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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. make beimaking headlines. hartford says it will get rid of most of its life insurance operations. paulson is hartford's biggest shareholder. he argued hartford had to do something drastic to improve its industry low valuations. he pushed publicly for a split of the live and property insurance businesses. the owner of formula one motor racing are considering a partial ipo in asia. they hope to tap demand in the region for strong sporting brands, english premier league, soccer manchester united considered a $1 billion singapore ipo late last year.

>> have you ever driven a formula one car? >> no. >> ever been to the grand prix? >> it's wild. >> we have more serious news to get to. >> intervention and there's no time to waste. according to senator john mccain and his colleagues, senator joe lieberman and lindsey graham. they have been dubbed the three amissionos. joining me is one of those amissionos, senator john mccain the republican senator from arizona. good morning to you, senator, thank you for being with us. >> thanks. >> so curious, if you go in and you do intervene in syria, and the rebels were to take over, and it doesn't work exactly as planned what happens then? that's the flip side to this, right? >> well, one thing that would happen is that syria would be

split from iran and the head of central command said that if assad failed it would be the biggest blow to iran in 25 years. cut off lebanon from iranian influence, hezbollah would probably wither. it would be a seismic event. but most importantly, look most importantly people are being massacred. children are being maimed, raped, tortured, 10,000 people estimates are 8,000 to 10,000 people have already been massacred and the united states does that have ability with other nations to bring this to a halt as we were able to do in libya. all situations are different but the principle is the same. same reason we went into bosnia, same reason we went to kosovo, it's what america is about when we can do something about it. >> do you consider this a national security issue as well?

>> the president has stated that prevention of massacre and ethnic cleansing is a national security issue and it should be. so every other president. so, yeah. by definition it's a national security issue. >> gary? >> you know, senator can we just talks politics. >> anything. >> we had the -- i say this with all the compliments as a senior statesman in the party you saw what happened last night in illinois. is this still a healthy process or do you think it's time for santorum, newt gingrich and ron paul to really get behind mitt romney so that the focus can be singular at this point? >> i really hope so. i noted in i think the "wall street journal" this morning they mentioned that already the obama campaign is sitting on $85 million in cash while obviously mitt romney is having to spend a great deal of money in these primaries. so every day, but more importantly than that, every day

that goes by that there isn't a contest between mitt romney and president obama is a day lost for mitt romney. and i would also add that because of the nature of the attacks and the super p.a.c.s, by the way the most disgraceful decision of the united states supreme court in my memory maybe not in the history but certainly in my memory, out of ignorance and stupidity they issued the citizens united decision. but anyway, so with the negative ads funded by the super p.a.c.s, we've driven the unfavorables of mitt romney up higher which is the advantage to president obama. as soon as we get to the target and debate and contest between mitt romney and president obama, the better off we will be and the better our chances will be of winning in november. >> senator when do you know? right. you've made it through the nominating process and then you

didn't. so when is a candidate do you know that it's just time to give it up. when does your presence become more destructive to the overall process? >> well let me remind you that in 2000 i had to make that decision. you know, it's like, what's the different. child pornography you know it when you see it. you know when you see that it's time to fold your tent and fight another day. so, it's really a numbers game in some respect and there's no way that either rick santorum or newt gingrich can get there. but by the way ron paul will stay in. he stayed in 2008. he has his own agenda. that's not so important. >> senator, you recently said mitt romney quote has not done as well as we had hoped, unquote. what do you mean by that? >> what i meant by that early on, you know, we carried new

hampshire, big win in florida and i was talking about the electoral outfit. if you saw his speech last night i think it's very obvious that he's really improved as a candidate. he gave a very compelling argument for being president of the united states last night, i think in illinois. through all this back and forth and all the negatives i've told you about it's told him into a far superior candidate. >> wilbur ross has a question for you, senator. >> sure. >> yes i do. going back on this syria issue, let's assume we do go in, let's assume the rebels win. how sure are you we won't end up with an egypt type of situation where the wrong guys end up in control? >> first of all, i haven't given up on egypt. there's an election coming up and we'll have to see what happens there. and by the way in egypt, hosni mubarak was going to go. it was a matter of time. too bad we couldn't get out and help these people at the time they wanted it.

in libya, tunisia, i heard the same argument from the left. by the way same argument back in bosnia and kosovo. we don't cho who they are. they might being al qaeda. what these people are doing is a direct repudiation of al qaeda. al qaeda believes in acts of terror to change things. these people at least in the beginning peacefully demonstrated. i am confident, i am confident that the people of syria that are fighting and dying and being massacred as we speak are not al qaeda. they are people who want the same things that want we fought for a long, long time ago and that we have steadfastly attempted to support over the intervening couple hundred years. >> okay. >> and shame on us, shame on us when these people are being massacred and maimed like they are. i'm not saying america do it alone. i'm not saying boots on the ground. i'm saying we can work with other nations. and by the way i believe some of these other nations will take action and we may go along with

it over time because americans don't like to see this kind of thing happen without us trying to assist. >> senator john mccain we'll leave it there. thank you very, very much for being on squawk this morning. appreciate it. hope to see you again very soon. >> guys, interesting time as we were having this chat about mitt romney and raising money. i got one of these blast emails. you get them all the time. wilbur you are a supporter of mitt romney. >> yes, i am. >> mitt has won. new york is coming back on april 25th. they are looking for donors. the money raising is so important and so paramount. so somebody who has been involved in the capital raising for this campaign, would you expect as senator mccain said that now there will be tremendous pressure on those that have given money to the other candidates to stop? >> remember, there are basically only two donors that the other

candidates have. so it's really a question of will those two change their minds? unlike the romney campaign, santorum campaign and the gingrich campaign have had a very, very narrow base of support, both in terms of the basic contributions and in terms of the super p.a.c. so they never were broadly based. >> due expect them to say after last night no more money? >> couldn't understand why shelly was giving money even then because -- >> hardwood said they cut them off already. he should sheldon adelson cut him off already. >> adelson also said he will support. he's not anti-romney for

whatever reason more pro gingrich. >> coming up your guide to trading day ahead. we'll head to chicago for the latest from the future pits. "squawk" will be right back. [ female announcer ] who'd have thought that the person you'd grow up to be -- how creative or confident or kind -- was shaped before you lost your first tooth? ♪ the first five years are forever. that's why pnc created grow up great, a $350 million, multi-year initiative that began in 2004 to help prepare kids from birth to age 5 for school and life.

welcome back to "squawk box."

for the third straight day investors will get a key reading of the housing market. the national association of realtors is out with their existing home sales report. the economy is expected to gain 1.3% on top of january's rise. oracle is posting better revenues. rise in software sales offset a sharp drop. shares rising in the news and after hours trading but pulled back from session highs after the company offered cautious sales guidance. let's get a check on the markets. rick santelli joining us from the cme in chicago and steve liesman joining us here on set. steve, what's on your mind this morning? >> just the existing home sales we had some numbers yesterday that rick reported. we were down 1% from a revised number. some comments this morning making the comment that will higher retail sales follow this little boom that we've had in housing and housing starts. we'll get that number at 10:00. point being it takes about three

quarters for the housing change to show up in retail numbers as people go out and buy and remodel. if you look at what happened to home depot and lowe's, they've done great and the question is, have we been there done that. i want to throw that question to you. >> i was going to throw it back to wilbur. >> we'll throw it to chicago. >> wait for chicago. we got a good one for rick and then wilbur. is it being reflected in the ikts in these home improvement companies? >> don't know about the equities but it's a fact when a house gets foreclosed it's usually been trashed, it needs remonth aviation and repair and so i think foreclosed houses will likely trigger retail sales than one sold in the normal course. >> keep in mind too we're talking about a huge boom in multifamily. even if you're renting you have to furnish it. it may not be quite the level of buy agnew home.

>> kaminsky used to hang out in foreclosure homes when and he was kid. he used to trash him. that's what he did as a kid. >> rick save me from steve. rick, have you heard congressman darrell issa we were talking about the t.a.r.p. did you get to hear any of that? >> especially heard the part where mr. issa you don't really believe -- how can you not think t.a.r.p. saved the orlando? yes i heard part of it. >> rick, what i said to our friend mr. sorkin afterwards was that the beautiful thing about t.a.r.p. and you can have whatever opinions you want to have on it, but it is a return that ten years from now you'll be able to make a determination whether that was a good investment or not. i'm not talking about whether it was a good social investment, whether it was a good arithmetic investment. ten years from now will he look back on it as an arithmetic investment and say it was a good

deal? >> look at the article today in the "journal" that shows us how far we are off on gas demand. my answer to your question is if there's siphoning going on within the government arithmetically i need to draw conclusions over the next ten years to come up with the right answer i won't come up with the right answer. i don't need ten years. t.a.r.p., in my opinion was political piggy bank. it was used just as mr. issa said and in my opinion simple minded people looking at complicated situations and say things we were or weren't saved. come on grow up. >> rick, i just want to break in for a second. hewlett-packard is confirming this reorganization. they are putting printers and computer business together. it's something we were expecting. there's a little bit more news that's coming out on it. we'll bring that to you in just a moment as it comes out in

return back to our regularly scheduled broadcast but i want to put that out there. >> rick aren't you arguing more again about tissue of principle rather than results? you have an issue -- >> what results do we get? pinpoint me a result that was a wonderful event that happened with t.a.r.p.? >> we're also having this conversation here, aren't we, rick? >> no. i'm asking. >> i'm just saying the world didn't come to an end. >> how do you know? do you really think without t.a.r.p., without our treasury secretary running in front of basically congress and saying if you don't cut me a check the world will end do you think if that check wasn't cut the next day the sun wouldn't have come out? >> at least an ounce, how about half an ounce of humility in front of some of the best experts -- >> give me a break. i make my own conclusions.

>> i don't get this. some of the best experts in the world were certain we were on the verge of collapse. >> who were the experts? the same people who got you in? >> ben bernanke, tim geithner -- you're so much smarter. >> hold on. >> i want to make one more point which is this. at the end of the day even if i'm wrong rick and you're right the money was returned. and it ended up being something that did not cost taxpayers on the banking side very much. >> oh, yeah, sure. >> what do you mean, sure? >> what about all the securities are that were purchased? you have no idea what it cost. what about any of it. >> wilbur last word. >> you make that stuff up thinking the money was replenished. >> i'm not in favor of government intervention but i think if there were even a 10%

chance that the world was going to come to an end it was worthwhile doing it. >> i did not talk to one person inside the markets who didn't believe that this market was -- >> we're out of time. >> everybody on the inside thought it was going down. >> we'll argue the principle behind it from here to eternity. in the meantime between now and eternity coming up from the fed chairman the latest news from hp we'll head down to the new york stock exchange next. "squawk box" is coming right back. : 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. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity.

let's get down to the new york stock exchange. melissa and jim join us now. what's the chatter down there, guys? people talking about that goldman call? >> the goldman call was kind of interesting. it seemed, i don't know, lukewarm in a way? >> i think this is one of those pieces that you do, a big think piece, kind of like a college thesis about why bonds aren't that good and why stocks statistically might be good. it's a heartless piece that still may have resonance. >> i need you to help me with something here. we're getting crushed by some of these strategists that have been bullish every day for the last three years. i don't know if you heard it at the 6:00 a.m. hour. bullish strategists who are always bullish who were saying we told you the market was going to go up in october, november.

what do you say to those that have basically sat through the last three years saying buy equities and bullish all the time? >> look, i've been very jefferson jeffersonian. >> come on, jim, you can tell us. >> valueless. you pay people a lot of money and they're valueless. it becomes to people at home kind of what's the point of listening. >> there are no repercussions because we continuously report what these analysts say bullish call upon bullish call upon bullish call. they still get the attention on wall street out there, but a broken clock is right a couple times a day. >> but the repercussions are that people like you and me and jim and gary and the rest of the folks sitting here try to hold people accountable for the calls that they make when they make them. >> we have had plenty of strategists on and said you are wrong for the past 75 points on the s&p 500. so we try but still, they're out there. >> jim o'neil, i think he's

terrific. did the term bric, coined it. when our colleague was interviewing jim, he had some critical things to say about jim right before the decline and fall of europe, frankly it was gut-remp gut-wrenching. but to me it's like can you get away with what he did? it's that tough to break with the orthodox. >> thanks. we'll be back down to you guys in just a few minutes. coming up we'll get some final thoughts from our guest host. "squawk box" coming back after the break. carfirmation.

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i don't know, in the 6:00 hour we were talking about how hp has an annual shareholder meeting today. one of the big issues at play there is how much stock board members and executives should hold in the company. you're a board member of esco, chairman of the board. you own a huge piece of it yourself. what do you think is the right mix in terms of incentivizing people properly and in terms of not owning too much? >> well, i think if each board member had a substantial portion of his or her net worth in that stock, you'd have a lot more attention paid. there's almost a joke, there's only one way to take a dozen chief executives and make them instant morons and that's to make them outside directors of another man's company. >> what is significant to you? if you have a certain amount of investable dollars, should 30% of what you put in equity be in that company's stock?

what's the right number? >> well, i think what it should start with is i think the board comp should be largely in the form of equity rather than in the form of cash. maybe just enough cash to pay the tax on it. but people ought to eat what they kill. the shareholders should be having board people in more or less the same position they are. the other that i think would be good thing for boards, i think the institutions, rather than doing these little proxy fights, would be better to create kind of a whole class of professional directors who were appointed by the big institutions, who, after all, are the main shareholders of almost every company, and were accountable to the