scott miracle grow hoping to hit a home run with baseball fans this season. the lawn care company striking a deal with mlb. that's major league baseball. to begin pitching its ballpark blend of grass seeds. well, cnbc's sports business reporter darren rovell joins us live from wrigley field with much more. hello, darren. >> reporter: yeah. that's right, larry. scott's miracle grow doing really well in this economy. people doing their own lawns. there's a new marketing pitch. have your lawn look like wrigley field. the company actually selling a wrigley field grass blend for $21. it's $8 more than scott's standard variety. stores like home depot and lowe's responded well to the initial idea. >> i think it's an idea that's so obvious we just haven't gone

after. we've gone to present to some of our retail partners the idea, their viewpoint was why are you doing this already? it's nice to hear this sort of thing. we're definitely excited to capitalize on the opportunity. >> reporter: the seed put together by cub's ground keeper roger bare is hitting the marriage. scott's optimistic that it is a real market. >> we think it's going to be a fairly strong line for us this year. we're launching it in five different markets. we're going to see how it goes. so far we're off to a good start. advertising kicked off last week. we've had an unbelievable response already. we're definitely excited. >> reporter: by the way, scotts won't give you any help. they will throw in some ingredients that will make it a little bit more successful for you to plant this and maybe look something close to wrigley field. guys, back to you. >> i can see larry out there right now. doing all your own gardening. i think that's going to do it for us here on "the call." i'm melissa francis.

>> i'm larry kudlow. see you tonight on "the kudlow repor report", 7:00 p.m. eastern time. "power lunch" is up next. hello, everybody. welcome to "power lunch." i'm sue herera. the dow barely off its high of the morning but it's above 11,000 as oil reverses a week of declines but remains kind of stuck above 85 bucks a barrel. >> i'm dennis neil. paint is the new faux. microsoft unveiling the fruits of its pink project. the first word from microsoft. i'm michelle ka russo cabrera live from harvard business school in boston, massachusetts. does twitter mean business? especially salient with news today coming out of the internet world. int internet advertising pioneer and twitters own letter to developers where they really calm to calm down the

twittersphere. people were concerned there was going to be some kind of cutting off of twitter apps. a lot to cover. it was biz stone that made huge news when he announced later on this month we were actually going to see a twitter business plan. people have been screaming about it for years. can they actually make some money? here it is, twitter by the numbers. >> born in 2006. 140 character internet based text style messages instantly communicated to a group of following of any size. the explosion since then phenomenal. in 2007 users were posting 5,000 messages per day. in 2009, 2.5 million per day. now the twitter verse consists of 50 million tweets a day. in the first quarter of 2010, there were 4 billion tweets. the information flow ranges from breaking news around the world to personal updates. among the twitterers, ashton kutcher boasts more than 4.7

million followers. singer britney spears, almost that. the ellen show, close to 4.5. they all out rank president obama which comes in with 3.6 million. twitter is the darling of programmers. want to post a photo? twitter on your cell phone? there are 70,000 twitter related apps out there. selling those apps is good business. is twitter good business? the number people are most curious about is the bottom line. >> all right. so that was a great way of outlining all the big numbers that dennis highlighted for us. the big question is, guys, can it make money? a lot of people want twitter to make money because they know that's the key to survival. today we got a harvard business professor. dennis, you're going to love this. he teaches a class on social networking platforms. an entire class on that. plus we have arianna huffington coming up. she's created a new platform where she says it's going to be strictly for twitter. let's see if that can be successful. and we've got the harvard

business students themselves who are going to present their twitter business plan, kind of give biz stone and all a big leg up ahead of their announcements later on this week. julia's got reporting coming up as well. >> once it's in the harvard curriculum, it already is out of date. social network is moving so fast. it interests me, though, that -- back to that 200 to 300-year-old model of advertising. >> do we know? we think it's advertising, right? there could be another layer of analytics. it's hard to know at this point. >> that's why a lot of people think perhaps they should have just sold. get out. as founders of the company. if you're going back to the old advertising model and still trying to figure out how to make money, did you miss the point at which you could have sold this baby, made a fortune and gone on to the next big thing? >> that's because of mercenaries and missionaries -- he's a

missionary instead of a mercenary. these guys so far are proving to be missionaries. let's see if they can make money. >> harvard students did a survey. 85% of those surveyed believe advertising is going to be the basis of the business model. >> yeah. i want to see them start charging actual purveyors, people like me who get on there, want to sell a message. charge those people access and leave it free to the followers. it would be a second revenue stream. >> that's another idea. >> see you in a few minutes with the first of the series of interviews we're doing here. >> can't wait to see that. it's twitter's moment in the spotlight. market action today, bob pisani kicks it off at the new york stock exchange. >> twitter ipo in five years. that's a long ways off in the ipo world. hitting 11,000 here. see if we can close over that. financials are leading. we'll get them later in the week starting with the earnings. jp morgan will start. all the big regional names are at new highs. this has going on for several weeks now. all the big regional names are

outperforming the big, big names that are the money center banks. let's take a look at energy stocks. halliburton is buying. a lot of mergers going on in this business. baker hughes doing well in the natural gas place like eog and apache also doing well. a lot of people asked me why freight car companies are doing better. these guys make rail cars for the transportation industry. look at these stocks. they've been going up dramatically in the last five or six trading days. as far as i could tell, we're seeing coal car loadings go up. also decline in idle rail cars. a little bit of hope in the transportation sector here. that's very intriguing. talk more in the next hour. tradertalk.cnbc.com. scott, how is it looking at the nasdaq? >> we're up .10%. modest gains across the board. let's talk about shares of palm. take a look at them today. up 16.5%. there's been a lot of takeover speculation around this stock. there are reports today the company has, in fact, put itself up for sale. take a look at big cap names on

the move. google up by about .75%. apple is higher. intel is unchanged. earnings later in the week. california pizza kitchen meantime is up 1.5% today. they are exploring strategic ail ternives including a possible sale. number of upgrades proving some stocks. cinea up. expaid ya and global. oil prices back above $80 a barrel for nymex crude after we saw the dow move above 11,000. there are a couple things troubling traders in terms of bearish signs. nymex crude trading at a discount to brent crude. normally it should be at a premium because of the shipping cost to try to get oil from the middle east or african here to the u.s. it's a farther distance than to europe. the other thing they're watching is the steepening contango. the outer months are priced that much more expensively than

tinner months because they're worried about the fact we don't have much signs of increased demand. we'll certainly be watching once again for the inventory numbers on wednesday. we did get chinese import numbers. they are good as far as oil. great as far as copper. copper easing off of a 20-month high today. the metals complex all moving higher right along with the rest of commodities. rick santelli, over to you in chicago. >> thank you very much. there's three things traders are talking about today. the first, of course, is greece but not necessarily in the context you may imagine. we all know what's going on with greece and what may or may not be issues with countries like portugal and spain. these remedies are greasing gear. they aren't designated to fix the machine. traders say this is an important distinction. this is to help their debt issues but isn't necessarily to have a helpful hand on a grand plan to help economic growth. that is an important distinction. secondary area is china. china's been mopping things up.

you want to pay close attention, especially after we learned over the weekend they have their first trade deficit in six years. this comes at a time as, a, they are mopping up elevating rates. b, look at things like copper. at the highest level since '08. last story, we have t-bills today. you'll have to wait from two weeks from tomorrow before you'll see any coupon supply. thank you so much. we are going to talk more about greece which does get the rescue package it needs. what does all that mean for your money here at home? that's right ahead. plus -- the comeback country. hey, maybe we're not doing so bad after all. we'll break down the real economic indicators. then, your twitterama continues with super user arianna huffington and harvard business school students. they think they know what biz stone does not. airline quality getting

better? how could that be? phil lebeau has some surprising findings.

the dow breaking back above 11,000. but how long might it stay

there? let's gather our power lunch market insiders as we look at a 20-point gain in the dow jones industrial average. craig columbus, chief market strategist with advanced equities asset management pnd a founder of protrading course.com. nice to have you here. craig, you think we may hit a little bit of a wall here in equities. primarily because of the competition on the interest rate. is that a correct read? >> that's right. we've had a 15% rally off the february low. that's where we tend to hit the wall. if you see a backup in rates it would cause some competition. honestly, i think that could be a very good thing if it's done in an orderly way. it would be confirmation the recovery trade is real. >> do you agree with that, richard? >> i do. the one thing i would say, i don't think we've seen any reason to believe new sellers have entered the market. this is all predictive reasoning saying these things may occur. we've yet to see them. as long as it's a buy side you

have to stick with the momentum. >> still an awful lot of money on sidelines. investors still don't believe in the equity rally. >> in large part because a lot of professionals have doubted the consumer. one of the things that's so different over the last couple weeks, new frugality in america. record tax refunds. you see the savings rate comes down three months in a row. maybe the consumer has joined the party. i think that would be a sentiment changer. >> richard, craig saying he's worried bonds are going to take money away from stocks because of high interest rates. at the same time, he says beware of bonds. he thinks they might be headed down. would you put more money into bonds now or less? >> right now i think bonds are fairly reasonably priced. however, if i were to pick one direction, i think i'd go to the buy side a little bit. >> the buy side meaning you'd buy more bonds. craig, if you are kind of ambivalent about the stocks and bonds, which way are you going

with your money? >> i still like the commodity, commodity equity, commodity currency, dividend payers and corporate bonds. >> richard, you mentioned something interesting. that is the fact that the momentum hasn't really changed. and that as a result of that, you have to go with the flow of this market. what type of event or data point would change the momentum? what are you watching for? >> it's interesting that you say that, sue. what i would say is a combination between what you said and what craig said. that when the retail investment finally comes into this market, unfortunately it's probably going to be -- >> it's going to be too late. >> right. that's usually what happens. i was watching cnbc years ago when gold was on a huge rally and you guys made a big deal and made a big announcement of it. what happened? retail investors came in. that was the top. it's a really common occurrence when the retail investors finally pile in. that's probably the top. i don't think it's a big economic event. it's a retail investment. >> craig, will we hold dow

11,000 by the close today? >> yes. i think by the close. you probably have a little bit more to go. i think the head winds come into play. >> how long, craig? >> how long until dow 12,000? >> yes. >> it will be an end of the year kind of event for sure. >> richard? >> october, november. >> okay. both of you by the fourth quarter. >> craig, what about the interest rate scenario. how much higher do you think rates will bump? the market's been moving them higher on a consistent basis. some of it's been linked to the sovereign rate issue which seems to be, you know, abating a bit. but how much more upside do you think we have on interest rates? >> okay. i think the fed got the gift of greece. it was a gift to the dollar and treasury auction market. it has to ask itself, do you want to be in favor -- so strongly in favor of asset reflation or what point do you defend sound money policy? you're getting a lot of good confirmation. at some point you have to change the statement language or you

have to do something that shows, hey, wait a minute. like you had seen in asia. asian central banks are starting to be very individual lanvigila. we need the fed to do the same. >> do you think they'll do that? >> -- there was nothing that said they will change the balance sheet other than say they would discuss in the future. i'm skeptical. but i think that in the next couple of months the data points are going to force them to do it. >> richard, i think craig has an interesting point about election year politics. they might have to do it sooner rather than later if they are going to do it, correct? or not? >> yes. no. i definitely think that's true. i would say that the politics and the elections come into play almost as big as saving the economy when it comes to politicians. i would say there's a really good chance and that's a big component of it. realistically the fed is saying very, very low for a long time right now. i think that language will

change. maybe after this good earnings season. >> i'm sure stocks will head down the first time the fed raises rates. some big mavens out there say we could take another full point higher in interest rates, wouldn't hurt the economy at all. what do you say? >> if you went back to 450 ten-year treasury, it tells you the recovery trade is real. you typically get 3 5% or more intersections in a calendar year. if you had a 7% to 9% correction in equities in my view it wouldn't be the end of the world. it would actually tell you something about the real economy. >> thank you very much. up next, a ton of economic data on tap this week. even before they hit, though, economists are upping their forecasts, turning more bullish. steve liesman is going to tell you why. "newsweek" seems to agree. their cover story calls america the comeback country, bouncing back stronger, better, faster than anybody expected it. the good news on the other side of the break. with expedia, i've got the building blocks

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new data on retail sales, inflation, housing, jobs, all on deck in the next few weeks. how is it that economists are turning more bullish on the numbers ahead of the reports?

cnbc's senior economic correspondent steve liesman is going to tell us why. >> maybe it's just the spring. ever notice that. >> could be. >> i wonder if we should seasonally adjust expectations. last week's retail sales numbers and the recent jobs report out, some economists marking up their forecast for the recently completed first quarter and for the one we're in, the second quarter. here are the results. after a 5.6% fourth quarter that cap, by the way, of 4% growth in the second half of last year, economists now expect 2.9% in the first quarter with a slight acceleration in the second quarter to 3.4%. here's the high, medium and low. make ro economic advisers on the high end for the first half for 3.5%. ubs on average with 3.15%. action economics taking up the low end with 2.6%. ubs wrote in its weekend report, quote, animal spirits for higher growth forecast as it raises growth forecast by half a point

for q 1. morgan stanley said data continues to be stronger than expected. tracking forecasts for the first quarter also raised by half a point. and nomura sees new green shoots of spring. rising ceo confidence reflecting better than expected earnings. it says that's going to lead to more capital spending and to more hiring. the economy is not without obvious challenges, not only the residual to financial crisis but oil prices -- all potential headwinds to a rebound. most economists think the recession ended this summer. the committee that dates it has been reluctant to declare it over. maybe not dennis who's not reluctant on anything as far as i know. >> nope. never reluctant. waste of time. stay with us. we've got the decline of the american economy -- there we are. could be actually rather exaggerated. let's bring in dan gross, senior editor at "newsweek." the author of this week's cover story, the comeback country, how

america pulled itself back from the brink and why it is destined to stay on top. welcome, dan. thanks for being with us. you know what? i started selling the idea a year ago of the great recovery. nobody was buying. is it time to start buying that idea? >> i think it's been time to start buying it for a while. the economy has been expanding since last july. and the economists, you know, god love them, have been really bad about prediction over the last few years. no one -- the consensus didn't predict the downturn. and at the depths of the downturn they didn't predict it would get worse. go back to the philadelphia fed forecast last summer. they were saying the third and fourth quarter was going to grow at 1%. they were about four or five times under. even today the philadelphia fed forecast says 2.7% growth for this whole year. steve was talking about people now raising their forecasts to, you know, factor in recent good news. but the economists as a group have been really behind the curve, both when things went

down and since things have gone up. >> dan, you know, there's the problem of the jobless rate and unemployment. and a lot of people do feel that we're entering into or are into a prolonged period of relatively high unemployment. how does that factor into the comeback of america? is it -- it's obviously going to have a very different complexion than the last time. >> absolutely. the last two recessions ended with so-called jobless recoveries. it took a while for things to get into gear. what i argue is that the thing that helped us get out of this ditch, it was the speed of the policy response, number one. then the speed of the private sector response. very aggressive restructuring. searches for efficiency. the productivity numbers have been off the charts. of course, the casualty of that is payrolls. companies went into survival mode and cut all these jobs and then figured out how can we increase output without having to hire anybody. that's what accounted for this great turnaround in the macro gdp number. it's also what accounts for

payrolls sort of being stubborn in the immediate aftermath. >> steve, it seems like the economists are starting to come around. you saw the story "new york times" in the saying why aren't we happier about the comeback? you saw the story in the paper today about the economists nber still isn't ready to call an end to the recession. >> i guess you can kind of blame roger daul tri for this when e said we won't get fooled again. as dan pointed out, the last two recoveries were sort of jobless at the beginning. that might have been for a series of factors including the productivity surge. i think now from a cultural standpoint, recovery is not recovery until it means a jobs recovery. and that's something that i think is relatively new in the discussion about recessions right now. >> dan, on the jobs front, some economists are beginning to get more optimistic even on that front. deutsche bank, i think, mkm. >> we had, i think, in march the first kind of -- i wouldn't say

it's a great number. but a decent number where most of the jobs created were actually private sector jobs. larry summers is talking about the economy approaching escape velocity. when you look at the encouraging numbers that are out there, exports have really risen from their april 2009 lows. that is a source of growth. i think a lot of the stimulus is actually worked. we talk a lot in our article about not just the companies that directly benefit from stimulus spending or the loan guarantees, but then their ability to create sort of small economic ecosystems that support more jobs. what's going on with electric cars, for example. >> you look at the minority unemployment rates of hispanics and blacks, that certainly is an issue. then you look at policy changes in washington that will result in much higher tax rates on a variety of different levels in the new year. what are the dangers of that derailing part of this recovery? >> my first job was in 1992. i was asked to call some economists and say, you know,

what would happen when clinton budget passes and they cut spending and raise taxes. and every economist told me that this would send the economy into ssion and it would kill the stock market. of course, we had the s&p tripled over the next few years and 20 million jobs were created. i think the linkage that what people have between what happens with marginal tax rates and the economy at large is vastly, vastly oversold. >> dan, thank you very much. steve, thank you as well. >> there it is. "newsweek" magazine. let's get to melissa francis. she's at the breaking news desk. >> we're just getting word that conoco phillips has agreed to sell its 9.3% stake in syncrude, china's energy company. as a canadian oil sands company, this is another incident of china buying up more and more resources. the deal is worth $4.65 billion. it is expected to close at the end of the third quarter of

2010. credit suisse acting as the sole financial adviser. this is part of its larger 10 billi billi billiondivestiture program we first heard about. up next, we head back to the harvard business school. does twitter mean business? michelle? >> yes. we are here, sue, because it is this week that twitter is expected to finally announce a business plan. we decided to get them a little bit of help. we're here at the harvard business school. we're going to interview a professor who teaches an entire class on social networking platforms. and how one can make money when it comes to social networking platforms like twitter. we've got arianna huffington coming up as well in the next few minutes. she's launching a new platform of content dedicated exclusively to twitter. and then, 1:00 eastern time, top

of the hour, we're going to talk to these guys. because they are going to -- head on over. there you go. they're going to give us their business plan for twitter, how they think that twitter can actually make some money. give biz stone and company an idea of what to do. all right. we'll see you on "power lunch" on the other side of this break. don't move.

welcome back. we are almost halfway through the trading day. in the headlines at this hour general motors says demand in china is so strong that sales may top 2 million vehicles this year. four years ahead of schedule. mastercard's president and coo will take the corner office when the current ceo retires at the end of the year. according to a new survey, hawaiian airlines was rated highest in service quality last year. they frequently make that list. phil lebeau will have more findings in the next hour.

now back up to michelle in boston. >> hey, sue. i'm here at the harvard business school. and the reason is, twitter later on this week reveals finally its business plan. but that hasn't prevented the harvard business school from already teaching courses about companies like twitter. joining us is a professor that teaches an entire course on social networking platforms. why? >> this is something our students need to know when they leave the school. social networking platforms are absolutely phenomenal in terms of growth. facebook alone has over 300 million people. business will have to benefit from these platforms. >> what is it about teaching them about twitter. it kind of reminds me about maybe teaching them about lotus or basic -- you guys don't even know what basic is, do you? way back when. >> it's interesting, because you actually very often see companies trying to engage with twitter and trying to engage with facebook, trying to be

successful. and there's mixed banks of success. some are very successful, some aren't. giving students a frame work so they can understand how to be successful in these platforms is absolutely critical. >> you've done a lot of research about the users of social networking platforms and twitter. you have found that when it comes to straight on social networking platforms like facebook, like myspace, et cetera, the biggest category of usage is men looking at women they don't know. >> that's correct. and, actually, when you look at what happens on twitter, it's actually the opposite. there is -- on twitter you mainly see men following men and not so much women. and women also following men. >> so there are the equivalent amount, equal numbers of men and women on twitter. yet men are far more likely to be followed hands down compared to women. >> that's correct. in many ways, it's not surprising. these sites are not disjoined from the offline world. they're very closely connected. you can very easily see how

these results mirror what happens in the offline world. >> what do women do on things like facebook and twitter? >> women look at other women, mostly, on social networks. that's typical. >> what does that mean for businesses and advertisers? >> what it means is that, again, if -- what we need to understand is that basically people on these sites are trying to do two things. either strengthen the relationships they already have with people they already have, already know, or meet some new people. and to the extent -- >> yeah. men want to meet new people. never changes. >> and to the extent you can actually leverage that, i think you can be very successful. i think currently there is this emphasis of companies talking to people without trying to facilitate relationships. and i think the key to success in these social media is to actually stop talking to people, really start thinking about how you can facilitate relationships or improve relationships that people have. >> all right. great, professor is going to help us out at the top of the hour when we talk to these actually students who came up with the actual business plan.

you're going to help us do the reveal at the top of the hour. right after this, we've got arianna huffington standing by. she has got a new platform dedicated just for twitter. all right. back to you guys. >> thank you, michelle. with the dow jones industrial average holding above 11,000, we're going to have much more not only on twitter, but on this market. where do you put your money? and how do you make money? we're back in just a moment.

we are, indeed, focusing on twitter a lot this next two hours. however, not to be left out, of course, is a market, dennis, up above the 11,000 mark. up 19 points. the nasdaq is up almost four points on the trading session. and the s&p is up better than two points. all of this at the same time that we have a very broad based move in a number of the other key indices. >> three points away from s&p 1,200, by the way. and less than 50 points away from nasdaq 2500. i realize they might have a lot of technical meaning to some guys. i think the emotion of it and psychology of those little barriers are pretty important. >> it comes at a time when the market's gotten pretty much what it wants in terms of the solution for greece. the question i think, michelle, remains whether or not china is going to come in and play in the treasury auctions with the

consistency it did in the past, given some of the data they released over the weekend. that's a bit of a worry for the market. that and the move in the copper market today, also. >> yeah. that wouldn't surprise me. especially when it seems, sue, that everybody thinks higher interest rates are a -- if you saw these headlines "new york times" in the over the weekend. get ready for higher interest rates. if china doesn't participate, you can bet that if, indeed, that comes to pass, that is going to accelerate the process. certainly hurt the housing market for an entire generation of people who don't remember when interest rates used to be higher than 5% or 6%. >> i remember my first home loan was at 16%. >> i sometimes worry that we fear higher interest rates way too much. we forget that the offset is it for retirees, it helps their savings, they get far more important. it makes americans raise their savings rate which they say we need for longer term economic growth. >> here's the thing that struck me. when i saw this front page story "new york times," higher

interest rates are coming. i thought that could be the best sign yet that they aren't coming. >> exactly. the other issue, you guys is earnings. alcoa starts us off after the bell. expectations are pretty high this time. the bar is pretty high on the earnings front from the street, at least what we're hearing from people on the floor. it'll be interesting to see whether or not the street can deliver what the expectations are. that may be something that keeps us from -- dennis is already looking for dow 12,000. it may take a while to get there. >> oh, yeah. before year end. >> the key thing on earnings, too, right, is this time around we want to see actual revenue. we want to see top line growth, not just bottom line growth driven by cost cutting. this is really the quarter where a lot of the economists expect it to happen. >> we'll see. we're going to take a quick break. then we're going to pose the question again, does twitter actually mean business? we'll talk about that when we come back. we're watching the dow jones industrial average as well and the "fast money halftime report" waiting in the wings."

welcome to the fast money halftime report. the dow skips past 11,000 as m & a activity continues to see life. straight to the word on the treat. fast money crew today. the ambassador, jon najarian,

and -- it is fantastic to see you. >> welcome back. >> thank you. it is great to be back. let's get straight to work. we got a lot of calls, namely from citi, a lot of the coal -- also talking freeport mc -- stocks you've got to be careful trading because of valuations. what do you make of this call? >> i think it's a little late to the party. having said all that, one of the things you're seeing, you've seen it in ore names. analysts now have to price in significantly higher underlying prices. you're getting follow-through in coal prices. you can start to price this in. that has a lot to do with what we saw in the -- peabody selling some coals in india. i think you're seeing also m & a activity drive this space. be very careful being short here. in fact, i think valuations will probably go higher. i think citi is a little late to this party.

>> mel, in clf specifically, a name na jarj and i have been talking about, if i ron contracts fall the way they plan, we're looking at par or par 105 price ing. the stock is up 75, 76 currently. as tim was saying, you could get squeezed out as far as a short play as well. >> want to talk a little bit about the -- what was so interesting and citi definitely flagged this, arch is much more of a thermal coal play. jon, your brother pete talks about these coal names. so excited, pounding the table, all giddy about them. here we have a thermal coal upgrade. do you like this call? >> yeah. i do. because quite frankly, what's going on with rri, that's a merger of two big power generation companies. that, of course, is thermal coal. you can see you're consolidating command with this merger. also to steve's point with the

clf call, absolutely. with bhp and so forth, consolidating the iron ore and going to quarterly pricing rather than annualized, that just plays right into the wheel house for clf. that's why that stock's got -- >> with iron ore prices going through the roof, u.s. steel is the only one with its own ire ore. gives it a premium advantage over the entire space. guys, on the tape, it all trades as one blanket steel sector. letter x has a premium advantage over all the other space. >> zach, at what point do we get concerned about iron ore being input into steel and those costs hitting some of the manufacturers out there? >> i'm more concerned about a company like u.s. steel and i've talked about this before. always be careful of the high cost producer in a low cost world. they have the advantage of being more high end as well as high cost. so that helps them out. iron ore really has not been on a run at the stock level. doesn't attract the same kind of speculative interest that copper

and gold do. probably because you can't buy iron ore futures. so that's why the metallurgical coal, you want to be smart at a cocktail party, sail metallurgical coal. >> tim, go ahead. >> jp morgan upgraded volley today. that's what you're getting. you have to start pricing in. 80% higher ore prices. analysts haven't done this. i think they're behind. watch these names for upgrades. >> let's bring up our chart of the day. we are seeing some dollar weakness today. tim, you're watching some levels. 50-day in particular. >> around 80.55 on the dixie is a level where if we breakthrough on the downside, we haven't moved through the 50 on the downside since april of 2009 which was a time when people reached out and grabbed more risk and bought commodities. be careful of this level. in fact, look at your commodity names. those that should have the highest -- to a weaker dollar. most of this is due to euro short covering out of that better than expected bigger deal out of the eu and imf. this is a broader commodity rally. watch the dollar if, in fact,

you get this move. >> meaning that when the dollar goes down, it has the biggest upside in this particular instance, tim? what would that be? copper? >> yeah. i think, you know, if i'm looking at the names that have the greatest beta there, i would say certainly copper. i think that continues to buy. i would start to look at some of the oil names again. if you look at the chinese oil import data that came out, their first quarter data was report imports. look at the integrated oil names starting to out perform. conoco today, chevron, exxon. chose are names i'd be playing. >> got to talk about m & a. three deals officially announced. palm we've been talking about for weeks as well as california pizza kitchen. dr. j., you've been in and out of this name, palm. what's your position now? what are you bets? >> well, i think it's pretty clear that the world believes that it's takeout candidate. reuters pounced the table for it again today. the stock's up over 20%. palm certainly on fire.

that's a very good thing for the spreads that we put on the spre put on last week. i'm out of all my stock in palm and just left with the call spreads because you can define just how much risk you want to take. this will pay off three to one in less than a week. >> how far do you go out in terms of your spreads, dr. j? >> that is a great question, melissa. i was not in options at all because i think those are for chumps right now. >> chumps. >> i'm may and august in palm. >> do you officially pity the fool as well? >> i pity the fool. >> whenever we can bring in mr. t it is a better halftime opinion. if you don't want to take palm, what would you do? >> i don't think there are better options than palm.

it is the complete casino stock. nobody knows what is happening. none of us know what schaaping. we know what the stock action. the najarians are great making money and playing it. >> you can be sure the palm brand has value to people who want tony crease presence. le novo or htc, it has a lot of value to them. >> dr. j is hearing some chatter on manatowoc? >> it is overseas demand, melissa. everybody i talk to on the constructioning buying side isn't buying into a take overhere yet the people overseas are buying and crane demand is high. there is certainly enough action in the options and stock to tell you something is going on perhaps in mtw.

>> i've owned this stock for the better part of a year. i bought it when it was down. it is so far off highs and key to uptick global industrial activities, at these levels it is incredibly attractive. it has a long way to go to be near where it was. >> best buy higher rating at a percent. the stock, as i said, up 1%. it outperformed in the last month. let's bring in the analyst who made the call steven chick. >> hey, melissa. >> you want to move to a more neutral stance incase of an acquisition. what does that mean for the price target of best buy? >> well, yeah, the price target would probably have to go up in the event it took place.

we are looking at year one potential ecretion 306 cents a share, maybe # 50 cents in year two. the big synergy is best buy has the verizon contract and radio shack does not. >> when you crunch the numbers what acquisition price are you talking about for radio shack the best buy were to go in? what will make the numbers work? >> i have done my math at $31 a share, comparable to the valuation when best buy bought a stake in car phone wearhouse outside of the country. if the price is south the ecretion would be more than we assumed. >> put the odds on this happening. what is the percent probability? >> it is tough.

we are going off media chatter here as well where there has been some tangible kind of specifics on what's going on behind the scenes. truth is we don't know, but i would assign a high -- a very high probability they are talking. let's put it that way. the strategic overlap is very high. >> quick note on this best buy. we don't talk about this a lot, but this is a really well run innovative and creative company. they are getting into home solutions for energy and that could bear fruit with energy grids and smart grids. they are an interesting company. >> got to take a break. steven, thanks for joining us on the analyst line. don't go anywhere. we have your trade on alcoa ahead of its release tonight. stay tuned. the first read of corporate america's balance sheet. alcoa kicks off earnings season and we have the analysis from

the commodities king himself. turning pizza into profit. domino's risen 70% year to date. why investors can't get enough of his stock. "fast money" 5:00 eastern on cnbc.

>> welcome back to the "fast money" halftime report. alcoa earnings, what is the play ahead of this sneamp tim, we are are seeing heavy on the stock. >> referencing john's highly technical term chump, you would have been a chump. i think aluminum prices are on the rise. i think you can buy this stock

after the earnings cheaper. >> you got mr. t in there once again. around the horn, grasso, what do you say? >> buying the market, market is higher come friday. >> don't get in the way of a relentlessly dripping up market. >> i like the upside today as well so i'm long. >> i think 1,200 on the s&p will be broken today. >> that does it for us. on "fast money" we have 360 degree setup for j.p. morgan. what are you working on? >> theang, melissa. >> still to come on power legislature, taxing american, one half of the bipartisan team trying to tackle tax reform on its own plus a whole lot more. >> what twitter does is it sells categories. >> they are students at harvard business school and they are talking about twitter.

in recent years harvard business grads have taken top positions all over the internet, facebook, hulu, yelp, zinga. can twitter become the latest digital tool you can't live without? these harvard business school students think they can show twitter the way. >> that's right. our twitter-rama special continues. i'm militia caruso-cabrera. live from the harvard business school. news of internet advertising pioneer, bill gross launching tweet up and twitter's own letter to developers about expanding the twitter sphere. this is the founder of twitter and they are offering him some advice. >> i'm sue herrera, 74 stocks are hitting new 52-week highs,

including mtv. think pink. microsoft unveiling the pink phone. jim has the latest word. >> reporter: this event is happening as we speak right now microsoft finally taking the wraps off of pink. for the better part of a year microsoft has been denying plans of a smart phone of its own. no one believed the company and now we know for good reason. this is the new look at the microsoft kin. this was microsoft's not so super secret project pink. the phone's designed to take advantage of the social networking crazy, cameras and feeds from facebook, myspace and twitter on the screen this a kin loop and available to share

everything with those op your network. microsoft and verizon say the social networking is the key dif ren shea tor. >> you add kin to the family, the windows phone line is strong and important for the company. one we think we are successful with. a place where we are putting a tremendous amount of effort. this is another important step on that road. >> reporter: for microsoft investors hoping for a blackberry or iphone killer. this likely will not do the trick. that may be a disappointment as microsoft loses mobile market share. microsoft and verizon could use a hit right now. they think this is the phone that will get the job done. back to you. >> all right. jim goldman, i'm going to take it here. live at the harvard business school. from microsoft to twitter

because this week we are hearing a business plan from twitter. professor of the harvard business school is here with us. we tasked his students to come up with their own business plan. we said it has to be 140 characters to match the ethos of twitter. the students did it. here is the harvard business school plan for twitter. >> 140 characters to capture the value of real-time data through ads, analytics and premium tools in a scaleable, engaging and unique way? >> what does that mean? >> we asked our students how to best implement it. here are the three options they came up with. >> which is advertising, the big one. >> advertising is the big one. the next one is data analytics

and have businesses be charged for the use of twitter. let's quiz some of my students. >> i love that. >> we start with adam. adam, where do you stand on the issue? >> i think advertising is a proven business model on the we web and twitter could implement advertising in a unique way only they could do. real-time conversations that are happening among people and it could be very relevant and interesting to users. >> wouldn't that irk users. i'm having a conference and stick an ad in there? >> i could potentially irk users. that is where debbie was going to go with it. >> i like the advertising model but i think it is going to disrupt the unique twitter experience. it has to focus on the incredible data. google has proven platforms are paying for it. >> this is the whole idea of analytics. >> it is a incredible platform

users are providing. >> the users experience of procter and gamble is they type in and see what they are saying about whatever the product? >> they have a unique opportunity to engage with consumers so consumers can give immediate feedback in real time, positioning opportunities whether it is procter and gamble or a different social media company. >> let's see what oliver has to say. >> i think debbie is right in terms of the need to connect with businesses. for me, the analytics, not enough people have the deep enough pockets. it is procter and gamble and other companies to use twitter. >> they are paying twitter. >> they should. i'm going to stop using twitter if they chashlg me but best buy has the deep pockets. >> what are the possibilities

here? >> probably not enough to justify the last valuation. that is part of the problem. >> really? >> so -- >> what was their last value sfwhags. >> a billion dollars. in order to justify that they have to look at $300 or $400 million in revenue. probably this is going to go more the way of an acquisition. down the road to a big media company or major player like microsoft. it is very unlikely they will be a stand alone business. the students thought it wouldn't be an ipo or stand alone business. >> basically advertising coupled with analytics? >> advertising, analytics, power tools for businesses. >> got it. we have two experts after the break. a twitter skeptic and a pro-twitterotti guy who will analyze and assess your business plan to tell us what they think of it. you ready? >> super. >> back to you, dennis.

>> that was interesting stuff. i saw their mission statement, scaleability, analytics, they already speak harvard. >> they do. >> two of the three of them feel twitter should charge business. i think twit ir should charge business and let the consumers go free. >> in this environment you think that business will pay? >> i think if you have enough of a mass audience, sure, you will. >> how do you price it? >> well, the way they've priced ads is cost per thousand. >> right. same way? >> it is so much more direct. those people said i want to hear from you. it has a lot more value, doesn't it, militia? >> i would agree. when i open up my tweet deck and have four or five columns

surfing the zit geitgeist. there has to be a way to capture that ether speak is the way i look at it. does that make sense? >> absolutely. what you hear from our students there is not one unique business plan. what our studenti ins having different streams of revenue would be helpful. not just a one revenue business model. >> i think we are looking at on the web, the future is not all free, but it is not going to be all pay-per-view. if you want really special things you'll be able to get extras by paying for it. >> i would pay extra to make sure i don't get the whale tail. >> there is the upside of doing a bad job at infrastructure. you can get your customers to pay you extra to make sure they get through on time. i wonder why the companies

didn't think of that. we are going to take a break and talk about the business plan by the harvard business students will work. what do the skeptics think? michele has that coming up in a few seconds.

welcome back. bob pisani at the floor of the new york stock exchange. transports are doing well.

more consolidation in the airline industry. there is some move up in transport stocks that don't get a lot of attention. rail car companies. take a look at some of these names, freight car america, trinity, greenbri er, american rail car. they make rail cars sold to the railroad companies to haul freight in. they have been up almost every day for four or five days. i'm not quite sure what is going on. i know coal car shipments have increased, there is speculation business is improving. as far as i can tell rail car leasing is not doing so well. important thing, regions, huntington bank, sun trust, zions near 52-week highs, high

to raise money. energy stocks are strong. we saw a deal with halliburton buying a pressure provider. eog and apache all doing well today. back to you guys in the studio. >> thank you very much, bob pisani. looking at that s&p close to 1200. i'm back at the harvard business school. we are making a big event of twitter unveiling a business model and try to maximize revenue or make revenue after all the eyeballs they have amassed. the students at harvard business school came up with their business plan based on advertising and selling analytics. joining us gary vanderchuck, a big pioneer and does consulting

to help companies work social media, peter kafka, senior editor of all things digital. we have him billed as the twitter skeptic. advertising and analytics, is that a good business model? can twitter make enough money based on those two revenue streams. >> yes. >> why? >> i think people are underestimating what real time search means. when you have big events like earthquakes, michael jackson, the grammys, the super bowl, these people are having bigger ratings because of twitter and word of mouth economy and there is an enormous value on advertising in that search field. every business is looking at search.twitter.com and consumers are consuming there. >> is it every ten tweets is it every 20 tweets describe the user experience. >> it can be pretty much out of

your way. everybody watching knows google has proven rights to the ad or top one has been more than consumed. i heard the students. they made great points. one was worried about the user experience. that is the same stuff we heard about google and they went there. real quick note, mobile just bought tweety. i think a lot of people are underestimating what a mobile play this is. >> peter what do you think? >> i think ads could work on twitter. it is going to be complicated. search on twitter is not the same as google. twitter is a media platform. the twitter guys don't want to hear that. it is a broadcast platform for people like you guys or myself or shaquille o'neal or kim kardashian. >> should they pay? >> i think so. >> i disagree. >> peter, you use twitter. you mention it is a good

promotional service. isn't there a huge value for companies? won't they pay any amount to directly connect with consumers? >> at first they will. when they launch a professional fee for these guys, that will work in the near term and dell and everybody will say are people using twitter in the same way as google. do you look for information on dell computers or what you and i have to say. >> how do they price it? how do you think they value the ability to access those eyeballs and will businesses pay up for that over a long period of time? >> that is a work in progress. i don't have an answer. in terms of search, they don't know if it is cost for click. >> the idea of real-time search and searching twitter. we've seen google and bing incorporate real-time twitter results. >> that is a really easy

experiment because it doesn't involve major changes. >> let's remember this is a service, twitter, that cannot even keep reliability of access to be a guarantee for all of its users. >> that is overrated. that is overrated. >> dennis, i think that is the fail well issue are less more time has gone on. it is such a popular site, we care that is an indicator of how important this service is. >> twitter could be a really big deal in the way instant messaging and e-mail. they are not big businesses. >> that is a good point. gary does a great job promoting various businesses on twitter, they make money than twitter can. gary, isn't there something the slightest bit frothy here, it feels like 2000. here is a company, $100 million they have raised. >> $150 million.

>> and they are just now putting out a business plan. >> i will respect the valuation will be high. this feels like a conversation of people who are not using the product all that much. the fail well is nothing, dennis, you are overrating that dramatically. i use twitter for my search all the time. this reminds me of 2006 when people were debating whether twitter is a valuable product. >> i tweet a lot. every time i want to feel bad about myself i enter my name and see what priem saying. >> that, dennis, is where a lot of corporations -- you can find out what people are saying about you. >> it is the most important tool ever. >> the water cooler opinion is of your product. >> the reason why i don't think this is frothy is twitter itself is being very cautious. they are not self-promoting. we are obsessed with twitter. >> if you strip out valuation at $1 billion, which the investors

want a multiple of that, it is not that big of a deal. they raised $150 million, which is not that big in the grand scheme of things. this could be a modestly profitable business but because it is so frothy we are talking about it. >> i think they are being cautious and taking their time building a reliable service. i think they are setting the groundwork for a lot of potential businesses down the road and we shouldn't accuse them of trying to build a bubble here. >> so bopeter, do they get take out or ipo? >> they have set up for an ipo. >> how much time do they have? >> they have time. they raised $150 million. they haven't spent much. it does cost money to keep the business going. >> gary, one last thing on the difference fundamentally between twitter and facebook. twitter i feel like most of the people i follow or follow me are

strangers. people on facebook are more personal. which is the better business base? >> you are talking to a guy who thinks spacebook is this level of the internet itself. the fan page is a single most important place for a brand to be. i'm crazy bullish on facebook. twitter feels like facebook felt six to nine months ago. what is going to happen wednesday and thursday will open up things not being talked about. twitter is positioned adds a platform. if you look at apple with iphone apps, twitter is paying attention to plays inside itself. they will make money as people use it to make money themselves. >> a great way to wrap it. >> the debate over twitter's value continues, as you can continue. we're certain i will talking

about it. twitter is readying to finalize its business plan. julia has more on that aspect of things. >> twitter may not have announced how it is going to make money but major companies are cashing in on the direct relation to customers for years. twitter allows companies to reach out to dissatisfied customers, enables direct marketing and monitoring the site allows companies understand how brands and products are perceived like a free online focus group, engaging with customers, critics and fans. some of the biggest brands are doing right now. best buy answered nearly 26,000 questions since the service launch last july. driving 60,000 twitter users to bestbuy.com. dell has 80 branded outlets. it general rated $6.5 million

sales. jetblue monitoring complaints and flight delays and demand for more flights like the flights to austin. whole foods tweets recipes, products and what is new in stock, thousands of small businesses pursue as well. there are the companies that profit by helping companies use twitter. customer relationship management fund offers tools for customers like ford and coca-cola to manage accounts and twitter is expected to get into this business paid accounts for company and special metrics to analyze the twitter buzz. it seems like companies would be willing to pay twitter for these services. we will see. >> how quickly do they have to do that? the longer companies get used to

it being free, isn't it harder for them to fathom paying up for it? >> it depends how much extra twitter can offer. twitter has a huge amount of information in terms of analytics. if they can crunch these numbers that is valuable. more people get on twitter every day. it only becomes more valuable. talk to best buy and gesture blue, they wouldn't give this up for the world and would be willing to pay for it. >> twitter has disintermediated the opinions. >> if you want to introduce a new product you see what people think on twitter. it is a test for everything. >> michele, weigh in. back to you and final thoughts with the students. >> weave got the students. adam they were discussing the fact that the existence of twitter could put a lot of consul statants out of business.

your thoughts here on twitter let me ask you this, are we making too big a deal or is this a huge deal. >> no. this is the biggest story in media. it is clear for twitter there is no silver bullet. it is going to be silver buck shot. they are going to have to a lot of things right and quickly because this is the hottest space in media. >> the idea of getting rid of the consultant, its ability to have companies hear directly what the public is saying about them? >> i don't think so. what matters on twitter is what is happening in real time. it doesn't give you the most unbiassed view. i think you need smart people to analyze and think through the insights to draw from the data. >> what is so important abl about hearing what people are thinking in real time? >> live events, restaurants, local restaurants and shops, people want to know what is going on. that is where the real value is. outside of that, to be

determined. >> congratulations. good job today. back to you. live from the harvard business school in the tweet-oh-sphere. it is that time of year, the opening home game for the lovable losers the chicago cubs. new owners, same financial challenges. darren rovell is in the friendly confines of wrigley field. hi, darren. >> reporter: yeah. they have the second smallest park in the majors, the second oldest park in the majors. next on "power lunch." one: kills weeds to the root. two: forms a barrier, preventing new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control.

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technology stocks. nasdaq an eight-point gain in large cap technology stocks. modest gains. take a look at shares of palm. they have been very active in the last couple of weeks. that is a trend continuing today. there is a lot of takeover speculation around this stock. there are reports the company has, in fact, put it up for sale. look at the large cap and widely held technology stocks. google was raised at rbc, microsoft is out with new phones, you are seeing google shares higher, intel and apple as well. california pizza condition is exploring strategic alternatives including a possible sale. you can see the activities, those share higher. number of upgrades, ciena, expedia, joy global moving higher. sue, the nasdaq is good for

eight points, .33%. we are trading tight ahead of earnings season. new owner tom rokts spent $845 million to buy the chicago cubs. how is he going to turn a profit with a team that hasn't won the world series in over 100 years? darren rovell has some answers to that. hi, darren. >> reporter: sue, it is certainly a hard game to play. they can't build huge luxury boxes or plaster the ivy with advertising but they are trying. things are popping up like the pnc club of chicago. it is a place where they are playing $24,300 a seat for the season. it is catering to corporate clientele. there are 70 seats. you have to buy two. you get to use the club inside and have a plush seat outside the door. the cubs have sold 76% of the area.

>> we think there is a huge opportunity since coming aboard this has been a sleeping giant and as we've said in the front office it is a 125-year startup. we have a great brand. how can we take that great prand and extend it not only in chicago and the midwest but nationally and globally. >> the cubs are seemingly recession proof. they haven't won the world series in 102 years. they fill most of the 41,600 seats for every game. one of the reasons, tourists who absolutely have to come to wrigley. >> 37% of our house on a game basis is coming outside of not only the city of chicago but outside of illinois. they are coming here for one reason, to come to wrigley field and come to a cubs game. >> on "street signs" we have more on the exclusive interview with tom rickets.

you can fol le me on twitter. >> and we do. >> matt nesto look at the rs beyond large caps. >> plus we go off the charts with a stock up 270% since the bottom. steel yourselves. we will have the name on the other side of the break.

welcome back to "power lunch." fraidy cats. the national bureau of economic research saying it is premature to call it the end of the recession. cerberus taking dyncorp private. the sofa from marilyn monroe's shrinks office goes up for bid at the auction at the hollywood resort in las vegas. if only it could talk. sue. >> all righty then. for more on today's market news,

let's go back to the new york stock exchange. we are going to get some therapy for this market. analyze it for us, art. bumping our head above the 11,000 mark. traders have said the momentum is behind this market. do you feel the same way? >> i think the bulls have the ball. they are in control. they managed to march the market consistently up in the face of all kinds of skepticism, increments but nevertheless moving in the right direction. i think there is doubt and confusion of the greek rescue package, how much of a rescue is it. the imf may be asking for so much austerity it will spill over to rioting in the streets or the greek government will not really accept it. that is why you see some doubt in the trading here. earnings season coming up. everybody is hoping we'll see

bottom lines influenced by revenue growth or sales growth rather than cost cutting. >> we have earnings coming out certainly, art. a lot of alcoa leads us off as it usually does. what about the expectations this time around? what bottom line and top line growth do we have to see to satisfy the street? >> they are going to look to see if your growth is coming out of increased sales or revenues, depending on your business. you can't cut your way to prosperity. you can cut your way by laying people off and cutting your salary expenses and that is what we've seen in the last two quarters. what we want to see is some signs the economy is getting robust that your sales are going up and that is why your earnings are better. >> if that is carefully watched, is there anything that has you worried or cautious or is that the earnings picture? >> no. i think the earnings picture, the biggest problem is

expectations are reasonably high. people are looking for better results. the key danger remains something geopolitic geopolitical, if there were a sudden rush into the dollar that would have a negative effect on the stock market. >> art, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> let's find you smaller names that are big movers. matt nesto is here to do that. >> here is crazy one for you. things are warming up and arctic cat, the snowmobile maker is having a big day. no news or volume out there. 7.7% higher. big volume. the stock is up 160% in 12 mont. it is a rebound play. the stock is lean and mean. trading 120% of ten-day average volume. it has had pressure in the short term. they not only make sleds as sarah palin calls them, but atvs

and prowlers, which is an atv with seating for the more genteel set. based in thief river falls, minnesota. refounded in 1982. want to draw your attention to kaydon corporation. nice one-year move. big volume got my attention. 225% of the two-day average. i like to see high and heavy. new high as well as the heavy volume. the stock is at an 18-month high. they make bearings and seal and slip rings and motion control devices for wind turbines and aerospace and industrial industry. ann arbor, michigan. >> time to go off the charts, u.s. steel reenltly trading at

multiyear highs and surges 250% from the lows a year ago. still time to get in. mark par, you have to buy on the stock. 52-week range, 25 to 71. you said it could go to 85 by when? >> i say it, dennis, but in the context of coming up off a bottom you have to look where this stock came there in '08. this stock is down. it is 35% of where it was when it peaked close to $200 in '08. we have a long way to go as this economy develops. we think u.s. steel is a great idea for a number of reasons. >> what personal is overseas? i imagine 2/3? >> u.s. steel is a domestic company. they do have a couple of mills in central europe, but really probably about 75%, 80% of sales are in the u.s. >> you buy the stock because you believe in the near-term future

of the u.s. economy. the inflation question. if inflation happens does it help them or hurt them? >> one of the things we have been talking to people about for a number of years is the steel industry and basic material sector is increasingly decoupled from the basic economy. u.s. steel is the second largest producer of iron ore in north america, they basically make their own iron ore that goes in the mills. this makes u.s. steel more and more competitive on the global cost curve -- >> i thought you just told me the vast majority of sales are in the snus. >> sales do, but the cost/price relationship is determined outside of the u.s. this is benefiting u.s. steel in their primary markets,

automotive, appliance and energy tubers. >> if steel prices go up, the ingredient prices does that help or hurt them? >> if the ingredient prices go up, that helps them. if prices go up they are a tremendous beneficiary. it is a levered play. a long way to go. we'll see how the economy goes. if it goes domestically it is stronger outside of the country. the clock is ticking. the tax filing deadline is this thursday. nobody likes the tax system. what can you do about change it? >> two senators, a democrat and a republican have a plan. it includes a cut in corporate taxes. senator ron widen spells it out the other side of the break.

at the end of the day in sitka, alaska, the fishermen bring in the catch. and cargill brings in the sea salt to help them preserve it, shipped in an efficient supply chain to save the fishermen money and their catch. this is how cargill works with customers.

it's that time of year. tax day three days away. there is a bipartisan effort in the senate to simplify the way you file the taxes. the wyden-gregg bill calling for a 24% flat tax, 30% below canada. joining us is senator ron wyden. welcome back.

>> thanks for having me. >> your plan or intent is to try to benefit 95% of smaller byes are sales under about $1 million or so with this particular plan. is that a correct read? >> that is correct. what senator gregg and i are trying to do is grow the economy. we triple the standard deduction so millions of middle class families get substantial relief. the reality is the tax system is broken today. we are having in these last few days before april 15, millions of families hunched over trying to figure out these forms. we have a one-page 1040 form. time to simplify and grow the economy. >> senator wyden, i thought there was a certain view in washington that companies don't pay enough taxes. you proposed a bill to cut taxes. that is a pretty big cut. >> we do that and pay for it by getting rid of exemptions and

credits. the reality is a whole lot of special interest groups have been very effective in navigating the tax system. they get these tax breaks in, drain the revenue base. we should broaden the base and ensure fairness. let's talk about the revenue issue. each here $345 billion is owed to the federal government. this is tax money that is owed but not collected. when people are talking about revenue for essential services, senator gregg and i want to collect what is owed. let's simplify the system and make the tax rules enforceable. >> the other issue is the elimination of the amt. we've been talking about that for a number of years. it never seems to be able to be achieved. how would you go about that and what is the mechanism for that? >> senator gregg and i, in fact, in our proposal abolish the amt. beyond this is bureaucratic water torture for middle class

families where they literally have to fill out their taxes twice, t we think it is extraordinarily unfair. the alternative minimum tax was supposed to get at a handful of the so-called fat cats who were getting a free ride. it wasn't intended to affect millions of middle class people. it is clobbering working class familiars. senator gregg and i abolish it and we pay for it by getting rid of special interest tax windfalls that shouldn't be in the tax system. >> liking it so far. 24% flat corporate tax, does it apply to companies of all sizes? >> it does and again we look to the future of the american economy. we want more manufacturing. we want more of the economic engine here in the united states. we take away tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. we use that revenue to enhance our competitiveness here at home. i think we will have very strong

business support and support from labor folks as well. >> if you like that flat tax idea for corporations, sir, what about a flat tax for consumers? >> what we have is a narrow range of brackets. what our philosophy has been, what senator gregg and i have talked about is incentives for everybody in america to get ahead. this isn't class warfare. these are incentives for everybody to grow and prosper. that is what we think should be the foundation of american tax policy. >> what is the total price? how much money do you raise? >> what the congressional research service found is if we take on some of these tax breaks, special interest tax breaks identified really as subsidies across the board, it will be revenue neutral. >> revenue neutral. all right. senator, thank you. >> we did not get to one last thing. that carried interest where we

thought they were going to tax the heck out of investment profits. it looks like it may be fading. what do you say? >> we don't touch carried interest that is part of any tax reform debate. we are trying to grow the economy so we are focused on the small business write offs, tripling the standard deduction for middle class folks and increase in private savings incentive as well. >> from a democrat and a republican. >> bipartisan for once. >> our taxes america coverage continues on "street signs." irs small biz crackdown. how much more can the little guy take? that is beginning at 2:00 eastern today. up next, everybody, everybody gripes about the airlines, but guess what? new quality rankings show things are getting better. >> hmm. how much better and which airlines are at the top of the

list. phil lebeau tells all on the other side of the break.

believe it or not and you won't a new survey shows the quality of airline service is getting better. which airlines get the highest rankings? fasten your seat belts, phil lebeau is ready for a bumpy flight. >> look at the latest quality rating, the top four the same that was there last year with one exception, southwest moving to number five. the top four tells the tale of two different industries, the smaller low-cost carriers and larger legacy airlines. southwest up to five that is partially because it had the lowest customer complaint rate. they have higher quality ratings because of simplified services. how did the larger airlines do? northwest is number four, but the rest, continental, american, united and delta, as they go larger the quality ratings drop

considerably. delta had the largest complaint rate in the industry. they are more likely to be making mistakes people will file complaints over. legacy carriers, passengers may have higher expectations. because of the mergers with delta and northwest and you hear talk about united and u.s. air getting together, that is going to be more possibilities for problems as they put two airlines together. that is what shares of ual and us airways are doing, continuing to move higher as we are hearing talks are progresses for a merger perhaps in the next few weeks, dennis and sue. if they get together this is a case where two airlines are trying to mesh things together and there will be complaints from customers. >> not unexpected. hawaiian airline has to love it. they have been number one. >> maybe it is because you are

going to hawaii. >> you probably get umbrella drink. when we come back, it is tweet time. does twitter mean business or not? >> we asked for your tweets and e-mails, coming on the other side of this break. (announcer) we're in the energy business.

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and by changing lives we're in more than the energy business we're in the human energy business. chevron.