>> fio. >> suntrust, we're buying. >> you guys are good. suntrust. and others. we have three second to go. "power lunch" begins right now. "halftime's" over. the second half of your trading day begins right now. we have breaking news on facebook. it's a product release but is it really designed to be more of a distraction of the stock price which is down 48% since its may 18th listing? >> process? >> when's zuckerberg? i don't know him! where is this company? where are they? i don't know. >> well, we know where jim is. he's here to weigh in on the breaking news that julia boorstin will have in a second and simon of course in for tyler at the nyse. for those of you listening and just joining us, the dow jones industrial average was down 100 points a few moments ago. now down 97.

s&p down better than 9 points just above the 1400 mark and the nasdaq traded down two thirds of a percent. the gold market is rallying. up 35 bucks on gold and brent up two thirds of a percent. more on the markets and investors thinking about in a few minutes but first to julia and the breaking news on facebook. julia? >> we got exclusive access to facebook addressing a big mobile problem. the social network is half a billion mobile users and hasn't ramped up the mobile ads. part of the solution may be in the announcement, a new mobile app for apple devices. facebook says the new apps twice as fast as the old ones and should enable it to serve more ads. facebook says it's focussed on the user experience, there's no denying implications of the company's bottom line. we sat down with senior executives saying that the old app is too slow and frustrating. refused to answer questions of the new apple impacts ads. everyone stressed one thing.

>> we are a mobile first company. it's that simple. we take a look at the experiences that we have built and the people that we have connected, right, and we've done that on the web for a long time and we know that with these phones that we have in our pockets all the time it's the ultimate tool for storytelling, connecting people. >> now, the new apps don't look different but they're faster and more real estate for the news feed and tailored to the way people use iphones and ipads with one hand and making it easier to browse and first time facebook's building the app to work specifically with apple's code and enable nimble updates. >> this is a big leap for us. why we're launching a really fast application that's really great. but two, it allows us to build much more quickly on top of the new code base, get a lot more really awesome experiences out to people much more quickly. >> now, facebook's also working

on apps for android locking to show users, advertisers and analyzes looking to drive growth and revenue. simon? >> well, i mean, you were importantly, of course, one of the few reporters to be allowed inside facebook since the ipo. a process that is destroyed roughly 50 billi$50 billion of . what did people say to you about that? >> nothing about the stock price. at the campus which is still partially under construction but in pretty good shape did seem like business at usual. we asked everyone about the reaction to the stock price and the mood since the ipo but people stayed close to the talking points. everyone saying they're focused on building the company's products. no comments there on the stock. sue? >> not surprising, julia. thank you very much. jim cramer setting off a firestorm earlier this week. where is mr. zuckerberg? you have heard julia's report. what do you think? does it change your opinion? >> it would have if this very

large and informed investor peter thiel didn't sell so much of the stock. i might have said this could be good and think about it. he knew this and he still dumped the huge amount of stock. i can't say it's over now. >> there was a lot of criticism that they weren't going to mobile fast enough. they seemed to have addressed that. you think it's enough or no? >> i think that mobile is about engagement and as much as you may have fun on your facebook page and get the insta-gram and pictures up, it is not about need for speed but engagement and you don't engage facebook the way you did with the desktop with your hand held. you're off and on it. facebook's kind of devolved in to a cocktail party. i think you should high a hoodie? no. google the find out what's going on and then buy and amazon and itunes but facebook's become very much a cocktail party and

this doesn't change my view. >> let's push back on the peter thiel thing a little bit. an early investor in facebook. been involved in the company one way, shape or form for a lot of years before the ipo. a lot of investors cash out. right? >> no, no. there's a good piece this morning in bloomberg. facebook director, competitor, so far. the share sale lacks precedent. 40 biggest technology ipos since the end of 2010, very relevant, only facebook and the underwriters let the backers out this soon. 39 said no to this. this is not business as usual and it's certainly, certainly within of those things that i think the underwriter should have said you shouldn't do it and the rest of the directors to pressure. i'll never let him on another deal again. >> do you think he should leave the board? >> yeah.

yeah. i think he shouldn't have been on the board to do the sale. what's it say? facebook people go out and on the road and tell you how valuable it is. julia's excellent piece, so valuable and terrific. why's the smartest guy other than mr. hoodie zuckerberg himself we don't know because he's awol, doesn't he see the long-term value i thought we had here? suddenly feel like a chump if i thought it was long-term value. >> now, mr. zuckerberg. i have to wrap. >> probably a nice guy. could be. >> we'd love to have you join us on "power lunch." >> exactly. >> should he remain held of the publicly-held company? >> yes. absolutely. you can have page and bring in someone -- no. they have grown-ups. that was supposed to be the big case and needed someone to say you can't do this, peter. cancel, cancel your cell program and let's have the directors

buy. wouldn't that have made the shorts come in and bought -- the stock at 24. obviously they don't care about the stock. unfortunately, we do. because you see it's people's money and people lost a fortune on this. >> they have. >> a fortune. >> jim cramer, a pleasure. come back. >> great to see you, sue. >> good to see you, too. tomorrow on -- you want to finish this for me? tomorrow on "power lunch," corporate board responsibility to the shareholder, what we were just talking about in the fake of the facebook mess. stefan paternot will join us. he's been trapped between the company and his shareholders. he'll join us and kevin ryan, ceo of the g ilt groupe will be here. tune in for that. breaking news now. >> hey there, sue. i have some breaking news about i guess the end of a chapter for the aig bailout. the new york federal reserve announcing that it is made a total profit of $6.6 billion on what was known as maiden lane 3. part of the set-up of the fed and the treasury combined set up

in order to allow aig to survive during the financial crisis. when you take that in tandem with the $2.8 billion that the new york fed made on maiden lane i i and interest and fees of a loan to aig, the new york fed made $17.7 billion on the aid provided to aig during the financial crisis. in a statement the president of the new york fed said that the new york fed was able to achieve the principled goal to protect the u.s. economy from the potentially devastating affects of aig's failure while demonstrating sound stewardship of taxpayers' money. keep in mind the treasury continues the hold the stake in aig, a majority stake. 53%. right now that stake is in the money with the stock trading well above the 28 -- roughly $28.74 that the treasury needs to get in order to break even on that investment. >> thank you for that. let's get more breaking news

can kayla tausche. >> thank you. we have four new boards of bank of america. four existing directors stepping down next spring. sharon allen, the former chairman of deloit. the former chairman and chief executive of hospital company hca. linda hudson of bae systems and david yosk, former ceo. on this appointment, the current chairman saying bank of america shareholders will benefit of the global perspectives and diverse insights of these leaders. the ceo moynihan saying the management team will benefit from these addition of directors and their unique skills and leadership qualities. we have four new directors coming on to the board of bank of america. simon? >> thank you very much. quite a lot to get through. let's return to where we started the show with the news of facebook on the west coast. kenny pulcari is with me. you're not a fan of facebook but

equally not as critical of peter thiel selling snout. >> he made his investment. he watches it to fruition and decided to move on. i don't care that he's on the board of director. clearly made an investment and as far as i'm concerned it is what it is. >> the point that jim is making if he feels he's made the investment and now is it time to move on, sell the stock -- >> right. >> he shouldn't be on the board. >> maybe that's the next step. in the next couple of days you might hear that, in fact. right? >> now down triple digits. loss of 100 points. given how dovish the fed was in the statement to come out with yesterday you might have expected more. is the fed irrelevant to the market now? >> investors are exhausted. listening to the jawboning for months. rallied the market ahead of that. they got nothing other than we stand ready in the event that we need it. they're tired of it.

testing 1400 i think on the s&p. >> won't move until december anyway because of the politics. >> getting too close they can't really, right? >> thank you very much. sue, back to you. >> thank you, gentlemen. as you know, we are five days from the republican national convention. the big guests are already lining up on cnbc and larry kudlow scoring an interview with the vice presidential candidate paul ryan today. >> we'll go back in to a recession if president obama gets the wish. they try to measure the world against the mass i tax increase to occur and trigger a recession which hurts revenues. we're saying plug loopholes. lower tax rates. >> you can watch the full interview tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern time on "the kudlow report." as you probably know it's a destructive wild fire season and a lot of big money is poured in to fight it from states that can't really afford it like california. cnbc's jane wells is in california with the financial

fallout. jane? >> reporter: hi, sue, yeah, we have fire damage here. mopping up a 12,000-acre fire over the hills here. over the nation, over 43,000 wild fires so far this season. mostly in colorado, now california where we have ten fires burning, most serious one in northern california where nbc has an update. >> good afternoon. the ponderosa fire here in northern california charred some 28,000 acres. this blaze, though, roughly 57% contained. and while crews are certainly making progress on the front lines several homes are still threatened. 900 properties are still in danger. as nearly 70 have been destroyed. the big concern today is going to be those winds. firefighters are hoping to make a stand near the town of mineral where the latest evacuations could come. some homeowners allowed back in to the homes. they're no longer in threat as the fire shifts to mineral.

going to be a busy and very long and hot day here on the fire lines. jane? >> reporter: thank you. here's the financial disaster. california infamous for the budgeting is inconsistently underestimated every year what it needs to fight fires. take a look at this graphic here. over last five years, since 2007, there's been one season where they have had enough money. the state cost in 2007, epic fire season, $290 million than budgeted for. this year, budgeted $93 million and 8 weeks in to the new fiscal year spent two thirds of that and we haven't gotten to the santa ana wind yet and fema aid can reimburse states for a lot of costs thanks to you the federal taxpayer and california has special emergency funds to tap in to but given the forecast it's a very dry fall and that is not promising. >> back to you. >> okay. thank you very much for that. a market flash now with courtney. >> good afternoon, simon.

watching shares of nokia. take a look at the chart. you are going to see they've been marching sharply higher in heavy volume on a market rumor that nokia could be announcing two new phones with microsoft at the beginning of september. this is unconfirmed and want to bring it to you. sue? >> yeah. up almost 10%, courtney. thank you very much. up next, this afternoon, o canada. yes, they have hockey, snow, some great donuts, as well. but they also have opportunities for your money. maple leafs and money next on "power lunch." with the dow down 100, before the break, here's big movers on the trading session. one of the biggest losses posted right now by alcoa down 2.3%. at usaa, we believe honor is not exclusive to the military,

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all day today cnbc's doing globe trekking focusing on nation's beyond our border and we went far, far away from home. we picked canada. that's right. loonies as in the currency and energy. the vice president and director at atd asset management in toronto with his outlook for canadian energy companies. nice to have you here. welcome. >> thanks. nice to be here. >> canada has really performed so well in this economic

environment around the globe that has been daunting to say the least. their economy's in much better shape than most around the globe. does that translate to opportunity in the energy sector? >> we think it does. if you look at how the oil patch's fared with as a part of the economy in canada it's actually fared quite well. some of the stocks have been hit on operational issues but we think they're now poised to generally move up, that they're trading at very attractive valuations and provides opportunity for canadian companies. >> all right. let's take a look at some of your picks. sun core based in calgary. >> sure. >> why do you like the stock? >> a long-term holding for us, we think it's a very well managed company. they have gone through a management change at the helm which is we think a continuation of all that's good, that somebody from inside has moved up. steve williams to take over rick george that ran the company for years. the company is growing now but

only profitable growth. they'll entertain. compa company's generally growing for growth sake and this is an exception at this point, that they're going to grow if it's profitable. they have a strong base and they're building in step change growth so not risking the company. >> how much more do you think is left in the stock? because it's had a pretty decent run. >> we think that the stock could move higher and still trading at a discount to multiple to its be peers and we think could be in the 40s net asset value. >> next cnq also based in calgary. you like it because it's fairly diversified in term of portfolio. >> it is both in terms of assets and also in geography. the companies are domicile to canada, listed in canada and the u.s., as well, but overall they have asset that is are global. that they have a strong base and conventional oil and gas in

western canada and now they have operations offshore africa and in the north sea which we think they run particularly well and keep costs low. >> let's go to the third pick. i believe it ee's talisman but growing in asia. >> so you've seen actually this is a little bit stealth. there's been this increase in the ability to grow their capability in asia and they've been doing this for a long time. it's become quite a large part of the business to the extent this it's now the first thing they talk about when they come around to give presentations to investors and they have the ability to develop assets. they have done deals with governments, most governments to provide gas that they turn in to electricity. very well positioned also from an oil perspective. they're in the north sea. they just did a deal. selling a minority. very interesting company. >> thank you. nice to have you here. >> thank you.

>> there's more on investing in different companies on our website. head to investingin.cnbc.com and check it out. simon? >> let's pick up the theme there of oil. it is actually catching the eye of our producers down at the moment. oil is falling. we do not have a reason for that at the moment. obviously with' lly we're calli people at the trading desks. now courtney for a market flash. courtney? >> hi, simon. want to draw your attention to shares of general growth partners. the shares are climbing even higher still according to an s.e.c. filing. ackman calling for them to put itself up for sale. ackman made $1.8 billion, a return of a thousand percent on this investment. back to you. >> extraordinary. thank you. it's time now to grade wall street. up next on the show. we're going to be analyzing the analysts on today's list,

safeway, immunex and webmd. marijuana and the politics. according to a harvard economist, the federal government can save as much as $3.7 billion a year if marijuana were legal. that's coming from not having to enforce laws, potential new tax revenues and the government could gain from marijuana sales. looks light to me. more on that after the break. expression of power... ule control. [ engine revs ] during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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welcome back. i'm courtney reagan. watching steel stocks trading lower today. believing prices fall for a number of reasons and continued weak demand around the world, especially china. simon? >> thank you. let's analyze this. i'm here with matt cheslock. jeffries throwing in the towel today and downgrading safeway to hold from buy and cutting the price target. the stock as you are aware is in a poor performance so far this year. sales upside driven by just for you appears limited and other issues, gas prices, competition, food prices. fair comment? late to the game i would have thought. >> i think it's late to the game, too. i agree. might be a bigger macro picture here. down 5%. s&p up 22%. why buy safeway right now? right call. >> down 27% year to date. ubs putting an upgrade on

luminex. it says it's oversold. actually, the price target came through with on that last night is $22, 20% upside from here last night seeing the bounce already in there. >> amazing how the analysts have great calls as far as low volume. able to move the stocks. locking back to the price target of 21 is a 51% retracement. market's digested the recent acquisition and good call here and i think based on valuation level definitely. >> another set of analysts throwing in the towel, raymond james downgrading webmd as they, quote, anticipate that 2013 will now be the company's low point. be aware that the stock lost 60% of its value so far this year. they were brave to be where they were on the stock, i would have thought. >> i think so. but here, we are social media company, definitely funny, hard to monetize going forward just

like facebook. i kind of agree with maybe the street. i think we're probably a little bit more optimistic of the levels here and maybe a bounce before they do and early 2013. >> next year or this year? >> maybe later this year. they've piled on the companies too much and i'm contrarian and looking to buy them. >> thank you. matt cheslock. up next, the metals close on the radar today. platinum is soaring. we'll tell you why. plus, why one big name on wall street says forget qe and see why you likes europe. yes, you heard it right. now's the time to buy europe stocks, apparently. we are back in two. ul trading t. look at these streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius! we knew you needed a platform that could really help you elevate your trading. so we built it. chances of making this? it's a lot easier to find out if a trade is potentially profitable. just use our trade & probability calculator and there it is.

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we're down 120 on the dow at the moment but one asset class is rallying. gold in to the close. sharon epperson is tracking the action at the nymex. sharon? >> simon, gold still up over $30 right now. we have seen significant momentum in the metals market and while we're off of the highs of the session that momentum seems to continue with gold prices closing around $1,672 an ounce and stimulus hopes driving higher prices there as well as higher prices for silver over $30 an ounce.

but the real standouts have been the platinum group metals, particularly platinum as well as palladium and looking at the stellar rise in those prices that due to the unrest in south africa and lingering concerns about labor problems there, the impact that will have on those commodities. looking at platinum as the best performing commodity in the session, up over 4% today and in terms of etfs that follow platinumpalladium, $50 million in to them. this, again, due to the unrest there and the potential perhaps for supply disruptions to continue. back to you. >> thank you very much. stocks pulling back as simon mentioned down about 123 right now. hopes for qe3 dissipating a little bit today and the power player says the market should not cheering for intervention. chief investment officer at jpmorgan private bank, $830 million under management.

always great to have you here. >> thank you. >> the market seems to be listening to you. yesterday, moved on the upside. thinking that the fed would do additional qe. today one of the fed presidents said not so fast. you agree with that, not so fast? >> do. i think the data is getting better. when we look at some of the second derivative data on growth it's starting to turn so my bad joke of stop cheering for the fed to stop cheering worse, you want the world to get worse. >> indeed. if you get a change of administration with the upcoming election -- >> yep. >> -- there's thoughts of a change in the fed chairman. would that be good or bad for the market do you think? >> i was going to say great for bernanke as he's probably exhausted but woe don't have to worry about that until 2014 regardless and fighting through the equivalent of $2.5 billion in campaign spending now and november, figure out what we're doing through the fiscal cliff.

a deficit in the ceiling and what growth looks like next year. the fed to me is kind of irrelevant in terms of change of leadership and bullard said that this morning. a group of competent leaders that are well led and thoughtfully acting. >> what do you think about groelt in t growth in the united states and where you put money to work right now? >> the best phrase this morning in listening to bullard is mitling. good and bad, 1% to 2% growth right now and not watching inflationary pass through. we have to get used to sense of 2% and not 4%. we are doing it in a context of earnings reasonably strong. private sector is electronic. more belief in investments and needing to seeing hiring and cap x and inventories rebuilt but nowhere to the degree of before and said this last couple of times as you look at markets and even some of the corrections today, so let's put in context

what s&p down 12 points, 90 basis points, having bounced up 10.5% in the last 3 months, we are still reasonably well strong and dynamic. >> is that what is turning you to europe for the first time since i can remember talking to you? >> yes. we've been out of europe for three years with the exception of germany and if you look at the debates happening right now an we have a lot of stuff sitting on the calendar through the beginning of september. ecb, troika rulings. moody's put germany on watch with the netherlands today and we have stuff to get through and process and the question i literally asked about two weeks ago, coming in to the year january, we are incredibly negative with regard to europe. are we as negative as we were given the direction of the policy? the answer is no. unilaterally we kept out of europe except for germany. trying to identify the stuff that's cheap and stay that way

and then try to fine out opportunities. >> does that put you more in the northern european countries, though? >> the answer is yes. >> risk/reward ratio. >> scandinavia, uk and still strong on germany even with growth turning and we have a team in london done a lot of work on multinationals so the high dividend theme starting to talk about here a year ago. you have 250 basis points in europe getting less. >> before you go, a comment on asia, china specifically. >> yes. >> because that's one of the big worries absent europe is whether or not china is going to slow down dramatically or not. what do you think? how do you feel about asia right now? >> the answer is my emerging market back grown. you want the transition to more stable growth in china so seeing and expect china to grow at 10% to 12%, that's going to come back and bite us. we think china grows seven plus percent and china is dealing with a very important political transition right now and then

address how they jump start an economy coming in to next year. we are seeing investment in infrastructure and support the banking system but that's 12-month outlook as we grow and my last one, i think people confuse the data on japan this morning or yesterday. >> yesterday, yeah. >> people spun the export base being down as a function of china. it was a function of europe and europe we get. we're isolated, in recession and will come out of it. china makes it. it's a 12-month story, not a 3. >> richard, thanks a million. good to see you again. come back next month. simon, back down to you. >> thank you. why the dow is troughing, because mitt romney has said that he doesn't think that qe3 is the way the go and probably they need a new fed chairman. as we just said, that can't happen for some time but an indication of how politicized the action of the fed would be and plays in to the minutes we got yesterday where though the majority of members or a significant majority of members said they were in favor of q e,

they still didn't act. on the question for many is why didn't you act? the answer that many came up with was because it's too politicized. you have to wait until after the election. so increasingly now we're coming to the view there will be no qe3 or whatever until december 11th or 12th s. that a fair assess m of where we are? >> yeah. here's the problem. the street hates qe3 believing it creates distortion in the market. you weaken the dollar and cause inflation in the stock market and commodities and buy me sometime school is predominant and the school that's predominant in the federal reserve right now. they believe that they're buying time to deal with the issues of structural imbalances in the u.s. economy and deal with issues, for example, even over in europe. now, whether we'll actually address the imbalances, congress will, remains to be seen but the fed certainly believes that their actions are helping buy time and that without it the u.s. economy would be in a much worse shape. >> they can't afford it in the

middle of the election for fear of the republicans do or say or -- >> if the data's worse i would say they'll do it regardless but given now it's neutral and the chances are better they'll not do anything in september. >> let's go back to the new york mercantile. sharon, earlier, talking about the sharp move down on oil. is that related to the mitt romney comment and therefore the lack of qe3? >> it is certainly related to the fact that qe hopes somewhat dashed in the last few minutes and what's impacted the stock market, certainly impacting oil prices, as well. we also have some technical considerations for oil. the fact that we saw wti moving above the 200-day moving average earlier in the session and closed above that level in the prior day's trade really unable to hold that and so technically according to the relevant strength index, tader e it's fa.

where could it go? analysts say we could see a dip to 92.75 before regaining ground trying to move back to $100 level. simon? >> too late for driving season, certainly, though. for the moment, thank you. the bond action. live to chicago and rick santelli at the cme. rick? >> thank you, simon. the reverses are more and more apparent. starting in june for 10s, clearly see now looking to the left side telling you the next support pivot is in yields, 160. opening up to november, it gave you a great indication talking about four days ago that a good place to start selling looking for yield resistance or buying in terms of treasuries around 180 to 182. going back to look at chart of bund dollar index is extended. lowest level since third week of may and 10-2 spread in spain, starting to flatten again and pay attention to that. flattening is what they were trying to work against when

mario draghi had the comments in july. back to you, sue. >> i'll pick it up where here if i may, rick. now bertha coombs. >> we have got a chinese firm, the worst performer in the nasdaq 100 today. getting a downgrade from mid-morning of deutsche banc saying a new search engine taking market share already. travel stocks are doing higher. kayak notwithstanding a pullback oz a mixed report with the first publicly traded sales report. the bottom line mixed. meantime, storage and peripherals the weak spot. prices keep falling and obviously spillover effect of hp. back over to you. >> thank you very much. we're also keeping a very close eye on the agricultural commodities and the price of orange juice. o.j. futures right now are traded down by 2%.

that's because people took profits after a 6% jump to the upside yesterday thanks to tropical storm isaac. national hurricane center says isaac is strengthening an brian norcross is here with the latest on the storm, a storm to impact the republican national convention, brian. >> it's a close call, sue. take a look at where we are right now with a weak tropical storm down in the caribbean. here you see a 40-mile-a-hour tropical storm and satellite shows a big circulation, big is important when we talk about downstream getting closer to florida. it's not strong yet. it will strengthen moving to the west and the caribbean. coming up in the vicinity of haiti and tomorrow evening impacting haiti with hundreds of thousands of people living in temporary housing there after the earthquake, horrible situation possible there. on up to cuba and approaching the southern part of florida and

this is in the morning hours on sunday. now here comes the dicey part. where does it go exactly? if it were to go far west and threaten the northern part of the gulf of mexico, that then lessens the problem in florida. probably can do the convention okay. comes anywhere near, though, they'll have a problem. tampa is extremely vulnerable to a hurricane near them, not just over top of them. we'll watch it from here. >> indeed. we'll check in with you, bryan. thanks a million. now courtney reagan. >> reuters reporting that dollar thrifty shareholders without accept a bid of values them at $2.4 billion. reuters is citing several top dollar thrifty shareholders. both stocks are up on the news. simon? >> thank you very much. coming up, the politics of pulse of marijuana here on cnbc. heading to the break, colorado has just done the 100,000 registered medical marijuana

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and you never need a referral. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. coming up on "street signs" top of the hour why's the middle class shrinking? the reason's probably not what you're thinking. we'll debate that. plus, some cold water on qe3. stocks down and two five star fund managers with the best big and small cap picks. plus, a battle for the ages at work. literally. driven 20-somethings want it all and right now. should companies be bending to their will? all those things coming up on the show top of the hour. back the you. >> see you at 2:00, mandy. thank you very much. before the break, we asked you what's the average age of registered medical marijuana patients in colorado?

the answer, 42. and 68% of those patients are male. which brings us to a key question. to legalize or not to legalize and that, indeed, is the question that colorado voters have to ask themselves on november 6th. medical marijuana is already legal in the mile high state but if passed amendment 64 makes marijuana completely legal. brian shactman is live in denver with the details of how pot politics go well beyond colorado. hi, brian. >> reporter: hi, sue. first some details on this stuff. right? five-month process, this becomes this. worth about $2,500. i learned this all today. it's not just about money and marijuana but jobs and taxes and there's a lot of people out there that think politics could have an influence on the race for the white house here in colorado. this looks like any retail transaction. >> $217.

>> reporter: it is not. it's a marijuana purchase at denver relief, a legal medicinal dispensary in colorado. if the amendment passes legalizing marijuana and regulating it like alcohol it could be worth at least $60 million more in taxes. >> we had five full-time chefs. >> reporter: wanda james stopped selling the pot-infused products because of regulations but with a win she says she would be back in business. >> the minute i know that amendment 64 passed and fighting for that, we'll bring it back. >> reporter: attorney general john suters is against the amendment pointing to the state's medicinal marijuana program as exhibit a. >> we have a sham. >> reporter: even if the initiative passes here, or in oregon and washington state, which have similar votes upcoming, there's still one problem. pot remains illegal under federal law. >> it is not helped by legalizing it on a state level

while it's illegal on a federal level. this needs to be addressed on a federal level. >> reporter: speaking of federal, the pot vote could go to libertarian cannot date gary johnson. and away from president obama who carried colorado in 2008. wanda james still supports the president but isn't shy about what could happen. >> obama will lose colorado if he does not find a way to fix this issue. >> reporter: pass or fail, amendment 64 won't end the pot politics in colorado. >> it is a way. >> reporter: will be more of a mess if the feds here in colorado get more active like they have in california. back the you, sue. >> thank you. and we have more murn & money in the next hour focusing on the key issue all day here on cnbc. simon, down to you. >> thank you very much. we're going to talk about google. the king of search. why's it having a hard time finding women to work at the business? more on that next on "power

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okay. this edition of the "power lunch" rundown is sponsored by the letter "g."

first up, with the "g," google. apparently having a hard time recruiting and holding on to female employees and even createdal go rhythms and spreadsheets to improve the situation. ladies, before you weigh in, the reason appears to be that women do not flaunt their achievements in interviews so interviewers of google judge them unaccomplished. kayla, you first. >> well, simon, we should work at google an better at flaunting our own accomplishments and tells you about the alpha male culture there and the only top woman is the sister-in-law in larry paige's inner circle. better late than never identifying the problem after mayer left and whether the numbers change in the future. >> i think she was sidelined before she left, as well. cindy? >> i think the first thing to realize is this is an industry dominated by men and face it. men in engineering and tech not known as the guys who are the best with the ladies. am i right? these are the guys who did an

algorhythm to figure out the problem with women. do training with the men to teach them how to talk to the ladies. maybe a girlfriend. women need to brag more, for sure. >> okay. the next "g." talk about greece. the prime minister of greece saying that it might sell off or lease some greek islands as a ways to raise capital and plug the deficit there. kayla, i bet you would want one. >> i don't know what to make about these statements now because they've been rumored to do something like this before and i think it's a problem. tourism is a huge industry for greece's economy and people say they go to athens the entire place is in tatters and the islands and still relatively serene. you don't want to introduce the protest culture to the island that is are making the money for greece right now in my opinion. >> what about you, cindy? >> i think it's a great idea. first of all, it is much sexier to be talking about buying a greek island than the debt to

gdp ratio. you have my attention. second, it could help generate more interest, generate more money. someone like angelina jolie buys an island and we go there for tourism and then sells it, what? to a russian billionaire generating money. >> we should get you on middle east peace next time. >> sure. >> on the "gs" and why garbage might hold the key. a study linking trash output and gdp as a good proxy of where the economy is heading, kayla. >> if that's true it is pretty shocking. and it's actually -- if you look at the chart, i know that it ran first on marketplace and then "the washington post" blog. it's staggering. the fact that the trash output goes off a cliff. if that is indicative of the economy then we should put on the seat belts. that being said, i haven't seen an economic chart that was close

correlated in quite sometime. might be a rough ride. >> first of all, i think garbage is a fascinating economic indicator and we should not be hitting the panic button with both hands just yet. we are only two months in to the quarter and two months using a lot of fresh vegetables and things like that that don't generate as much garbage as september with back to school. home builders are still building. you have to look at the things. i don't think you make a decision on this until you get to the end of the quarter. >> ladies, it is an education and a pleasure. thank you very much. thank you both. in the next hour of "power lunch," the assault on the year's outbreak of west nile and a look at the companies working to help protect us from the vir virus. that's next. okay, here's the plan. you have a plan? first we're gonna check our bags for free,

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but the biggest percentage move to the downside on the board right now would be west texas intermediate crude. the hopes are dashed a bit about whether or not qe3's in the offing so we are down a buck 13 on west texas intermediate crude. better than 1% on the trading session. where's the money going? in to the gold market up about $33 on the trading session. and it's also going in to the 10-year. the yield when we started the week in the 10-year at 1.84%. we are now in terms of a yield basis on the 10-year 1.66%, simon. so big shift in the markets today. >> how important are the reversals seeing here? >> i think 14 handle on the s&p is very important. i'm looking at gold. the action in gold is different than what we're seeing. if you're buying 10-year and gold, unusual. we haven't seen that in the market. the gold reversal leads me to believe -- i mean the oil