and a month later we find his remains after all kinds of searching an effort by everybody bying to do it turned m everybody trying to do it. my point is to take awareness to action, when you have a situation like that, the needs of that boy should have been a concern to everybody, should have understood something about it. we need a national focus, we need more awareness turning to action. we are doing an awful lot in our research, but we put in about $200 million and have gotten about $1 billion for research in autism. we have funded more free document postdoc people to do autism -- more predoc and post doc people to do autism research than our entire government has done altogether. we have tried -- we have done everything. we have done in neurology, biology, transitional medicine, environmental. we're taking on a big project right now with google, which you reference. this is the biggest thing we've ever done. >> how can people get involved? >> they can get online and learn about autism speaks. in the unitedlks states. they can make concretions to get involved locally. we are all over the place. >> thank you very much. bob reich, former nbcuniversal -- bob wright, former nbcuniversal chairman and chief executive running autism speaks. coming up, john mccain, arizona senator, "in the loop" from davos. ♪ >> 30 minutes to the opening bell, this is "in the loop with betty liu." the countdown begins right now. >> welcome back. you are "in the loop." i am betty liu. equity futures are loving this morning. -- are lower this money. on a planet benefits near a six week low. -- unemployment benefits near a six-week low. a forecast of more of the same for 2014 on rising demand from the u.s. and china. an exclusive -- we will be talking about the war over time maffeicable with greg and john malone of liberty media. weak sales are not the only problem mcdonald's has. it is drowning in 10 million pounds of extra chicken wings -- oh -- after its promotion was not a home run. alix steel has more. they have this excess inventory here? 144cdonald came in about earnings revenue, but light. it was fourth-quarter same-store sales down one/10 of a percent, lower than estimated. quarter on quarter, sales were up nine tenths of a percent in the quarter. part of the issue is mcdonald's can't find that home run product . we saw that with mighty wings. they were spicy and pricey. mcdonald's has a couple of options. riskthrow it out and losing all the money. sell them at the super bowl. they're going to do some promotions around the game. after all, americans will you one billion ash will be around one billion chicken wings during the game. will eat around one belichick wings during the game. it shows that they cannot find these home run product. fizzled after the boom. sell it hasn't delivered either. -- salad hasn't delivered either. >> the product introductions are important to mcdonald's. >> if you look at the overall revenue per store, drives from to$5 million -- $1.5 million $2.7 million. they're trying for millenial to are making more money. if you look at the core of mcdonald's business, it does not want its competitors to know how to make money. it is all about burgers and chicken. an analyst from sanford bernstein showed us that 18% of the sales come from her, 15% from burgers, 15% of revenue comes from chicken. that is where it lies. >> beef. >> and higher margins. people think that they are throwing out these product introductions and hoping something sticks, but when we were at their headquarters outside chicago, it is a really process.arduous it takes years to come out with one product. >> they can't just be a product you and i might eat. it also has to be profitable. it has to be cost efficient. overall, and talking to analysts, there are deeper problems here, too. services and that great. not a lot of customization. not that great. not a lot of customization. they don't have a customization we are used to. fast food is a mature industry. you look at units and top sales, three percent a year. mcdonald's is about half of that. >> it seems like fast casual is where the growth is. >> chipotle, the "better quality" food. that is what mcdonald's has struggled with. >> alix steel on mcdonald's. on the otherheck company news. lenovo agreed to by a server industry has its worst ever declines. most of the money will be paid and when i was stuck. if -- the rest of the money will be paid in the lenovo stock. tesla's move comes as elon musk is to test demand for vehicles in the world's largest auto market. united continental holdings reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped estimates. if the more passengers and higher than average -- it's new more passengers at higher than average fares, turning around $300 million. warren buffett has a full plate these days. 25 -- he has always had a close circle of advisers around him. enter this 29-year-old harvard business school grad from kansas who has become one of his most trusted advisers. many people do not know who she is, they've not even heard her name until they read your story. tell us a little bit more about her. >> it is a really interesting story. she has been at berkshire since -- full-time since 2009 page is going on for years. that free us really have is a credible story at the company. in 2012 she was named -- she has really had this incredible story of the company. in 2012 she was named chairman of businesses and i spoke with buffett about her and she has adopted this role where she is buffett's eyes and ears at the far-flung and small businesses he has bought over the years. in many cases he has not visited them ever. --how was her role different we know it is very different from like ted weschler. >> those are the other big hires that buffett often talks about. all of them fothe t's because their last and -- their first names start with t. the enormous stock portfolio is their mandate when they were hired. they have been helping out in other ways, for sure. tracy's role as a little bit different. it is more like an operational assistant is how buffett described it. >> is she working on a deep gash on any deals for him -- is she working on any deals for him? >> it is not entirely clear. one of her responsibilities we know about is that when she got hired in 2009, she came into help the overseas interest in a .eal buffett had already struck the arabic service or an originator of loans. anthey are a big servicer originator of loans. >> every new person who gets thrown into the hole at hmm, ise is seen as this the person to succeed warren buffett? she is very young, clearly knew, but people said that about ted weschler. is there any buzz around her? >> that is always the question. we are talking about the chairman and ceo of berkshire who is 83 years old. the questions rolls around the company. what buffett told us is that -- he was clear about this -- he sees tracy cool more someone who will help his successor, someone who knows how the far-flung operations work. she has a knowledge base that should be able to aid the next ceo. >> one thought about all this is whether or not her presence is creating any kind of trauma within the company -- any kind of turmoil within the companies she is helping to run or oversee. >> we really didn't pick that up. 2 of the big businesses buffett asked her to be chairman of that -- buffett asked her to be chairman of have had changes. another one is that some high-level executive departures -- another one has had some high-level executive departures. it is not like these businesses are all on autopilot. but we really did not pick up that it was her doing this that is making that happen. great to see you. still ahead, paypal, yahoo! -- there is one man with his hands and all of these companies. he is "in the loop." that is next. "the wolf of wall street" is a tale of greed but jonah hill did not take a role in the film for money. we will tell you how much he made for his oscar-nominated performance. ♪ >> i want to take you to davos, where ceo's and power players are gathered. there was ahle is board member of yahoo! and a cofounder of paypal, a company that carl icahn thrust into the limelight yesterday that you have a lot to talk about with him. >> indeed we do. i want to talk about what you are doing here in davos. davos is traditionally where the biggest ceos walk around in their snow boots. they are now tying together technology and entrepreneurship. is there a marriage to be had? >> yes. it appears that even the large corporations are realizing that embracing entrepreneurship within the company is extraordinarily important for them to innovate. the form hasgram been pushing for years. it is a tremendous effort to bring in young up-and-coming entrepreneurs into the fold of multinational companies. >> you are the one who built the company and builds a business on technology. when you hear about activist investors like carl icahn stepping in and making various demands, do you embrace that or do you say that we are the ones who know how to run the is missed, step out -- we are the ones who know how to run the business, step out? >> i can't say anything in carl icahn since i've never met the guy. i'm generally a believer that entrepreneurs should remain the ceo for as long as humanly possible. the person who has given to the company, the dna of a person is within the company. the more you get into the lesslized -- the innovation you'll see. >> the chairman of mckenzie says that technology moves five times fast as management. >> i think it depends a lot on the management. >> what management succeeds? >> i love yelp, i love yahoo! -- >> tommy what is so great about yelp -- tell me what is a great buddy up. > -- so great about yelp. >> yelp is awesome. we were in our early 20's when we started paypal together and to watch them do another one of these startups from 2 guys at a desk squatting in my office to a multibillion-dollar company is amazing. nothing better in business than watching it from nothing to really impactful. were the kings's of the world. are they yesterday's news? >> no, with access to capital and things i am passionate about, big deals, but entrepreneurship is the most exciting part of this. of banks having such a poor reputation when you need banks to fuel entrepreneurship? >> some banks have lost their way and others have done better. 2008 was a wake-up call for everyone, good or bad. there is innovation going on even in the largest organizations. do you believe that within innovation there is a call to do good? we have not really seen that before. at seems to be a theme davos but i'm not sure i believe it. >> that is the most exciting trend i've seen from my vantage point, hiring young people, college graduates, people coming off the school bench, more focused on how much good your youany -- how much are putting aside for philanthropy, how much are you donating her time. more to the core of the company mission, how much of the company's core product is focused on delivering good to the world. it has really become a centerpiece issue. in interviews, people used to ask me, will you cover my travel expenses? one of the most commonly asked questions is what do you guys do for social response ability, which is great. it is baked into the start of fabric at least in silicon valley. >> do investors care about that? they say they do, but when you talk about hedge fund returns, they don't talk about socially conscious efforts. >> in the final analysis, the ones that do not will lose out. >> really? >> we spent a lot of time -- media, public opinion trashing millenials for not being hard-working or it engaged enough. i think today there is a clear new wave of young people that wants to succeed, wants to build a great business, wants to --ticipate in the capitalism capitalist system but responsibly so by changing the world by having impacted directly through their work as opposed to something far more imaginary. me onere we go, tell company -- it cannot be one you are involved in -- are you most excited about now. >> it is my business to get involved in every thing i have been excited about so it is a little bit of an unfair question. why not? any company doing innovative work -- not > >> of all the companies you are involved with him what is the most exciting right now? cannotull-time job -- i possibly be more excited about what i'm doing every day. toove the firm, which is work on all day long. -- which is what i work on all day long. i'm actually very lucky. i wake up every morning and i love every moment of it. >> we're lucky to have you. millenials,saying they are not stoners, their superstars. generation of leaders, and lucky bloomberg, we got to sit down with one of them. this guy is a little bit of everything. we are going to enjoy davos for a little while. >> i know, i'm jealous. thank you, stephanie. stephanie ruhle of "market makers." she will have more great interviews including with senator john mccain. coming up, michael dell talks about his company's renewed focus on the transition from public to private. greg maffei will be in the loop on whether he in can put together the multibillion-dollar deal. ♪ >> it is time for "this versus that." this is jonah hill from "the wolf of wall street." hetold howard stern that accepted scale for that film, $60,000. paycheck,icaprio's $10 million. hill said "i would sell my house and give all my money to work with him." no word on whether he will get royalties from the blockbuster hit. ♪ to "in the loop ." >i am betty liu. it is time for "on the markets." >> if you futures are any indication of market direction, could be a relatively ugly day for stocks, the first down day in 3 days for the s&p. you have hsbc coming out with criminal a manufacturing data for china for january. it dipped below the 50 level. that was the first contraction in about six months. short-term moving averages as many traders tend to look at. we will monitor the markets again in 30 minutes. i will return to the coverage of the world economic forum in davos. stephanie ruhle is now joined by john mccain. >> john was resetting some .oetry to me >> stuff i learned in prison, the tap code. one thing we had in prison was a lot of time. you will beavos speaking about the future of u.s. power. when i say syria, what do you think right now? disaster, and shameful chapter in american history and world history. you saw the news in the last couple of days. photographed having been tortured and starved to death by bashar al-assad and his henchmen? i've been to refugee camps, i met a group of young men who were defectors from bashar al-assad. they said "we are instructed to rape and torture," and then you meet young women who have been gang raped? we sit by and watched it happen. >> is john kerry doing the right thing by saying that these talks cannot continue unless you move assad? >> oh, yeah. in that case he is doing the right thing. but this whole geneva thing is a joke, champagne bashar al-assad -- is ang because iran joke, a sham. sergei is flying in aircraft after aircraft refreshing and these crude cluster bombs are being dropped on innocent people. the message to the middle east -- the world is >> you are in ukraine a little over a month ago. what were your takeaways? son of the prime minister, dennis, is a billionaire. the messages they want to be part of europe, they don't want to be part of russia. they want to be part of europe and the west. putin has been trying everything it can to get him to join his customs union. >> how would you describe the vladimir putin? >> taketh stick -- egotistical. in many ways he never lost being apparatchik. he wants power, he has power, he uses it arbitrarily. ofhas visions of restoration the old russian empire. that is why you see him putting pressure on the baltic states and will over and ukraine would moldova and -- and ukraine would be the prize. i see him as a person of incredible ego. anybody who goes around with -- withrt off nationally > his shirt off -- andll right, we are here how worried are you about the sochi olympics and terror attacks? >> very worried. >> what should we do? >> i think we have taken some precautions and americans who go there are to be informed. honestly, i think i know a lot about some things, but for me to make a judgment as to whether americans should going on, i not that wells informed. but i think we should pay attention to the cautions that the state department has put out. >> earlier today, iranian president rouhani gave a conciliatory speech trying to attract foreign investors. the investors who are here, the businessman, what do you say to them? don't touch it? >> i hope they will respect sanctions. is a great pr guy and has a great image. the fact is that he has -- when you get right down to it, they will insist on the right to enrich. as long as they have the right to enrich, they will be moving forward with the acquisition of a nuclear weapon. there is no reason for them to want to enrich these materials. plant,nt a nuclear power him a nuclear capability for peaceful purposes, as long as they want to write to enrich, their ambitions are to achieve nuclear weapons. --but surveillance and the how about surveillance and the snowden situation? need thoughts are that we to have a select committee in congress because there are so many facets of this particular ship. -- particular issue. one of them is how in the world did i like s -- did a guy like snowden have access to all this information? how did a guy in the army, manning, have all this information? >we used to have something calld "need to know." but the 9/11 commission said there was too much stove piping. now everybody has access to everything. what doat do you do -- you think of what the president is proposing? >> the president is trying to have it both ways. having said that, i'm glad he at least made that statement. we need to have a congressional hearing and debate because balance between what threats are, which are growing, and al qaeda is growing throughout the world, and the capabilities we have to counter that are something that requires a lot of in-depth study. out what thed government is doing accurate -- what the government is doing? for us not to monitor would be a serious mistake. >> jack lew said that we're going to run out of money by coverage seven. >> one would be to have a system where we are not running out of money all the time. my friend tom coburn just announced he is retiring. if you could have him on the ofw, he could identify 10 of s billions of dollars of savings. we will not lose the full faith and credit of the government of the united states. we are not going to have that happen. unfortunately, we are in this cycle now. give the government moving. we lurch from crisis to crisis and that has got to change. >> there is another crisis for republicans, chris christie. is he going to survive bridgegate? >> i believe so as long as he does not have another issue that crops. he did hold a press conference for 2 hours, he fired people. as far as i can tell, he handled it exactly well. unless -- >> what if more mayors pop up? >> look, ex post facto? come on. at the same time, from benghazi, not one single person has been responsible for the deaths of 4 americans. not one prisoner has been fired or held responsible. interesting. >> interesting indeed. next time you join us you will have to bring tom with you. john wants to recite more poetry to me. here we are on the macintosh and it is a perfect scen -- on the mountain tops and is is a perfect scene to do it. >> sounds cool race but there are serious issues to tackle. coming up, our next guest has worked for one company is whole entire career, and now he is the ceo. he will tell us how he works smart and up the latter. and at liberty media ceo greg maffei has been on the front lines of the battle for time warner cable. stay "in the loop." ♪ -- workave to have can't consume every minute or every hour of your life. you come to work with a healthy attitude. you have the ability to get some exercise. ceohat was the citigroup speaking about how he strikes a balance between work and life. it can't be all about work. it is an important topic that you climb the ranks and your career. looking back, one of the things that top leaders have in common is that they're all 25 years old at one time. ceos say book, what they need to get ahead. what advice they would give their own 25-year-old selves. here's what they have to say to their younger selves. >> what i would say is relax, don't be so driven, enjoy the journey a little bit more. secondly, i would say find what you love and do that because you're going to be successful. >> take chances. every time i took a chance and moved onto the next of my career, whether moving geographically from houston to japan com. >> be patient. hang in there. keep doing things -- it will pay off in the long run. >> lose some weight. try to relax a little bit, but not too much. your 25. take a chance. don't be afraid to do that. there's nothing wrong with taking a chance at starting a business. keep going. pounds.a few more >> move more quickly. take greater advantage of new technology are. getore advice on how to ahead and work smart. stay tuned to in the loop all this week. sting on the subject of working smart come with me now is somebody who started working smart at a very young age, staying with the same company until he reached the very top. ceo of a is the american electric power, serving 5 million customers across 11 u.s. states. before we get down to business, and how you have been dealing with the snowstorms, i'm sure the power demand related to the snowstorms -- you were just listening to other ceos talk about what they would say to the 25-year-old selves. what would you say? >> it's all about preparation, motivation, and passion. one of the big issues is really treating people with dignity and respect all along the way. it is important to have that passion in what you are trying to do and achieve. be happy with what you are doing. be well balanced in the approach. the skill gaps that need to be filled along the way as you advance your career -- those are the kind of things i've done in my career. >> it's very unusual for anyone these days to have stayed of the company for their entire career. aep.have done it 8 are those days over at? >> if there are opportunities that you can expand and gain other perspectives -- i have oved several times -- as long as you have that motivation and you are able to grow as an employee and as a human being, is a great thing. that will continue to happen. >> you just took over as the ceo. what is been the biggest surprise for you being ceo? surprise as a ceo is finally there's no one that you can look up to and say, what should i do? the buck stops there. it takes a little getting used to in terms of that activity. also, the time scheduling itself. making sure you are focusing on the right activities and the right priorities. >> i hear that from a lot of ceos. suddenly, you are there. you are it area that's it great is nobody else making a decision. but talk about your business, though. as i alluded to, we have been going through two big snowstorms in the last few weeks. how of you been able to avoid blackouts? done pretty well. obviously, there's a stress on the system at this point in time. we are managing through it area i think the system has held together in a very positive fashion, although, there are some things to learn from it, like natural gas activity on the gas gets frozen up at times and you can't deliver where you should. it really does bring up a lot of questions in terms of grid resiliency. superstorm sandy -- that's a big issue in our industry. >> it certainly is. what at this point is keeping you up at night? environmental regulations -- are they a big concern for you? >> i think it's all of those. stage a transformational in this industry. we are trying to find what the utilities of the future looks like. we think about grid resiliency, certainly cyber security threats that are out there, and other activities with technological changes, we really have to think about how we invest our capital and how we really focus on this business going forward. cyber glad you mentioned security. there are a lot of concerns about attacks. hackers attacking the power grid. thatre you allocating capital into preventing that? >> three years ago, we had hardly any cyber security effort going on here it, an entire floor of our corporate center is focused on cyber security. so it really is a focus to make sure we understand the threats and make sure our system is resilient enough to not only respond to those threats but also to recover afterwards if we need to. that really plays into the smart grid activity, the grid resiliency activity, so that we can make sure our system is secure. >> what he learned in the three -- what have you learned in the three years? what is the biggest surprise you've learned in that area? >> the threats are becoming more defined. certainly, they're becoming more persistent. we are to be vigilant. we are always trying to catch up in this business. we have to be prepared. certainly the government, the industry has been working together to make sure we're doing the right thing to keep the grid sound. >> you have been investing more in transmission projects. tell me why you're allocating your capital there. at the totalook amount of the grid that is changing because of retirement and changes in technologies along the grid, you have to focus on the optimization of it so you can make sure you are spending on the right things. transmission is a great way to optimize that grid. it makes sense from a transmission standpoint. >> thank you so much for joining us. the ceo of american electric our . he worked his way all the way up to the company. coming up, liberty media's ceo talks exclusively with us about the time warner cable takeover battle. how that battle is going to move forward. ♪ >> john malone's liberty media -- it made its bid public for time warner cable. the man at the center of this ongoing fight is liberty's ceo who works closely with malone. he joins us now for an exclusive interview. know, whatnts to price will this deal get done haveime warner cable? you said publicly, 160 is out of the question. where is the middle ground here? casethink we have made a to the time warner shareholders, which has been well received. cash andover $80 in combined of the com company is a very appealing proposition. we have got a very good response from the shareholders about that proposition. >> who are the shareholders were involved in this? can you name who they are? >> they are large institutions. you can look them up. a high degree of overlap between the time warner shareholders and the charter shareholders. a fundamentally believe in cable and often cases believe in the operative performance that merger can bring. -- theyime warner cable say, look, the deal is too low the charter's offering. he says his company is worth $160 a share. so, where do we go from here? >> the charter management team and to some degree the liberty management team is making the case to shareholders that the better. is the time warner management team has put forth that the company is worth more. but the operating performance of the company of the last year losing more than 800,000 subscribers does not merit a growth multiple. it is not merit confidence in their growth plans. our job is to make the case to the time warner shareholders that the merge is worth more. >> tell me the case you're making. what would be the improvement to time warner cable under tom rutledge? >> our belief is that cable consolidation allows the cable industry to operate better and offer more value to shareholders. whether it be through better sharing of technology, through providing scale to negotiate with content providers, but in addition, if you look over the last several years where charter has begun to grow and move video subscribers up from basic to expanded basic and into larger amounts of triple play, time warner cable has lost triple lay shareholders. we believe there also operational issues inside of time warner. >> we're talking to you the day quick projects subscribers to be added the same day they announced that they add in the prior quarter. the fact that netflix continues -- doesat these levels that add the urgency on to what you are doing with trying to merge the two cable operators? >> i absolutely think it does. it suggests that providing a national or more coordinated focus among cable to compete with things like netflix, in many ways there is no reason netflix should be having the success it has other than the failure of cable companies to offer tv everywhere and similar products with over-the-top that we can offer our subscribers. hulu and companies like that have made an effort, but netflix has been a success. full credit to them. in many ways, that is the failure of cable companies >> >> to operate together to provide an alternative. what kind of visibility do you have on comcast coming in and joining the fray, so to speak questio? >> most agree that consolidation makes sense. most of them agree that trying to scale up make sense. other andlked to each i believe there is a like-minded view about how they should perform. hereuld cox be a player in questio? see the benefits of growing and consolidating. >> there was an idea floated out that said, look, maybe there's a possibility of a pac-man bid where they would come back with their own bid for charter communications. what is your response to that? >> it is gratifying that somebody finds that charter stock attracted. we certainly have. i think part of the reason why this combination that we are proposing makes sense is that there is a lot of confidence in the operating performance of tom rutledge and the charter management team. it is not clear in the combination that jpmorgan is talking about that you would get the growth and synergies with the time warner management team. >> would you be prepared if that were to happen to up your bid or portion of thesh bid by charter? >> we think we have put a very attractive proposal on the table. it is all frustrating that we can get to the table to discuss that bit. at the moment, casting in imagining what else we would do is throwing an bidding against ourselves. that does not appear to be very attractive. what we hope for is that the time warner shareholders encourage the management to sit down and figure out a deal that makes sense for all parties. -- widelys been speculative for quite some time that liberty was going to use charter to bid for time warner cable. looking back, is there anything you would've done differently or is this going exactly as you had planned? >> i'm not sure we have planned that this would take quite as long as it has. is exactly that it as planned or desired. >> heavy talk to time warner shareholders about nominating your own candidates for the board questio? >> we have been encouraged to do exactly that. >> would you? options offaken no the table. our preference is to negotiate a fair deal, good deal, for the time warner and its shareholders. >> you don't have a list of names that you would nominate if that were to happen? >> it would suggest you keep all your options open. >> you have worked closely with john malone for many years. you are one of his close partners. he calls you a strong partner in all this. how involved is john malone in all of this question mark your the guy putting this together. how involved is john malone in this? >> john malone recently described himself as an investment philosopher and suggests he paid me to do this work. nothing important that liberty n'ss without joh support. >> your contract expires soon? >> at the end of this year. we are working on the right now. i hope so. before i let you go, one ,uestion about ceo planning which i'm sure you are working on right now with this deal. used to be at microsoft. aboutis no so much talk who is going to be the successor to steve ballmer. of howe an inside view microsoft operates. who do you think would be the best ceo to take the software giant to the next level? it is been a few years. i think it is a very hard job. microsoft is a very complicated company, operating in many different states against world-class competitors. i question in some ways whether that is a job that any one person could do. dividing the company into several pieces would not be a way to increase shareholder value. >> spoken like a true dealmaker. media inf liberty colorado. thank you so much for joining us. that does it for us today on "in the loop." exclusive interview as well as the ceo who has been taking his burger and shake restaurant abroad. that is tomorrow at 8:00 eastern time. >> this is a special edition of "market makers." >> welcome. you know where we are by now. the swiss alps. for the worlds economic for him. >> our show is even hotter. the french>> drugmaker. and two of the richest men in the world. .ennis o'brien oleg deripaska. steve schwarzman is the ceo of blackstone group. steve, here we are once again. how does it feel? >> good to see you. >> nice to see you too. you have come here for many years. >> how many? >> i think the answer is money. i do not know whether it is 15 or 20. it is a lot. >> seeing people here and hearing

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