now. what gives, america? millions living in poverty but 2 million eye phones sold in a day? you've got anger at wall street. and millionaire hockey players fighting it out with billionaire owners. we're calling it the great american disconnect and we dig in. on wall street, bank stocks have been on a big run. but thanks to big ben, is it time to sell them? we'll find out. plus, why. giant airfield ships, aka bli s blimps, may be the future of flights. and the most important question of the day -- can the humble mcrib save christmas? we'll ask and answer. hello, everybody. mandy is off today. all hour long we are trying to piece together this big disconnect in the american economy and we are going to begin with america's seeming addiction to apple. that stock hitting another new high and you can thank this jaw-dropping stat of the day.

apple sold 2 million iphone 5s in 24 hours. that is a pre-order record. that, my friends, is 23 iphones sold every single second. people are already lining up outside the 5th avenue apple store in manhattan in homes of getting their hands on an iphone whether they go on sale on friday. what does the iphone 5 sales say about us as a nation? after all, new studies suggest that some people are now spending more on their cell phone plans than they are on groceries. joining us now, ihs chief economist, a economist, and julia, i want to begin with you. you have 46 million on food stamps. angered big banks but hockey and nba lockouts the last year or so as millionaires fight it out with billionaires. what the heck is going on really with the american economy? >> i think when it comes to the

iphone, we have to be very careful about interpreting this. this recovery all along has been one where consumers have chosen to spend less on big ticket items like homes and cars, and that frees up a little bit of cash to spend on things like smartphones. all along during the last three years we've seen very strong smartphones and electronic sales even as we see the housing market languish and auto sales remain near record lows. if we look at those indicators, they're telling us more of the same, gradual recovery, cautious consumers. the other thing is, apple is cannibalizing other electronics so we buy more ipads and less laptops. we buy more iphones and fewer blackberries. >> julia, to follow up on that, is the fed then practicing trickle-down economics? because if you own a home you re-fi, you've got money freed up, you can buy a new device, you can buy a new car, your payment is lower. >> well, that benefits people

broadly as long as people can refinance. the worry has been that refinancing hasn't been open to enough people and there have been efforts on the administration's part to expand the eligible people for refinancing. i think what the fed would say is, look, they're just trying to achieve the strongest economy possible and that's going to benefit the widest number of people possible. it is the best thing that they can do. >> follow up on that, too. the idea is also this. right? you've got work place safety at record highs but the number of people receiving unemployment disability insurance also at record highs. are we getting in to an even more dangerously bifurcated economy? >> well, there's always the risk of that and we recently saw data about how income inequality has worsened in the u.s. so we do have very much a country these days, what looks like sort of haves and ha

have-nots. lot of people on welfare or unemployment and disability benefits, and at the same time those who's got jobs typically doing fairly well. one of the interesting things is consumer confidence is up a little bit, but still up. consumers are feeling a little bit better. i think the key to understanding what's going on here is consumers and businesses very cautious with our money. they sfe spend it on what they think is good, is hot, what they think they'll get the most value out of. you'll see those products doing very well, other dull products not doing very well. >> my point in this segment in coming up with it is this -- the fed is benefiting asset holders, right? people that can re-fi because they have a mortgage. will that get 14 million people back to work? will that raise the median wage which has been flat to stagnant for 30 years? let's try to fix this. how do we do it? >> in a word -- the fed's actions will not do what you're

saying. the impact of qe3 is going to be quite small. it's worth doing, i'm not saying they shouldn't have done it, but the impact is going to be very, very small. that's not going to do the trick. think the trick eventually is for this economy to heal from this horrible episode we went through. i tend to draw the analogy when somebody's had a heart attack. it takes years to recover from a heart attack. that's what we've been through. it's not going to happen overnight. it is going to take time for us to get back to where we would all like to be. >> julia, i guess maybe a better, broader question is simply this -- can the fed accomplish that? >> oh, no. it's not in the monetary policy tool kit to address redistribution or distributional issues. i mean that's partly a fiscal policy issue, so through government programs, the tax code, et cetera, and partly, some of this redistribution issue, a lot of economists have tied it to structural changes and to technology in particular that has allowed the outsourcing of middle class jobs or the

elimination of middle class jobs that used to absorb a pretty significant chunk of the population and now we just have the very low end jobs and very high end jobs. i'm not sure what policy would really just fix that overnight. that's a globalization issue. >> what i have argued perhaps is that the only group that can solve that problem, julia, are us, the consumers themselves who make choices about what they purchase. is that just ideological nonsense? >> well, when -- >> feel free to tell me i'm completely wrong and insane. many people do. >> okay. i will not say it in those words but what i will say is, it's hard to show a consumer a higher priced good and a lower priced good and say, you should choose the higher priced good because it is made domestically. in general, consumers buy the cheapest, best thing they can find and that, april cording to economic theory, is supposed to lead to the most efficient

resource allocation. but that does hurt people sometimes. >> yes, it does. i'll leave it with this question -- can a nation be both, cheap goods and high wages to make those goods? >> the answer is no. >> then we're in trouble! >> no, not at all. the key here is high value goods, quality goods. that's what we should be all about in this country. so it's -- we're not competing head-to-head with china. that's not the problem here. the problem is technology, the problem is, as julia was saying, there are a lot of things going on here. it is not our head-to-head fight with klein. that's not what's going on here. >> we dahl our feel-good monday segment, by the way. thank you both very much. have a great day. we know there are other disconnects out there, folks. tweet us with the disconnects that you are seeing. something big happening to oil right now in a good way. it is coming down. crude oil has plunged about $4 a

barrel in the last few minutes. look at that chart, folks. our team is digging into it. we got reporters all over the universe who are digging in to why. as soon as we know why, we'll come back with more but oil is down so maybe a little relief with gas prices. let's get a market flash now. >> watching shares of the gap. trading a little bit higher in today's down session. there are two main reasons for that. first, the company naming rebecca bay as the head of global design effective october 1st. she was over at h & m. also rising its full year profit guidance for the first time since may. seeing nearly an 8% pop in this stock. on deck, big bank stocks have certainly been on fire lately. but have they gotten too hot to handle? and have all the new regulations actually helped the biggest of the big banks? plus, the great american disconnect continues and it hits the ice. another big league lockout pitting millionaire players against billionaire owners.

hockey wild child paul bissonnette said this -- if a company you were working for was mafking money and they asked you to take a 24% pay cut, would you do it? ponder that, america. we'll be right back after the break. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you engineer a true automotive breakthrough? ♪ you give it bold new styling, unsurpassed luxury and nearly 1,000 improvements. introducing the redesigned 2013 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments.

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the big banks getting a big qe3 pop last week on the bernanke quantitative easing news. this is a chart of most of the big boys.

the s&p regional bank index, the smaller companies. they both got a pop on thursday but you can see that the biggest banks had the biggest pops. in fact, some of the big banks have seen some big runs but there's a question -- are they indeed overvalued? maybe not. if you look at price ln -to-boo ratios, which is really how you value banks, most of the big banks are not only below one 1% but placed at historic discounts. all trading under 1%. now because of this, some people say, well, are these banks over or undervalued? i spoke with a number of strategists and investors this morning and almost none of them said that they thought the banks were overvalued. here's why. we showed you the one week. let's go to a longer term chart. this is a three-year chart. if you look at the biggest banks, the white line, the kbw

bank index, it's dramatically lagged the regional banks. in the short term though, the big banks have outperformed. so, let us dig more into this story now if we can and ask fundamental questions about the fundamentals of those big banks. joining us now are anton schultz. do you think the biggest of of the big banks are over orunder valued? >> they're undervalued longer term. short-term trading wise perhaps they've had too quick a move but i think pause refreshes here and they consolidate, i think they move higher. they are an important source for the largest mutual fund companies to get exposure. they're all underexposed. they have to buy the big guys first to get back in the game. that's where all the liquidity went last week. >> anton, should we be nervous bank of america rose 8.5% last

week? >> no. because if you go back to that chart as you talked about, the stock was substantially higher just a few years ago. their financials are arguably incredibly stronger than they were three years ago. they've raised capital, decreased the size of the company, we know what the rules are. we are still waiting for a couple of other uncertainties to get resolved but the stock is very cheap and so are those of its brother and things like citigroup. >> do you disagree on the biggest banks? >> i agree with anton, about the only thing i agree on is that it is time to take some profits. i think if you look at these banks, they are the quintessential risk-on trades. they got crushed in '08 and they got beat up last year as did the kbw bank index. i don't think they're trading on valuations, because how do you really ascertain their true liabilities? they are trading on liquidity in the market. that's it. fundamentals are weak, revenues are negative year over year. only 237 regulations with

dodd-frank had been put forth. do you really think anyone's coming forth is going to help these guys? i think it is time to take some profits, go to some of the regional plays if you have to go financials. >> i showed the price-to-book ratio. but do those numbers even matter in this environment? >> i don't think they do. i think revenue works more. these companies have inability to produce organic revenues. they can produce earnings by taking loan losses but the revenue growth from diversified financials and banks are negative quarter over quarter, year over year as is the entire financial sector within the spx. looking at evaluations, again go to liabilities. who knows what these guys' liabilities are in europe? jpmorgan himself says he has no net liability to europe before the whale trade came through and crushed it. >> anton, respond to that. you don't seem to be that worried about what matt was talking about. >> i'm not that worried about

what matt was talking about. europe last week was also sort of taken off the table. there's been a floor put underneath some of the european debt that the banks might have some exposure to. certainly with all this printing going on around the world, matt is right about the risk trade being back on again and exactly that was it last weeshg. you had everybody rush in to it. if you have a stable capital markets stability, the banks can start underwriting sturts again, do ipos, certainly bond underwriting has been on fire. i think there is actually some revenue growth there. since europe is having trouble, the biggest of the international banks in the u.s. are eating the lunch of the europeans, whether it is investment banking market share, whether it is buying their loan portfolios, whether it is competing in originating and taking away their customers because the big banks and europe have to slow down and scale

back. they have to do the exact same things our banks did three, four years ago. our banks were all capitalized, have the reserves, have the capital so i do think there is some revenue growth in the future. the end of the day we do need our economy to grow. that's where that revenue growth is. i think bernanke provided a put to the u.s. economy last week. again, that was another reason why there's stability for future earnings. >> something anton and i have spoken about in the past which would really be a sad irony -- right? many of these regulations written after the crisis were designed to kind of reel in the big banks. but yet the big banks have the money, the staff, the lawyers, the accountants to navigate the rul rules. is this new regulatory environment creating an unfair playing field on the side of the biggest banks? >> it keeps them alive. it doesn't make it for their stock to outperform. again, dodd-frank, they have not fully digested all the laws. yet will the 237 deadlines have yet to be really -- they've millsed the deadlines, brian. i look at it this way -- there are so many things that have to

continue going right for bank stocks to outperform but one of them has to go wrong to see a precipitous decline. why take that risk, why bet on risk when we're in a risk-on trade. there are other areas you could protect yourself and be nor nimble and what i think is going to be a more volatile environment, not less. >> if i'm a small bank corporation i don't have the capital to hire five lawyers to help me navigate the rules that are not even written yet. can small banks truly compete in this environment? wouldn't have be the sad irony of all of the regulation we've seen the last few years, that it actually hurts the banks ostensibly they were designed to help? >> you are exactly right. it's become very, very expensive for small banks to stay in business, to comply with regulations. they've all had to hire many, many more people to just prove they're complying. . these rules have not been written yet. it's become too expensive. with this flat yield curve, it's tough. intermediate banks are eating the small guys. small guys are throwing the

towel in. there is value creation going on. the citi transaction was a strong one for shareholders. deal that happened last week which was a little bit unnotice unnoticed. let's get the price right for both sets of shareholders and create value but i think there is a lot of return to be made from m and a and these rules really hurt these little guys. i owned a lot of the takeover candidates, yes i do own the morgan stanleys and goldmans and bank of americas. >> arbitrage bancorp of america. appreciate it, both, very much. see you soon. let's check on oil. before the break we showed you that oil took a $4 a barrel plunge within minutes. our team here at cnbc's been making calls. here's what we've learned a little bit. right? could be a technical drop. however, there's also chatter about the spr. right? is that getting put into play as well.

you can see crude oil is down over 3%, more than $3 a barrel to $95.88. again we are still calling. we are still reporting on the oil story for you, because folks, that's a fast and dramatic drop for oil. we're working for you to find out why. up next -- would you take out a loan at a rate of more than 700% interest a year? believe it or not, it is not illegal and there are companies offering exactly that right now. we'll show you how some of them are getting around regulations to do it. plus, why blimps just may be the future of air travel? [ male announcer ] when a major hospital

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the entirely new lexus es and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. later on this week, we are going to be talking about the new retirement equation. fidelity out with new rather simple guidelines for what you should have saved based on your age, so are you on pace to make sure you've got enough money in your retirement nest egg? vote now in our street signs poll. streetsigns dot cn streetsigns.cnbc.com. are you on target or way behind? thousands of votes cast already. we'll show them to you later on in the week. are you upset about that 20%

interest rate you might be carrying on your credit card? well check this out. there are companies who are legally loaning money with aprs of more than 700%. i don't even know how this had is legal. >> that's the question here, brian. earlier today we showed you how some payday lenders are partnering with native american tribes to obtain sovereign immunity and avoid state regulations on capping of interest rates. when we dug deeper we found one tribe that didn't even know their name was being used by one such payday lender. fastmoneystore.net is a lender that charges over 700% annual percentage rates and according to its website is affiliated with a sioux tribe in south dakota. when we contacted the tribe, the tribe district secretary said they were unaware of their name being used on the site or that the payday lending site existed at all. in an e-mail to cnbc, richard

littlehawk claims his tribe has been the victim of a fraud. he says we were not affair of this payday lending project on the internet until you brought it to our attention. we believe that a fraud has been committed on us and these individuals pulled a fast one on us. little hawk says the tribe considered teaming up with crash cloud llc to create a payday lending site but the tribal board never approved the deal and they thought the project can gone away. we contacted the consultant who acted as the middleman for this potential partnership but he hasn't returned our e-mails or phone calls. little hawk told us that the debate over the payday lending business was an emotional one and divided the tribal leadership. we have more details of that split up now on cnbc.com. as you can see, the back story this to this lending business is a murky and confusing one. >> i'm sure there's let's go down to sharon epperson with more on this oil trade. >> we are talking to traders and everyone is pointing to the fact that there continue to be rumors

out there about a potential release from the strategic petroleum reserve. these rumors have been out there for quite some time but there are a couple of technical factors that may have caused some of the trading activity we're seeing as well. today is the expiration for wti for crude options for october and often there is a great deal of volatility around this options exploration as many traders now look to the next month. the fact that we're seeing a sell-off pretty much across the board here in the 2012, beginning of 2013 contracts leads some traders to believe that there may be something more fundamental going on with supply and demand. again we are not hearing anything from the energy information administration. we have placed calls to them. we are waiting to hear what their response is but this is a dramatic sell-off. it is also a day though when many traders are out on holiday and there has been lighter than usual volume in some of the futures contracts. >> sharon, just to kind of wrap it up for our viewers who may just be joining us, what i've heard so far in the last 20 minutes is it could be, a, some

spr nonsense, b, a technical trade, c, a fat finger screw-up, or d, something completely else. >> it could be. that's often what the oil trade is. right? many of these things. but perception is always key in the oil markets. if there is a perception that something is going to come out soon regarding a potential spr release, that may be all it takes to cause this type of price action. again there's nothing confirmed but in this market, it's often perception that leads the day. >> you can confirm that this sell-off has nothing whatsoever to do with the iphone. >> nothing that i've heard about the iphone other than the fact that everyone's checking the cnbc app on their iphone to check out the price action. >> nice plug for the network, sharon! we'll check in with you again soon. the great american disconnect continues with hockey and the lack of outrage about how millionaire hockey players are fighting it out with billionaire owners. and later on, how the cult of the mcrib could save

christmas for mickey ds. it's a real story, folks. ooh, that's delicious. we're back with it right after this. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race.

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signs. today we are all about the great american disconnect. right? from striking teachers in chicago, to angry protesters back on wall street, to millionaire athletes battling it out with their billionaire bosses. but let us start where the organized anger really started. right? that is downtown new york, kayla tausche is back in lower manhattan with the wall street -- occupy wall street movement. >> reporter: brian, fels like we're in a little bit of a time warp. the scene behind me feels so much like september 17, 2011. after a boit truss morning protesting all over lower manhattan, the occupy wall streeters that are here today have converged on their birthplace and even though it is relatively a celebration, there's still been a lot of arrests this morning. roughly 80 to 100 arrests have taken place due to civil disobedience like sit-ins at

bank lobbies, et cetera. since the conception of the occupy wall street movement, organizers say nearly 8,000 arrests have taken place all over the world. that's quite a lot of civil disobedience if you think about it. today we're seeing more like a celebration. it is not really an angry protest. it is saying even though there's not a lot that's changed in the last year, the seeds of discontent are known. there's still a disconnect as you were saying between the middle class and that 1% that they coined here just a year ago. a tweet coming out from the romney campaign that i just want to show quickly where romney is refusing to use the lexicon of occupy wall street but saying we're going to create jobs for the middle class, 12 million of them in four years. >> kayla tausche in lower manhattan, thank you very much. it is not just a fight between the so-called 1%ers and the middle class. middle class sports fans should also have reason to be angry. right? here's why. these are the average player salaries in each of the four major sports leagues. $5.2 million for the nba, $1.9

million for the nfl, $3.3 million for baseball. you see my point. now look at the average ticket prices for each. right? $47.50. $46 and change. $76 for the nhl. a whopping $128, almost $129 average ticket price for the nfl. add that up, take a family of four to the ball game. right? four tickets, parking, burgers, maybe a couple of beers, you're looking at $300 or $400. meantime, that, my friends, at average median american income last ar. just over $48,000. yet you got the nba locking out briefly, now you got another nhl lockout. millionaires fighting or millionaires, if not billionaires. the disconnect is pretty doggone clear. right? maybe it is perfectly summed up in this tweet from nhl player paul bissonnette. question to the fans -- if a company you worked for was

making money and they asked you to take a 24% pay cut, would you do it? let's bring in partner at the law firm gowlings, as well as our own brian schactman. paul bisonnettee obviously trying to drum up some support for the players position. >> i would add the average nhl salary has gone up from $1.4 million to $2.4 million since 2005. sentiment i think is on the side of the players and union. in 2005 the nhl alleged its business model was broken, got a roll back in salaries, got a hard cap. now fans are asking for, wait a second. why are you looking for a roll-back when the business of hockey is doing so well. >> that 24% what was they got back in the players in the last lockout. questions put to a lot of people during the financial crisis -- would you rather have a 24 prgs p percent pay cut or not have a

job? it came back in popularity from '05 but revenues have gone up. but they're not moving the progress forward. it is a game that a handful of fans like. >> eric, nobody wants to take a pay cut, no matter what you make. i get that. but your point is, yes, it might be a pay cut but it is a pay cut off a giant jump over the past decade. >> it is, brian. here's what the nhl's seeking to do. they're trying to align themselves with what has emerged as an industry standard for revenue share in north american sports. nfl and nba is at about 50%. the nhl last season was 57%. they want what the nfl has. they want what the nba has. mlb is about 47% themselves. >> but they're not the nfl. they're not major league baseball. they're not the nba. >> that $2.4 million, the middle class of the nhl has gotten richer.

they brought down the top end salaries and brought up the bottom. that's why no players complained after the last lockout. the owners know that they have to get this way down so if the game grows, technically everyone should win. players said they'd take $1.8 billion guaranteed frt pie. why, i'm curious, isn't that a good deal for everybody. if the piend that stays the same, isn't that good for the owners? >> exactly. isn't the nhl's rationale, we're going to give you a larger percentage and as the pie tings to grow you'll continue to generate really good income but let's just bring in this line with the industry standard for revenue share. >> i don't think -- i think people are mad at the owners and players. this is a difficult situation because it's hockey and it's a great sport and people love it but it is hockey and they're making millions. how can they complain? no one believes the owners when they say they're losing money. so everyone lose wlz it comes to hockey. >> eric, i kind of want to ask you the same thing but maybe in a different way. here we've got occupy wall

street protests. you've got a suffering middle class but now we have millionaires and billionaires fighting it out. right? it is unbelievably disconnected which is the point of our show today. do you have this tension in canada right now as well? or is it different? >> i mean absolutely. i think no economy, no national economy is an island. i think we all feel that we are in very difficult times and it is very tough. as you put it, seeing billionaires fight with millionaires. so there is indeed i think a public sentiment that, look, get this settled. a lot of us make a heck of a lot less money than you guys do and will ever, ever make. so you know what? please, get to the bargaining table and get this done. >> because eric and brian, i know you're a fan as well. please answer as a fan, not as a reporter. eric, is hockey at risk of losing people permanently? it was less than a decade ago that a lockout, the season was gone. what are they thinking? >> i'm also canadian so obviously i love hockey. it is part of my daily life. i think there is a risk here.

something we didn't see in 2005 and and this is a risk the nhl is going to lose fans in traditional markets -- boston, montreal, vancouver, toronto, markets like that where fans came back in 2005 but i think in 2005 the sentiment was, we understand, the business model of hockey is broken, we need to fix it. but now the business of hockey has only great positive indicators. new national tv deals. regional deals. record revenues. record attendance. so fans are saying, well hang on a second. it seems like you guys are being a little bit greedy. i may express my manifest or discontent by saying home. >> i always make the analogy, a student brags about getting a b-plus when you didn't study. i'd rather go to a college game or high school game than $76 in the u.s. for this product where there's only a handful of stars is a tough sell in the united states. i think there's huge risk. i think they've already hurt themselves from being the fourth work stoppage in 20 years. >> brian schactman, thank you.

eric, thank you very much. let's get back to the markets now and get a market flash. some potentially negative news for groupon out. raymond james releasing a survey of more than 100 merchant partners say 30% of merchants surveyed say they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied. we've lost 75% in this stock since it's gone public and down today more than 7% under $5. >> keeps getting tougher for groupon. up next, herb delivering two high-flying stocks that he thinks could fall this fall. and you know what's not falling? blimps. the business of blimps is booming. stl is that, my friends, the future of flight? questions?

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who knows later. ♪ i want to give you more on oil which is falling. it fell rapidly less than an hour ago. here's what we have heard. i want to ups the term technical here in one way and not the other. what we are hearing is that this was a technical move. not a problem. not a technical issue, not a fat

finger, not a flash crash. we're using technical here as a technical, like charting, term. some chart is telling us oil hit a certain point and it was a coordinated sell-off by those who follow the charts. all hitting sell at the same time. i'm sure more on oil throughout the day in closing on closing bell, perhaps. bill, what's coming up? >> coming up at the top of the hour, another day, another record. apple continues to pop get itin perilously close to $700. say it ain't so. business school applications for mba programs slide for the fourth year in a row. some schools are seeing a lift but we'll run through the winners and losers this season. plus, talk about unintended consequences. the fed's latest move to boost the economy has created an unexpected speed bump in the home buying process. wait until you hear what's holding things up. maria and i look forward to seeing you at the top of the

hour from here at the new york stock exchange. it is "street talk" time. as we noted, mandy getting a well deserved day off today. we have this guy, herb greenberg, with us. first off, tesla. i don't know if you drive a tesla, but morgan stanley is upgrading the stock today. they say that there are such bad expectations because of delivery delays that they believe tesla can outperform, surprise to the up side and they're raising their price target to $50 from $45. what say you? >> they ultimately have to grow in into this very big valuation they have. they've got to make some money, get some positive cash flow. until then? great speculative story. >> you disagree or agree with the upgrade? >> no position. >> starboard sending a letter to the ceo of odp. office depot is actually well

outperforming staples in the stock market. >> remember last week it was staples that was supposedly going to get some bid -- or it was in the rumor mill. lots of rumors about this group. interestingly en, starboard ceo jeff smith, good background in m and as so he's looking at it, feels he can do some of these break-up deals or they should be done. other analysts are saying easier said than done. >> a truncated "street talk," because i know you have some stocks to talk about. but quickly, netflix. analysts saying content owners have the power and netflix is basically a price taker in a competitive market. that stock is down almost 6%. >> we've been talking about content costs there all along. billions of dollars off balance sheet they have to ultimately pay off. costs aren't going down. there is clearly a case for content providers. >> somebody's got to pay your very high salary. have you two more high-flying stocks that you believe could have a big fall this fall. >> we're looking for stocks that

may have been getting ahead of themselves. one is polaris industries, snowmobile maker. the other is car max, and car max reports earnings in a few days. perhaps the biggest concern is the tight supply and high prices of use offed car ars the new car market continues to hum along. i also know you have some thoughts on polaris which has been putting out some pretty good news. what we're talking about is stocks that could be getting ahead of themselves based on what the screens are showing. >> i understand it. the screens and you've been rightly banging the table about earnings quality but i will say this about polaris. and also carmax. there is a lot of things you can do on a balance sheet but what you can't do is manipulate sales. right? revenues. okay? polaris' sales have gone from

1.9 -- don't grin. talking about companies that actually make and sell real things. $1.9 billion in sales in '08, on pace for $2.9 billion, almost $3 billion this year. >> and all i'm say something just a screen, something to look at, pay attention. >> so polaris and carmax, things you are wroerd about. we are always looking for signs of life here on street signs and this might be our favorite one yet. blimps. airship sales are inflating and jobs are coming with them. so we welcome in igor pastornak, founder and ceo of aeros. we saw your story, your growth, we thought it was a fantastic story because we have never talked about blimps in the history of cnbc. how strong is business? >> thank you, brian. thank you for having me. and i believe that we will talk about blimps in the history of

cnbc in future more, more and more. as things have happened in the last couple years, blimps -- not just goodyear blimps. blimps can do the transportation job and this what is really make them excited. >> igor, are you 100% exposed to u.s. government spending or do we see any commercial uses for blimps? >> they start technology in the u.s. government. however, major customer is the commercial world. it's probably 90% commercial world, and about 10% to 5% united states government, specially military and disaster relief operation and operation outside of united states. >> well that's good news. igor, we have to let it go a little bit short, unfortunately, because we've got some more news about oil but thank you very much. i look forward to taking a ride in a blimp some day. >> you got it. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you, brian. want to give you more on oil. we showed you the litany, folks, of rumors that are out there about oil. we got a hold of the white house, they issued a statement saying, no change in the strategic petroleum reserve. let me repeat. there has been no movement with the spr. that rumor was going around the web, going around the twitter sphere about why oil took a drop. spr, no change, according to the white house. up next, the president launching a new grenade in the cold war with china. plus, the mcrib. right? kind of like the cilantro of sandwiches. you love it or you hate it. but for mcdonald's, it might just be santa claus. we'll explain. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety.

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snoou the president is firing back at critics that say he's to soft on china. this as the president campaigning in auto job-heavy ohio. cnbc's phil lebeau has more on that complaint against china. what are they upset about? >> let's start first off with

the auto parts supplier. the president today in ohio coming out and saying, listen, the u.s. is going to file a trade case with the world trade organization, the wto, against china involving chinese auto parts suppliers. the president campaigning in ohio says that these suppliers have been giving illegal export subsidies from their home base in china and as a result, chinese exports have increased 700% in the last decade and that it's been undercutting the u.s. auto part makers. that's why when you take a look at job losses, since 1999, this industry has been decimated. they lost about 36 360,000 jobs since 1999. that's part of the xlanlt. the other issue the u.s. is bringing up today they believe china is imposing tariffs on u.s.-built autos. that has been going on. they have been imposing tariffs on u.s.-built autos. 15% tariff on large engine suvs and automobiles. we're talking mainly 90,000 vehicles made here and sold

there in a market of 18.5 million vehicles, that's a drop in the bucket. >> quickly, it's been our theme today, high wages, cheap goods, the desire of americans. it's a disconnect. you've been all over the world. you've been to these plants. can american auto parts manufacturers compete and offer their workers a fair and living wage? >> they can. but what they're doing is -- what they've been doing for the last decade, downsizing. certain jobs. let's say, making a sparkplug. you won't pay somebody $37 an hour to make a sparkplug in michigan, that's why delphi got rid of it and shipped it to china. it's not a value-add job. there are value-add jobs where they are paying top wages. >> stick around here because we want to talk about our favorite headline of the day, comes courtcy of ad age. can the mcdonald's mcrib sandwich save christmas? magazine reporting mcdonald's will delay the release of the cult classic until december to

help boost comps. let's bring in howard penney, he may or may not be at a mcdona mcdonald's. does the mcrib really move the needle on mcdonald's that much? >> it has in the past, ironically. if something is so bad, it's good. that's what the mcrib has done for mcdonald's. >> what does it mean? it's a cute story but if they delay it from december from early november, will that change how you value the company? >> no, no, not at all. there's a lot of issues in mcdonald's and mcrib isn't one em of them. they're going to try to offset a comp in december and january. there's a four-month window where they have difficult comparisons in the wintertime, partly due to weather. they're pulling out -- i guess they're going to throw a hail mary and hope the mcrib delivers

for them. >> i don't know how it is. at my house we gather around the yule logs and have mcrib sandwiches and shakes. >> people get fanatic about this -- >> i don't know more about this than anything else i say. >> people love this thing. >> my question to you, then, phil, i know you've been to mcdonald's, you've done specials, documentaries on them. if it's that popular, why isn't it a year-round menu item? there is no crisis, shortage of hogs? >> shamrock shake is popular when it comes out. do you see them -- >> that's a st. patrick's day theme. >> people love those -- >> you know what, you lose your specialness if you offer it year-round. that's the only answer i have for you. >> something that's that special can't be offered that -- that's -- that's the argument? it's that special? >> you can't have something that

good all the time, otherwise it wouldn't be that good. >> that's -- well, i can't argue with that logic. thank you very much. howard penney, i guess i need to have a mcrib. thank you both very much. >> take care. up next, the shocking disconnect that shows how much we are spending to connect. [ male announcer ] for the dreamers... and those well grounded. for what's around this corner... and the next. there's cash flow options from pnc. solutions to help businesses like yours accelerate receivables, manage payments, and help ensure access to credit. because we know how important cash flow is to reaching your goals. pnc bank. for achiever in you.

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