President trump and cbs news over the weekend. Pegged to his 100day anniversary in office. The president raising a number of important issues but particularly talking about north korea and trade. A comment that might indicate some shift in the president s thinking. Heres what he had to say. North korea is maybe more important than trade. Trade is very important. But massive warfare with millions potentially millions of people being killed, that as we would say trumps trade. Reporter other president s have viewed trade very much that way as sort of a poker chip in a larger geopolitical game. I had an opportunity to ask wilbur ross about that here at the white house last week. He said ultimately this white house looks at trade in a different way than other white houses have looked at it. That comment would suggest that the president is changing his mind and coming around to a more traditional way of thinking about trade. I know you guys just spoke to wilbur ross about that this morning as well. Also the president talking about infrastructure surprising a few people by saying the deadline for launching his Infrastructure Program is rapidly approaching. Heres what he said. Going to do infrastructure very quickly. We have a plan largely completed. Well be filing it over the next two or three weeks, maybe sooner. Reporter so it might be art of the deal mode here in washington, d. C. Over the next coming weeks if the president is going to roll out that infrastructure plan and also were waiting on a Health Care Deal and also a spending deal here in washington, which seems to have been reached. Well see whether it passes this week. Back over to you. Thank you for that. One eye on washington and one eye on the markets. Obviously the nasdaq hitting its seventh intraday record high in a row as we wait for earnings from apple and facebook later in the week. Both stocks hitting alltime highs this morning. Nasdaq is the best performing index yeartodate no surprise. For more on this, lets bring in Walter Isaacson and also jeff richards. Gentlemen, good to have you both. Good morning to you. Good to be back. Good morning. Markets struggling with this debate about some arguing the market is narrowing to this sliver of large cap tech and on the other hand you look at where growth is and where cash balances are and others argue it makes sense. What do you think . I do think its surprising that this entire tech boom in the past few months has really focused on the big companies. Well see more of it this week with facebook and apple as they report their earnings. I think its indicative of something larger that we should keep an eye on, which is the pace of wholly new innovation. New things coming along like the uber or whatever seems to have slowed down a bit and youre consolidating around facebook, apple, and the other giants of the industry like google and amazon. Thats what im wondering your thoughts on. Theres this euphoria but it feels like were in between major cycles. The smartphone has slowed. The pc still kind of kicking but not a huge deal. Nothing is growing gangbusters. Is all of this valuation really justified . Let me add a couple thoughts to what walter pointed out. We are seeing a huge boom for the large cap tech stocks. Also dont count out recent ipos. Ipo class of 2016 is up 48 to date and ipo class of 2017 is up 17 . So weve seen a pretty good market reception to new offerings. Plus, great outcomes to Silicon Valley and the rest of the industry. There is an undercurrent of up and coming companies and beyond Companies Like uber and air bnb, you have great private Tech Companies that are still private. They are valued at 10 billion that arent really on the Public Market radar yet but will be over the next 12 to 18 months. We think thats a healthy undercurrent. Walter, its also interesting that this whole stock and earnings boom is happening under the first few days of the trump administration. In fact, the tech sector is the best performing within the first 100 days on a day we learned that some of the tech executives are going to lead a council to the white house come working session sort of what weve seen from other parts of the industrial economy in terms of ceo advisers to the white house. How do you expect this relationship to play out . Well, i think it will play out better now and youre right, the report and other reports that theyre going to start a Technology Council at the white house. I think one of the people will staff it had a lot of fear at the beginning of this administration that it was all about, you know, pushing trade deals that it was going to help maybe some manufacturing and industrial companies. But that it was hostile to technology. Under Jared Kushner and others, theyre trying hard to reach out to Tech Companies. It will be interesting to see which tech ceos agree to be part of this process. I suspect there will be more than last time around when even travis felt like he had to back out of a meeting at the white house. Weve talked a lot about the balance of being at the table and also trying to make sure your own workforce understands why youre going to an event like that. Part of this mission is to modernize government it behind the curve when it comes to adopting new technologies. Is it possible they truly become a new growth element for large or small cap tech . Its a great question and something people havent talked about over the last 12 to 18 months. I think its run of the reasons why youll see some of the large cap tech Companies Like hp, microsoft, cisco, you saw cisco make the move, youll see them going after emerging companies in places like security. Security has never been more important. Obviously with the news last year and the russian hacking, you have other countries around the world that are trying to use cyberwarfare more than physical warfare. Its a big topic and something Silicon Valley is well positioned for. Were concerned about immigration. Immigration is very important to Silicon Valley. A lot of workers in Silicon Valley and important Tech Companies were founded by immigrants. Its something here people are passionate about and we would love tech leaders be able to influence the president and his thinking on immigration. Speaking of immigrants and tech leaders, you have to give a shoutout to microsoft put into play as one of the Big Growth Companies as he goes into the cloud. I know he agrees with you totally as an immigrant himself. He cares about the american dream. People were tweeting out stories the journal did prior to his appointment. Whoever ran microsoft next would be unlikely to make a difference. Turned out not to be right. Lets zero in on apple. Due with earnings after the close tomorrow. Cash expected to top 250 billion for the first time ever. Cash is greater than market caps of walmart or tesla or disney. Then ubs has this note this morning titled survey finds near term iphone demand soft but should investors care . Should they . Well, i do think they should care. One of the great things that made apple a wonderful Growth Company is it continues to surprise us with new things. Gets back to what i was saying at the beginning of the segment. I havent been surprised by great new products in the past five or six years. Whether it was google glass or the apple watch. It didnt fully, you know, change the way we live. I keep hoping apple will do that. I have a deep suspicion that the new iphone will be truly great but at the moment its a company sitting on as you said a quarter billion dollars in cash. Its not trillion, yeah. 250 billion in cash. Its not in the dna of apple to return that to shareholders. I remember years ago being at a Shareholders Meeting with steve jobs and there was pressure from the floor return it in buybacks and dividends and steve got more annoyed with that. I remember afterwards the most polite thing he said about people demanding him to do that was that they were brain dead. Used other words that i dont know what they meant. I dont think its in apples dna to do that nor is it in their dna to buy big companies. They could buy netflix and tesla and have a lot of money leftover for cups of coffee, but its not in their dna to do that. They have to innovate have a big new product. They also have debt approaching, i believe, 100 billion in dividend obligations so its not a trillion dollars in cash and securities sitting around. There hasnt been a transformative move in Silicon Valley in a while. Weve had intel, qualcomm and xp but nothing like oracle people soft from a couple eras ago. Do you expect to see something transformative happen . I think we will. You look at cash Balance Sheets and relative lack of big transformative m a and there are great up and coming companies. You mentioned microsoft. Now very relevant in Silicon Valley whereas five or seven years ago it wasnt. Well see m a and early phases of that. You talk about apple. I was in beijing two weeks ago. Theres a line out the apple store in beijing. You talk about starbucks adding a store every 15 hours. We had Howard Schultz on last week. Growth opportunity outside of the u. S. For big tech and Consumer Tech is massive. Lets put it in perspective. Everyone talks about were in a bubble and maybe things will crash like they did in 2000. In the year 2000, there were 350 million Internet Users worldwide now 3. 7 billion. Theres 700 million millennials in china and india alone. You have an enormous population out there that wants new products from apple. They love starbucks. They love nike. They love these brands from the u. S. And going back to your point on trump and trade, i think its incredibly important that we keep an open mind as a country as we look to support our companies doing business around the world and back to your question, john, a lot of companies doing the best job of engaging with some of these emerging markets are up and coming Tech Companies. Many of them still private. Look at Companies Like in china and india doing great things in that market so m a with big players look to do things in other markets to compete with google and facebook as well. Its going to be interesting. Real quick if i can make a point on that. Its such an important thing you just said. This means that china and trade with china and Good Relationship with china is absolutely crucial. So i think one of the most important things that will happen to tech in the next six months is can we resolve the korea problem and have a better relationship with china . Trump said it to John Dickerson this weekend. He did. The president talked a lot about that. Well see what happens this week. A lot of information is headed our way. Thanks again. When we come back, former Federal Reserve chairman ben bernanke on rate policy. Well go live to boeings annual meeting in chicago. And then twitters jack dorsey buying more stock but are investors . All that and more when squawk alley continues. Usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Ben bernanke weighing in on growth, the president , tax reform, rolling back dodd frank and much more today in a cnbc exclusive interview on squawk box. Steve liesman is back at hq with some of the highlights. Thanks very much, sarah. The former fed chair not shying away from controversial topics in this mornings exclusive cnbc interview and went after critics that said fed policy only benefited the wealthy. It helped create 16 million new jobs. Talk about how fed policy helped the rich. When the fed was thinking about raising rates, the Hedge Fund Guys writing op eeds saying ras are too low. The former fed chair ventured into current policy saying economics behind his support for the current fed notion that Interest Rates can end up at a low 3 . It comes from global savings. It comes from low returns on new capital investments. So the feds very low Interest Rates are not as stimulative as it would have been 10, 15 years ago because were not that far from where Interest Rates are neutral. What that means for current fed policy is because bernanke agrees the fed doesnt have that far to go, he thinks the fed can get there gradually so the fed should be cautious seeing no immediate threat from inflation. Bernanke said theres no reason to pick a hawk or dove because they dont often voting that way once they get on the fed board. Bernanke advised the president to choose independent thinkers who do whats best based on longrun needs of the economy, sarah. Steve, thank you. I thought it was interesting what he said about border adjustment tax. Did he sort of endorse it . Very openminded. Its been a dilemma for a lot of economists. A lot of smart economists on both sides of the aisle like this idea. One of the ideas comes from a more left of center economist. Thats one source of it. What he says is, look, its a good idea and compelling idea. Interested in it. Thinks theres a big problem in implementing it and hes concerned about the adjustment period where the things like strength of a dollar that are supposed to happen cause this economic dislocation in the time period when the economy adjusts. We know the treasury secretary has expressed concern about the dollar impact as well. Political fallout from that. A lot of political fallout from that. Always been a dilemma. Bernanke went through this in the crisis. How do you do the right economic policies and finesse the political side of things. Steve, thank you. More highlights from steves interview from ben bernanke. Still to come, jack dorseys latest bet on the future of twitter. Plus, live from the conference out west, treasury secretary steven mnuchin. Headlines that you should thank me for your bank stocks doing better. Some people taken aback by that comment. Hell join us for a live interview in minutes. Squawk alley is back right after this. Treasury secretary mnuchin speaking this morning. Already a bunch of headlines on the tape regarding housing reform, bank regulation, the tax package and health care. Well talk with him. David faber is there live later this hour. Meantime, following some wall street news here. Change at money manager Alliance Bernstein firing the ceo. Leslie has more on the drama unfolding here out of france. Good morning. Drama indeed. Alliance bernstein said in a filing this morning that it fired the ceo and nine members of the board. The firm moved by written consent to restructure the board and add six new directors including a former Jpmorgan Chase executive who will take over as ceo. Also named the former president of the world bank as its chairman. Its unclear at this time from either the press release or a call held earlier this morning exactly why they terminated kraus and the rest of the board. Analysts on the board pressed the chairman of axa on why exactly they decided to make such a subtle change and his response was you should have no concern in terms of anything that was not apparent in the figures. The direction we want to take is fully in line with whats been achieved in the past in terms of diversification of the expertise toward new asset classes. The firm reported First Quarter earnings last week that showed declining net revenue but assets totalled almost 500 billion. Guys . All right. Thank you. And elon musk speaking at the conference in vancouver over the weekend giving a sneak peek into his plans for a tesla truck. Listen. So this is a heavy duty long range semitruck. Highest weight capability and with long range so its meant to alleviate the heavy duty trucking world. With the tesla semi we want to show an electric truck can out torque any diesel semi. This will be a very spry truck. You could drive this around like a sports car. Of course just because you can doesnt mean you should. Musk also told the audience tesla is going to deliver an autonomous driving experience from l. A. To new york as early as november this year while joking about the ways other Car Companies are trying to compete with tesla. Well be unveiling the tesla semi truck. So model 3. Its supposed to come in julyish. Its looking quite good for starting production in july. November or december of this year we should be able to go all of the way from a parking lot in california to a parking lot in new york. No control touched at any point during the entire journey. In order to motivate bmw executives, they showed a picture of me. Okay. They could very well have just shown a picture of his stock chart and not just him. Amazing elon musks ability to time these announcements of plans to keep investors believing in the stock. Up another 3 today. And he talked about space, didnt he, as well, on a day when they had a successful booster landing and launching this secret military mission into space. Got to imagine Mark Zuckerberg is watching these successful spacex launches going why couldnt you have launched my satellite . Watching from ohio of course. Now lets send it back to hq. Sue herrera has a news update. Heres whats happening at this hour. French riot Police Firing tear gas at protesters at a may da