just slightly from the previous week to 306,000. only we get march payrolls report. a big jobs friday. takes market holiday. but don't worry, we're not on vacation tomorrow. we will bring you the number with a special edition of "squawk box." we're here from 7:00 to 9:30 eastern tomorrow. so it is a time shift. but 7:00 to 9:30 a.m., we will provide the numbers pre-and post analysis on this and make sure that you get everything you need to know. also on the agenda, the retailers will be reporting their monthly sales today. pretty busy day. analysts say the results probably will show shoppers continued to spend despite the rising gasoline prices. looking for a gain of 3.4% on average. as always, costco the first out of the gate and reporting comps up 6%. analysts were looking for a gain of 6.4% and you can see it's very unclear where that stock

will open, but again, up 6%. >> and oversea this morning, we're watching the bank of england policy members meeting today, the boe expected to hold its key rate at a second low of a half%. central bank also holding bank from unleashing extra emergency support for the economy. so we'll keep an eye on what they independent up doing. in corporate news, morgan stanley trying to stave off a rating cut. james gorman has been in discussion with moodys. a cut could diminish the bank's ability to buy the rest of citigroup's brokerage smith bar any. and we've been waiting to find out whether that transaction will take place. in addition, jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon telling investors last year was a good one for the company's earnings. he says it could have been even better, though, had the bank not been hit with mortgage related losses. annual letter 38 pages long, he says he expects the bank's

earnings to grow over time. also mentions regulations, though, as a problem. he writes in part there are so many new rules that they inevitably create more opportunities to build unnecessary bureaucracy with the company. it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we do it right for the regulators, our clients and our own efficient internal functioning. and of course that's an issue we continue to hear about. >> you read all 37 pages of that thing? >> i read them fast. he always writes a really good letter. >> surprised you you weren't having nightmares. >> i was, but not maybe because of jamie dimon. >> personal issues. he did come stumbling in on makeup looking frazzled. >> hey, i'm with you. i had terrible nightmares last night, too. >> you have your own issues.

of course as a mother, you've got an excuse. i don't know what your -- i guess it's the job. only a few hedge fund managers top stock market averages. what do you you get for 2 and 20? 2.3% during the period. but there are a handful of prominent winners. daniel lobe's partners fund gained 7.1%. what did nasdaq do? >> up 19%. d >> dan got 7. david einhorn posted a 6.7% gain through the first quarter which is half the s&p. and john paulson reported that his paulson in--- i guess this after fees. but this is not -- >> i'm going to play contrarian.

i'm not making this argument, but for purposes of the conversation, there's an argument me that a hedge if you said is actually supposed to be hedged so that they should not by the the market on the up side and they should not -- will and they shouldn't lose more money on the down side. the problem is they're not hedge funds anymore. >> that's an antiquated term for -- sg >> i completely agree with you, but i was just -- >> when you completely agree, i don't know whether you want to because you always decide to take the other side. i'd like to have support, but for the show, maybe it's -- >> maybe another time. >> and the wives of bernie madoff, a movie of the week -- no, i'm so he, the wives of bernie madoff's sons could face trustee claims in the ponzi case. a bankruptcy judge ruled trustee irving khar may pursue about $43

million of claims against andrew madoff's wife and $33 million of claims against the widow of mark madoff. the claims are tied to so-called unjust enrichment. >> this is also by the way-will-he may get more money than was ever put in in the first place. it's unbelievable the amount of money that they recovered. it's also by the way in-believable the amount of money that mr. picard has made for himself. i think they are up to about $73 million in fees all in. so not a bad business to be in the collection business. >> let's talk about facebook. final private trade values the company at $109 million. company final private market transaction priced on second market at $43.50. that transaction is the last of its kind on the secondary markets because of private market freeze on facebook shares. it is viewed as a pretty important psychological level as

the company considers a price range offering ahead of its may official ipo offering. i think this is news that kayla br yesterday. also mcdonald's was accused of unfairly using its toys to lure children into its restaurants. the proposed class action lawsuit aimed to stop the company from using free toys to promote its happy meals in california. mcdonald's got exactly what they wanted which was for this case to be completely dismissed out of hand. >> after they're lured into the stores, what happens to these young children? are they eaten or -- >> now the happy meal only comes with an apple. >> they're lured in and put in an oven and eaten by a witch? >> the entire state of california was going to make them stop. >> only california. >> the entire state of california was going to be looking at will.

>> so no more toys? >> no, they can do whatever they want with. except for san francisco. i think there was some city law. >> my kids are getting orlando, but there w older, but there was a time when you go to the drive through and getting a heal meal -- it's why it's called a heal meal. >> especially if you got a toy from the latest disney movie. >> i know obesity, believe me. let's check on the markets. futures are ugly again. the other day -- >> yesterday by the way second worst for the dow and s&p of 2012. >> we had sitting fed president on, lacker, and i called these stock market traders drug addicts and he said i can't comment on drugs and drugged a digt addi addicts. i guess he wanted to short of

not pull the plug too quickly because this is what happens when it becomes clear you're pulling the plug. you want to throw will him a bone, but once these guys really do think, wow, we're not going to have this have a ordinary support and crazy bond brouying this is what happens. did you see gold, oil, the dollar? >> some market prognosticators have gotten it wrong biening that there being no more qe-3 because if it that was the case, you wouldn't be the bid for the bonds. >> also spain, i think. but really if the the market always needs the fed to make any head way, it's not a real market anyway. let's look at the oil board. >> beyond about you saw this -- talking about bernanke and what's going on here krimak has

a story that bernanke had a private lunch last week with jamie dimon and all the big ceos on wall street and he spoke at length about monetary policy and in an effort to purchase swayed attendees that they needed to take a more active role in helping to deal with the european debt crisis. he spent virtually no time discussing regulation. it's interesting that they have these private lunches, william dudley organized it, it makes me think that if he's having these private lunches and he's saying you have to deal with it, it's another indication that -- >> this still throws me off. >> you seem very thrown off. no garbage can? >> this is something that usually is -- >> should we stop the show? >> you are such a diva. wait a second. here it is. >> oh, here it is.

it just magically appeared, mac. >> sorry you have to work with us divas. >> is it so hard to have a garbage can down there some by the way, this water is a tenth of a degreeld this morning. and it looks like there's a few too many ice cubes in here. haven't i said four ice cubes? and my car service, damn it, keep the camera on me, please. the driver smelled. hey, you're taking a car service, the drivers are going to smell, i'm sorry. there's not a car service about new york where the drivers -- don't you get used to it, really, is it a big deal? >> i'd like to see the next time you call for a car is he advice. >> jeeves smells lovely every moment. >> he throws rose petals in front of you. >> absolutely. >> what about the ten year? let's look at the ten year. started up and talked qe-3 and

now went back down. dollar was stronger. hoping for a big euro selloff going into the summer. 1.20 good for me. and then finally, gold had one of its biggest sell soefs. 1622. so what do you think, 2,000? how many people now, now how many people, say it this year above 2,000? how many people now would say above 2,000? >> this is another one of your great calls. >> it is. but you people would say now do we get above 2,000 this year. 20%. >> general investors? >> at the end of last year, it was almost 100% it will go above 2,000. >> but if you were polling investors -- >> maybe a quarter. >> i bet there are more than that. >> i bet you could get 50/50. 50 above 2,000, 50 below 1500.

let's talk to west. time for the global markets report. ross westgate standing by. you know, i was positioning this morning about you, ross, and i'll tell you why. i was thinking does darren clarke, how has he -- this masters is so con if tconfoundi. usually you take tying he iger field. but note you items about an even match-up. but still rory mcilroy, luke donald, adam scott. last year it was a guy named schwartzel. all these great guys could win, but then you have phil and tiger that are just -- they've done it before. >> everybody is on form, everybody has a norm case to make coming into this masters.

all the top five, six players have won attorney hims recently. all feel they're playing well. i'm very pumped about augusta this year. it's wet, solt guys th so that railroadry, phil, tiger. lee westwood hit as straight ball. tiger's putting is back and that's the key thing. so i would go for the field over tiger. >> listen to you. this is where the two of us, when you start talking about soccer with the round ball and i talk about july 4th or han thanksgiving and we don't come together. >> this is where we meet here. >> you've got the open and i will call it the open. i won't even pretend that the u.s. -- people know what the open is. and then we've got the ryder cup. so we share golf. we'll always have golf. >> in fact chicago, right, in september or october. chicago in the fall. >> for ryder cup. >> it's an nbc product.

>> that's a good thing to point out there, my friend. and with the golf channel together, this coverage is going to be better than it's ever been. three days of the greatest. >> you and i need to meet in chicago in the fall. >> to get me fired up, will you do that horrible, horrible fight song that you euros do? it's like chilling to me. >> oooh ♪ >> they do it over and over and over again. and some of our guys quake. it's great. anyway, but we digress. you've got no time. thank you, rorks we'll syou ros. no, gr rk, go ahead. >> we just about on the session low at the moment. advances being outpaced bay decliners here by nearly 8:1.

after two days of very heavy selling. ftse 100 been down five out of the last seven sessions. dags o dax off 1.33% today. cac 40 off about a percent. ibex below 7600, that takes it back to a 2009 low. so put that in comparison with where the u.s. equity markets are for spain. and the focus really is on spain. andrew mentioned it, we had the pretty crummy auction yesterday. just very briefly show you where we stand with ten year spanish yields. 5.82%. spread with bunds over 34 s ovs points. yields higher than they were before the first ltro. sugar rush from the ltro has evaporated for spanish debt. keep your eyes on that. >> 6% is like that $5 gasoline

for us over here. you're paying like $14 or something over europe. but that 6%, italy, remember it was 6% and 45d to -- so pain is pushing 6. that's not good. okay, ross. stay tuned. more nbc. coming up, it is masters thursday. we'll head to augusta and check in with the golf channel. a sister channel. love the golf channel. when a are rnie started that, people said it wouldn't work. but it's a great asset. first as we head to break, a look at yesterday's winners and losers. [ male announcer ] once upon a time,

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it is masters thursday. joining us live from the golf channel,en thinking about 1999? do you remember every swing? >> not every swing, but i remember a lot of good things

about that week. mostly that i got play with the eventual winner on thursday and friday. and i got to see up close and personal the kind of genius it takes to win. but, yes, it was a lot of fun that week. >> those spaniards. he was like an artist. >> he was. he really was. >> in the past -- >> great guy, too. >> yeah. in the past, i used to think -- i could pick tiger or the field in a major. and it was about -- i always felt like it was about even. and then for a couple years i didn't feel that way. is it back to where tiger is a pretty -- not a bad pick for this tournament versus the field? >> yeah, i wouldn't say you pick tiger or the field, but definitely he's the best bet to win the masters this week and to win every major championship as far as that's concerned for the rest of the year. it's clear he's comfortable with the changes that he's been

making with sean foley. the difference between tiger woods this year and last year is astonishing. he was the worst driver on the pga tour last year. and now he's the best in total driving in 2012. not just bay hill, but for the whole year. >> he's back on those 7-footers, too? >> i don't think he's quite as good as he was in that period you're alluding to from say 1997 when he won by 12, 2000 won it by 15rks but, yeah, i think the putt that he made on sunday on the 15th hole to keep the lead, to keep the momentum, to keep from sort of letting people think that maybe he was going to let somebody else in, there was a huge putt from about 15 feet. and it reminded me a lot of the putt that he made on the 16th hole in the final round of the 2000 u.s. open. >> and then i think there's all

these guys that -- obviously mcilroy and phil. is phil's driving what holds him back sometimes still? at augusta, items in the 's not important. >> it's not. and there's two different tiger woods. the woods from 1997 to 2002. the difference tiger woods from 2003 to 2011 is a bit more timid. the better record by far since then obviously is phil mickelson who has won three masters tournaments since 2004. the masters is all about taking chances. who better to take chances than phil mickelson. it's what you love about phil mickelson and what we love about watching augusta national. and no shot i alllustrates that better than the second shot mickelson hit on the 13th hole in 2010. >> nobody can ever forget that

shot over water. but i've played three days with him and he does that all the time. bones goes back to the bag thinking phil said, okay, and then -- phil just does whatever he wants. over water, out of the rough. but then okay, so last year anyone pick -- not even charl. how do you find guys like that? and then you have other guys like luke donald or adam scott which you figure they are uhe due or hunter mahan. it's impossible. >> it's almost impossible to pick a winner. i think at thes t masters, ther a more select group of players that have a chance to win because you need everything here. you need to hit high, low, working right to left, left to right, you need to be a genius around the greens and on the greens. and that wilgts itto a

small group. but four of the last five winners has been a surprised. schwartz zeel and cabrera. none of us really saw that coming. so while we're all caught up in this potential tiger/rory/phil ma match-up, the golf course is soft, so it's a lot more wide open than you would think. >> you watch how good those guys are and you think -- and then maybe jason day one of these days or korean guys. two or three of them that could win at any time. right? >> bae, you'll get to see probably tomorrow. he's playing alongside tiger woods. but woods goes off early. he'll finish before the coverage comes on. but very talented player.

but also first timers here that could break that drought going all the way back to fuzzy zelller's win in 1979. keegan bradley, in the press room, he said i've won every major i've ever played in. really broke everybody up. but you look at what he can do. >> haven't seen him spit in like six weeks now either. yeah, he was spitting. got criticism for spitting. he's amazing. we're excited about this. i feel like, i don't know, i feel like coming down there and sitting with you in the booth. >> i could ask. >> we've got room for you. >> and i know burke. we're brothers. we're all in this together. or you can come up here. but thank you. we appreciate it. >> i've enjoyed listening to you guys. you have a good morning. >> thanks. coming up -- what is that? >> i don't know. who do you like?

>> i'd like to see tiger win. >> you would? >> yeah. you got to -- will it's a comeback story. s >> he's just pure -- 3 years old sinking putts. always a great story. people have said he's not -- have been ready to sell him short every stage of his career. i'm surprised that -- that did set him back a little. that was a hell of a scandal. that makes anthony weiner like like a piper. he'll be back. have you looked at -- remember when he was skip any and just had a great before before now he looks like -- >> he's been working out. >> he looks like hes has the spiderman padded outfit on. are you going to watch? 3:00. >> i am. it's always on in our house. >> okay.

coming up, the goldilocks question, perfect tax rate. and then later, boone picken's take on the week's volatile energy trade. are prices ready to fall. we'll find out when we return. zap technology. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

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9:30 eastern. special "squawk box" at a special time. markets are on vacation, but we are not. >> welcome back to squawk both. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. are there headlines? >> i heard there are. do you want to tell the audience about it? >> no, i want andrew to. >> we're making headlines this morning. among them, bed bath & beyond reporting better than expected fourth quarter earning after the close. revenues came in line, retailers shrugging off gross margin pressure offset by same store sales growth and cost savings. also google is launching is web based digital glasses. you wear them on your head.

unveiling a pair of thin wrap around shakes like oakleys. and they put the company's webster advice on your face. >> like if i say google search ryan seacrest, it will pop up -- >> you'd be looking at the browser in your eyeglasses and then you'd -- >> what if i'm driving? >> you shouldn't be driving with these glasses on. the experimental augmented reality glasses can snap photos, might be yat video chats, display directions. still being tweaked and tested. they're not yet available in stores. >> remember the guy i was telling you, the physicist, synthetic organs and stuff. contact lenses with total access to the web where you're always ready to do anything you need to do on the web with contact lenses. >> you think like terminator. >> if you have an iphone, if you hold it in certain places, you

can see a map will overlay over whatever the image is. >> that's pretty cool. >> best scene in terminator is where he uses one of those little knife and goes around his eye and takes it out. >> there it is. we're looking at this is an example of what some of it this looks like. >> i need sarah connor! >> it's telling you to turn right, which way to go. and you see little microphone there. so it knows where you are. >> what's next in the fight to lower the corporate tax rate?

james pinkerton is with us this morning, former white house domestic policy adviser. also the co-chair of reforming america's tax equitably or rate as it's known. r.a.t.e. i liked some of the stuff. romney suddenly is getting, i don't know, he's talking about how when obama talks about all the lowering these rates, that he may just be doing that as we go toward november, but didn't want to. but we need corporate tax reform. >> i think we do. and as a matter of fact effective sunday april 1st, just a few days ago, the united statesed that the dubious distinction of having the highest corporate tax rate in the world. japan cut its rate leaving ours at 35%. plus state taxes on top of that. this is not the same as 3d glasses, but this is one of those foam fingers like you see at sports games as a way of indicating to your viewers that

america has a horrible distinction of having the most and itity competitive corporate tax code in the world. >> has anyone ever done the effective tax rate comparisons? i can see becky -- i know where you're going. i want someone to do a comparative -- because here's the thing. i would say everybody has deductions. people say that's not the effective rate here in the country, 35. but i'll bet you at the 25 in other countries, they have deductions, too. because that's what you hear from the left all the time. >> you're exactly right. and the difference between the legal rate as it were, the satter to rasat er statutory rate, sticker rate on the car, nobody pays exactly that. or few do. but the effective rate has been much studied. the tax foundation is a nonpartisan tax group and they've estimated that the effective rate it for u.s. corporations is somewhere in the mid to high 20s. by contrast, the effective rate

for our major competitors, germany, uk, canada, china, they also have deductions and tax breaks so their effective tax rate is well below ours again measuring apples to apples. >> what is that number? >> low 20s or teens. and especially when you get to ireland where the top legal rate is 12%, any loopholes and deductions they have below that, it takes them down into single digits. >> so we can bank on those numbers? and are deductions here rptd larger than what everyone else gets? >> you can go to the rate coalition.com or tax foundation.org or the websites of any of the 27 fortune 500 companies that are members of the rate coalition, everybody from boeing to disney to fedex to verizon, they all have some loose reference to this concern. that's why they've all joined the rate coalition to say that

we can't succeed as an economy in the 21st century if we have such a disruptive tax code. >> no one believes you. if you go to the huff post, you'll see ge and exxon, all these companies -- >> are those just outliers or companies that have losses that can carry forward on this? and i guess the biggest problem with our tax code is that unless you're a big company, you can't find loopholes around this will stuff anyway. >> exactly. there are millions of companies affected by the c corp tax rate and they're all -- not all general electric. look, every tax code is complicated, but the reality is that every other country in the world, all the members of the so-called oecd countries, that's 34 countries, every owoone of t has cut its corporate tax rate part of a worldwide wave of lower rates that have changed the complexion of the international economy and made it so that by one measure, the u.s. has lost about 25% of its

leadership among the top 500 corporations in the world. >> two questions. one, when you say that the average effective rate in other countries is in the low 20s or even high teens, therefore if we were to lower our rates to name your number, 25%, does that -- how far does that ultimately move the needle and when you say that we've lost our leadership 25%, are we losing 25% of business has actually gone abroad to take advantage of these tax rates? >> of the top 500 corporations in the world, the number in the u.s. has fallen by about a quarter in the last decade. and meanwhile you're right, it's a competitive world. 30 years ago when there were a billion people in china and we can't ha didn't have to compete with any of them because they were under communism, now they're at least as capitalist as we are and

intensely competitive and companies are just as eager to take our capital and jobs and markets as japan was back in its heyday. >> do you ever make the point at r.a.t.e. that we're in a competitive world here, it's not a good idea to tax our corporations punitively sometimes just because you're mad at them to making profits. our corporations need to compete globally so that we can give all of our citizens jobs. it's good when they do well. there are people that say we should have a zero corporate tax rate, but people want to do it punitively because oil profits make these profits. they need to pay for security. i understand that. roads and all the things that corporations use that they get from the largess of the government, but there can be an argument made that we want to keep rates as low as possible. >> and you're sitting here all day looking at economic numbers

for the recovery that it's an even in terms of where we're headed. nobody has a really good feeling about the recovery. it's about half the rate of the recovery from previous recessions. and mean while, the heritage foundation here in d.c. has a study that says if we cut the corporate rate, it would create about half a million jobs a year for a decade. >> for people to work here. so then get paid and pay taxes on what they make to the government which all these other people then they can expand government services that way. >> i want to give james credit. i've been looking whaup we've been talking about. an article says u.s. business has high tax rates but pays less and the premise is that we actually end up paying less than everybody, but far down, there is an acknowledgement of exactly what you said, which is because some companies are so effective at minimizing taxes, the average works out to far less than the official rate. united states companies pay about a quarter of their profits in federal income taxes, a few percentage points higher than the rates paid in most other

industrial countries. >> that last bit was on a page that didn't make to the final -- >> it's in the bottom of the article. >> that didn't make the final copy of the paper. by accident, skrajames. anyway, appreciate it. good seeing you today. when we come back, they have been hailed as the engine of economic growth and now a new survey finds that shawl businesses are back. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through.

today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen....

for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect.

a new survey from pnc shows small business optimism is back. joining us with the full report is stewart hoffman, chief economist at pnc. this is great news especially if we start thinking about the jobs

outlook. what did you this is good news. we've been doing the survey since 2003 and i really think of this as the grass roots businesses. two-thirds of them have less than 50 employees, just over half have less than 3 million in sales. and they are more optimistic. that's what we're seeing in our latest spring survey. 28% say they're optimistic about their own company's prospects. 17 about% are still pessimistic, but that's the highest number optimistic we've seen since the fall of 2007. >> 28% still sounds like a relatively low mnumber. what would that number be formally without everything we've been through? >> some of the highest we saw might have been around 35%. so you're right, there's still more room to go. the vast majority are sort of in the middle. they're kind of neutral. but as you mentioned about

hiring, maybe not company incideinsid coincidentally, 28% said they intend to hire full-time employees. only 7% said they intend to lay off. and that 28% hiring and the spread between that and laying off is again the best we've seen since the fall of 2007 and when we dug a little deeper we asked what are you looking for in new hire and they said we're looking for more skills, more experience. the top things is not surprisingly computer and technical abilities. activity if the field. people who know that business and then, third, communications skills in that order. >> and also the good news is that they are planning on taking out more loans and they think that they have an easier time getting loans? >> yes. more than we've seen in quite a while intend to take out loans. still the vast majority do not intend to. about 30% will take out loans.

and hair perception is that the vanlts of credit while certainly not easy is more readbly available now than it was 6 or 12 months ago. one special note to the fed i thought interesting. 40% of small businesses say they intend to raise praiseprices. only 7% intend to lower selling prices. that's the highest we've seen in a while. they say they're trying to preserve profit margins. and 70% of them will do it by more than 2%. and 2% is now the fed's goal for inflation. so it looks like there are inflationary pressures building up just under the asphalt surface of main street american businesses. >> all right. stewart, thank you very much it for joining us. coming up, think the debt debate is a new fight some try again. our next guest says it all goes

back to george washington. he authored the new book white house burning. he'll join us to shatter dozens of myths about deficit spending. choose control. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

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morning.

it's a burning political debate. we were talking about debt and we were tacking about taxes. aing isment and a half ago we were talking about taxes and we didn't talk about what to do about it in the context of debt. i'm curious on the tax issue what you think we need to be doing. >> on corporate taxes i believe we could bring down effective rates somewhat. but the key issue in terms of revenue is individual income taxes. what are you going to do about the bush taxes that expire at the end of the year? if you act responsibly, you should not extend the tax cuts. >> it's the end of the deficit problem, almost. >> look at the deficit over two decades. if you don't extend the bush tax cuts, it about half of the

adjustments. the markets would really wake up and pay attention to that. >> both sides are just as bad. what if you justnd end at 250 above? >> it wouldn't really establish your credibility. >> the argument from both political parties is it will hurt the economy if you raise taxes either on everybody or on individuals who don't have the money. >> veto the tax cuts, go back to the house and say i'm proposing a temporary tax cut. as the economy recovers, the tem appropriate tax cut will go away. you're replaces the potentially permanent tax cuts with a temporary link to a rule tax cut. >> what if the jobs market is what bernanke and others think

that this is the new natural level? >> if that's nut natural level, you have to change your thinking about monetary and fiscal policy. you don't want to stimulate below the natural rate. >> is there a new normal in your mind? >> lots of things have changed about the world, including leverage levels and banking. in terms of employment, i think we'll go back to roughly where we were. this is a very strong, deep economy. innovation is coming back, purrshpur entrepreneurship is coming back. >> is it too politically hard for the individual rate? why not forget about our old tax rate. bush tax cut, don't talk about it. get rid of a lot of deductions for individuals. if you got everybody paying 30% with no reductions, wouldn't

that raise a lot of revenue? >> you could do anything you wanted. in the 80s ronald reagan decided to compromise. there's all kinds of deals you can do. are the side going to get together enough to compromise? >> no. >> this is going to happen either way. you don't have to do anything for the bush tax cuts. >> if you don't do anything, they go away. this forces them to act. >> in a perfect world you would like a 4%, 5% gdp to take care of our deficit. >> of course. >> we have to figure out how to get there. >> we've had six big debt surges in the united states. independence war of 1812, civil war, world war i, world war ii. >> that's five. >> the sixth one is the latest

one. >> 1812, that was a real doozy. >> 1812 is a disaster. that's when the british trashed washington, burned officials buildings, destroyed the navy. we had no revenue. the war hawks didn't want revenue, they wanted an aggressive foreign policy and no revenue. not a good way to do things. >> the point being revenue would solve our problems. >> you absolutely need growth. it's an economy that has a dynamism about it but you need revenue to come off that growth. if you can hook those two things up, you'll be fine. >> thanks for being here. we didn't get to talk about debt. hopefully we can have you back. >> you live in cambridge? >> i live in washington, d.c. >> coming up, the world's best golfers getting ready for the start of the masters. one year ago we awarded our own

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pandora rocks the big board.

it's a squawk masters double play. >> i've had enough, you're outta here! >> what do you mean? you can't throw an umpire out of the game. >> all right, you're outta here! >> what's ahead for stocks after the dow's deep dive? the perspective you won't find anywhere else. >> oil's edging up by how high? boone pickens that could put a drain on your wallet. >> i'm going to need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow. >> john challenger will join us with his latest findings on the

job market as the second hour of "squawk box" starts right now. >> organization, i forgot. i'm also going to need to you come in on sunday, too. ♪ ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we have breaking news out. the bank of england is leaving rates unchanged at 0.5%. yesterday we heard a similar move from the ecb leaving their rates unchanged at 1%. retailers will be out with march sales numbers this morning. analysts are expecting those numbers to benefit because of warmer than expected temperatures this year. they expect target a rise and

maisie's a rise. directv has settled a dispute with tribune broadcasting. the terms of the deal were not disclosed. a settlement may be near on an ongoing price fixing with e-books. there are a few notable holdouts among e-book sellers, including apple. the futures are indicated lower, even after that day we saw yesterday. yesterday was the worst day this year for the nasdaq, the second worst day for the dow and s&p. those futures are indicated down lower, about a third of a percent for the dow. >> that price fixing case, did you realize your publisher, penguin and my publisher,

penguin, not participating in the settlement. >> would we pick publishers that weren't -- >> never. >> we have higher standard. >> it's a fascinating case that the government would go after the dying book publishing -- >> they're going after apple, too. they're going after the guys killing them at the same time. it's going after the guy horse killing the old book business. >> you understand anti-trust a lot better than i do because of your dad and everything else. sirius xm, can you tell me why they couldn't get together to survive at least. >> there's an argument about survivabili survivability. that was not about surviving. >> it's about surviving for king mobile and for about 99% of the country to get access to fast internet. what was the reason for not doing it? >> it would take the rest of the show and we'd have a wonderful

test -- >> is your phone bill for long distance, is that squeezing you every month? for zero? it like when they go after chips for anti-trust. are chips not cheap enough for you and i'm not talking about do doritos. >> books are different. >> that check still comes in every week, doesn't it? >> not every week. >> they do it on a six-month basis. >> the dow taking a triple digit tumble while the nasdaq suffered its worst session of 2012. let's talk more about the markets of the economy with two market masters. roger altman is chairman and founder of evercore and our guest host for the next two hours, we don't have a name for you. this does not imply dinosaur, it just implieps that he's wise,

he's seen it all. byron-asaurus rex. not every guest has a name with it. and we have music. >> oh, really? >> roger, i'll start with you. this is the lead story in the journal. suddenly people realize maybe the fed will not be here forever and maybe the stock market and financial markets actually need to respond to underlying fundamentals with the economy. should it have gone down and will this be a long-term trend or just a one-day thing? >> it seems to me, joe, that this is a pretty standard mini correction and that it's essentially healthy. we see these all the time. during early phases of bull markets. i hope that that's what this is and i believe it is.

and that the market is taking a breath, looking again at the strength at the u.s. recovery and also at europe and concluding that the u.s. recovery is decent but not powerful and that the european crisis, as so many people have said, is not entirely over. >> byron, when you were talking about -- and you were right, pretty friendly toward the market for a while now. i think one of your predictions was 1,400 on the s&p for the year. >> correct. >> so you're right on. were you fact ooring in the feds the sa the tail wind? >> it was part of it but i thought the economy with do a lot better.

>> does this make you less happy now if the fed were to just stand pat? >> my feeling is the fed will remain accommodative, as they have said they would. they just wouldn't do qe3. i don't think qe3 was necessary. i view quantitative easing like drinks at bar. the first one gives you a kick, the second one a little bit, third one you probably shouldn't have. >> you have that at home usually in your case pup got to get home before you really start going. >> yeah. my feeling is the economy is doing fine, the market corrected because you look at the end of the year, people were pretty gloomy. they had come off the summer, we couldn't, you know, we had a debt ceiling crisis, there was general disenchantment with obama, nobody was enthusiastic about the republican candidates, primaries hadn't started. it was a general despondency in

the united states. the sentiment was negative. there want a platform to do well. now everybody is feeling it rosie. we had the best first quarter since 1988 and people are bullish. it's not a good time to be investing. >> roger, oil pulled back a little but it's still over $100. everybody talks about the tax on consumers that $3.90 gas brings. i agree with byron. if they stay at 2% all the way -- or at 0 or fed funds until 2014, that's plenty of aaccommodation. but there will be no qe3 and draghi said don't look for any. will we go into a little slow patch here?

>> i think people are seeing ghosts to some degree, joe. you have maximum monetary ease. i mean, the pedal all the way to the floor as hard as possible in both the united states and in europe. you know, the idea that the fed is going to keep short rates at zero through 2014 obviously almost three years from now if they extend it all the way through the end of 2014, is phenomenal, really unprecedented and i don't think there's any scenario under which the ecb begins to in any fashion tighten while conditions are as they are now. so i don't know how you could have a more accommodative monetary framework in both the united states and in europe. so the idea that, as byron said, maybe there won't be qe3 and maybe the ecb won't do even more than it's already done.

i just don't think that's a focused way to look at it. you couldn't have a better scenario from the point of view of monetary policy. >> look, we've gone as much as we can do with monetary policy. look at the ecb. the policy of the ecb was to tighten money, focus on inflation. they've changed their spots entirely. they've become more accommodative than the fed. you look at a chart of the balance sheet of the ecb, the credit on the balance sheet shoots way up. >> but that's monetary policy. if you look at the fiscal policy, what happens if the bush tax cuts, pier at the end of this year and there's no agreement what way or the other? does that chang the scenario and make us rely more on monetary policy? >> it does. that's why we have to deal. the issue we've got to face is we've supported the economy through monetary policy, we've

turned the economy around. now we've got to deal with the structural issues the most serious structural issue facing the united states is january 1st. obamacare kicks in, assuming, supreme court let it is through, the bush tax cuts expire, the payroll tax holiday ends. that's an awful lot at one time. >> roger, you're in the board rooms, is the conversation about monetary policy or the issues byron's just been talking about? >> andrew, it's just beginning to be about this confluence of issues byron talked about and we've been all discussing for a while, just beginning. and i'd like to make an observation about that. it is possible that the 2001 and

2003 bush tax cuts will expire. can you even argue that that's a good thing because if would lay the groundwork for a real grand bargain on fiscal policy but i don't think the idea that those tax cuts in that magnitude, $3.9 trillion by the way over ten years in terms of booj costs, are unlikely to expire permanently. some probably, all of them very unlikely. could there be a period during 2013 when they have expired and the outlook for continuation of some of them is not clear at all? yes. i even think that's likely. but i don't think the idea that they'll expire in their entirety and just remain expired forever is very likely. >> but you think the most likely scenario is that everything expires come january 1st? >> in washington, becky, most think that's a minority scenario and that the more likely one is

that there will be an extension, a temporary extension to get through the lame duck session, to allow the new congress to come in and particularly because the debt limit has to be raised around the end of the year, there are some estimates of january or february but in that period, i think the majority view there is still that an extension is more likely. i happen to think that allowing them to expire as a way of laying the groundwork for a 2013 grand bargain would be a good approach but, you know, you could debate that. >> that's interesting, roger. you don't sound like you're quite as worried about austerity here and abroad that i hear about all the time. that's what astounds me. sometimes i hear from the left we need to learn from what we're seeing in greece and spain and portugal and the uk and i think, wow, they're going to talk about ramping up the credit card too much, running up the credit card and overspending and too much of

a social safety net but they aren't. they're talking about the austerity. there's no money left for some of these countries. if run up a credit card for 50 grand, the bank is not going to give you another line for 50, right? are you as worried about austerity? if bewee let the bush tax cuts end and we come boone it with all these other things that are ant testify stimulative, that's tough for the economy to withstand, isn't it? >> yes,joe, if they expire permanently. if you say to yourself all of those tax cuts are going to expire at the end of this year and none of them are going to be renewed, that will be a pretty big blow to gdp. i've seen estimate of 3 to 3.5% reduction in run rates on gdp if that were allowed to happen. i don't believe that would,

however, be the permanent scenario, as asaid. look, 2013 is the moment of tonight in terms of fixing our fiscal and our debt problems. the window of opportunity in the second term of a presidency, if one assumes for the moment that obama would be re-elected, is shorter than during the first term. that window is 2013 here. you have the added advantage tactically that the tax cuts are scheduled to expire. the sequester is scheduled to begin, the payroll tax scheduled to expire, the debt limit has to be a raised. it all set up for there to be a grand negotiation in 2013 and if somehow we blow it and don't actually do anything about this problem in 2013, then i think we may be stuck with it for another four years and that would be really bad news. you ask yourself would we actually go another -- we're only in april 2012.

would we go another almost five years without solving this and still avoid during that period a financial crisis? i don't think so. >> china could stop buying -- a lot of things could happen. thank you roger altman and byron. >> we have key economic numbers out ahead of the holiday tomorrow. the labor department will release its jobless claims today at 8:30 a.m. eastern. and the jobless report will be out tomorrow at 8:30 eastern time, even though the u.s. markets are closed for the good friday holiday. guess, what we're not going to leave you hanging here. "squawk box" will be here, too. we have a special edition that starts at 7::00 to 9:30 and time. we'll get the implications for the economy and the presidential race. rebecca patterson, jared bernstein, and former senator

jim talent, a mitt romney campaign surrogate. it all begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow. >> if you have comments on anything you see here the squawk, you can send us an e-mail or on twitter. coming up, we'll get the handle on who will win the masters and stealing the show in miami. that and much more when we continue. zap technology. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork.

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excited for their regular season debut at their brand new marlins mark until the defending world champions came to town. the cardinals beat the marlins 4-1 in the season opener.

kyle lohse went into the seventh inning with a no-hitter but jose reyes broke the no-hit streak with a single to right. he allowed only one other man. only one man has ever thrown a no-hitter on opening day, the heater, classic bob feller, hall fame pitcher for the cleveland indians beat the chicago white sox back in 1940. i think you took your grandson to that game back in 1940, didn't you, byron? >> go easy. this could be actionable, joe. >> you're here, aren't you? we love you. best golfers in the world teeing off in gauga todaugusta today. last year winner was charles swertsel. tiger woods looking for his fft green jacket, hasn't won at augusta?

2005. byron nelson, remember the class after he blew his lead and came back and won the u.s. open in style. he's just classic. and the pride of ireland. he's the world's second ranked golfer. he's going to try to make up for what happened last year. he's already made up for it. mickelson has been the guy who has probably played best at augusta the last couple years, a three-time master champion, 2010, 2006 and 2004. according to vegasin sider.com, here are the current odds. once again, any other golfer 12-1, tiger 4-1. there's mcelroy 5-1, -- mcilroy mickelson 6-1. >> you're rooting for phil?

>> i will always root for phil. tiger you have to like because of his tough mindedness. phil signs you a graphs for two hours. some of the others go i don't want to sign for two hours. that's one of the reason other golfers don't like phil because he does it. >> we have a check of the european markets. and later, a conflicting view on where oil is headed. boone pickens says prices are headed much, much higher. byron wien says no worry. we'll hear both sides and let you decide. "squawk" continues after the break. >> time now for our aflac trivia question. kwhas has been the most common name for popes throughout the millennium? aflac! quack! like medical bills they don't pay for? aflac!

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aflac trivia question. what has been the most common name for popes through the millennium? the answer: john. >> aflac! welcome back, everybody. it time for our global markets report. let go to london where ross w t

westgate is standing by. the worry here and supposedly around the globe is people are worried central banks aren't going to do more. >> there is a case, the bank of england has just decided to keep rates on hold, no chang in the easy program. they exit anded $125 billion. two members have been voted to up that. but that program runs out in may the next meeting will be a key one. will they want to expand it then is it the data has gotten better. as far as stocks are concerned, we're off the lows but we're down now. xetra dax was down and we

continue to see yields rising on spanish debt. you can see here yields have got i don't know a little better. down yields, ten-year. you can see bund back near that all-time low. that spread is the widist since november. spanish yields are the highest. if those keep going high exwill we see the ecb back in buying span, debt? what will it do about pressure deciding the ltro liquidity rush is over for the banking systems? back to you. >> ross, thank you very much. if you have any comments or questions about anything you see here, e-mail us at cnbc.com. up next, we'll get you ready for the long weekend with the thursday trading block.

plus a look at what sectors are hiring and where jobs are heading. we'll be right back. >> this friday, a special jobs edition of "squawk box." we break doesnwn the government report on the nation's labor system. guests include mark ferguson. a special edition this friday right here on cnbc.

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. challenger is planning job cuts. john challenger joins us. job cuts by 20%? >> that's a big sign that labor markets continue to improve. we're seeing that really on almost all front. >> are you in the camp that thinks this is not a temporary improvement in the labor market? >> well, it remains to be seen.

depends on the shocks to the economy. if the high prices of oil, if europe impact the economy, like we've seen in previous years after this recession ended, it certainly could impact labor markets again but right now things are looking good. >> let's talk about where the most improvement came or the least bad number of cuts. telecon did okay. >> well, the strongest area for cuts in the month was telecom with over 4,000. for the year so far it's been consumer products followed by transportation. the big surprise is government. weep just saw over 5,000 cuts there, yet government has been the area that's been leading the job cuts over the last two years. real question is what's going on? is government all of a sudden decided to stop cutting back or is it just the election that's causing government -- both state and local level, to pull back from these cuts on a temporary basis? >> that's a really good point. if you look at the government, that's when the biggest issue

confounding the jobs report every month. but those planned cuts are not going through? >> we're not seeing government takes those actions. maybe it's the loss of will, make it's the election. you know the deficits are still looming, state and local level cuts. we have been seeing growth in education. those grew by about three times for the month of february and march. state and local governments at the teacher level are still cutting jobs but it's not enough to impact the report like we saw and we were seeing big cuts at the federal level over back the last few years. >> could that be because tax receipts has improved as the economy has grown? >> it may have caused them to act over the long term. >> do you remember what the number of jobs associated with the housing industry was in 2006

or 2007? do you have any data on that? and that was a bubble number? or is it one that we get back to naturally as houses get, i don't know, old or people get born? will it eventually get back to those numbers? or is it a permanent reduction of like a percentage point or two in our overall employment rate because that was a bubble? >> well, from our numbers, we didn't get much -- really don't get much of a handle on what's going on in construction. most of the companies that are -- and people who are building homes were really moms and pops. so you didn't get that through layoff numbers. some of the big housing companies like toll brothers were certainly laying off a lot of people. the banks went through heavy changes in their mortgage departments. >> the mortgage companies, too. i wonder how many associated and related jobs are gone for good or whether they do come back when housing recovers. everybody says we're never going

to get back to that 5%. >> that's right. but it's a much broader structural issue. there might be 2 million jobs that were related to housing that were lost and probably half of those will never come back. >> he says if you look out, it's things you would never think about, the brick making company, carpet companies. >> we won't have the bubble numbers we had. housing is coming back, but it's not going to come back to the huge numbers we saw during that time. >> i'm just wondering what full employment is. >> well, if you look at it, career creating many fewer jobs in this cycle than we have in the past. so unemployment in the history of the united states was in a boom time unemployment would be 5%. in a recession 10%. and then we go back to 5. >> and then we got a bunch of old people. "usa today" -- not old but the people that would normally be

retired that can't, there's a lot of people getting in area, me. go ahead. >> the private sector is creating a lot of jobs right now but normally at this time and it boosted not only by the whole housing sector, which is usually going strong at this point in an up cycle but also government is usually hiring by large numbers and that's just not happening this time around. >> all right, john. thank you. let's go to our trading block. mark chandler follows the dollar, jim fields tracks gold and silver and at the cme group, scott nations is president and cio of nations. you're off tomorrow, aren't you, nations? >> unfortunately we are for the first time in a long time but we'll be back friday the 13th. >> i love friday the 13th. >> mark chandler, are we in the middle of the range on the you're yof dollar? >> this has ban very important

week. the contrast between the united states on one hand, changing people's perceptions about the likelihood of qe, at the same time our data shows even though the economy may have slowed down from q4 into q1, it's doing better than our partners in europe. tensions flairing up in the european bond markets again, all this giving the dollar a good lift here. >> so i'm look at a long-term chart there. it looks like we're in the middle of -- doesn't 130 seem like not too hot, not too cold? >> i think the 130 area is the lower side in the middle of january. i'm looking at the you're yof continue to fall as the political precious coming up, next elections, italy has elections.

there's a referendum. this will push the market. >> maybe a bit lower in q3 down to 124. i think liquidity helped lift it in the third quarter. >> jim steele, let just talk gold. what is next in your view, 1,800 or 1,500? >> i think we might see a quick break of 1,600 but i don't think we'll get as low as 1,500. the anticipation of qe3 or of additional monetary easing, in fact, has been -- is being rung out of the market right now from february 29th with bernanke's first comments to congress right through the f 1c minutes and i think there will be a limit of how much more of a premium is based into the gold market. gold is central to monetary policy but it really bled out a lot of anticipation of additional easing.

and the fact that monetary policy is still accommodative will support the market. as we break that 1,600 level, we get to a point where i think it's going to be attractive for cost effective buyers. >> we just looked at that long-term chart. it still looks, what is it, hyperbolic? it still looks crazy. >> parabolic. >> in the long term it looks goorksd fa good, facing some resistance. >> so 2,000 this year? >> close to it, 1,900. we're looking for the gold market to do most of the uphill work in the second half of the year as we get near the election. >> all right, scott, yesterday, the beginning of the end, what do you think? >> how about the middle of the middle? it probably actually the beginning of earnings season. part of the problem yesterday in addition to spain and the fed was the fact of earnings

expectations starting to match el down a little bit. i hear down 1/10 of 1% on earnings. the start of the first quarter we were expecting quite a bit better than that, 3/10 improvement. we talked about helicopter bend but the helicopter fed like helicopter parents, it's as if investors waentd the fed to solve every problem. call your roommate, they're leading their dirty dishes around and call your english professor when they don't like your term paper and buy gold and bonds when nobody else wants to. we were surprised by that. >> is that the second 100-point down? when was that? was that a year ago? we used to do 200 points, 400 points up, down. when was that? was that a year ago? 123 points, you'd think the world was ending yesterday. >> since the bottom of november,

things have been fairly mod et cetera -- moderate. >> a slot move up, no reason to think that won't continue. >> i think the low volume on the move up is a good this evening. the market is no longer overbought. relative strength index on the s&p. >> no one is go to know what to do next week with options actions tomorrow night. normally could you catch scott on cnbc's options actions but -- >> it's a holiday. >> except for you guys. >> we've got quite a work ethic here, scott. >> i hear that about you, joe. >> that sounded a little tint of some sarcasm. anyway, thanks, guys. >> just a tinge. >> up next, byron will be taking on boone or boone could be taking on byron. boone pickens on oil's recent moves and where goes prices may

be headed. we're going to have the smackdown on "squawk" after the break. careful, pringles are bursting with more flavor.

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[ male announcer ] pringles... bursting with more flavor. [ crunch! ] $148 oil?

our next guest thinks we might just see it, maybe by the end of the summer. boone pickens joins us this morning. boone, we always love having you on. good morning. >> good morning. >> so let's talk a little bit about this oil prediction. you made a prediction of $148 oil but then i wasn't sure if you were sticking by it or say we go could stay right around $100. why don't you clarify that for us. >> okay. that prediction was on brent norcy. i tried to clarify at the point and say that wti, i think, we're supplied in a market but wti now has become a local market and brent is a global market. so my, of course, brent is going to bring in the chinese and you got the saudis, they're back in drilling, you know, they're working on a field now which i feel to be very interesting.

it's a small field, it was found back in the 1930s and it's low gravity crude, high sulfur, it's crappy oil. what were they doing even working on that field? it may give them 100,000 barrels a day. i think they're working on it because they're tight. i don't think the saudis have anything left beyond the 10 million barrels a day. >> that's an excellent point and that would certainly put pressure on global oil price bus how do you break out -- i know there's this spread between the west texas and brent at this point but how do you think that continues to expand when we always talk about how global -- how the oil market all together is a global market. how do we continue to keep west texas at lower levels? >> well, your industry in the united states is doing very well. they're supplying a lot of oil. and, you know, you're now up higher than we've been in years at about 5.8 million barrels a

day. so you've got natural gas liquids that put another 3 million barrels in there. you're drilling a lot of gas wells with associated oil with liquids with it. so that's -- you know, i, you know, hats off to the oil and gas industry in the united states. they're doing great job. >> so we've got oil that's coming in but we also have people saying the economy is improving at a faster clip than other people might be expecting. if that's the case, if the global economy let say the united states economy is improving, do you worry that oil prices will go up as the economy continues to improve? >> well, in the united states i think you're -- sure, if our economy improves, wti will go up. here you are using almost 20 million barrels a day and you're

producing about 8, importing 10, 11 million barrels a day and that oil is expensive. it's a global price. you supply more oil in the united states, you'll cut off that more expensive oil coming into the united states. so it is two separate oil markets, no question about it. >> there's a question -- there's something from the wall street journal talking about how shell is now considering building a plant in louisiana that would eventually convert natural gas into diesel fuel and they're talking about spending maybe $10 billion on this deal. have natural gas prices reached such a low that companies are considering putting massive infrastructure and spending to try to take more advantage of that? >> sure. that's exactly what's happening. you've got to develop demand for natural gas. but one ning, you watch the r--

watch the rig count closely and they're moving the rigs as best they can off of dry gas wells over to wells with higher liquids or oil wells. they're moving away from drilling the gas wells. and that will make a chang over time. but by golly, i tell you one more time our industry has done a hell of a job. they have the natural gas. you know, do a quick comparison around the world. natural gas in the united states is $2.20. beijing it's $16, mideast $15 and in europe $13. well, that's, you know, the united states has the cheapest energy in the world. our oil we've already been oil that but we're 20% under brent's price and if you look at gasoline prices, we're half of what europe is. >> boone, we had mike jackson on

earlier this week. one of the implications of the conversation was we might be better off with a tax that ultimately keeps the price of gas at a higher level than it is today. do you agree with that? >> that you're going to put a as it on to keep -- are you talking about gasoline or natural gas? >> excuse me? at the pump. >> are you talking about gasoline? >> at the pump. >> okay. so you want to put a tax on to keep the price up? is that what you're saying? >> yes. to get people to drive smaller cars, to drive less. maybe to get us to switch over to natural gas. i mean, there are arguments to do this. >> i don't know. i don't think you can get congress -- i'm not sure you can get congress to do anything. but to put a tax on gasoline, i understand, you know, the theory of the whole thing but we're

now -- i don't know. it's just -- it's very interesting to me that the government is going to tax gasoline, get more money and i have to drive a smaller car. i don't know. i'd hate to be the guy that had to sell that idea. >> they promise they'll only use it on reducing the deficit and they'd never take money for something and use it somewhere else, boone. >> it's a bad idea. >> though throw it away. that's what they'd do with that money, too. >> i have a question for boone. >> they're saying we have to go. >> can we ask a quick one? >> is there an iran premium in the price of oil? >> pardon me? >> is there an iran premium in the price of oil? >> i don't know. i don't buy that. but look at what happened. i mean, last night you had -- they blew up a couple of

peoplelipeopl pipelines over in iraq. and all those things are constantly going on. if you look at the global situation set on a scale of one to ten, you know there's something going on from three to eight every day. you look at argentina. yesterday they decided to take some of their tracks back that were not being developed fast enough. and then you look at brazil. you look at where the unrests are around the country. you got yemen, brazil, iraq, iran. something is going on continually around the world. so what happens, you kind of get used to it, you know. and -- but something's going around and it could affect the price of oil. >> boone, thank you. >> i know you're tired of me. >> no, we appreciate it.

stocks to watch right after this.

coming up, prospects for financial companies, europe and the u.s. economy. all that and a lot more in the next hour of "squawk." americans believe they should be in charge of their own future.

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the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ financials in focus. an inside look from john cannon. >> he's the governor of cnbc's top state for business and he's been widely mentioned as a possible running mate for mitt romney. >> i think bob mcdonald is a great choice. >> virginia governor bob mcdonald will join us. >> making it america. phil will join us from a

supplier of ball bearings for airplanes. >> it's simple, maybe you need a refresher course. it's all ball bearings nowadays. >> and breaking economic data. ♪ moon river >> and we count down to the jobless report. the third hour of "squawk box" starts now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin -- >> why are you turning your neck? >> because it's hurting. >> we found his weakness. >> you found my weakness. byron is here, blackstone advisory partner's vice chairman. checking u.s. equity futures. after one of the biggest selloffs of the years, there

were days we use to do 200 down, 300 down. was this for you, mr. cabrera? did you request that? >> no. it's like a mosh pit. >> a head banger. >> very quickly, we want to tell but target. retail sales have been coming out and target is one we were waiting for. they were looking for a gain at 5.4%, target coming out and beating that number. the number is 7.3% on a comp store basis. they're saying sales were well above their own expectations because of a healthy underlying trend but they are revising first quarter comp store sales of 5% to 6% to reflect the low -- because of that -- to reflect a low-to-mid single digit increase in their april comp store sales.

that stock is indicated higher. we'll keep an eye as more of the retailers come out. the employment picture is front and center today. we've been watching and waiting for this weekly jobless claims data. forecasters say the filings probably rose just slightly from the previous week to 360,000. tomorrow we'll get the march payroll report and it is a market holiday. don't worry, we'll be here. special edition tomorrow, 7:00 to 9:30 eastern time. we'll bring you the number, analyze it afterwards, 7 to 9:30 a.m. >> morgan stanley is trying to stave off ratings cut. the ceo has been in discussion with moody's. also, we've been watching what's been happening with spain's interest rates. they are rising once again this morning. that's been another pressure point on the futures. the country's ten-year yield is now back to the levels we saw

before the european central bank flooded the continent with liquidity using the ltro program. it begs the question is spain the new greece? our chief international correspondent michelle obama jo -- michelle caruso-cabrera joins us. how worried do we have to be? >> somewhat worried. many say spain is the greece of 2012. here's the coded certavernacula need to learn "spain will seek a program" from the -- some people say, wows the deficit is a lot worse that be the last government told you about. spain put out a new budget, it started the weakness in europe,

leading to a bad auction yesterday where they started to borrow money. spain, their deficit was supposed to be below 6% of gdp and now they've had to az rarai to 6%. spain in some ways is nowhere as bad as greece. the debt to gdp is at 68%. remember, greece, we were talking about 160% to gdp. so if we're going to have some kind of issue with greece, it's not going toing a bailout of sovereign debt, it's going to be a recapitalize their banks. in this way spain looks a lot more like ireland, which also had a massive real estate bubble. 40% of spain's gdp, the

equivale equivalent. bank's balance sheets tripled during the precrisis decade. what do they do? they accumulated housing loans, $175 billion worth of bad or doubtful loans but that number is expected to rise because real estate prices have only fall i don't know 25% in spain and they think it's going to be more like ireland where you have to get to at least 50%. quick update on something that happened in greece yesterday, 77-year-old pensioner shot himself to death outside the greek parliament. he left a note saying he didn't want to have to scavenge for food. it's led to a new round of protest, people leaving flowers and notes in the spot where he did it as we continue to see the austerity effects. >> why don't they go straight for the problem and try to shore up the banks? >>. >> it's an enormous amount,

we'll be talking about 10% of gdp. spain doesn't necessarily have the money. there's a conspiracy theory everybody wants them to wait until after the french election so it doesn't become an lek issue for sarkozy. if sarkozy were to lose, the win are is anti-bailouts, anti-everything. >> what's the tipping point? what's the catalyst on spain for a bailout? is there a number we need to look at like with greece we looked at the 7% yield? >> possibly. it the markets could turn on spain and say we're not going to fund you anymore. more likely the ecb puts its foot down and says up need a program because we're sucking up all this stuff from your banks and you're polluting us. >> the ecb doesn't have to take that paper anymore as collateral, right? >> so what happens to spain. >> vicious cycle. >> exactly. >> michelle, thank you very

much. >> you're welcome. >> it has been several months since bank united considered putting the bank up for sale. joining us, chairman and ceo of bank united. thank you being being hooeere >> did you read the article about -- >> i did. >> the lesson will be that we could have done much more and that really regulation has held us back. do you agree with him? >> i do. we tend to bounce this back to the regulars all the time. this is congressional action that brought this on the regulators that's bringing this on to the banking industry. jamie is saying what a lot of bankers would like to say, he's strong enough and big enough to do it, there's an overreaction. >> is it good business for him

to be out there vocally in this way? >> it depends who you are. bankers are happy to see him do it because he's speaking for the rest of us for those of who who can't say it. >> you said it. >> yeah, i said it. >> you said you were quitting because it's no fun anymore. >> yeah, i had a weak moment. >> we'll wee all have weak moments. >> how come you're not in augusta? >> blackstone was an investor and converted investment because he didn't want to disclose his income and some other -- they do a pretty deep dive, the fed does. what do you make of that? can you talk about that experience? >> i think it's an example of the kind of overreaction jamie is talking about. we converted bank united from a thrift holding company to a bank holding company. that's an application with the

fed. the fed came back after looking at our application for six months and said by the way, one more thing, we need personal financial information on not only your board members and owners but on all of the partners of all of the firms who own controlling interest in the company, which forced to us go back to steve and the guys at carlisle and center bring and wilbur ross and say we need personal financial statements on everyone. it was a bit of an overreach. >> that did inspire or push the idea of trying to sell the company at the time? >> no, that had nothing to do with it. that process started started ba june of last year and we did it for two reasons. we were transforming the balance sheet into commercial banking and recently bought a bank here in new york called harold national, which required us to -- >> was steve the only holdout among the group? >> steve was the only one who did not comply and fill out a personal financial statement form. rather he dropped the size of

his common stock holding down and issued preferred -- >> i imagine you had some pretty interesting conversations around that. >> we did. steve, because he's the head of a public company, is already making substantial disclosures about his own personal financial -- i don't think anybody will be shocked to look at steve's personal financial statement but he had an issue of principle. >> byron, you're on the payroll. >> yeah. >> your review on this? >> i don't think so. i want to keep my job. >> did you see byron's financial -- >> only briefly in the green room. >> what's his net worth? >> he made me promise. >> i've always wondered that. >> what my net worth is? >> yeah. you going to tell me? >> no! i have no idea. >> the fed has it. >> you're going to keep the bank? >> yeah, things are getting better. we're going to keep the bank. >> south florida is very

surprising to me. mike jackson was talking about it and richard la frack -- >> is that a surprise to you? >> it is a surprise. when we did the ipo last year, we made a prediction about florida, one of which the economy want going to do much. we've been shockingly surprised. >> rick scott's for tunes are soaring. we found out he was a rain water guy. >> it is very noticeable in south florida. while the world wasn't looking latin marketcame in and bought all the reals state at the they didn't already own in the miami dade market and took up all the excess inventory we were all worried about for the next couple of years and we seeing new buildings coming out of the ground in miami. >> in miami dade, prizes are

stabilizing. in miami beach prices are going up. >> our guest two weeks eric he's like an evangelist. if he can talk about 60 jobs, his eyes get all -- >> it's been surprising. >> wants to steal them from everywhere else. >> that's okay. but we're there, that's good. >> would you consider using bank united as an acquisition vehicle to buy other things? southern states all together, i don't know how you think of the region. >> we thought there would be much more consolidation. there's never been an industry where there's been more talk about and less consolidation. >> why is that? >> i have my own theories. >> you can share them. >> for one thing, in the smaller banks the prices are so deflated from where they once were. everybody's options are underwater, board members aren't

making money on the sales of these companies, managers can't make the money on the sale. there isn't a catalyst. regulators have been relatively sanguin and it will change. >> we have to run. are you -- continue to be a bull on what's going on here, just more broadly? >> yeah, actually i came in here feeling pretty good and then i talked to byron and i feel even better. >> okay. we'll take that to the bank. john kanas thank you for being here. >> good to see you. >> coming up, he's been wildly mentioned as a possible running mate for mitt romney, virginia governor bob mcdonald. probably wouldn't have to move. he's in virginia. a commute.

richmond. anyway, right next to it, isn't it? he'll join us. "squawk box" will be right back. , you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event. i just want to confirm a few things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savings how would you sum it up? big in your own words, with respect to selection, what would you say? big okay, let's talk rebates mike, they're big they're big get $100 rebate, plus the low price tire guarantee during the big tire event. so, in other words, we can agree that ford's tire event is a good size? big big

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. welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. among the stories that we are following this morning, there is a crackdown that's taking place on internet use at consumer products giant procter & gamble. the wall street journal says the company's 129,000 employees got a memo about excessive internet use after tech support staffers found out workers were viewing 50,000 youtube videos a day and listening to 4,000 hours of music on pandora. you thought you were messing and at your cube call, right? as we get set for the masters to start, a well-known golf brand is changing brands. callaway is selling to dick's sporting goods. >> you can still listen to pandora and do work at the same time and play youtube videos,

sometimes music videos and listen to them as you're typing and doing other things. just as a defense, in defense of procter & gamble. coming up, virginia governor bob mcdonald will tell us whether he listens to pandora. no, he's going to talk to us about politics, the economy and the state of business in virginia. still to come, weekly jobless claims are due out at 8:30 eastern. we'll bring you the numbers and the instant market reaction. "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box." the eventual gop running candidate will need a running mate. donald trump gave us his thoughts on tuesday. >> i think bob mcdonald is a great choice. he's from virginia, he's done a really good job. and people like him a lot. >> joining us now, virginia governor bob mcdonald. governor, it's great to see you. thanks. >> hey, good morning. thanks for having me on. >> i don't know if your ears were burning earlier. i was saying it wouldn't be that long of a drive. it's a couple of hours, 107 miles. you could sort of stay where you are if you had to go to d.c. every day and commute from richmond. then i saw you got this great unemployment rate in february in virginia.

i'm going to give you total credit for that. what was it? it was under 6%, right? >> 5.7. lowest in three years and lowest in the southeastern part of the united states. >> you know what i thought, though, governor? >> what's that? >> you're next to d.c., the growth capital of the universe at this point. how much of that is -- but governments have been laying off. how much of that is just arlington's right across the river, right, or very close to d.c. how much of that is off this government largess? >> i don't think there's any question for maryland and virginia having proximity to d.c. is helpful. a lot of our economic expansion is in that northern virginia quarter. the majority are private sectors jobs, technology jobs, some defense contract bug there's any number of other financial services jobs, service jobs. it's largely the entrepreneurs,

republicans and democrats working together in the legislature to provide new economic development incentives. we've made a lot of progress the last couple years. the risk takers, capitalists, the small businessman, they're the ones getting this done for us. >> i would think that would cause people in virginia to embrace what you're doing in free market capitalism but obama is ahead by like 8 point above romney, whether you're on the ticket or not in virginia. why? >> well, because it doesn't matter at this point. i mean, the president is unopposed. he's got the bully pulpit, he's able to do any number of things and we've got a contest between four people. so everybody's negatives has built up. we're turning the corner now. mitt romney is going to be the nominee. i endorsed him two months ago. everybody knows he's our best guy to beat president obama. once it gets to be a head-to-head people look at romney as a state later,

compared to what's happened over these last three years, once it gets to be head to head, those numbers tighten up quite a bit and i believe mitt romney will win virginia. you look at the last election cycles, republicans are doing very well in virginia. >> do you think santorum should quit? and have you had discussions? we had rubio on earlier. he said he won't even accept if offered. will you accept if offered? >> well, you know what i might do, i might start looking at youtube videos during the day of "squawk box" just to make sure i see all the great clips that you're playing. i think that would be good. >> should santorum leave? should he get out of the race? >> here's what i think. i think that each candidate as got to make that decision but i think the question right now is what is the best for the party and what's the best for the nation and what's the best to be able to have a republican candidate beat president obama.

mitt romney is clearly going to be the nom nay. we have pennsylvania coming up, rom the momentum there now. i think senator centrse santoruo have a real discussion about whether it's prudent to go on. it time to start the general election cycle and that would help the country a lot. >> if asked to serve, would you accept? >> i don't know. i'm having a great time being governor here. i'll let you expert decide that. >> you've seen the -- i don't know when the rhetoric ramped up. i like earlier this week, thinly veiled social darwinism. he got zero votes on his budget but the ryan budget was thinly veiled social darwinism. i want to give you republicans a gift. why don't up say what we've seen so far has been not so thinly

veiled socialism from the president? does that work? >> listen, these labels aren't helpful. i will say that this is an administration that continues to embrace big government solutions to everything, one size fits all from washington. his budget, his leadership is so poor that even his own party rejected unanimously his budget. we haven't had a budget in over a thousand days. for a governor that would be illegal and embarrassing. we need stronger leadership up there. i tell what you we need more so is honesty. in virginia we cut spending dramatically, we've had a surplus of $1 billion the last two years. you got to do it. you got to tell people we can't afford this anymore. it means entitlement spending and discretionary spending has to go. we're going broke. that's unacceptable.

it's time for a change in leadership. his budget was terrible. >> that was good jooub stuff from you. thanks for coming on. hope you're a frequent guest. >> hey, have me back. you're welcome. >> we're just a few minutes from weekly jobless claims. we're back with that data in a moment. more than 150 million professionals are connecting here. linkedin connects with the big board. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing.

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welcome back to "squawk box." survey says 357,000, that is down, down 6,000 from a revised 359. so 359 moves up to 363, 363 moves down t357. so you're down your 6k. really i would think if you want to take a step back, 350 is the pivot and that's the way traders are looking at this. we continue to hover in a zone we haven't seen since '08. continuing claims pretty much the same story. last month's 3.34 million moved up a smidge to 3.35 and that number to current number, 3.338 down a bit. you know, we saw the challenger

layoffs down so of course that is a good things and it going to continue to fuel the speculation by many viewers trying to pick the winning number for tomorrow's shortened session but still release of the employment report. i think the biggest news is the fed meeting sparked a lot of selling in treasuries and the minutes of that meeting sparked a lot of selling in treasuries but guess what? nonsustainable. we see yields going down. as a matter of fact, in the back yard of really closest to the current car accident in europe, we see boone rates are now in the 170s. they're a handful of basis points away from their lowest ever yield close in the 160s and that is what we should be paying closest attention to. back to you guys. >> rick, isn't it interesting, though, the stock market seems to be baking out qe and the bond market doesn't seem to be doing it. i would have thought the bond market given what all the commentary is about the federal

reserve would be 240, even 250 if qe3 is not coming. >> see, the federal reserve should wake up and smell the bond market coffee fumes! the world has issues in the credit market. it will continue to keep high quality sovereign paper, which is a relative term, probably at lower yields. so exactly what's fueling the federal reserve in this strategy is an inherent micromanagement fear. they want to hold on to all the options. and i just think that's the problem. that's why capitalism is the best. you can't think about all these things. it's impossible. >> isn't there a point, guys, i'll throw this out to both of you, where the fed has said we're going to keep rates low for that time but keeping our options open? basically they're telling us things are no different than they have been, everything is reliant on the data? >> it's a little bit more than just a forecast. it's in the policy statement and

they've elevated it. >> it's still not a promise. >> it's still conditional. i was talking to lou alexander yesterday, rick. when you go out and look at the forward curve beyond the 2014, the rates are still low. in other words, i don't know what the market is doing beyond the two-year time horizon. so think about a ten-year note as the combination of, you know, ten one-year rates, or 356 times whatever it is, 3,500 one-day rates. even when you bake out the 2014 promise, rick, going way out the market is still expecting locates raites. >> i remember my buddy when he was long at 5,000 in the nasdaq the day before the tech wreck. his comment was all the strategy

by most of the largest, most successful hedge funds are long technical stocks. what happened. the forward curve is great. the building blocks are the bigger curve but it's still a trade at the end of the day and there's no certainty any of those positions will prove to be direct. >> here with us is the head of global fixed income at jefferies. why don't you weigh in on this debate, too. >> i think a wrote a piece two or three weeks ago that i cam paired the u.s. treasury market to the miami condo market. i think this will sit well with rick and maybe steve. when there's something silly going on because the government has imposed a regulation that allows an as tote go up or down in a very significant way beyond fundamentals, we get prices that move to places that make no sense. that happened in miami condos in 2005 and 2006. that happened because we have an arbitrage on our bank balance sheets that allowed them to take

5,000 loans, put them in a package, blend them up, 60% came up triple a and everybody kept buying they as if they were government bond. they weren't. so we were told to make more loans to people to buy more miami condos. the government is intervening in the freshry market now. there's a whole load of government intervention through the fed to drive the prices of treasury securities beyond ni sense of fundamental value. >> will it blow up like the miami condo market? >> that's always the question. you have to look at when does a government intervention turn in i think we're at the point where we're hearing from some fed officials they want to turn sooner rather than later. these guys are going to talk tough because they're central bankers and they need to talk like they wear about inflation when are i think the bullet being of the economy is -- >> did you like that? >> di. i like it a little more than liesman probably liked it.

>> no, it was -- >> i included you and maybe you'll like it. >> you've never spoken to him before? >> all the time actually. >> really? >> and maybe not anymore. but i kind of disagree, david. i think what rick was pointing out was -- >> duh! >> what is the fundamental value, right? all of what you have said presupposes that you have some knowledge of what the fundamental value should be. what i'm just pointing out is that the stock market has backed off of qe3 expectations, right? let's say the bond market is seeing the same thing the stock market is seeing. it also backed off. what happened to yields? they fell. why did they fall? probably what rick was pointing out you have an overlay on this of a search for the risk-off trade coming back on piling into treasuries. so the market by itself irrespective of government intervention is making a determination about bond yields being lower regard business of

government intervention. you tell me what the fundamental value is in this role. >> i'll say two things about fundamental values. rate expectations by and large haven't changed since the beginning of the year the back month, year-dollar futures. s&p are up, 11%s are 12%. they backed off 1% or 2% from the highs and everybody is running around like a chicken with their head cut off saying it's risk off. we're up double digits for the year. the bond market hasn't budged. why? because it's basically set by the government. the government is buying it. >> byron? >> absolutely not. the government can't affect long rates. long rates are affected by fear. it nor than just the risk-off -- >> then you'd argue that operation twist and everything else -- >> we auctioned 30-year bonds last week, the treasury and fed bought them yesterday. they can't really affect long rates when the the tipping

effect occurs, they'll be deluged. they have influenced due to their jelly bean purchases. it has affected it. we're playing tug of war. they've moved the knot, okay. we don't know where rates would be. they would still probably be low but the subsidies of governments affect a collateral everybody wants and makes it even more scarce. >> let's get back to the fundamentals. >> i need to ask you your outlook on the fed. have they shifted into some form of neutral here? what is your outlook? is qe3 coming? >> i think think s completely contingent on the data. if they need it, they'll pull it out in a second. >> what about the unemployment rate? >> i think the unemployment rate will be key. ben spelled out a the love his thoughts on structural versus cyclical markets in his presentations over the past few

weeks. i think they do not believe that this fall in the unemployment rate is sustainable. they don't see it consistent with the rest of the data and the rest of the models. to the extent the unvoumt rate start to go back up, think think they pull the trigger very quickly. >> it was nice to see you, david. it's too bad you won't be back but -- >> rick, can i come to chicago? >> you're welcome back any time. you don't need an intermediary anyway. what are you doing tomorrow? >> bring him in. >> david is one of the best. you used to work at the fed, right? >> i was at the board of governors in 2009. >> i wondered. >> thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> i got it, i got it. >> 20 nfl stars were selected for a special training camp but this camp has nothing to do with football.

i'll tell you why some familiar football faces are at hollywood. and a hiring boom in the aviation history. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪ there's no people like show people, they smile when they are low ♪ optionsxpress, where you can trade your favorite products, all in one account. keep watch on the markets.

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welcome back on this thursday morning. the futures right now looking not so great. dow would be off by about 55 points. there you can see our percentage open, just 4.1%. so dramatic. let's review march retail sales results we've gotten so far this morning. target increase of 7. 4%, and macy's above analyst estimates and gap also beating. we have a nice little string of reports this morning. gap estimates comp stores increase of 8%. in other news, i'm actually very excited about this, job growth in the aviation industry is soaring but how long will the boom in airplane manufacturing continue? phil joins us now from a ball bearings plant in torington, connecticut. he thought he joined us and then he didn't join us and now he's

joined us again. phil, i don't know if you know that you left us for a moment but it's good to see you. what's going on? can you show us a ball bearing right there? >> oh, it's right here. we'll talk more about that in just a little bit. andrew, this plant is a perfect example of the explosive growth we're seeing in manufacturing in this country. we're at the rbc bearing plant in torington, connecticut. there are about 200 workers in this plant who will build about 2.5 million bearings that will be shipped out to the the boeings and airbuses. this is what we're seeing if manufacturing around the country. look at the job growth over the last three years. more than 420,000 jobs have been added and year to date 83,000 and that's expected to go up dramatically. what's driving it in aviation? record orders for new planes and engines. boeing and airbus, we've talked about it before, their back logs extend through the end of the decade and rbc, they're right in

the middle of it. their net sales laquarter up 17% versus a year ago, volume up 25%, payroll by 16%. and they're expanding four plants to keep up with growing demand. >> we have never experienced in this country a demand for aircraft products to the level that it is today. and we also see that demand being extension waiting by airbus looking to source many of its components in the united states. >> you know the growth they're seeing here at rbc has been in theed -- noticed by investors. check out the ticker symbol, the dow up 19% over the last three years. back live at the plant here in

torington, this is a bearing. there are tens of thousands of these in all major airplanes. this one in particular goes into the flaps on the wings and they go up and down, when you see the flaps going down and up, they're controlled by bearings like this. they're shipping 2.5 million who the airline companies. >> thank you very much, phil. >> when we come back, they are going from the end zone to thend cr -- the end credits. nfl stars learning to be writers, producers and directors. we'll have the story when we come right back. the most spectacular experiences are happening here.

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welcome back to "squawk box." hedge fund manager phil falcon considering a bankruptcy filing for his wireless network company light squared. he said the idea behind such a filing would be to build up the network and "protect the company

from creditors who are more interested in a quick flip." there have been long-time questions about the number of investors have left the fund in part because of it. we'll keep an eye on that. down to the new york stock exchange where melissa and jim join us thousand. hey, guys. >> hey, carl is here, too. >> oh, i was told -- carl, i was told you might not be there, but i'm glad you're in the seat. what are you guys looking at this morning? jobless claims, i would imagine. views on phil falcone? >> we'll talk some falcone? >> i think so. >> spanish yield, as you guys know, higher than they were pre-ltro. i know, jim, you want to talk retail today. gap is going to open at an 11-year high. >> look, i think this is america versus europe. michelle caruso cabrera had interesting comments on your

show, basically don't sweat this one. don't sweat spain that much. she's the first person who said it but i'm banking with her. >> all right. >> and retail? >> so good. borrow, borrow, borrow. >> the pull through is the big question, whether or not we're going to see next month or any sort of guidance within these retail sales numbers of continuing strength because we had very good weather and an early easter and that has helped a lot of them. >> not to mention opening day today. he'll be watching the phillies. i'll be watching the cubs and, joe, i assume you'll be watching the reds? >> the masters. >> i'll be watching the masters. 3:00 p.m., yeah. tiger, he's 4-1 in the field 12-1 and then phil is there, too. he points out how many times recently a guy that you just would not have thought of has won a lot in the last few years.

like last year. you're going to watch that, carl, you're into that. >> coverage begins at the 3:00, i think? you don't see it as a two-man race between mcilroy and tyinger? >> i would throw phil in there. once we get started we'll know more by sunday night. >> and we're going to start "mad money" later because that's around the eighth or ninth inning of the 1:30 game. >> is that true? >> we have priorities. >> okay, guys. we will see you in just a few minutes. talk to you very, very soon. out with the playbook and in with the script, 20 nfl players are at hollywood boot camp today to try to learn how to be writers, directors, and producers. jay wells joins us with more on this story and why these guys would want to get good at these things anyway. jane? >> becky, you know they had to write critical essays to compete to get into this. now players are learning to tackle something that may be even tougher, the film business.

>> e.k., let me have you here. >> all right. that's hollywood veteran robert to townsend directing the san diego chargers in a film called "the squatte squatter." it is made up of current or pro players who applied in a fierce competition for the first hollywood boot camp put on by the nfl, the brainchild of indy film financier who gave them a pep talk. >> if you can do what you do for a living, you can do that. this business is about access and getting some experience and being a pa and exposure. not rocket science. >> who are you dying to meet? >> harvey weinstein. his track record is amazing. if i ever get to meet him, i'll get star struck the first time, so i hope i get to meet him twice. >> he would intimidate you? >> he definitely would intimidate me. >> i was an a.d., i was a slate man -- i don't know if that has a word.

>> that's ferguson of the jets who has plans to write and direct on the challenges of finding big and tall clothes. this comedy being shot on the back lot he learned to be a sound man and hold a boom. did it get heavy for you. >> it actually did. i did not do a good job. we had to do a couple of takes. boom shadow. i have a lot of respect. i didn't do a good job. >> reporter: this being hollywood they are next to wisteria lane. you never know who will show up. eva longoria throws like tim tebow. zing. the nfl pays are for the costs of the boot camp except the airfare to hollywood. and hard to tell who was more star struck in that scene. >> i like it. i like it. but, jane, the home of the jets here. what did ferguson say about t

tebow? >> reporter: i did ask him, especially after eva longoria disses, about his new quarterback team. listen. >> i think it will be interesting how the tandem works. you know, you have two quarterbacks now, how are we going to use them, how is it going to work out. i have to look at it in a positive fashion because if he's on our team now, then i have to think that's definitely going to be the best opportunity to be successful. that's why we make these moves whether it be coaches or players. >> reporter: but it is a little different, isn't it? >> most definitely it is different. it's unexpected. but sometimes unexpected things can be blessings in disguise. >> reporter: i think the guy ought to run for mayor or go to the u.n. that was about the most diplomatic answer i think i've ever heard. >> let's get behind the scenes, did he hear eva longoria trashing tebow? >> reporter: no, he didn't. and as soon as she said it, everybody went, whoa. i think she thought, maybe i shouldn't say that.

>> she didn't know it was an insult or did she? >> reporter: and you know what, she didn't realize there was a reporter there for cnbc. whatever you say, baby, i'm going to say on the air because i'm a multitasking reporter not just about this nfl boot camp but to get behind what hollywood is saying about tebow. i blew the lid off this story. >> you've got it. >> jane, thank you. we know you'll have more stuff on twitter, too, right? >> reporter: and a huge block of suggs interview. this is not his first dog and pony show -- rodeo, whatever, and more from d-brick on the website. i just have to get to work and do that after breakfast. >> jane wells burning it down. more from our guest host vice chairman. zap technology. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car.

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[ male announcer ] pringles... bursting with more flavor. [ crunch! ] departure. hertz gold plus rewards also offers ereturn-- our fastest way to return your car. just note your mileage and zap ! you're outta there ! we'll e-mail your receipt in a flash, too. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. tomorrow it's a special "squawk box." tomorrow it's a special "squaw " box" at a special time. the markets are on vacation but beare not. we've got some breaking news. britain's sky news just acknowledging that on two occasions it did hack e-mails in order to get stories and it's now saying the move was editorially justified and in the public interest. two cases involving individuals suspected of criminal activity. sky news chief john riley saying