companies. and a hedge fund manager making the case for the buffett rule arguing for higher taxes on himself. we have got a triple-ipo disaster du jour, three different names. one stock certainly has got to face the music. right now let's get to steve liesman because we are going to have breaking news with the beige book headlines right now. steve. >> hey, brian. thanks very much. interesting news in the beige book. the headline somewhat modest but inside the beige book a somewhat firmer tone to the report of anecdotes from the 12 different federal reserve districts. the economy continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace. that's the lackluster headline. inside we find that five report faster or solid growth. manufacturing expands in most districts with the best gains in autos and in high-tech. manufacturers were optimistic in many districts but concerned about high oil prices. consumer spending reports were said to be "encouraging" but worries were expressed about gas prices throughout the districts. new vehicle sales were strong or strengthening across most of the

united states. residential real estate even got in the game "showing some improvement." hiring approving in many districts. and wage pressure we watch this every time to see what the fed is learning about inflation. wage pressure was constrained overall inflation pressure modest. i want to focus on what the beige book is saying about retail. it was set to be strong in boston, new york and st. louis. a significant strengthening in chicago and richmond, moderate and modest in four other districts. kansas city and dallas among them. loan improvement -- loan demand also improved in eight districts with the report of increased competition among lenders. new york employers, this is of interest to our east coast viewers, planning to step up hiring activity. and employers in other districts however were cautious using temporary workers. so, brian, i would say that there is some data out there that confirms this firmer tone to the beige book. other data which sort of contradicted claims and isms are sort of positive and are

confirmed in the beige book. the jobs numbers and some of the other data has not. compared to last month it is definitely a firmer tone. >> and we should welcome in kelly evans. nice to have you back. she's forgotten more about the fed and economy than i'll ever know. i will ask my lehman's question. to me what sticks out in the most positive way is one of the final points object loan demand being up and increased competition among banks. that sounds like good news. >> it's really good news in the sense, brian, as you know that when you get loan demand, you get growth down the road. it's not something that you see automatically, but it's something that leads to businesses to expand. and then they end up hiring to sort of staff those expansions. >> steve, this is also the kind of report you might think coupled with the minutes from the federal reserve's latest meeting would suggest policymakers don't see the need to do anything right away. but if you fast forward to the last week we've seen in the markets and some of the news we've gotten since then, do you think this is somewhat at odds with what the fed may be internally thinking? >> well, i think dennis lockhart

this morning probably characterized the way a lot of feds officials are thinking about the jobs report which is that it's one report and they'll wait to see more confirmation. this would tend to lean against the idea that the jobs market is weakening. the anecdotal data. it would tend to say as you point out qe-3 is more distant because of this improved economy. and the question becomes for the stock market, what do you want? do you want the fed coming in and easing amid a weak economy? or do you want the possibility of fed easing more on the back burner because of a strengthening economy? >> right. people want to see the stronger economy but say you can't not be exposed to risk at this point. one way or the other -- >> i'm going to cut you off. i'm watching the market selloff on this just a bit and run-up in anticipation of this. [ overlapping speakers ] >> don't give me growth. >> you're so right. it's an addiction practically. broadly speaking it would be great if we weren't at that point, but of course right now they'd rather have it -- >> i'll be the referee because you guys are both right.

you're on the same point, i think, which is this, this whole qe-addiction, it's the great paradox we're fating now. if growth slows shouldn't the market go up because you believe qe-3 chances are greater, but if growth grows up -- >> maybe we're not at that point. it hasn't gotten bad enough to get better. >> what would you do? would you buy on the clean bill of health from the doctor? or would you buy on the prescription of the medicine? just telling me there's a medicine that will cure my ailment doesn't make me feel as good as if the doctor tells me i'm good. >> the problem is when you get addicted to the prescription drugs, you see. and if we get too addicted to the fed and the medicine -- >> you're speaking firsthand experience -- >> i think most people would rather see the economy strengthen, real growth incorporate profitability, incorporate earnings -- i've said a million times the stock is just the future value of earnings. period.

>> i think right now where we are is there's a lot of hot money that's playing qe-3. it is washing in and out of the market based upon qe-3 possibilities. i think you're absolutely right when it comes to the basis of the market. say i don't know 80% or 90% of traders, but that 10% marginal money, that hot money in and out, that's the guys who give us selloff on less qe-3 and the guy who is give us the buy on more qe-3. >> we're hearing so much from fed officials this week. today are we seeing anything that might materially change the outlook? >> tonight is really important. lockhart thinks only in extreme situations and janet yellen very important speaker going to talk about monetary policy on the -- >> it's not televised but i believe it will be simulcast. >> and we have bob weir on at 5:00. he has a cool new deal. >> now you've caught my interest. >> is that more important than yellen?

>> it's not. thanks so much. we want to quickly check in with markets less than two hours to go before the close. nice comeback from recent losses this week that is. the dow hasn't had a losing streak that long since last summer. of course we've seen a little weakness after that beige book report hit. for the dow, s&p and nasdaq we have the biggest one-day gain still since march 26th. all three on track for biggest drops of 2012 will take more to change that. let's get down to bob and rick. bob, what are you watching? >> i think the important thing is i think this is rather positive tone to this whole statement. manufacturers optimistic, consumer spending encouraging, hiring and loan demand improving, all pretty positive. what it hasn't done is move the markets much. we're sitting right near the highs of the day. while it's not selling off, it's not doing too much right now. the important thing is overall most of the major sectors have moved up very early on and stayed up. we have nice moves up almost 2% in the financials. 1.5% in consumer

discretionaries. the industrials have been strong. materials also strong. this has essentially been moving sideways all throughout the afternoon ever since the open. what is a little strange is the sudden burst of enthusiasm for the markets after all this jitteriness in the last few days. look at the advance to decline five to one advancing to declining. this is exactly the opposite of yesterday. yesterday it was five to one declining to advancing stocks. literally the same numbers exactly flipped around. alcoa a little marginally better news, i don't think overall the sudden enthusiasm is necessarily warranted. back to you. >> rick, what do you think? >> well, you know what, let's switch gears. i know it's kind of touchy-feely, the minutes. now i'm going to a number also out at 2:00 eastern. i call it the, gee, how much more did i spend and take in number, other people call it a monthly budget statement for march it's $198 billion 200 million increased a little over 5% from last month.

and just to put that in perspective, and i think my number's high, but should there really be 198,000 people that actually made a million dollars to qualify for the buffett rule? if you tax them each another million dollars, you would have covered this one month deficit. ponder that. >> that's a great point, rick. we're going to talk about the buffett rule in just one second with a guy who says he should be taxed more. >> tell him to write a check. write a check. >> i will. hold on. i'm going to see your stats and i'm going to raise you. the government spends -- do you know what the federal government spends every minute? $7 million a minute. $402 million a day. okay. so you talk about the buffett rule maybe raising optimistically -- >> you can tax everybody -- >> you're talking $60 billion to $80 billion a year raised that will fund the federal government's spending habit by the tune of a cool week. the question i have for the president if i ever sat down

with him is what about the other 51 weeks of the year? >> cool. i'm with you, buddy. >> that's a good response. cool. rick, thank you very much. well, warren buffett is not alone. we have another member here who is wealthy and says that others like him should be taxed more. joining us now from d.c. is whitney tillson and his assistant who has a higher tax rate than the boss. well-known to cnbc viewers. whitney, i understand you heard our previous conversation with rick. probably none too pleased. what is your beef with the conversation? the numbers were spot-on. >> yes. they were. there are two problems to the point that i should just write a check. i'm not going to pay anymore taxes than a vacuum. what needs to happen is a comprehensive budget deal with $2.5 billion in spending cuts for every dollar in increases. there have to be revenue increases. there's no sane honest person in the planet and i realize i excluded most of congress with

that statement, believe we can get back under control without some revenue increases. taxes are going to have to go up on tens of millions of people. somebody has to go first. who should go first? and who should do not only their fair share but maybe more than their fair share? my argument would be the very wealthiest people on the planet. i'm lucky enough to be part of that group. >> agreed. >> need to go first and set the tone for the rest of what has to happen here. that gets to the second point you made, which is, gee, even if the buffett rule goes through, that's only $47 billion. in the context of our long-term deficit, that doesn't sound like much. i don't know what planet you live on, but where i live $47 billion is real money. and if we the wealthiest people in the country don't come up with our $47 billion, that means 47 million other average americans are going to have to come up with an extra $1,000 each. that's for people still trying to recover from this economic -- that's real money. >> whitney, i agree with you 100%. i'm not saying $47 million isn't

something, it's certainly a start. you're a numbers guy. you know the numbers. the point i was making with that is that we're talking about one week of spending. it's become a political issue. and the president paints it almost as we can solve a lot of our problems. we're not going to be able to solve hardly any of our problems. mike bloomberg had an amazing op ed. he came from very humble beginnings, he's a billionaire now. but he said everybody is going to have to pay more because we've got the false promise of something for nothing. >> right. look, i talked to the president today and i listened to his comments today. and he emphatically said this isn't enough by itself. not even a meaningful small amount. but $47 billion is a first step. look, i think the problem is everybody is sitting on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to go first. well, somebody's got to go first to show some courage here. and demonstrate some shared sacrifice. who better to demonstrate shared

sacrifice than the very wealthiest people in this country who right now are paying the lowest tax rates we've ever paid. >> whitney, i wanted to ask kelly while she's there with you, kelly, what's your tax rate? >> i'm taxed -- i'm in the 30 -- >> 33.4%. >> 33.4% tax rate. >> that's your headline rate. your effective tax rate is probably somewhere around 15% after deductions. >> no. this includes payroll taxes but using apples to apples comparison, we went back and compared our 2010 tax returns. we don't have 2011 done yet. what we discovered is two things. my adjusted gross income in that year was 39 times higher than kelly's and she was a little above 33% and i was a little below 25%. raise your hand if you think that makes any sense? the guy making 30 times more money paying a much lower tax rate. >> kelly, do you feel

comfortable being part of this conversation? being part of a political story basically? >> actually, yes. i really didn't know the numbers at this point. so it's enlightened me. having this conversation, being here at the white house and, yeah, it's been very great. >> kelly's been having fun. let me point something out here. kelly doesn't resent -- we've talked about this as we looked at these numbers. we were both sort of agast. we were shocked. i was shocked. kelly doesn't resent the fact i built a successful business and i've done very well and i've been very fortunate, right? we both -- she admits to having the feeling, gee, you're making that much more than me yet i'm paying a higher tax rate, it made her sort of -- >> kelly, how did that make you feel? >> yeah. >> how did that make me feel? like he was saying, i didn't feel resentment. what did cross my mind is my own family.

and, actually, for me as a young single woman in new york, i want to be able to retire comfortably. so having this tax rate -- the buffett tax rate for millionaires would maybe decrease my taxes and that would make me feel a little better about my future. >> you know, whitney, i got to ask you a couple things. >> yeah. >> i respect you and warren buffett. you guys are much more successful than i am, but you could pay yourself an ordinary income. >> so you're saying we could just voluntarily write a bigger check? >> i'm not saying you need to voluntarily write a larger check. i'm saying people who are smart about their taxes, right, they will take what the government offers them. the same way that 47 million households do who pay no net federal income tax after deductions. >> yeah, yeah. very, very clever statement because at least you're clarifying what you're talking about. there's a grand myth out there that 47 million people pay no taxes. that's what you read about in

the papers. >> i always use the term net federal -- they pay federal and state -- both my parents paid taxes for a living. >> turns out payroll taxes are nearly 50% of kelly's federal taxes and less than half of 1% of my federal taxes. it's real important to understand how regressive that payroll tax is and how much more it effects middle income people. so the point here though is neither warren buffett nor i are interested in just paying more taxes. nor by the way do we, you know, is there anything wrong with people paying the taxes that they are legally required to. and trying to take advantage of deductions et cetera. the problem is not mitt romney or me or our behavior, we're just paying what we're supposed to. the problem is the crazy tax code that's taxing the very, very, very wealthiest people in the world at a substantially -- >> i got to leave it here, i know you know the numbers as well. the tax rate, the net effective tax rate for the median income

household has declined dramatically over the last 30 years. and i like what you said at the top when you said millions of more are going to have to pay, somebody has to start. you agree that in the end taxes are going to have to go up on everybody unless spending is cut dramatically because the numbers will never ever ever add up at the current rate of spending and revenue. >> yeah. by the way, i would tend to agree though i would not say everybody. it may not be the very poorest people in this country. i don't think necessarily have to pay much more. but -- by the way, i agree there will have to be $2 or $3 in cuts for every revenue increase. i think we're on the same page. i want a comprehensive deal. i'm speaking out because i think the buffett rule has to be part of any comprehensive deal. >> whitney tilson, kelly, thank you both very much. feisty conversation by putting yourself out there, we appreciate it. thank you. take care. >> all righty. >> look at natural gas prices by the way. >> both your parents do taxes?

>> my father on the corporate side. my mother on her third career at 73 years of age does taxes for a well-known national tax preparer. >> amazing. >> my mom's on her third career at 73 years old. natural gas, we are at 10-year lows. natural gas prices down by more than half in just a few months. and look at the natural gas etf. it's gone from $128 in '09 to $15 today. we're going to talk to boone pickens in a minute. first let's bring in kate kelly about delta buying an oil refinery, what? >> i know. a lot of people criticized delta. they thought this was wrong headed, made no sense, weren't going to generate any cost savings. i got a little more detail i think is friendlier to the delta story. here's how it might work out. essentially delta still in talks to buy the facility in pennsylvania. and what they would do is put most of the balance sheet risk -- once the plant was actually purchased, onto

jpmorgan. jpmorgan would essentially buy the barrels of crude from overseas, ship them over here, finance the refining process. and once they came up with the products that this particular facility generates, which right now it's only about 12% jet fuel, it's other things like diesel and kerosene. jpmorgan would sell the jet fuel to delta essentially at cost and then sell some of the other products as it wanted to on the open market hopefully from their perspective for a profit. one other element. delta has made some deals with at least two big oil companies to trade them other things for jet fuel. so, for example, some of the diesel that's generated from traynor they might trade to one of these oil companies and then in return get jet fuel. maybe they can hedge on the paper market more effectively. delta has a junk bond rate iing. so their cost of financing trades is expensive and they might be subject to margin calls if the market went against them. the other thing is refineries

are at dirt cheap prices. we're talking $100 million to $200 million. >> because you can make money operating them. >> exactly. but if you made it more efficient and had the balance sheet risk, maybe it works better. >> why wouldn't it make more sense for them to buy stock in a company, take a phillips 66, someone with better ri finery margins. why after conoco, why this deal? >> i think they like this location. this is a very good question brian raised last week. they like this location. there's pipeline that could take them from pennsylvania to new york. and they have a lot of action at la guardia and jfk as well especially since the northwest merger. it behooves them to sell to competitors in new york. they're thinking out of the box here. >> yeah. oh, wait, it didn't. anyway, kate kelly, great stuff. exclusive bizarre story. you've been all over it. let's get now to boone pickens. i talked to boone earlier today basically pinged him an e-mail him and his buddy and i said can

you come on and talk nat gas. he agreed. and we appreciate it. i know you heard the tax conversation with whitney. that was noble of them to come out. i heard that you might have a comment on this tax issue as well. can you hit that? >> i've got to be identified as an expert because since i'm 83 and after i was 70, the last 13 years, i've paid $665 million in taxes. and i'm not under investigation by the irs or anything else. but i don't like for somebody to tell me i'm not paying my fair share. >> $665 million in taxes? >> that's exactly right. now, what i want to do is introduce some legislation that after 80 that you don't have to pay anymore taxes. >> wait, what? >> boone, come on. now i know you're just being boone. now you're just being pickens.

>> what? >> now you're just pulling our leg. i've known you a long time. you're not serious about that. no taxes after 80? >> no. i'm teasing. >> i knew it. listen, a lot of people can pay themselves -- they can choose to pay themselves how they would. if i was paid in capital gains, right, i would probably pay myself the capital gains tax rate as well. why don't people just pay themselves an ordinary income? >> why don't they? >> yeah. >> because they'd rather pay long-term capital gains, i can tell you that. >> let's talk about natural gas. we got to move on. the tax thing is sort of causing -- >> it was $665 million impressive. >> you pay more than taxes than i would make seven times over in my life. thank you by the way because you're funding a lot of programs in america with those tax dollars. but i do want to talk about natural gas, which is aus tense bli why we asked you to come on this program. we briefly broke a $1.99 trade.

either way. where is this thing going to stop? how low are we going on natural gas? >> you got to be close. no kidding. "new york times" today had a great conference. i just came from there 30 minutes ago. a great conference. and you got secretary of energy chu on there saying natural gas will be used for heavy duty trucks and everything. the natural gas is going to be used. what a beautiful time to do it with the price down at $2. but i have to think you're close to the bottom here. >> yeah. i'm looking at live natural gas. we're actually under $2 right now, boone. we're nearing those2001 lows. why do you think that we could be near a bottom? what are you seeing in either the supply/demand scenario, the new drilling scenarios that is leading you to believe that, yeah, this could be a bottom for nat gas? >> well, you have the rig count going down. that's what you want to watch most closely is rigs drilling

for natural gas. oh, i think you were down 10 or 15 rigs last week. and you'll be down again this week. and so as rig count goes off, well, you know, it's going to cause, you know, supply to shorten up. it's the way it works. it will take a while for it to happen. >> there have been more and more concerns about what this might be doing in terms of causing earthquakes, whether people are using hydraulic fracturing techniques to get at the natural gas. do you expect to have regulation in retro speck reducing -- >> forget the earthquakes. you can put a seismic instrument on just a movement to the rock and all and you can register a two on the richter scale and you don't even notice it at the

surface. that's silly stuff. fracked over 800,000 oils in oklahoma and kansas. it's where -- listen to me closely, but the concern i have is that you mess up a fresh water aqua fir. those occur about 7,000 feet. from north of midland texas to the south dakota border is the largest one in north america. those 800,000 wells have been fracked. and i do not know of one incident that it was damaged. >> there is concern about the amount of water it takes to get at natural gas at a time when there are a lot of parts of the country really badly have droughts. >> well, that's true. but think though the water in one place could be abundant and 100 miles away could be short supply. there's plenty of water to do what they're doing. they run a closed system on the frac jobs. i've fracked over 3,000 wells

and i've never had a failure yet. so it's a technique -- a technology. first time i saw a frac job was in 1953. now, i heard the president say the other day the department of energy developed the fracking technology 30 years ago. i don't know what he's talking about because i saw it over 50 years ago and i've fracked 3,000 wells. you're talking to an expert on this issue. >> you're an expert on a lot of things, boone. that's why we have you on. i'm going to put it out there, the pickens plan 2 no taxes after 80 years old or if you've paid more than $664 million over your lifetime in taxes. >> hear me on this last point. shoot, i can't remember what the last point was. >> you know, it's fine because that's a great way to end it, boone. that's why we like you. >> okay. >> boone pickens, thank you. $665 million in taxes over about 15 years. he made a few billion bucks. good for him.

i think that was an edited word. boone, thank you very much. watch out, sea suites. herb is here with two new candidates for the worst ceos and a triple disaster du jour. and the bears on the prowl. on track for one of the worst weeks of the year but we have found stocks managed to keep their footing nonetheless. "street signs" will be right back. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and longer retirements. ♪ ask your financial professional

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all right. disaster du jour time. this is disasters inflation time. not one, not two, we're bringing you a trifecta of disasters du jour. >> absolutely. two of the three don't even look like disasters at least on the surface today. look at pandora and groupon since the first day of trading last year. pandora down around 50% and groupon down around 48%. of course it's suffered one accounting mishap after another. and look at bright cove. it was a hot ipo in february rapidly losing luster this week. really no reason why except perhaps technical issues i suspect or someone knows something i don't know. kelly you and i were talking

about this of some companies moving but we think there's something somebody knows and digging for it. >> absolutely. because if you take a look at our sunshine -- >> she sells seashells -- >> ticker up about 5% today. the gourmet food and restaurant made ipo debut last july. today a big outsized move for no sensible reason. we are going to get our trade on. we're going to look at the most even keeled well-tempered trades for your portfolio. >> plus, $222 a day, that's how much it costs to keep a loved one in a nursing home. why isn't anyone talking about this sticker shock when it comes to health care debate? "street signs" back in a moment.

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[ traffic passing ] ♪ [ music box: lullaby ] [ man on tv, indistinct ] ♪ [ lullaby continues ] [ baby coos ] [ man announcing ] millions are still exposed to the dangers... of secondhand smoke... and some of them can't do anything about it. ♪ [ continues ] [ gasping ] all right. it's a live look at time square in new york of a two-story tall mock-up of the stanley cup. nhl playoffs kicking off. should be a wild season. the devils coming on even though they're a low seed. the philadelphia flyers and penguins who don't like each other at all. they'll be matched up in the first round.

the predators and red wings will be right here on nbc. let us get now to today's street talk. we boogy through. markets, stocks snapping a five-session losing streak. alcoa helped. stock leading gainer in the dow 30. story two, tsunami alerts have been lifted in the indian ocean. this after a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of indonesia this morning. the quake shook buildings and sent residents fleeing from low lying areas. so far there have been no reports of major injury or damage, thankfully. and story three, natural gas. couldn't close below $2 a contract? let's go to bertha coombs at the complex. >> we haven't gotten the settlement price but the final trade here at $1.98 for natural gas. we saw a lot of defense -- a lot of traders saying there was a lot of defense virtually at every one one-thousandth of a

penny. we held at the 19999. it just collapsed here at the close. what's interesting if you take a look at the curve on nat gas, we're still above $2 starting in june and looking out a lot of traders say that the market not yet ready to get that short because we could have warmth this summer. the big move up in oil and gasoline on a better than expected inventory number. back over to you. >> amazing below $2. bertha, thanks so much. despite today's gains, the market is still on track for one of the worst weeks of the year. so how do you weather the storm? how about stability? we looked at the ten best performing stocks on the s&p 500 over the past two years. as expected, the list includes some high fliers like priceline and apple. but it also includes steady eddies, chipotle, dollar tree and starbucks have shown stable growth trends. let's bring in senior vice president at wedbush securities. you've seen the way markets changed a bit. do you stick with these stock

sns. >> well, i think obviously these stocks are the best performing stocks because they're the best performing companies. and these companies have done very, very well. but by virtue of the fact they're best performing stocks, they're very crowded trades. you have a lot of people in these stocks. so if the market really hits the skids, you know, the exit becomes very crowded as well. so i think, yes, they're great companies. but the danger level goes up because so many people own them. >> steve, what do you recommend people do then if they aren't to pile in? >> well, i think there's an awful lot of stocks out there that pay excellent dividends. i think the one thing that really hasn't moved in the rally are a lot of high-dividend paying companies. there are over 650 stocks listed in the u.s. that yield 5% or greater. it's very easy to build a very diversified portfolio of those names and create a very excellent income stream that would provide some downside -- >> we've heard a lot about dividend names. it's basically been the story of the last six months or so and

one of the worst performing ways to play the market. >> well, granted, the stocks have not moved that much. i think they still represent great values. it's probably a good place to look now. a lot of sort of high-floier fat growing companies have attracted a lot of money but a lot of stable high paying dividends stocks are not. you get paid to wait. if they don't rally or takes a long time to move, you're still collecting a 5%, to 8% dividend. >> i wonder if people shouldn't start playing the market as identifying the countertrend rallies. reminds you of maybe japan in the late '90s when they would often have strong countertrend rallies when you want to be exposed to higher beta names for lack of a better term. >> well, i think it's very difficult to identify those rallies. d i the big problems out there continues to be europe. clearly the ltro move that the ecb made back in december really

helped matters. but the ltro liquidity has sort of gone through the system now. and europe continues to be a problem. the last couple of days we saw some real contagion, a real risk-off trade. as these pop up in europe, they're going to impact our market and kind of come out of nowhere at times. it's difficult to ascertain when or if these contagion-type moves are going to happen. >> steve, thanks so much. tough day. tough year. tough actually five years for nokia and their big new windows phone. we're going to get into it with herb and his hit list of the worst ceos. i just dropped a hint. >> you did. and obama care's fate rests with the supreme court, many others can't wait. how to plan your retirement. if you are one of the millions of men

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i'm bill griffeth. coming up at the top of the hour on "closing bell," carnival shares have yet to recover from the costa concordia disaster in italy. should investors remain cautious on that stock or go full steam ahead? also casino stocks have been red hot this year. they've even weathered the recent pullback. is it too late to hit the jackpot with that group? we'll take a look. and the return of risky lending. banks offering new credit cards to high-risk borrowers. is that a smart business decision or a disaster in the make sng we'll get to that and the latest on wall street. maria and i look forward to seeing you from the new york stock exchange at the top of the hour.

>> bill, thank you. do you have an extra $222 a day? that's what it costs for a private room in a nursing home on average. many of you caring for ageing parents already know how much elder care can cost. with thousands entering senior years a day, do we have the money to pay for this care? let's ask mark parkinson ceo of the american health care association. welcome to "street signs.." >> great to be here. >> a lot of our viewers no doubt are likely paying for their parents or another loved one. they know how much it costs. costs are getting out of control. how can we take care of our loved ones but not go broke doing it? >> it's a great question. one of the most exciting things about deem graphics in the country is the ageing of the population. i know your viewers love stats. by the year 2050 the largest single age group in the country will be women over 85. which means we'll be spending a ton of money on health care and some money on long-term care. but right now we don't have a plan. we need to develop a plan with the commitment from the

government to cover these costs. that's the most important thing. >> there was the class act part of obama's overhaul because it made no actuary sense. >> right. people don't realize they have a benefit right now. they think nursing home stays are covered by medicare. they don't. we think there are larger things the government can do to reduce cost have a site neutral assistance payments. promoting quality and not services. and telling seniors we will guarantee that you'll have some benefit that will provide you some dignity. >> there's a lot of private insurers pulled out of this market because it doesn't look profitable or they're raising premiums significantly you can't count on affording this care. >> it's really challenging. only about 10 million of the 300 million or so americans have a long-term care benefit through private insurance. the truth is it's pretty cheap to buy if you buy it when you're

healthy. 45, 50, 55 and relatively healthy, for a relatively small amount of money they can cover themselves and won't have to worry about the government. >> is that your best recommendation to help our viewers manage that cost? >> absolutely. we're going to take care of this at the state and federal level, but all advice to folks, take care of this on your own. buy your own policy and prepare yourself for what might come down the road. >> it's expensive. >> mark, thank you, governor, thank you for joining us. >> appreciate that. >> up next, which ceos should herb add to his hit list? >> some spots just opened. three for five with his predictions going into 2012. we'll also get jim cramer's views. one kansas based governor, sorry about that. we're back after this. zap technology.

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welcome to the world leader in derivatives. welcome to superderivatives. here's one more quick look at our worst and best five ceos of the year. there you go. for herb the worst bryan at best buy and tony per ez of kodak. and ex-ceo reed hastings of

netflix and the co-ceo research in motion. it's wonderful. >> well, herb called it back in december. and of those worst ceos, three of the five are already out. and it is only april. the two left netflix reed hastings and kodak's antonio perez. we welcome back mr. prognosticator, herb greenberg. and we've also got jim cramer. >> i want to say something important here. >> i hope you're not saying something unimportant. >> on antonio, i want to point out, of the guys that are left, he's got to go. i don't understand how the guy can still be there when the company's already filed for bankruptcy. i do not believe reed hastings is going to lose his job. i don't think unless he really screws up by the end of the year he's there because he screwed up last year. a public debacle. i want to be public on that. point it out, he ain't going anywhere as best i know. so that's the old guys.

the new guys, we'll start with my two picks and then we'll add one pick of yours. >> we have the same pick. >> well, we have -- >> the two. we'll split a fabulous pick. >> you know what, this is the best pick ever and it's only in april. dan hessey of sprint. >> it's a terrible situation with nextel. he's doing everything -- it's true. he didn't make that stupid buy. that's what is really anile lating those guys. really, they can't anord to upgrade. that was not his decision. >> but here's my concern. herb, i'm sorry to interrupt. when the metro pcs deal was nicked by the board, they cut investors off by the knees. don't you agree? >> that shows you who is in control and that puts him certainly in the spot. it's still early in the year,

though. let's see if he can pull it out. let's get to our next guy. >> johnson? >> no. >> guys, hold on. we have a new statement about the brian dunn resignation. >> the statement is from a spokesman for the best buy board named greg hit and it says, quote, brian's resignation certainly had an effect on the investigation but the investigation remains open. the board is still looking into these issues. the investigation has not been closed. the company has been notably close-mouthed about what the issues of personal conduct were in the investigation. they had said that it did not go to questions of company operations or company finances. that rules out a lot of things. but it certainly leaves in the picture a lot of other things about which we wouldn't speculate at this point. but at any rate, the investigation is ongoing into the circumstances surrounding the departure of the former ceo, one of your worst of the year,

herb, brian dunn of best buy. >> i've got to say something else about this announcement. they should have said this first thing. by not saying the investigation was going on, when they announced his resignation, really gets to the heart of a greater issue at that company. >> what did you know back in december? >> don't you want to know? >> what did you know about the investigation. >> on a serious note -- how many millions is he going to get? >> it depends on the terms of his departure. we have to see what the cause is, cause or not cause. >> dan hesse is one. new or worst ceo? >> we have steven of nokia. >> i think when you have -- when you have -- >> i've got to tell you, yale professor was encouraging me to put him on the list last year. i didn't do it because he had

just been in for a year. i thought he needed more time. >> which i've coined greenberg's law, you cannot be on the list unless you've been there for a year. >> here's somebody on the list and will remain on the list. they are not going to lose their job because of who they are. it is andrew mason of groupon. clearly too maturely would be a ceo. doing a horrible job. one accounting mess after another. this is somebody who is just -- man, he just deserves to be there. >> you don't think he can lose his job? >> i don't think he can lose his job. >> oh, he can lose his job. >> he's not going to lose his job. >> it depends on what happens to the company, if you catch my drift. >> i catch your drift. >> quickly, give us a comment on nokia. this has been a disaster. do you think they should have abandoned the windows operating mobile, like amazon does, they buy it and tweak it to their specifications? >> the microsoft operating system is inferior to the apple

ecosystem. it's inferior to android. >> but people love the phone. the phone has gotten great reviews. >> what people? >> people used to love the blackberry. >> people liked the motorola razor. >> bingo. the pebble. >> apple is the winner here. samsung is a two-win horse. they should shoot nokia. >> you brought up a good point on "squawk on the street" this morning. don't be fooled by the price. it's below 5. people can buy a lot of shares. you don't see any value buying nokia at these prices? >> no. and the other countries are getting into subsidizing funds. you're subsidizing apple. you can't mention apple if you're a supplier to apple. it's just like this hidden, lurking beast that we all love.

>> i think you made a great point. you guys were talking this morning on "squawk on the street." the issue with r.i.m.m. and nokia, i just can't break it -- >> other operating systems go to android, tweak it to their own spec. >> there should be a white flag. companies should be able to put up a white flag and say, listen, we're kind of done. >> i was accused for depending nokia. >> the ceo should be paying, okay, stick a fork in himself. i'm sticking a fork in myself. i'm done. did you ever coach little kids? >> no. >> 6-0 when -- when you get to 6-0 -- they should say, listen, 6-0, i'm done. >> right. >> we're done. they should call it a game like nokia. i'm calling it a game. game call. right? there should be a thing, a provision. a guy says it's over. >> isn't it called the share price? >> they do stop at zero.

>> bingo. it's the only measure is the stock price, the report card for the ceo, period. >> green mountain coffee ceo. good, bad, indifferent? >> he should probably -- >> good, bad, indifferent? here's a favorite of yours. >> well, we're talking -- >> the shack. the shack. i was there this weekend. holy cow. >> so this gets us to the two guys in the wings. one is thorson hines. >> he's just got there. what happened to greenberg's rule. >> hold on. >> hold on. he is in the wings by the time we do the worst of the year, he will have been there a year. it's an issue of what decisions he makes between here and there. he does have easter sunday to put new phones out. he has important issues and also

we do have jim of radio shack. he has -- he took over the company in may 2011. but he's getting killed by sprint. >> right. >> again, he can maybe -- >> we have 30 seconds in the show. >> he can possibly turn it around. if he can pull it out, he can go from best to worst. >> the rule. >> we have to go, jim. >> no, come on. let's kill a break. i've done that. let's kill a break. i've got to ask -- >> the break is called the next show. 12 seconds, 11 seconds, 10 seconds. it's called "closing bell." it's coming up. kelly, i warned you. i warned you. thank you for watching street signs, everybody. carfirmation.

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