We have no plans to slow down. Our goal is to bring you access to many of the biggest news makers in attendance. Steven schwarzman will be joining us in a few minutes. We have three big stories were watching. Earnings season is in full swing. Then this afternoon, american express, ebay and Discovery Financial and december Housing Starts and Building Permits at 8 30 eastern time. Both ratings are expected to rise by a percent and a debate is stirring after the state of the union last night. The economy the big focus. The president calling for tax hikes on the wealthy to finance tax breaks for the middle class. So the verdict is clear. Middle class economic works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work as long as politics dont get in the way. We cant slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal show downs. We cant put the security of families at risk by taking away their Health Insurance or unraveling the new rules on wall street or pass battles of immigration when we got to fix a broken system. Well talk a lot more about that speech and the president s proelzs in a few minute with the former clinton speech writer. Joe. Andrew what a beautiful shot we started the show with. Did you guys see that. No. Beautiful. You can hear the bells ringing. Thats why were here. Thats why people come here. And they also come because no one goes to bed until 2 00 in the morning. Did you go to bed last night . Well i got here this morning. All right. Number of stocks to watch this morning, ibm posting better than expected Quarterly Earnings but Fourth Quarter revenue and new profit target falling short of consensus. That sounds like more of the same when you talk about revenue from four years ago. Thats part of the plan. They got rid of 7 billion of empty calories. You can say its part of the plan but it also decreases the flow. It allows you to post earnings that go higher but when revenues fall every year and you keep buying back stock and youre not increasing revenue, thats the complaint. That is the complaint. There were some investors and analysts that indicate theyre now more on plan than people thought. I hope so. Ibm, i like ibm. Its ibm. Sponsor the masters along with at t and exxon. If it goes theway of kodak or digital equipment it would be a tragedy. Well see. Amd. Warning its Current Quarter revenue will fall short. Its about a 2 million cap company now. Weak sales of graphic cards. Netflix, shares soaring in early trade. Adding 4. 3 million subscribers in the last quarter. The big driver overseas groethd offsetting a slow down in the United States. Lets get a check on the markets this morning. We have been watching what the futures have been up to. If you take a look youll see at least in this hour the futures are relatively flat. Youre looking at the s p barely budging. Dow futures down by 7 points. Also if you take a look at the early trade in europe this morning, at this point youll see that the european markets are relatively flat as well although the ftse has a gain of three quarters of a . In asia the bank of japan with its stimulus. Encourage banks to boost lending and you see in asia overnight the shanghai was up by 4. 7 . This is coming after early in the week when you saw the huge declines. The biggest declines in about eight years. Oil prices autopsy cross the board. 46. 95. If you have been watching the the bond markets youll see that right now the 10 year note looks to be yielding. Drum roll please. 1. 815 . In the currency market this is the big story here with the Swiss National banks move last week that threw a wrench into currency markets vmt caught a lot of people off guard. You can see it this morning. The euro is down against the dollar and gold prices gold picking up a litted by bit of a bid. 1,298. President obama focussing on the middle class in his second to last state of the Union Address. Here with us this morning to talk about that and a lot more the chairman and ceo of blackstone. Good morning to you. Good morning. We owe you a congratulations too because i heard that your son is an oscar nominee now. He produced the imitation game. He is nominated for 8 academy awards. Eight. Whos counting . Thats not so bad for 35 years old. Not so bad. Congratulations on that. You just flew in this morning. I dont know if you had a chance to listen or read about the state of the Union Address last night. Well i didnt see it but i did read some stuff. Your sense of the issue of both taxing the wealthy to pay for some of these programs and some of the issues he wants to address through education. Does it make sense to you . Well theres a consistency in terms of what the administration has been trying to do on a tax policy basis. I have been told by political people that theres no chance of this happening. Sounds good though. That doesnt stop him. No but i think the issues meant to be addressed are very important. The middle class has to increase its wealth. And we have to get better jobs and its going to have to be done among other ways through education. Right. We all have different views as to what level is the most important for education. You have to start at the beginning and you also can take enormous steps that can take people of very low income and get them to perform at very high levels. I was at dinner last night and said top one per cent. Is that in your mind . Is that a problem and how do you attack it . When you think about the ideas of raising taxes on the wealthiest, is that the right or wrong way to do it or is there any component of that that makes sense to you . You have to rebalance the system and how you rebalance it is on effect on the table. Can you take away from the wealthiest . And would you be among those . Or is it literally just the lift up . I think the question of do you give people fish or teach them how to fish is part of the issue to make it very simplistic. Were going to have to provide the capital for the people not just in the United States but this is a global issue with the economy. If we dont do that well have longterm problems. We have the ability to do it. Its earned success. Its not transfer payments. Its not something that allows you to persist. That might be the point to allow you to earn a living. Proposals for colleges. Thats fine. Use the money to give people the opportunity to be productive. No one wants to be the ward of an entitlement state. The stockholm syndrome overtakes you. Im just asking the question. Theres an interesting thing. My wife and i support the inner city program in new york city where 70 of the students are below the poverty line. 97 of them graduate from high school and 99 of them go on to higher education. If you could do something of that type throughout the United States we wouldnt be having exactly the dialogue youre having because these people are fit for purpose. Theyre capable. They have an education. They can join that economy. If you dont get that kind of quality education, and you can do it as a middle class or below middle class person you really youre really disabled for the modern economy. There wasnt a word about tax reform. Again after six years what we hear are redistribution efforts. Was there anything about, are we going to do trade . I didnt stay up and watch this last night . The only tax reformed he talked about was the same one he talked about for six years. You called it a war once. Still is a war. Still is the divide . No i just think society has gotten a bit more used to being divided. I happen to think this is a very very bad idea. And you run a company, what you want is to unify your people and move them in a direction. Almost every Organization Works that way. I think we have a lot of work to do. This is in the United States. And some other countries to bring our people together. Thats the way you get the most out of a society. There was use they were going to change the allocation of how its giving out money to hedge funds not to hedge funds but to private equity. But the issue is theyre going to give out less money, or the same amount of money to a fewer number of funds. What do you think about it . Theres a trend we have been talking about for years. There were too many private equity if i weres of a variety of different performance so what institutions are doing is to go for ones that provide the best performance. Give them much more money. It helps them have fewer staff to lower their cost. So it makes sense and it will continue. Firms like blackstone should be the major beneficiaries of this type of trend. I think of blackstone as the new bank given whats happening in the world. Dont take deposits. I appreciate that. The reason im about to go into this question we have jamie diamond on later. Theres a lot of speculations and questions about whether some of the big banks should break up. Specifically that bank. What do you think of that . The large banks have been through the ringer. Theres been all kinds of dodd franks. Theyre under enormous pressure. I dont worry about the safety and soundness issue with large banks. Large banks perform quite a important function. Large banks are everywhere in the world. Theres a reason for that. One quick question from the news last night i dont know where you were going. Go with it. Black stone in the news that you were acquiring 36 properties for 1. 7 billion. I dont know about that. Okay. He has so many deals inside that shop. It sounds like its well below your pay grade. We have so much stuff going on now. I did want to get your thoughts on where we stand right now in terms of the Housing Market and the apartment industry right now. The Housing Market is coming back as you can see. Its been it was depressed down 40 . Its coming back. Theres been more multifamily than there has been historic standards in terms of new builds. That should change over time. Were expecting another year of significant increase probably around 8 in value in the markets we operated on. It was 14 the year before. Were renting homes to people which gives them the ability to be in a really good home when they cant afford the down payment which about half of americans cannot afford downpayments today with the reformed Housing Market. And so if they want to be in houses, one way to do it is renting them but i think the prospect for houses going up in value is quite good and the increase in houses being constructed should also be going up. We have to run but i would remiss not to ask the question what do you think about the franc and what the ecb may do with the future of europe. The consensus is that the ecb will be doing some kind of stimulus and that should weaken the euro a little more and as to the swiss franc theres nothing but blood on the street and on the walls. If you think negative Interest Rates cant happen in the United States think again. That was his note from this morning. We saw that right before the crash actually happened for a day or two. So its unlikely. But weve seen it in europe. Another famous European Central banker said the Central Banks in this world are unhinged. Theres no connection between actual inherent value of a currency and whats happening right now. And were in trouble. So well see. But theyre playing the music. Thank you for being here this morning. Its great to be with all of you. Thank you. Coming up taxes, paid sick leave and Free Community college were among the big topics in last nights state of the union. Reaction coming in from washington. Heres some reaction from the nfib. They say that the president s tax plan is fair in the way that hurricanes are fair. They hurt everyone. His goal is to ensure that the tax code just doesnt work for us. Those are where the jobs come from that would help increase wages for what were trying to do here. Up next well be joined by the chief speech writer for president clinton. I bet he would write speeches for another president clinton if he gets a chance. Well be right back. Ameriprise asked people a simple question in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms . I sure hope so. With healthcare costs, who knows. Umm. Everyone has retirement questions. So ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. Now you and your ameripise advisor. Can get the real answers you need. Start building your confident retirement today. Welcome back everybody. President obama pushing his plan to help the middleclass. Everyone in this Congress Still refuses to raise the minimum wage i say this. If you believe you can work full time and support a family on less than 15,000 a year try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest working people in america a raise. Joining us right now is the former White House Communications director and chief speech writer for president clinton. He is now worldwide chairman and ceo. You know a thing or two about the state of the Union Addresses. So i woke up here at 3 00 a. M. So i could watch the speech live. I wanted to be ready. It made me think about 20 years ago today when i was young and did my first state of the eun won with president clinton theyre never easy to do. I thought as a speech when you think about the craft and writing a speech this was a very well done speech. The speech writers and president did a good job from that standpoint. Are these the issues you would have addressed at this point in time . A big part of the speech was setting the frame work for how to judge president obamas legacy and to say that we turned the corner and that the things that they want the country to believe have been done in terms of growth and recovery very important from the standpoint of how immediate history is going to look back and judge us period but the other one is 2016. Without being too political about it i do think he was trying to help to set the agenda for the 2016 president ial election. Theres a jump ball right now and you see it already forming over what i call grow and share economics so republicans talk about growth now theyre both trying to talk about them together. And with growth happening in the economy the democrats reverting to talking about sharing. Thats where the fight is going to be in 2016. Hilary Rodham Clinton was sounding off saying she agreed with the president on these things. So the fairness question is going to come into play. Heres the real question that is important. We talk about growth and we think its moving along already but its unsteady at this point. Thats the big, big question. Now we think, well we didnt really say it but its almost like we have growth. Wheres the sharing . We dont have the kind of growth thats possible. Our economy is still below what its capable of and 4 growth if its consistent year after year and then you get the wage growth along with it a lot of these questions, they fade a little because it helps everyone. You think about the International Economy and china and problems going on there. Listen to the president very passionately say you cant live on 15,000 a year. Try living on 17,000, you cant live on that either. You need to grow great jobs that pay 80, 90 100,000 and let the private sector create those jobs. Thats where the education issues are important the biggest problem with kmun colleges is not that people cant get into them or pay for them its that they dont graduate from them. 66 to 80 dont graduate. Spending 60 billion over ten years done change that and Community Colleges are already free for most poor and working class students because they qualify for pell grants. So is this a speechless campaign the president is on. Look you have to get them there and keep them there and get them through. I dont think its an either or proposition. Its a yes and proposition. How do we get both of them things done and pay for them both . Thats a big challenge at this point. But theres no question that what a High School Education used to do it doesnt do anymore and who knows whether even two years of Community College will be enough. Its scary because its not just our problem. In fact we have serious issues in the United States. Look at the Unemployment Rate across europe for people that cant. And what that leads to inturn. Theres not enough wealthy people in europe to redistribute to these people. We need to start from the ground up with all of these issues. If we can come back from one thing last night thats a good positive thing from the standpoint of growth the president spoke about trade. Talked about trade packs and he spoke to his constituentcy and the republicans are waiting for him to come out front about this. He did it and one of the interesting things is the way he framed that conversation. If you go back and look at it he talked about china and hes making it a competition between the u. S. And china which people say. But interesting as a motivating factor for the American Public to be thinking about it in those terms. I want to thank you for joining us today. Thank you great to be here. Health care of course a big topic for washington and Corporate America and well here in davos as well. Well talk to a chairman that knows that inside and out. Squawk box returns live from davos switzerland. Were back in a moment. [woman] can it make a dentist appointment when my teeth are ready . [girl] can it tell the doctor how long i have to wear this thing . [man] can it tell the Flight Attendant to please not wake me this time . The answer is yes, it can. So, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver . You just got a big bump in miles. So this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. Sound good . Great. Because youre not you youre a whole airline. And its not a ticket youre upgrading its your entire operations, fr