good morning. welcome to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin. gary, thank you for joining us this morning. >> welcome to the asylum. >> uh-oh. >> we're losing microphones and all sorts of things. >> joe will be back tomorrow but, gary, we are glad to have you here. deadly tornadoes leaving a path of destruction. dozens of people were killed. joining us right now from west liberty, kentucky, is the weather channel's mike bettes. mike? >> reporter: good morning to you. the last thing the residents here in west liberty wanted to see was a winter wonder land. that's what they have after a deadly ef-3 tornado went through. you can see behind me piles of debris still litter the city here. there is not one single building in this town untouched by a

tornado that was a mile wide when it came through over the early weekend. so many people here have been devastated and now they have this to contend with. this is a remote part of eastern kentucky. it's difficult to get here. the roads are curvy, windy, and hilly. now the power crews have to contend as they stay in the next city over and have to travel. where do you start when you have snow that covers the ground here. an epic outbreak, one of the biggest march outbreaks in u.s. history. we now know more than three dozen people total were killed across the country and today once again a very slow task to clean up. our first snowplow this morning here in west liberty. they're going to have to get the plows through first before the power crews, the front end loaders and dump trucks in. search and rescue is over but a very epic outbreak for us across dozens of states and kentucky very hard hit and this morning obviously the last thing they wanted to see was this. >> what can they ex inspect from

this point on when it comes to the weather? >> reporter: i think the snow will continue throughout the morning. we already have two inches on the ground. they're likely to see another one to two inches come their way which is not going to be pleasant. temperatures should begin to warm up as we go later today and the next couple of days. this will melt and be muddy then and really sloppy to clean everything up as they go house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood and try to do the best they can to clear the debris, demolish the buildings and haul them into landfills and then begin the process of getting utilities back on 0 and people back into town as quickly as they can. >> mike, thank you very much. take care there and we appreciate your time this morning. >> and those deadly tornadoes are creating a huge insured loss risk, one catastrophe modeling company says this year's storm season is running nearly 30% higher than the average. >> in the meantime internationally china is cutting its 2012 growth target to an eight-year low of 7.5%. chinese premier wen jiabao is

making boosting consumer demand the year's first priority. beijing wants to wean the economy off of its reliance on external demand and foreign capital. in corporate news, bp reaching that settlement with businesses and individuals who were impacted by the gulf of mexico oil spill. that is worth $6.8 billion. shares of bp this morning have been trading high er. some analysts say the expected payout is less than they had forecast. investors note that the deal reduces legal uncertainty. guys, this is something that tells you about that crazy weather and extreme weather, what it means. we're talking years later about the impact of hurricane katrina. >> when you think about bp, you remember right after the bp there was a moment at which people thought the whole company was going bankrupt and then when they tried to go to the capital markets to raise the bond. >> yes. >> it is sort of amazing when

you think back to how at that moment in time it looked like -- and there were so many people who came on the air and said the company is not going to make it. not going to make it. >> bankers and lawyers calling saying there is going to be a deal here, bankruptcy, we're going to buy the company -- people running scenarios. >> yep, yep. >> and we all called it wrong. maybe you called it right. >> it was really the so-called experts in bankruptcy financing that i think called it wrong that said there was going to be this unlimited liability that was going to force the company to raise capital at very unattractive rates and essential isly put them into a position -- >> we were hoping we were wrong. >> could be. >> how big was it? i remember thinking at the time -- >> you saw it on tv every morning. we would show it and you would think the world is about to end. >> how can you possibly pay for all the cleanup. the $7.8 billion is on top of the fund that still had some

money left in it. that was a sizable fund, too. >> history may look back at this, if you're going to have a terrible disaster, here is a great way to handle it. the local business people have all said, at least the ones that have been on tv, that this thing has been handled the right way. so for the most part, didn't we have someone here say that go in terms of the logistics bp would be one of the most successful redistribution of the situation? >> most people are taking their money -- >> the people most hurt by this are the ones who can't prove that their businesses were hurt, weren't up to date with taxes, and had been doing stuff under the board, they are not going to get any help or relief from the settlement. let's talk about aig. selling is part of its stake in aia group. that money will be used to help them pay part of its u.s. government bailout.

aig is looking to place some . $1.7 aia shares to institutional investors. and there is a common theme in this week's economic calendar. we're talking about jobs all weeklong. today we'll start off with the ism nonmanufacturing and factory orders. on wednesday we get the employment report, productivity and cost and consumer credit. on thursday we look at the weekly jobless claims and friday that is the biggie. the monthly payroll report and there's a lot riding on this because the trend has been for improvement in jobs. if you looked at the philly index, it showed a much bigger drop-off. but most people at this point are betting on a strong number once again. >> what was your number? >> i don't have one yet. is the consensus like 260,000? >> i think 250,000, 260,000 in that range. >> yeah, i think that -- >> you want to bet on monday or after some adp snums? >> let's do it towards the end of the day.

>> at the end of the day or week? >> end of the show. >> 2:08 is the latest. >> let's check on the markets this morning. we'll take a look at the boards. looks like the s&p is essentially down six and a fraction. the dow open 47 with the china news becky reported a while ago. if we take a look at the bond market, let's -- actually would you flip over to oil right here -- where are we? there we go. >> down slightly today. >> down slightly. it's ironic when you talk about $105.91 and we're having a move on the down side but oil continues to be impacted by the global political situation and the ten year -- here is one of those things, andrew, 1.974 yield on the it ten year. if you were a stat og professional and said the s&p would be trading at "x" come

march 5, where would the ten year be? do you know what that number would be. >> what's the number? >> closer to 275. it's been a remarkable first two months of the year in terms of the equity moves. the bond market continues to not confirm the move in the equity markets if you want to believe it that way. >> they're watching the fed, right, and expecting low rates through 2014. >> you've had manipulation by the fed in terms of what's happening with the ten year but you've also gotten this unique impact and i think it's a result of 2008 where even if you put more money into equities you keep a certain amount of money in fixed income and you don't care. >> just nervousness. >> continued impact on what had happened in 2008 and you will have a certain chunk of money in fixed income regardless of interest interest rates. lack of sensitivity to the rates. 197. let's take this time, if we could, to go across the ocean

for the global markets report. our good friend ross westgate standing by in london with a sea of red. >> matches his tie, right. >> you can see it, andrew. >> it's good to see you not it. >> right. >> yeah, thanks. that's a good way of putting it. not quite as red as we were. it was 9-1 about an hour into trade this morning. you can see the chart. just after the latest print of pmi out of the eurozone. the final pmi came in weaker than expected. 49.3, the composite number, the flash had been 50.4. the disappointment mainly in italy and spain. that dragged stocks down. bp helping the ftse outperform this morning. you are just mentioning it, the stock in london opened up 3% this morning after that sentiment. just under $8 billion pounds.

the weakness in those eurozone pmi numbers were down to italy and spain. france also disappointed but in spain sharply weaker number than the flash 41.2 in the services pmi number and in italy we've now seen contractions for nine months in a row. so the problem focusing on weaker growth, as kcountries met the deficit target, spain, of course as you remember over the weekend, already came out with a budget that means they'll have a higher target for budget deficits this year. so they're already defying brussels on the fiscal compact. long-term targets. bund futures, hit fresh record lows. it was below 1.8%. over 1.8% below 5% on yields in spain and italy. that's where we stand ahead of the u.s. back to you. >> ross, thank you very much. let's get a head start on the trading week here. for that we turn to contributor dan greenhaus.

as the chief global strategist. good morning, dan. the reason we're looking weaker is china talking about its growth rate dropping to something is like an eight-year low, 7.5%? >> let's just remember this is sort of the npc happens every year. this is certainly a target for gdp growth that's likely to be exceeded. if you look throughout the last ten years or so whatever target gdp growth china has sort of centered upon is generally exceeded and i think most people in the markets tend to view it that way. >> you expect that they actually will come in with something closer to 9% or 10%? >> i think the days of perpetual double digit increases are behind us. like any good growth company that's supposed to happen. china's shifting the way that it -- the word is curious to the u.s. but china shifting the way that it manages its economy. they're targeting what we call,

quote, prudent growth, stable growth, instead of rapid growth. and with that you'll expect a decline in growth rates. that's relatively speaking perfectly normal. >> perfectly normal and sounds reasonable but, dan, if you look around the globe, where will we see the growth if you look at what's happening in europe, if you look at growth levels here in the united states. what does it all add up to if we can't look to asia as being the super growth area? >> there's still going to be growing, given or take let's say 8%. that's still a rapid pace of growth for what is the second largest economy by some measures and that's not to say that there's no other areas one can look for for growth and returns but at the same time we know that global growth is going to be slower over the next one or two years. gary was talking about something earlier, the flight to safety that's manifesting itself in treasuries. to some degree that's part and parcel of the larger growth story.

we're in a global liquidity trap right now, central banks are active in bond markets and generally speaking why that is is because growth rates are slowing. >> why don't we talk about the jobs picture here in the united states, that's the focus this week. what are you expecting? >> the consensus is somewhere around 210, 220. we're more optimistic. when we put out our formal estimate we'll be up around, i think, 2.40 but, again, there is certainly upside risk. to go out on a little bit of a limb you noted clearly there's been an improvement in the weekly jobless claims numbers, in the broad consumer sentiment is turning and when you model this out, it does suggest that something more organic is going on in the labor market which is likely to see these numbers rise and something that nobody is really talking about is the auto sales number which have increasingly gotten better.

when you get a job or feel better or your income goes up, generally speaking the first thing you do is get a car and i think, you know, generally speaking we can feel pretty comfortable that these numbers are trend iing. that's not to say that nothing can't get in the way, of course, but they're getting better. >> dan, that's the market's reaction is the market is probably expecting this improving trend to continue. if we get a surprise number on friday, like you said, you can see anything that doesn't necessarily follow the trend, how would the market react? >> oh, quite negatively. people are putting their faith in an organic economic rebound in the united states. btig equity investors are all sort of generally buying into the idea there's something organic going on here and you see this reflected in the s&p 500, in multiples which are a sign of confidence. investors are buying into this right now and if you see maybe not one report but one or two or three reports disappoint, people

will begin to question if whether or not 20910, 2011 fakeout story will repeat here in 2012. i don't think so but that's not to say nothing can't get in the way. >> okay. dan, thank you very much for getting up with us on monday morning. good talking to you. >> i like calling it a fakeout story. >> a good way to phrase it. >> that's exactly what it is. >> everybody feels real good. it's been an unbelievable two months. if you've been wrong, it's impossible to be wrong. it feels a little strange how easy it has been for professional investors to make money. >> make you a little nervous? >> i think people are nervous but very happy. >> happily nervous. we'll leave it there. coming up next, super tuesday almost here and a new nbc news poll finding that the primaries are taking a toll on the g 0op. the iditarod trail sled dog race is under way in alaska.

i always wanted to see this thing. 66 teams began yesterday. they're going to cover more than 1,000 miles to race typically eight days. i was up in alaska and i didn't do the iditarod but i got to go behind a couple of dogs up on a glacier and it was a lot of fun. look at that. isn't that cool to you. >> i always think "white thing the" "squawk" is coming back. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing for his little girl. hey don't worry. e-trade's got a totally new investing dashboard. everything is on one page, your investments, quotes, research... it's like the buffet last night. whatever helps you understand man. i'm watching you. oh yeah? well i'm watching you, watching him. [ male announcer ] try the new 360 investing dashboard at e-trade. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894,

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welcome back. we take a look at s&p under pressure. most of that coming out of china. wells fargo has reportedly drawn up plans to build its overseas operation. the "ft" says they want to expand to 20 markets worldwide. they acquired rival wachovia in 2008. charles schumer is calling on the f it tc to investigate reports investigations on the apple systems steal private photos and contacts and post them online without consent. apple tweaked its privacy policies after prodding from lawmakers. gary, thank you very much. again, why don't we take a look quickly at what's been happening with the futures board. right now there is some red across the board. a lot of this coming from china. china came out with an early indication it is now expecting a growth rate of about 7% for the

year. that is well below what others had been looking for, the lowest level in about eight years. you can see the dow futures are down by 46 points. and s&p and the nasdaq are under some pressure as well. >> i want to throw another headline at you, gary, "ft" reporting jpmorgan looks to launch hedge fund. it's interesting because you are seeing a lot of the stars of these banks, no one knows what's going to happen, leaving these institutions. you know a lot of teahese guys. >> you don't want to wait until you're told -- the volcker rule is still evolving. everyone can agree about that. >> it's not going to be ready for the deadlines. congress was talking about this last week. >> you see all these big names. >> what does it mean for the banks that are left? >> the banks will tell you that they are trying to find ways, they are trying to find pockets of growth within line with what

they think will be the outcome. i think every bank tells you -- >> is there a way for them to keep people like this? >> no. >> and have them do something else and still make the same realm? >> i'll probably say something quite controversial. at the end of the day, you and i have talked about this offset, it's about being involved. a lot of these individuals have made enough money they don't necessarily need to work to make money. but what it is is about being a entrepreneur, about running your own business and about working in an environment where the compensation sk ystem is about performance. a lot of people like to eat what they cook, so to speak, and that is why you see a lot of these people. >> a nicer euphemism for eat what you kill. >> but basically i would expect to see more of this because there is the ability to raise

permanent capital and the ability to branch out and you're going to see those highly qualified individuals do it. why not? >> thank you for that, gary. let's turn our attention to politics. it is the day before super tuesday. 11 states voting tomorrow. ohio is the big prize and mitt romney is in a statistical tie with rick santorum. john harwood joins us from d.c. this morning. good to see you. i have "the wall street journal" out in front of me. it says romney is now at 38%. santorum at 32%. gingrich at 13%. we have him come up in the show in the 7:00 hour. ron paul at 13% as well. is it over yet? >> reporter: no, it's not over yet but tomorrow on super tuesday mitt romney hopes to cook a lot of stuff and eat it, to use gary's analogy. he is coming up in ohio. ohio is the place where rick

santorum needs to hurt romney because so far when the stakes have been raised and it's come to big tests, rick santorum has won smaller stuff. michigan was a test. he made that a battleground. mitt romney pulled it out very close. but we've seen him follow the same trajectory in ohio coming back from a deficit. it's not an impressive performance but it may be enough to show everybody that he can't be stopped. so you have ten states that are voting tomorrow. that nationally mitt romney has developed, has reflected his comeback in the state of michigan and his trick try in arizona. he has some momentum. he has significant political problems but is doing okay now heading into super tuesday. >> now this poll, and i was reading the piece this morning, suggests that all of this bickering, all of this negative campaigning is, quote/unquote,

corrosive and that it actually means that many republicans may not come out to vote at all, not necessarily tomorrow but in the larger election in november. true? >> reporter: well, at this moment. polls are a snapshot. this republican process with romney fending off these rivals who are more ideologically zealous than him but not electable, people who have broad and deep campaign organizations like he does, what that means is the republican electorate is coming to terms with the fact that they have a nominee who they don't feel a heart-to-heart connection with. so that produces a sort of level of unhappiness with the process, with the debates that have dragged out, the worst characteristics of the candidate. if mitt romney is able to take a big step forward toward the republ republican thom nation, and then he can wrap it up, it will go on for weeks after that but if it's going on in a positive direction where it looks like he has

momentum, he can turn to the general election and try to repair some of the damage that's evident in this poll. >> any sense of where the money stands for the four remaining republ republican candidates? i haven't heard a lot about it in terms of money they have left to spend. >> reporter: well, everybody has cash problems and mitt romney we saw that when he won in michigan was appealing for funds in his victory speech but in the era of the superis s&pac they can puty in and overcome the strictures. the hard thing about raising money under the campaign system, you are limited to a couple thousand per donor. edelson from nevada has given a couple of $5 million chunks to

newt gingrich. as long as mitt romney who has more wealthy friends on his side in this campaign than newt gingrich or rick santorum does, has those people to give, he's going to be okay though he's actually short on cash for his own operations. >> we have newt gingrich coming on to talk about his plans for super tuesday. what does he need to do to pull out the possibility of staying in this? >> reporter: his plans for super tuesday revolve around winning georgia, his native state. the polls suggest he can do that unless we get a shocker because there hadn't been a ton of polling because it hasn't been all that competitive though i was there with rick santorum and his campaign thought they had a shot at pulling off an upset there. newt gingrich has been i don't think winning georgia is enough for him. he has to show more and show that he's really in this to win the nomination. he has seemed to shift his attitude a little bit recent ly

to suggest he's shouldering his way in. if that's the case, it's not bad for mitt romney because he takes the vote away from rick santorum and we can muddle along with romney winning with just enough for some time. >> but, john, is there a chance numerically for this to work for him? >> reporter: newt gingrich? >> yes. >> reporter: it's hard for me to see it. he has to repair himself nationally and have breakthrough victories to generate momentum. he hasn't been able to do that so far. >> john, thanks for joining us this morning. i appreciate it very much. john will be part of cnbc's special super tuesday coverage tomorrow night from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern time. and we have a great lineup of political guests right here on "squawk." today thut newt will be joining us live at 7:15 a.m. eastern time and then majority leader eric cantor who will join us at 7:50. he endorsed mitt romney. mitt romney himself will join us

live. stay tuned for all of it. >> and the in trade numbers now 85% likelihood, probability, depending on how to define it on romney being the nominee. >> for the republican party? >> correct. >> that number has been all over the place. it was up to 90 and then it down -- >> down to the 60s and lower levels. we'll see what happens. gary, do you have a twitter account? a viewer wrote in wanting to know if he could follow you. >> no twitter. no twitter. >> you have a smile on your face. >> if you want to send something, send it to andrew. can we share your twitter account? i can be like a junior member. >> andrewrsorkin or becky. >> send it to either one and we'll all get together. >> there we go. >> andrew will show me how to respond back. >> when we come back, we'll be talking more about the president

and the ceo of the american petroleum institute and his views on what's been happening in the oil market joining us right after this. it's the lobbying group behind the energy industry. vladimir putin has been declared the winner. opposition leaders are boycotting it saying widespread vote rigging took place. a mass protest rally is planned for later today. steve liesman will join us live from moscow. first, though, as we thoed break, take a look at last week's winners and losers.

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the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. we're back to "squawk" on this monday morning. some is headlines. united swallowing up continental operations but not without some problems. the company combined passenger reservations data including frequent flier accounts from the two airlines early saturday morning. passengers faced delays. the company says more flights were on time sunday than saturday. that's the good news. in other news this morning the

see segment of the oil pipeline system the midwest will remain shut down for up to four more days. the deadly vehicle accident in illinois caused an oil leak and a fire. the shutdown will likely squeeze supplies for the refiners in the region. >> big oil, in fact, facing crude realities. threats from iran helping drive up the price of oil and gasoline. in the meantime president obama is arguing against tax breaks for the industry. joining us now is jack gerard, president and ceo of the american petroleum institute. it's the lobbying group behind the energy industry and, jack, thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you, becky. >> we've been watching oil prices climb frighteningly quickly. trading around $106 and that's with the decline in oil prices this morning. what do you think got us to this poi point? >> i think there's a combination of factors. some are well beyond our control, the situation in the middle east, demand out of china.

the chinese growth will be less than expected. the one variable to focus on in this country is supply and that's the one we have some control over and by bringing more oil to the marketplace we have the ability to have downward pressure on prices. >> we have gotten to the point this year where -- or this past year where the united states was able to actually export some energy and the president has used that as a talking point to say under his administration you've seen production increase. what do you say back to that. it's in spite of what the president has done not because of what the president has done where we see the increases in production is on private and state land and on those lease that is were issued well before the president took office. if you look at those areas that are under federal control today and the offshore and onshore our production in the gulf of mexico is down about 30% from where it was projected to be and leases

in the rocky mountains onshore are off or down 70%. clear clearly in those areas if the president has control over were significantly down and but for what they've done issued before the administration took office, that's where production is up. >> if you look at production in the gulf, though, that 30% below what had been expected were those before the disaster in the gulf? >> they were pu even data suggests we're down over where most thought we'd be even in the post-bp world. >> what do you think should be the most important point. >> i think there's a couple we things. the first is the president needs to send a signal loud and clear that the united states is not going to stand by and watch the events happen around the globe. the impact of crude oil without us taking an active role. i believe if he were to announce

a major expansion of production opportunities in this country, we saw this just a few years ago in the last administration when the price began to rise the administration announced they were going to open up some areas that hadn't been opened before. you begin to see the market take that into consideration. the president can do that. the second thing his actions need to match his words. he's been talking more favorably recent isly about the need to produce domestically but the actions on the part of regulators haven't matched what the words are. >> jack, you hear a lot of analy analysts come on and talk about the geopolitical prem number and the price of crude. two questions, isn't there always geopolitical premium at all times and i've heard it as high as ten, between $10 and $20 a barrel, is there -- isn't there always a premium and if, in fact, that's the case, how do analyst s predict or factor in what is the premium right now?

>> that's a very difficult question. clearly there is a marked expectation out there that is influenced by those events around the middle east. you watch the price today and you have to look at that dynamic in iran, the straits of hormuz, and you begin to see the expectations adjust to those events and that saber rattling taking place. that's why we believe if we turn that focus domestically, a recent economic report showed that if we combine with our imports from canada our number one trading partner, that over the course of 12 years if we produced what we could here in the u.s. coupled with the canadian import and add to that our renewables expansion, we could become self-sufficient here in north america.

>> jack, if you had to guess where prices are heading, where do you think we are? >> well, it's difficult to predict and we're cautious to predict any prices. if we could predict a price, we wouldn't be doing the show this morning. we would be doing other things, but with that what we see are the fundamental laws of supply and demand and some of that expectation build in as a result of middle east anxiety. clearly as our economy begins to recover, that demand is going to increase. it's not going to decrease. it's dropped off over the past few years but that's only because of the downward turn in our economy. so we need to get ready today. we need to start planning today, and that's where we take sharp disagreement with the president. he says, well, there's no silver bullet. well, there's not one immediately today, but if we plan today and send signals to the marketplace, the help is on the way that we will bring more production. that will help calm some of the

anxieties on a global basis. >> jack, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you, becky. >> jack gerard is the ceo of the american petroleum institute. >> you have comments, questions about anything you see here on "squawk" shoot us an e-mail. coming up, we've got a live report from steve liesman in moscow. steve? >> reporter: hey, andrew. [ speaking in foreign language ] good afternoon from red square. [ speaking in foreign language [ wrack we're going to tell you about the russian presidential election. [ speaking in foreign language ] and what it means from here. how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past.

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welcome back to "squawk box." those dow futures indicated lower. right now the dow is off by 38 points. s&p is indicated lower as well. in our headlines on this monday morning, another milestone for apple. the company says that more than 25 billion apps, that's right, 25 billion, with with a "b," have been downloaded for use on iphones, ipads, and other devices. it's like four apps for every person on this planet. the tech giant making that announcement via a colorful banner on its website this week. >> did you also see, by the way, some news they said how many jobs they created in america on friday? >> no. >> the same thing. 47,000 employees. they said created 540,000 jobs. i think maybe just in the u.s. alone and in terms of the apps and all these things. they come under a lot of

criticism because of the business that they do in china and elsewhere and trying to show that they are a positive contribution to the u.s. economy but now we are going to go to moscow and if i was joe i would introduce this next man as comrade, steve liesman. steve? >> reporter: hey, andrew, thank you very much. yeah, we are here with the results of the russian presidential election. it was kind of over really early last night as results came in and it was reported that the prime minister who was the president is now elected the president again. president vladimir putin coming in with some 63% of the vote. the significance of that number is he doesn't have to go to a second round. anybody who gets more than 50% automatically wins the election. that was followed by the communist who got 17% and then the billionaire owner of the nets, the current owner. he came in with about 7% of the

vote. vladimir putin taking to the stage last night. it came, though, amid allegations of fraud that were pretty widespread although there were cameras or web cams put this a lot of the polling stations but allegations of carousel voters where voters were put on buses and brought around to different stations. we went to different stations and did not see that. there were allegations of that. putin took to the stage and said, i promised we would win. we won. glory to srussia. i don't know if you can see in the b-roll there was a tear in his eye some thought was a sentimental putin but we later learned was a tear because of the wind. well, the russian stock market was cheering this victory tonight. it was up 1%. it had already pretty much factored in a putin victory. on one day it rose like 5% when a trusted opinion poll came out and said putin would get around 60% of the vote and now some of the market guys i talk to, i went out with some leading guys

in the market last night for dinner. they are looking for reforms in this market. a lot of russian shares are traded overseas in london. they want to bring that back here. they want to take some of the wealth of the country and invest it into equities and they're looking for putin to sort of create the infrastructure for that. i want to tell you a very strange thing i talked about half a dozen of my former liberal friends here in russia and they said they voted for the communist because he was going to get a certain percentage -- they wanted to try to force a second round. so votes that might have gone to the more reform candidate or the candidate the of the intelligence here went to the communist to try to force that second round. that was not a successful strategy. i was out at the after party where mikhail was last night. i shook his hand, said hello to him. i think they were disappointed but happy to come in third. a lot of people said his future is six years down the road after his next term for president putin. andrew? >> steve, it's gary. good morning -- or good

afternoon. what happens to the protege, medvedev, now? does he go to the south of france? he's gone a great stand-in. >> reporter: the thinking is he'll stay on for six months or a year and the hope of the guys that went out to the market, you would have liked this dinner, a lot of hard core stock market guys there, they hope he gets to run things for a while because he's been pretty western minded when it comes to market reforms. so they hope that putin at least keeps him in place for six months or a year to do some of this stuff. one of the things they're working on, for example, is the centralized clearing depository. trades here are t plus zero. why they're trading this is as you know it means you have to give the guy the money for the trade that day. they have massive, tens of billions of money in a sovereign wealth fund last night, 0.7% of

that is invested in russian equities. you can see the potential upside here it if they were to take some of their own money and invest it in the russian stock market, gary. >> do people think with putin in charge, is that ultimately a plus for the economy there? >> reporter: so it's interesting. we talked to a lot of voters yesterday and sort of ordinary russians supported the idea that the stability that putin brings to this country and to see that in context, you have to remember the chaos of the '90s. it was a really difficult time here where the country was absolutely a mess. putin seems to have brought some stability back. but increasingly as people get wealthier, they are demanding more political rights. the reason the stock market goes up, two reasons. they don't have the political instability. the other is because the old soviet assets have been reallocated and what they're afraid of somebody comes in and sort 0 of takes those away, the

big oil companies, the big natural resource companies. that's why the market rallies on a putin victory. is it good for the economy? he has made some moves that make a lot of sense but there is this issue of corruption that they take a lot corruption that they take over the top here. when you look at the schools and the highways, anywhere needed what is in the country. >> steve, if you're a foreign business, doing business in russia, are you more likely to do business now with putin in charge again or not? because people do worry about all of the issues that you just talked about. >> reporter: i think it's status quo. there is western european money coming in here in part because high oil prices and there is money coming into europe and

russia. i don't think you're going to open up a shop you didn't have already opened up here. remember, when those demonstrations happened, you had capital outflow. foreigners took their money out of of the country. they have a lot of concern about the political instability. the corruption is one of the biggest reasons and the judicial system. let's say that you are wrong, your company is wrong, you have a sharehair elder do something wrong for you. you have no abigs to enforce it here. >> at your peril. russia is the worst place to do business. >> the worst in china. steve liesman, thank you for joining us this morning. >> it's worth pointing out -- >> go ahead, steve.

>> reporter: russia is the lowest valued of all the rates that has a multiple to go along with its judicial system. >> steve, thank you so much. drink some vodka for us. look forward to seeing you back in new york. still to come, we will welcome alan and then tomorrow the candidates on super tuesday. we have our own guests planned. alan malally, peter orszag, john poodsta. stick around. we'll be right back.

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coming up, we've got this morning's top stories and then we're going to welcome alan patricof. some people call him the godfather of money. newt gingrich is here and he will join us live from the campaign trail. and we have house majority leader, eric cantor, following his endorsement of mitt romney. squawk is coming back with a very two hours. ♪ there'll be the usual presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom.

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the countdown to the showdown. >> i keep coming back. >> gop presidential hopeful newt gingrich stops by with his super strategy. >> double down. >> then, the house majority leader who is doubling down. >> i cast my vote already in virginia for mitt romney. >> why virginia representative eric cantor is putting all of his money on mitt. >> alan patricof zeroing in on where the next big plays are. he's our guest host for the next two hours. plus, the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

good morning, everybody. welcome back to squawk box. i'm becky quick. joe will be back tomorrow. let's get to your monday morning headlines. the price of oil is edging slightly lower despite the threat of disruption. the pipeline is going to remain shutdown until thursday. the pipeline carries oil from the canada to the united states midwest. the disruption comes after a vehicle accident caused an oil leak and a fire. and by the way, it was not a good weekend for the brand-new united airlines. the combined systems of united and continental airlines actually came together for the first time. those two airlines merged back in 2010. united does say that most of those problems are now resolved. also, a milestone for

apple's download app. four apps for every person on the planet. the customer who downloaded the 25 billionth application will get $10,000. we've been down 49 points for the dow. s&p futures are down more than 6.5 points. the united states midwest suffering through the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes that killed dozens and left a path of destruction in its way. mary thompson is standing by to tell us how much these storms could cost the insurance industry. mary? >> they are saying right now it's too soon to tell what the insured damages are but it's worth noting that not only has tornado activity started sooner than normal this year but

through march it's running about 33% above the activity levels that we've seen in march in the past 6 years. over the weekend, the preliminary count shows 79 tornadoes touched down in 11 states friday and saturday. accounting for 39 fatalities and impacting an estimated 17 million people who lost homes, cars, businesses, and schools. all suggesting insurers could face significant costs in the first half of this year in the trend continues. last year, tornadoes and thunderstorms, including the one that hit joplin, missouri, accounted for $25.8 billion in damages, making tornadoes and the record came on the heels of three prior where the damage from these storms put totals close to $1 billion each year. now, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the storms are so costly because since 1953,

tornadoes and thunderstorms have accounted for 57% of all catastrophe losses per year. while they are noting that what we've seen is a also a trend, a billion dollar plus damages from tornadoes. before 1994 there was only one event where tornadoes caused damage in excess of a billion but since 1994 we have seen that number exceed 11. the early activity has the industry bracing for a costly spring. guys, back to you. >> thanks so much, mary. our guest host is a pioneer in the capital industry. alan patricof, thank you for being here. we should name some stuff more recently. autonomy, huge, huffington post,

huge. they still call you the godfather of apple. >> i was lucky to be number two in apple. >> that was not your biggest financial story? >> no. >> why not? >> well, because, unfortunately, venture capitalists don't hold anything for long enough and that was sold probably in the mid-'80s when none had this had been fully capitalized. >> i know you don't invest in the markets now as much. would you invest in apple at this price? >> you know, apple has become part of everyone's life. i was at a concert right now for coldplay at radio city and someone asked -- >> you were not at the coldplay

concert? >> i was not. >> and mumford and sons and jon stewart who was mcing said, how many people have an iphone and the whole place -- everybody raised their iphone. >> steve said that it's undervalued. >> we still don't know what is going to happen with apple tv. you think that's coming? >> definitely. the question is, how many features is it going to have? we're going to see a lot of changes in television. over the top this year we're working on something very exciting, which is in stealth mode. it's going to be your ability to have tv everywhere without a box. >> this is not area?

>> no, absolutely not. >> they just got sued. do you want to give us a hint of what you're planning to do with the owners of this network? >> we're very sensitive to the feelings of them. >> alan, obviously apple sits on huge amounts of cash. when you look at a company like that and they could essentially be a venture capital, the biggest cap tital venture fund they wanted to. >> google is doing that and so is facebook. >> if you were managing apple, given that venture capital funding, do you think they should be looking for vertical-type growth? tv would be with the same line. should they be looking to do other things? >> down market? >> you called it horizontal integration, venture capital

where you've got this unbelievable customer base. you have this cash. should they be doing something right now to find other ways to sell products through their unbelievable distribution channel? >> they are so open -- one company that owns the general motors building where apple is a major customer. so i see the volumes that are going through that store and there seem to be -- they open another store in the city and it doesn't change the volume and there is such an unlimited ability and the brand is so significant. you talk about the cash position. we did have a law, and i can't tell you when it changed but you may remember it, it's called the unreasonable accumulation surface and you weren't allowed to have more than a certain amount of cash on your balance sheet or it was taxed. it was called unreasonable accumulation surplus. i honestly have thought a lot

about what i would do and it's a major challenge. >> what would you? >> i don't know. i don't know. one of the things that you could do is buy in some stock, of course. the other is to pay in dividends. it used to be a criteria in which you measured stock. >> would you pretend that -- if you were cook, would you say i'm going to play the vc business and -- >> i think it's dangerous. focus is very important. the apple brand is so valuable. i don't know. i think -- i don't really have an answer but i can tell you that apple is not going down in terms of its power as a consumer brand. >> let's talk about another company considered in the stratosphere these days and it's in the vc world. you know where i'm going with facebook. >> which is why i invited mike lazaro to come on as a

surrogate. >> mike is going to come on but your views on where valuation is for things like facebook -- we had mark andreisen on who said we're not in a bubble but a lot of times we are. was that justifiable? >> he's a friend of mine, a very smart goi. he covers the west coast perspective. i'm probably more related to the east coast perspective. facebook almost sounds like the apple story. i think it's become part of society. you can't fight the fact that it's transferred its assets from being a social network. you have facebook comments, time line, every week or month there seems to be a new feature added to it.

e-commerce is a big potential for that. >> if they were having a private round, they weren't going public, and asked if you'd like to get into this round after this point or i don't know what, would you say absolutely? count me? >> i have a very strong point of view about companies that go public and once you go public you are measured on a quarter to quarter basis and it's an unforgiving marketplace. and if you stumble -- and by stumble i mean, if you go from 20% growth rate and go to 18%, that's stumbling. so i think a lot of these companies that are going public now, i hope, realize that they are going to be measured both on growth rates and growth rates relate to p.e. ratio. >> alan -- if you had listened to alan what was happening a year ago when he joined me on the air, it was a brilliant call. but i think you would even

agree, i was looking at some of the stuff that went public on friday. what was amazing, i read some of the research over the week and the firms were able to write some. there was nothing about profitability generating cash flow. it was scary that a lot of the stuff written was about how many users there are -- >> that's the facebook story. they have a fraction -- >> if you basically take the facebook values, the valuation and apply it to apple, that's where you get -- apple is at 1400 based on comparables. but you have to be a little concerned about what we saw in the last month is somewhat creeping back to the fact that some companies are sneaking back into the market without an objective. they are saying, we're growing very fast. >> that's the mantra now.

it's very convenient, too. we're focusing on building our audience and worry about profits later. but i think, first of all, the companies are going public for the most part ands all consumer-related. the consumer area is the hot area and it's not going to change in the near term. although, some enterprise companies are in the q now. >> al lan, we're going to slip a break. still to come, presidential candidate newt gingrich visiting "squawk box" today. and eric cantor is endorsing mitt romney. we'll speak to him about super tuesday and beyond. that's at 7:50 a.m. we're coming right back with newt gingrich. stay tuned. >> announcer: now you can follow

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welcome back, everybody. tomorrow is super tuesday and there are more than 400 delegates up for grabs in what could be a make or break day for the candidates. newt gingrich is one of the four remaining republican candidates. he's also the former speaker of the house. he joins us this morning from washington. mr. speaker, good morning. >> good morning. good to be with you. >> it's good to have you here. thank you for joining us. i know that tomorrow is a big day. you laid it out that you basically need to win georgia to stay in this. how confident are you about winning georgia right now? >> the last two polls show me way ahead. i'll probably carry georgia by four or five times the margin that romney had in michigan and the recent polls show me winning an absolute majority. we're very encouraged. we'll be back on later on today. we'll be in campaign and then

we'll be there the morning and before we go over to huntsville, alabama, to start next week's cycle of the primary. it does seem to keep going. >> beyond georgia, what are your expectations for tomorrow's vote. >> well, the most recent poll in tennessee shows a tremendous surge our way. we're seeing real movement in ohio and in oklahoma. i think part of it is the plan that i outlined for gasoline and for national energy independence so that no american president will ever a saudi king is really hitting a nerve and is a very strong positive reaction to the idea of having american energy and independence, using federal land and offshore to produce enough oil and get the price of gasoline down below 250. >> the latest polls that we've

seen show romney and santorum in dead heat in ohio. what are your expectations? >> i expect to come in third in ohio but i think we may do well enough to pick up delegates. it's a proportional representation state and there are real opportunity to get delegates it's very fluid and i think it's beginning to move in our direction and frankly the impact of our energy policy in particular has been very dramatic in the last week. >> obviously we've watched oil prices climbing here. we know what that means for consumers and what they are paying for gas prices at the pump. where do you think you're getting that momentum beyond tennessee? if you had to lay out, georgia -- >> georgia and tennessee are the two best states that we've had.

idaho, north dakota, we're seeing movement in ohio we've come up nine points in a week. third this ohio, clearly, but we could do surprisingly well. there's a fairly conservative block and governor romney was far too liberal. and the cycle where you're playing for some proportional representation and you might be -- you may be pleasantly surprised in vermont and massachusetts. remember, that even though it's in new england, ron paul tied governor romney for all practical purposes in maine. so there are a lot of dynamics still in this race. >> you obviously are looking at this with a very long race and decisions yet to come. when you were in the polls and santorum was behind you, you subjected that he should get out of the race and give the votes to you. you seem to be grabbing votes

from true conservatives putting up their votes. why do you think you should stay in this when he's been ahead of you in the polls? >> i'm taking his advice. plus, the polls -- i think he was ahead at his peak by 22 points and now he's down to a five-point lead. i suspect in another three or four days we'll be tied. but i look forward very much to alabama, mississippi, and kansas and we have some ability to compete in hawaii. next week will be a -- georgia is the biggest state up tonight and the fact that i'm going to probably either have a majority or come close to a majority in a four-way race is a very good sign in terms of the number of votes that we'll get in georgia. >> mr. speaker, "the wall street journal" has an article that describes the primaries being, quote, corrosive to the republican party. that it's going to be that much

tougher. they put you, on a national basis, at only a 13% vote. romney at 38 and santorum at 32 and you tied with ron paul. what do you make of that? >> not much. look, the national polls have shown me ahead as much as 21 points in december. came back after winning and i think as things sink in you'll see me get ahead. a lot of this is just momentum. you know, you say something long enough and often enough people repeat it. but in fact there's no evidence state by state that governor romney has locked this up and no reason to believe that the country wants somebody who is pro gun control and who raised taxes in massachusetts. >> is there reason to believe, though, that negative campaigning is kcorrosive to th party? >> no. barack obama and hillary clinton had a very tough primary all the

way to the middle of june and i think that when you get down to the general election it will be pretty clear how big the gap is between those two. >> newt, if it's not corrosive, how do you envision the coming together when in fact to the general public that's coming together? >> whoever is the nominee has to hold up a picture of obama. i mean, i think anybody who thinks the republican party is not going to be unified to defeat obama is just kidding himself he's a radical president in history and he's waging war against catholics and wants to raise taxes massively. obamacare centralizes health

care and dodd frank socializes health care. whoever the nominee is is going to be 22 miles wide. >> mr. speaker, i'd like to high pot that size something. if you're correct and you're ahead in the polls, senator santorum stays in and governor romney and we have four split, we don't have a clear, unified winner, that suggests that this goes to a convention and there's something happening there. otherwise referred to as a brokered convention. it changes the whole dynamic. i'm wondering where your scenario probably -- it's a possibility? >> oh, sure, it's a possibility. look, because of the sheer scarce of money, it's almost

impossible to knock romney out because of a modern internet-based campaigning, it's impossible to knock the rest of us out so you have the ncaa final four with no elimination. one of two things is going to happen. somebody will catch fire in may and so clearly become the nominee that delegates will migrate to them and it will be over or while negotiate all through july and early august and somebody will emerge. i don't think the country is going to go to some magic personality that hasn't been through this, hasn't been vetted, hasn't had all of the opposition research. i think that would be an extraordinary high-risk gamble, to bring somebody at the last minute when we don't know anything except for surface information. my guess is you're looking at the four people most likely to be the nominee. >> you mentioned the internet being part of the reason why you have four candidates and the

other is the super pac. do you think it makes for a better race to find out who the republican nominee is going to be or do you think it makes it that much more difficult to find out who comes out at the end? >> i think it will be vastly different to have an election law to say that anybody can give to the candidates. if the candidates were responsible for these, you'd have a more positive, a more honest, and a more responsible campaign. i do not think in that sense that the super pacs are a benefit. on the other hand, because of the internet, we have about 173,000 donors. 95,000 of then less than $2,000. that kind of support would have been very hard to do without the internet. >> can i ask you about your tax plan? h and r has run all of the tax

plans through a hypothesis. under it they say for a wealthy family making $700,000, your tax plan would allow that family to see its taxes reduced by 161,000. when they look at santorum's plan, it's 120,000 and under governor romney it would be a reduction of $71,000. obama's plan would raise taxes on that family by 58,000. i wonder what you think about numbers like that if you think that's where you would like to see your tax plan headed with numbers showing tax deductions like that. >> well, what i want to do is maximize the desire ra built of people creating jobs in the united states, inventing new companies in the united states. i want us to become the most leading manufacturing company in the world, the most robust, job-creating and independent in the world and my tax plan carries you much further. it also has, for all americans,

a 15% flat tax option, which allows you to keep its current code or to fill in one page. here's how much i earned. here's how many dependents i have. here's 15%. we find an overwhelming support for people being allowed to do that. >> but do you worry about paying off the deficit? we've been ratcheting up an incredible deficit. how do you make up for the lot of tax revenue? >> it's interesting, i'm the only candidate that has participated in four consecutive balanced budgets. i did it while negotiating with a liberal democrat in the white house. i'm quite comfortable if we're willing to reform the government we can save an extraordinary amount of money and one estimate by an expert who's been developing north dakota oil is that we would earn in the next generation 16 to 18 trillion. not billion. trillion dollars in royalties if

we're prepared to use federal land and use offshore for american energy and independence. that would almost be enough to pay off the national debt. my principle is simple. i don't want to raise your taxes. the obama plan catches up with his credit card by taking away your money and the gingrich plan to shrink obama's government so you can keep your own money. >> mr. speaker, i want to go back to super pacs for one second and specifically to sheldon who has been a big support. do you have any indication in how long that money is going to flow? how long you will continue to get access to that money? >> first of all, it's not legal for me to know that and i don't know that. i'm very grateful to sheldon. we share a common concern about the uranium enrichment in iran

and i'm very grateful that he's stayed committed to my remaining in the race. romney has 16 billionaires and sheldon has had to fend off 16 fellow people in order to help me stay in the race. based on newspaper reports, i'm very grateful to him. but i think winning georgia, that will be a big help. doing better in oklahoma, tennessee, ohio, we've come a long way in the last two weeks and tomorrow night lee challenge the other three candidates to join me and i think we owe it to the people in mississippi and alabama wh alabama who are willing to stand there without advertising and let us see each other in the same stage. >> speaker gingrich, thank you. >> thank you. before we head to a break, here are some of your morning headlines. richard parsons is stepping down from the bank's board. he won't stand for re-election

in mid-april. he's been on the board for 16 years. he's been chairman for three. the bank expects the former bank of owe hawaii to replace him. the lorax had the biggest debut of any movie so far this year. all right. if you have any comments or questions about anything that you've seen here on "squawk," e-mail us at squawk@cnbc.com. by the way, follow us on twitter. we just heard from presidential candidate newt gingrich. next, we're going to speak with eric cantor who is out with his endorsement of mitt romney. by the way, tomorrow is a super tuesday here on squawk. we have alan malally, john padesta, and donald trump of the

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welcome back on this monday morning. social media is expected to top $10 billion. one company benefitting from all of this is buddy media. it helps consumers in social media. mr. lazerow, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> you know, we had martin soro on the show last week. >> i saw that. >> and we were talking about google and face boorvbook. he was saying that his firm spent $4 million -- or plans to spend $4 billion this year but spends $1.6 billion with google. we were trying to compare apples to apples and he wasn't sure if

facebook would ever be able to collect the same kind of dollars. >> i love martin. he's a very close friend of mine. >> when i start with, i love you but -- >> basically, facebook has only been around for a few years, they only started monetiziing three years ago. people raise their hands and say, i want a mercedes. people telling people what is good and bad really has driven sales for thousands of years. >> where is the money part of it? one of the thing that martin has talked about and what i've heard from so many people is that the money part of it is what could disrupt -- meaning, you like the

fact that alan will say, i like this book or i like these shoes or whatever but i don't want to necessarily hear from nike telling me, i need to go buy these shoes. >> but you may hear from nike. content is content. good content is great no matter who is producing it. so if you put out content, that is the ad from nike. so all of the lebron stuff that they are doing, they are getting people to talk and if you look at what they are saying, ads don't have to be disruptive. they are trying to get them to do something they don't want to do at a place they don't want to do it. and facebook is saying, we could be more subtle. we could let people share information. but whenever you have a billion

people in one platform, you're going to have a very valuable business. >> the trick is getting people to pay for it. >> advertising will be a big part of their business. they went from 13 million to -- >> they just charged zynga, anyone that wants to play the games, a percentage. >> let me show you, this is the cover of ad week. it just came out today. it says zynga's new game and the subheadline says, the company is serious about advertising. inside, i apologize, it talks about how the payments are starting to slow so they are going to advertising. that's the question, are you going to be able to make the money through payments and is a company like this going to make money through advertising. >> facebook started selling ads that's a $3.5 billion business. it's about scaling the user base

and not making money. they did a billion dollars of profit last year without even trying. >> the difference between being a private company and being a public company, it sounds like you would agree, facebook is going to make a major transition at the same time entering the public markets. so will they have to do something on the advertising evolution because they put out goals? >> i don't think facebook at all is going to change -- we launch stuff and then figure it out. they just relaunched their whole advertising platform last week. things are going really well and they blew it up. i think that they are a company that is a long-term play. they see governments being overthrown and they see what is happening to politics. this election is going to be the first social media election. they are not going to say we need $100 million so let's put a

huge ad on the home page because that ruins the business. if they are to mess up with the consumer experience and plaster myspace type ads everywhere, it turns into my dls spaand they a, very smart people. >> i like the idea that they have taken these companies. >> to develop that -- >> yes, absolutely, to develop the model and my guess is facebook has a greater assurance in their mind of what the next three or four quarters are going to look like than a lot of the other company cans going public. zuckerberg was very smart in holding back. the demand is going to be insatiable. >> i've been looking for a desk chair. now everywhere i go online for some reason there is a desk book

ad. are people going to find that acceptable? >> so retargeting, and what you're talking about is retargeting. so you visit a website. they don't know that you're andrew ross sorkin. they would care but they know -- you know, somebody was there. your computer was there. when you visited another website, it's showing you an ad against people who have visited. >> what if he was looking at something more embarrassing. >> but it makes it more relevant is what it does. >> but facebook has triple opt in. facebook you have to sign up, you have to let people see your information. then you have to upload information. >> and you can opt in? >> and you can opt in. and that's why the privacy hawks

in d.c. haven't gotten anywhere. consumers love it. >> mike, we're going to leave it right there. thanks so much for coming in. we'll have to have you back to talk about this. when we come back, a list of stocks to talk about. by the way, the futures this morning have been below fair value. off the worse of the morning. the dow is down 30 points. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: it's super tuesday squawk-style. alan malally. a political roundtable that will blow your mind. peter orszag and ken duberstein and john padesta. talk markets. plus, celebrity and billionaire, donald trump. when you think super tuesday, think "squawk box" right here on cnbc. (

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program. >> thank you. >> you made a lot of news when you came out and said that you were endorsing mitt romney. first of all, why mitt romney and why now? >> first of all, mitt romney is the only individual who has -- >> leader can for, i'm sorry to interrupt you but we're having some trouble with your audio right now. we're taking a lot of hits. if you'll wait with us for one moment, we're going to try and get that fixed to make sure everyone can hear what you're saying. we'll have eric cantor join us right after this very quick break. ...that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight,

a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement.

we are working on the audio with eric cantor. in the meantime, johnson nutrition has been raised to 30 cents a share from 26%. bp has reached a settlement with individuals and businesses affected by the 2010 oil spill. the amount is smaller than many analysts had expected. zynga has been downgraded. they got a boost last week on news that it was launching its own gaming site independent of facebook. finally, oppenheimer and ier one

should benefit from the e-commerce launch. >> let's spend some more time with our good friend, michael patricof. i wanted to get your sense of entrepreneurship in america. i wanted to context you'llize it in the context that a lot of people suggest that we're not actually on the upswing, that we're on the downswing. a lot of ceos say regulation and all those things are making entrepreneurship that much harder in america. you say no. >> i don't think those ceos know what they are talking about. i've been in this business for a long time, longer than i care to mention and i have never seen the ferver like there is across the country. you take any city, indianapolis,

austin, michigan new york city, lee go on the record, and say it's the hottest place in the country. maybe little lee con valley is a bit ahead but they are racing like crazy. they are incube bait fors starting on every block. l.a., where we happen to have a second office, has started five incube bait fors in the last nine months. incubators have ten, 15 companies being sworn. if you walk in there at the 15th street, there are 30 companies. and it's one of the responses to the employment situation and people can't get -- are not able to get jobs at the starting companies and it's coming from lots of colleges and a lot of people are doing it and are second time entrepreneurs and a lot of the angels that have come up are entrepreneurs who have sold out and brought expertise to it. it's an enormously exciting

company. >> we're going to run back to d.c. but we're going to ask alan later if we were to pitch him on an entrepreneur yell idea, what he would want to hear from us. i think it would be fascinating what we would need to show. >> let's see if you can sell a business to the man, to the godfather. >> in the meantime, i think we've fixed our technical problems. eric, can you hear us? >> yes, i can. >> let's get back to that question about why mitt romney and why now? >>. >> the number contradicts entrepreneurs who are back in the game widespread because in the last three years what we've seen and to 23% deck cline, mitt

romney comes forward with a plan that talks about reducing red tape and making it easier for small business men and women to start up their companies, to retain and create new jobs and he lays out a vision for a tax plan. something that i think has he'll lewded washington and something that needs to happen if we want to be competitive globally. so now is the time for mitt romney. people will see this is the route that we have to go in order to grow the economy. we have to take up the jobs act. this is something that the president has said that he's supportive of. we have republicans and democrats alike dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow again. we're going to follow up on that in a another couple of weeks with a tax cut. these are the kinds of things that we can come together on. >> leader can for, i don't want to get into a controversy here, but i invite you to come on a tour, you pick the city, i think

we should start in new york but i'll take to you chicago, los angeles, go down to austin, texas. they will probably be between 50 and 100,000 young people mostly, all involved in the digital media. it used to be just film and music. it's switched to digital. it will be the greatest outpouring of engineering. come to a new york tech and meet up with 1,000 people with standing room only to get in. so -- and in terms of tax cuts, i don't think that those specifically are going to make the difference of whether someone is going to start up a company at all and, finally, the president's strategy, which has been universally adopted, it's spreading around the country and i invite you and others to look at that program because it transends many areas. >> look, i'm glad to hear your optimism and that's what we need

to spread around the country. what this bill does is to make it easier for those entrepreneurs that you're talking about to access capital because we know that real growth comes when the small businesses start up and access capital and eventually go public. as we know, the number of ipos in this country has also gone down. we need to make sure that we are the place for ipos. we are the place for venture capital. we are the place for entrepreneur yellism. that's what mitt romney's plan is about so we can cons again lead in america. when you look at the track record of this administration, it's much more of one to say, hey, washington is going to spend taxpayer dollars to decide who can be successful and who can't. what you're alluding to is the robust free market company. that's where mitt romney plan comes in. we're going to be a free market

economic powerhouse again. >> i think one thing you're right about is -- that i agree with is the new rules being developed to break the old 500 shareholder rule and allow broader financing. i think that's a bipartisan approach, as i understand it, that's in the house and the senate and i certainly strongly support that. >> terrific. well t. is. what we've done is taken ideas coming out of the president's jobs council and steve case, a former aol founder, he has worked with me in terms of putting this package together. we've put several of these bills across the house floor and have received overwhelming bipartisan support. we've got a unique opportunity and something that we can get done in the house and the president has encouraged up and i hope that leader reid will do the same. >> steve case is the head of america and it comes out of that whole effort which i think it has had an enormous impact.

>> mr. can for, i wonder how you have gotten to those within your party, in the house, especially some of the new we are memberses have who come in and looked at other candidates that they'd like to support. >> as to super tuesday, becky, virginia is a super tuesday state and i think with only two individuals on the ballot, mitt romney is going to take all of virginia's delegates. i think he's going to have a great night overall on tuesday, tomorrow night. and i think what i'm seeing on the part of the other republicans, not only in congress but across the country, is beginning to get excited now about mitt romney in terms of his ability to lead us towards an economic rebound. >> okay. leader can for, i want to thank you very much for your time and hanging with us while we got the technical issues fixed. >> no problem, becky. coming up on wednesday, presidential hopeful mitt romney will be joining us on super

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trail of devastation. a live report from the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes ravaging the midwest. keeping tabs on the gas surge. one congressman sounds off on what lawmakers can do to ease the pain at the pump. on your mark, get set, the trade is about to begin. squawk master jim o'neill will prepare us for a busy week as a third hour of "squawk box" starts right now. welcome back to "squawk box." i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and our guest host for the morning has been and continues to be alan

patricof. checking u.s. quick quit tea futures, the dow is opening up about .16%. >> all right. we've been talking about the deadly tornadoes ripping through the midwest leaving a path of destruction. dozens of people were killed and joining us right now from henriville is nbc news's lester holt. lester? >> becky, good morning. this is a few homes standing in this part of henriville. we know the largest are the days of friday's tornadoes came through henriville, an ef-4 on the ground for 50 miles that tore through here and destroyed much of the town. weather officials trying to get a handle on how many tornadoes actually chris crossed the ohio and tennessee valleys on friday into saturday. the death toll, as of now, stands at 39. most in kentucky but 12 here in

indiana, including a little girl who captured little girl she was 15 months old and thrown into a field and found over the weekend clinging to life. she lost her battle for survival. she was taken off life support yesterday. people of this town and communities across the hard hit areas have been trying to pick up what they can. you can see a layer of snow now covers the scene of devastation. it fell overnight. that will make things even more difficult for people here. here in henriville, the school took a direct hit. a school of about 1200 students and that's a big problem. they really don't have an alternate. town officials have been meeting this morning at a community meeting to figure the path forward. the number of tornadoes that we saw on friday into thursday, perhaps that sets a record for the most number of tornadoes on record for the month of march. an early start to this tornado season and that, of course, is

reinforced by the scene around me. the snow is blanketing the scene here. becky? >> lester, thank you very much. lester holt of nbc news. and in other headlines, bp reaching a settlement the deal estimated to be worth $7.8 billion. some analysts say it's less than they had forecast. investors note the deal reduces the legal uncertainty. european shares and among the catalyst the lowest uncertainty surrounding greece's bailout in other news this morning, this a weekend story, drifting into the week now, united working through turbulence that led to the delays at the world's largest airlines. phil lebeau has more on the story. phil? i can't hear phil.

we're having a lot of technical difficulties on sound. i apologize about that. we can always come back in just a moment. >> that was an interesting story because we've been waiting for united and continental to merge for some time, watching what happened there. obviously you'd expect some snafoos. >> there was a tremendous amount of articles written last week in anticipation. so it was almost self-fulfilling in some respect. i think phil is back with us. these things -- >> exactly. >> they are very common when you put these things together. >> right. >> we're going to come back to phil once we get this -- we've been having our own snafus. we have another story just as important. gas prices continue to dominate the headlines. the big question, will tapping the petroleum reserve complicate things down the road?

joining us is peter. thank you for joining us this morning. you believe, from what i understand, that we should be tapping this strategic petroleum reserve. a lot of people would tell thaw that reserve is only supposed to be used when there is a real political -- i don't want to say a political problem but political unrest or something not to be used for politics, if you will. >> well, what we've got is gas pushing 4 bucks a gallon. some of it is due to speculation with uncertainty in iran. and there's two issues. one is long term and obviously tapping the strategic petroleum reserve does not address those long-term issues but speculation is a short term situation. and in the past, when presidents have been deployed the strategic like obama did around libya, the price has gone down 8 to 33% and

that's the issue here. is there something that the government can do using the asset owned by the american people that will provide a shot across the bow to help bring the price down. it's been done before and it's successful. i think we should do it. >> representative, what if you do it and the speculators and short-term traders don't react. then what? >> well, the president would manage this and could back off. bottom line, forbes had an article a couple weeks ago where it cited a goldman study and that translates into 56 cents a gallon. both president bushes use this. we have to provide help to our consumers. this high gas price, as we know, is a threat to a gradual recovery.

it's a tool that you can use. history has showed that it's worked. you can monitor it. the president can adjust it and in the past when auto we've used it and the price has gone down, we've replenished the supply. >> typically when it's been used, it's been used at a time when there's ban serious, serious problem. the problems are not at the same level for which libya was at the time it was used. >> well, you've got a point. there's a debate. some people say we should almost be at war before we actually deploy it. my view is somewhere different. i actually think when there is this speculation -- the futures market has really transformed commodities. it used to be like 80% of the folks who participated in it were end users like farmers and

it's my belief that it's on the wrong side of the trade. it's very similar to protecting the own currency. >> congressman, am i correct when i recall reading something that the reserve right now is at the peak levels and almost at capacity? so really -- >> that's right. >> we're at a point when we can't add to the reserve anymore. >> that's correct. that's exactly right. >> go ahead. >> well, if it doesn't work, what's the backup plan, i guess, to try and attack prices at least for the short term and then for the long term? >> well, there's a second thing we can do in the short term and that's fund the commodity trading commission. that has become the battle ground for dodd-frank. but the commodity future trading commission has to be to make certain that there's not manipulation in the future market. the budget has been cut about a third and i've got legislation

in with a few colleagues that would fund the s.e.c., the security exchange commission that is funded. a very small pennies on a transaction fee that would then make certain that we've had an adequately beat. traders in the futures market and in the securities exchange want to have an adequately funded -- >> congressman, that's suggesting that what is happening sheer that there is somebody with malicious intent of doing something wrong. there are many people who look at the policy that we've undertaken with the federal reserve and make sure that we have so much liquidity and there's going to be money that looks for a place to go. one of those place is the commodity market and we've had sitting members who have told us that they believe that policy is partially responsible for the run-up. >> well, it very well could be. i'm not using speculation as a four-letter word here. i'm just saying that we've got to deal with the reality that

the $4 gasoline is really having a bad impact on consumers. it's having a bad impact on some of the small businesses that eric cantor was talking about wanting to get going. so i have a modest view of this. it's a short-term tool but it's a tool that we can use. history shows that it has been effective in giving a reduction in price at the pump. with so why not use it? that's my point. >> again, geopolitical concern cans will always be there. it's your opinion in terms of $23 right now, it's a premium built in at the price? >> some skepticism by using a strategic petroleum reserve is

by those saying that it's not a long-term policy. that was the case when president obama used -- deployed the strategic petroleum reserve and it did have a short-term effect. it's not a substitute for a long-term policy. we have production of petroleum in this country is up, the highest since 2004. our use is down about 2 million barrels a day less but long term we need more conservation and alternative fuels. >> congressman, thank you for joining us this morning. appreciate it very much. >> thank you very much. a quick programming note, we have boone pickens who is going to be part of super tuesday. we have oil prices at the pump and natural gases.

that's tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. >> i bet boone will say, the problem is if it doesn't have the impact that congress thinks it would have, then you run the risk of a big super short squeeze and that's the problem if the speculators don't buy into the attempt to try to limit the market. let's get back to chicago and phil lebeau. phil was joining us to talk about uniteded's trouble phil, go ahead. >> the problem over the weekend prompted up on saturday when they merged their two network systems together and that's when we heard long lines, people going to the airport, a particular problem with the kiosk at the airport. they had to go through the gate.

overall there were no cancellations but certainly people who missed their connections because they were delays but they have improved each day. they were 25% delayed on saturday, down to 17% on sunday. united beliefs for the most part it has directed the glitches that have popped up in the system. i've had a couple of people who have e-mailed me that said, listen, is there any long-term implication here probably not. the real driver is about jet fuels. it's going to move it up or down. a few years ago when they were merging, they had a number of problems at the very beginning. and you can practice as they did with united and continental, ultimately you are going to run glitches and that's what we saw

this weekend. >> phil, i flew last week and there was continental signage everywhere. >> it will be there for at least a year or two. you fly as much as i do they start to transition and it's a slow process. >> phil, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. jim o'neill from goldman sachs will be joining us right after the break. stay tuned.

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our next guest has been dubbed goldman's rock star. one of our squawk masters. calling in on the news line from london is jim o'neill and, jim, you wrote about how there are lots of headwinds as we enter march. which to you is the biggest concern? >> oil prices.

plain and simple. and i find it pretty tedious. but i think as we saw a reminder of last year and we've seen repeatedly, when oil prices rise persistently, they usually end up causing quite a bit of damage. that's the biggest issue for me other than that, not as much to worry about as most people seem to. >> we just spoke with the congressman who has a plan for tapping into the str. they feel that will drive down oil prices. he alluded to the international headlines and the politics that have been really playing in the

price. is there a short-term fix for this? >> it's interesting that you bring that up. the longer-term of the oil market is finding a an equilibrium, it may not but obviously if it were, that suggests the market have built quite a big something related to something and the something could be the various and in particular the aspects of the middle east development. if i were a policy maker i would be thinking about that. >> you're more concerned about the long-term trend and not necessarily the last month or so? >> no. i'm concerned that at the end of

the day the individuals at the gas pump have to pay what it is and so i think policy makers, if they could find some way of trying to bring the price down against the short-term market pressures, i would explore that myself. the longer term dynamics raise the possibility that it may be easier for policy makers to do that than people often talk about. >> jim, considering the concerns about oil prices, i'm thinking back, i ran into you in mid-january. you had a book launch and you were optimistic compared to the global markets at that time. we have an s&p at 1365. is it -- is it your thinking now that the u.s. equity markets and certainly relative to the other global markets that you follow, is there a higher correlation for the u.s. equity markets and what we may see in terms of the higher oil prices? >> let me say, first of all in

that regard, friday's payroll is a huge event. they are always important. i think after the two past highly surprises, a third one coming up this friday, i would have thought, would have made a lot of people start to rethink some of their cautiousness about the u.s. and you can see it -- we're at very interesting levels at the s&p futures around the 1770 area where we tried to get it over on a weekly basis but we've fell so far. dollar yen with reversal levels and i think payroll is a big, big number and if we get another policy surprise, that raises the possibility of another material rally in the s&p before we get into some of the usual late spring, early summer issues,

albeit possibly risking oil prices. >> so a big print in terms of the job number on friday would be much more important than watching the crude oil market -- >> i would say so. it would believe that the u.s. is getting into some kind of self-sustainable recovery this year compared to last. many guests on would think they are comparing the rally we've had so far this year with the one in 2011 at the start which, by the way, isn't a smart thing to do because this seems to be so much bigger and more broad and all-encompassing but there is something about people making that confirmation. >> i think from the standpoint of job creation, when january came out, next month came out, you will see the usual

skepticism, is there some seasonal regularity. you see three months in a row, there's going to be enormous support for that. that is sustainable and real. >> what happens on the flipside? >> i think if you get a good payroll number, would you imagine quite a number of customers making significant changes to their opinion. >> what happens on the flip side of that, jim, if the number is a negative surprise? >> people are going back into my box for a couple of months. >> and, jim, when you look at that jobs picture again, though, what are you taking from those jobs numbers that we've gotten in the last couple of months and what kind of growth are you expecting for the united states through the course of the year? >> we've had a number of 2.5% which is still above consensus. if anything, i'll still be

inclined the other way. but there's no point in us doing that really. but behind it what's really interesting to me is two fundamental issues and the third one is brewing. people are stalling to focus on the whole natural gas thing is a big structural development in the u.s.'s favor. secondly, it happens at a time where because of the weakness of the dollar and some things going on with china terms of wages. u.s. manufacturing is beginning to get its competitiveness back and those two forces together are big things and i suspect it's the heart of why business is going a bit more about in the u.s. and on top of that, there's a possibility that the housing market is starting to stabilize. if that comes through and you put the three together, it's a big positive headwind. >> jim, thank you very much. it's been great talking to you. >> all right, guys, good luck. >> that's a nice way to start the monday. coming up, today's more top

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all right. we're back. we're approaching 8:30. joining us from the cme in chicago, scott, let's start with you. there's a great piece in "the wall street journal" today about the fact that the insider buying is at historical lows and that companies are essentially buying back boat loads of their stocks given where interest rates are but you see virtually no company managements buying their own shares. does this matter? do you care about that kind of stuff? >> well, certainly everybody cares about that. we'd all like to see executives to put their money where their mouths are. but you know what, i think that's eafrdone to a certain

degree. they are down to tons of stock. this end up with tons of stock in compensation because we want to align their interests with the company's interest and then we end up with portfolio that looks terrible because it's overweight. i don't think that is something that is expected of executives. >> rick, i haven't seen you for quite some time. he talked about employment that is good, economy is growing, everything in the u.s. looks real good. we didn't get a chance to ask him why are we still printing a sub2% ten-year if in fact everything is as great as he and others think so? what is your take on that, red? >> well, once again, we know that goods is a relative term.

i do understand that employment data wednesday and friday is some of the most important date the ta that we get. i think you need an mba to really decipher the data to see how important it is before you get spin city all over it. but it's one of the slowest recoveries because we're throwing capital into the government side of the equation. it will show up and it is showing up every day and i really agree with the last comment. the fun money that many of the executives get paid, there's a distortion there and, once again, i'm surrounded by distortions, gary. >> scott, i made a comment very early this morning.

i said that it's been a pretty easy year in the sense that if you've been long anything you've been able to make money since january. i think you would agree, it's been a year to be long just about anything and make money what do you make of that? >> that's interesting. you can buy almost anything and do well but correlation is not what it was. a couple of years ago. china wants to turn their economy into a consume every economy. for u.s. stocks that means that they are going to do great, absolutely gang busters, and some are left behind to a certain degree. you're going to have to pick the u.s. stocks that do well because of chinese consumerism and worry about the names that don't play

in that space. >> guys, thanks very much. a good week to think about a lot of interesting data ahead. thanks, guys. stay tuned. we'll see you later. >> and you can cash, scott -- i'm sorry, andrew, on friday's options. excellent program. >> and still to come on squawk, changing the split cam game while social media could soon be the key to ining with an election. squawk is coming back after a break with that. [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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welcome back to squawk. senator schumer is calling on the ftc about private photos and contacts. apple tweaked its privacy policies last month after prodding from other lawmakers. aig is selling their stake in aig group. the money will be used to help the insurer repay part of the u.s. government's bailout.

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welcome back to "squawk box." the dow features are down by 13

points. we have seen steady improvement. in our headlines, the san francisco 49ers want to move into a new stadium in suburban santa clara. today a judge will hear whether a complex signing deal should be subject to voter approval. opponents say that a construction loan is too risky for the silicon valley. supporters say they have worked hard to ensure that the residents will not bear the burden like other cities like oakland. >> and if at every commercial break is social media about to change all of that? joining us is blogger and media expert. jeff jarvis is here. thank you for being on the set with us. >> honored to be here. >> politics. we do see the ads on tv all the

time and i have to admit, i don't see them just yet on facebook, on twitter, all these other things. when is this going to happen? >> joe trippi wrote a book saying the and big money would no longer be important. we know from super pacs that money is extremely important the dream of thinking that the citizens are going to be in charge again is not happening so far in politics. >> but you think it will eventually? i guess the question is, do the dollars on tv now, do they ever translate online and when you think about the super bowl, for example, people still spending an exorbinant about of money? >> you'll still have the effort

to reach mass. you'll still have that effort. but if you think about different reasons to advertise, part of -- in politics it happens that you can replace advertising dollars with relationships. >> and it's not just the advertising. it's the social connections that people are making. people are backing more and more addicted to what their friends are doing and that has an enormous impact that tran sends, perhaps, advertising. >> is there a political affiliation which tends to use the internet and the social media more? the only reason i think about is obama and people like howard dean able to collect up vasts amount of money online. >> ron paul has done very good with this. >> you're talking about raising money? >> using social media to raise money. you're saying ron paul has?

>> yeah. >> i've devoted, shall we say, a following and that's perfect for this world. what happens in the long run, as you say, you don't have to spend money on advertising because you have a relationship with someone. you know something about them. if i know you're a volvo driver, i can guess that you're not a gingrich voter and i can target on that basis. so the reason to use media changes. the reason to use mass is probably -- >> what about the age gap, the generational issue? that's why people are doing so-called are robocalls. what is the tipping point in which this becomes meaningful? >> politics remains relevant and meaningful. we've all seen by wall street a tremendous change in the ability to gather a whole movement around a simple hash tag, around an ill-formed idea to say that

we are unhappy. that could happen in an instant. >> things are so viral. you can go from zero to 30 million downloads, views in a nanosecond and we've seen it. >> alan, you've been involved in over the years raising money for political campaigns and parties. if you went out and raised a significant amount of money and then had to make a determine about the best way to spend that money within social media, where should we allocate those resources, what is your answer? >> first of all, the people who raise money are not the people who allocate it. >> but i'm asking you the question because in both being able to raise money and then being able to find those that will penetrate the best use of those dollars. >> i'm not quality fied to tell you. but the facebooks and twitters

and all the other places where there are opportunities, it's private and it's called resonate media and it's focused on people's attitudes. not their behavior or what they bought but rather they are trying to understand what they are thinking about it and that's become very important in terms of political decisions. >> how did they do that? >> they built an enormous database from two large stores from nielsen and have developed panels that are well over 100,000 people where they have determined what kind of attitudes people have and how to use that for advertising purposes. >> campaign finance reform. people always say that eventually the internet could change the game. you wouldn't need as much money to actually run your campaign. do you really believe that long term? >> ten years from now where you

need to raise more money than you used to, just migrates to a different place? >> i think if you're going to see the first internet candidate elected, it's going to happen in congress, places like that where you can do it in a smaller scale and really build a brush fire, which you couldn't build. >> jeff jarvis, the book is called "public parts." appreciate it. when we come back, we're going to talk to the weekend box office. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: ready or not, the stock of the day is coming up. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of: fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank. like no-fee atms -- all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now, depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments.

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welcome back to "squawk" making headlines. "the lorax" making $77.7 million. warner brothers "project x" took second place. melissa and jim are joining us. i thought he might make it back

from chicago but -- >> have you been there before? >> i have and i have been abused by the people but that's part of the charm. what are you guys looking at this morning? >> obviously we're going to tak at china. forecast to the lowest level, 7.5%. that could have tremendous kwauns kwenss. this on a day when it it can be a real change. we have 14% growth there in terms of being able to build out the infrastructure that is not a part of the 7.5 or 8. that is more of a function of the world not taking as much china. the united states is important. i think we are remembering the 2007-2008 play book. throw it out. it ain't working. it is just not the place to be. >> talking about old playbacks i heard some of the stuff on friday with yelp after the bell.

you are not concerned that it is getting frothy in terms of companies that aren't that focused on generating free cash flow. >> not concerned because they are all sells. it is easy for a person to take a look at that company versus something like proctor & gamble which is a company that i don't like. if people are stupid enough to play these after market god love them. >> i'm guessing you would never recommend anybody to buy in the after market. >> i can say that i went through a 20 plus career managing money and sometimes got to participate in the very hot ipos in '99 and 2000 and i never had a problem

generating outside performance without participating. there are many people that will play in that space. i agree with jim that it's a losers game because the deck is set against you. >> a lot of people were trying to getd yelp. no one got to a retail investor. they wanted to come in in the after market. i said do you know what yelp is. do you think it is a dog food program? the generation that doesn't use yelp is trying to buy stock in yelp. all we can do it point it out. i'm telling people that's how you're doomed. >> wait until people start shorting this thing. >> we have allen patrick. >> the danger is in that first

day, wild enthusiasm. people jump in. if you take a look at the record a month or two later those people who bought it for the most part, i say to you you have to see, what i would do is watch how their growth rates start developing and how they develop because growth rates translate into multiples and multiples are what stocks are sustained by. apple is 15 times earnings. yelp is 18 times revenues. i have nothing against yelp. >> do not under estimate. when allen talked about the difference of these companies when they are private and the minute they go public, don't under estimate that it has a huge change and impact of how it is. >> we are going to have to leave it right there. thanks, guys. >> we will see you guys in just a few minutes. when we return on "squawk" we'll get some final thoughts

from our guest host today. we are going to talk politics. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. but i have this new smartphone. and now i can see everything more clearly. ♪ i can organize the analysis. sort through all the data. maybe even rattle some cages.

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it's time for the stock of the day. >> and there it is. bp. the company reaching a settlement with businesses and individuals impacted with the oil spill, the deal worth approximately $7.8 billion. let's turn it to our guest host, a steam venture capitalist. i mentioned a lot of people come to you and ask for money with concepts and ideas. if i wanted to come to you today with a business proposition, what are the parameters you want to hear from me in order to allocate cap tal. >> they come to me looking for money. >> i'm an entrepreneur. >> when you asked me that question i was thinking of the three of you. we have found that the best

prik predictor of success is when you have a team of people who have worked together and have a concept that will follow one person in terms of leadership. >> you want a team that has already done something? does it matter if they have failed? >> failure is a badge of success. you want people who know what the problems are. >> do you have an age limit? i remember peter used to say you had to be under 30 years old. >> no. >> do you want me to provide you with a five year business plan? >> sure we want that but we treat that with a lot of skeptism. one year out is probably good enough. you really want someone who has product differentiation, some sustainable, what i call unfair

competitive advantage, something you can do. and it is not necessarily having prices lower than the competitor but maybe the ability to sell something at a higher price because you have something to offer that is worth something else. so i think that i happen to like subscription businesses and database businesses. i actually do content deals, too. i think in today's world you want to be able to tap into the social media world in terms of having the ability to have a viral effect. knowing what your address market not the broad market but your real customers and the economics around that business and having a team with some experience together as opposed to three people coming together who have never worked together and doing it in different cities. >> the teamwork aspect is an