brian sullivan, you are with me as well, you are live at a yet to be disclosed location. i believe it is the number one city in our recovery road trip. right, brian? >> yes. that city is -- you got to wait a few minutes. we'll tell you right after i know we got the beige book headlines. going to be a great show though. let's get straight to steve leisman for those breaking headlines from the beige book. >> thanks very much. aen net dotal reports from the 12 federal reserve districts say the economic activity expanded at a measured pace in recent weeks. eight districts say growth was modest. st. louis and minneapolis say the growth was stronger. boston said it was slower. then have you new york and philadelphia attributing weakness to hurricane sandy. districts reported concern and uncertainty over the fiscal cliff. that's another theme that runs through this report along with sandy. consumer spending grew modestly. manufacturing however weakened or in some cases even contracted so that dual track economy of

the economy doing okay but the manufacturing sector not is a theme in this report. slice gains in residential and commercial real estate. tight inventories out there for housing. demand was higher for mortgages and auto loans and credit quality overall appeared to improve. small business loan was weaker to only moderately higher. that sector continues to be troubled. there were moderate gains in hiring with employment up in half of the 12 districts. wage and price pressure was subdude. let me get specific about the effects of hurricane sandy from the beige book. they found freight shipments were disrupted as far away as cleveland with a cloud hanging over jersey shore tourism. atlantic city casinos were mentioned specifically in there. there was concern over rebuilding the shore community and the speed with which they will be built. concern over shortages of construction equipment and rising insurance prices.

finally the effects were also -- the philly said that the storm accelerated already existing weakness in manufacturing. in new york the storm caused a slowing of real estate and retail sales and manhattan hotel revenue was down 10% overall with obviously the marathon was canceled. then some people were displaced, then took up some of that but overall it was 10% lower than a year ago. i will say that the expectation in the beige book is that whatever effects were there, mostly will come back with that real question of the rebuilding, how much will be rebuilding, can they find the supplies, can they find the people to do it. >> should we be taking this beige book with a grain of salt because of the distortions from sandy? >> i think you need to take it into account as we read the national data that there will be some. we haven't really seen it yet but in the future we've seen it somewhat in claims. some of the broader national data is going to be somewhat affected by hurricane san day. >> thank you very much for that. now let's get back over to brian who is in -- where are you

for the big reveal, brian? >> all right. well, let's set up very quickly in case people are just joining us. our recovery road trip for the past three days we've been in the best three cities for the smasht over the past year. we took the biggest companies in 23 different metro indexes, sat on it for a year, crunched the numbers, averaged them out. we had philadelphia at number three, we had charlotte at number two, and the winner of the best city for the stock market over the past year is -- atlanta, georgia. we're here at the georgia aquarium which is just absolutely fantastic. we've got a great guest lineup for you. we've got the mayor, we got the ceo of newell rubbermaid, and art blank, owner of the falcons. the only city where none of the biggest stocks fell year over year. it also made it easy to get here from the number two city, which

we do appreciate. >> looks like you've got a whole pile of co-hosts there swimming behind you. looks like they're almost performing for the camera. >> you know, we've been trying to get an interview with the leader of this pod, beethoven. we've got word in with his pr people. right now he is being a little standoffish but you never know. for the ratings, i may jump in. that's all it takes. >> every single creature here on this earth wants their 15 minutes of fame. right? okay. brian, we'll get back to you in a second. you've got lots of things happening over there in atlanta but lots of things are happening here as well. it all leads back to the fiscal cliff. bob pisani has been track being the comeback for the major averages. eamon javers has been following the cliff negotiations. bob, i want to start with you. that incredible turnaround that we saw in the market sentiment this morning on some happy talk out of boehner. >> yeah. let me just show you what happened this morning here. first mr. boehner said that he was optimistic. put up the dow industrials. said he wasoptimistic that a

deal could be reached. that happened here around the marked move up. then president obama got the markets to moch ve up. he said he wanted a deal before christmas. two comments today is what's moving the market. again these are all fiscal cliff issues. if you look elsewhere am some of the industries that are out, home builders had a little bit of a disappointment today. new home sales for actually below expectations. september was revised downward. we haven't seen this. this is the first sort of negative bit of housing data we've seen in a while. home builders are not going along with the rest of the story. finally retail stocks did very well. we had positive comments from express and american eagle. many of these stocks sitting near multi-month highs. the question here is how much more up side is there? we've had good news on retail recently but some people are starting to say i think it's time to take some money off of the table with these stocks given that the first quarter of next year it is going to have

very touch comps. remember it was warm in q1 of 2012. >> bob, thank you for that. i'm going to stay with the theme of the fiscal cliff. our own eamon javers is following the progress or lack thereof on the solution in congress. i wonder whether we'll see a few congressmen dressed up as father christmas this year with promises after deal before christmas. >> i don't know about that, but i have been saying -- i want to make this clear -- markets ought to be careful they're not ral rallying on standard boilerplate comments from members of congress. nothing boehner said in particular gives a real indication of what's going on with this deal, yet we saw the market rally on those comments. markets have been trying to parse these words and they've got to be very careful that they really understand what these guys are actually saying. let me talk about lloyd blankfein, the ceo of goldman sachs who's here in washington today making the rounds. what a difference a year makes for lloyd glablankfein who for past couple of years has been

something of a pariah. this morning he told me what he had's like to see out of a deal here in washington. >> we're in the middle of a financial crisis and an economic crisis. so you'd expect the people who are in the middle of the economy and who know most about finance to go down and give their opinions. again, we're not telling people what to do. we don't -- we're not in a election, we're not elected to do that but we do have the exper cease and the people who are legislating are right to ask our views. >> lloyd blankfein there being a little bit gentle saying we're not here to tell people what to do but cl is clearly a message these ceos want to get across today. a little bit while ago we saw a press conference here on capitol hill where ceos called for a bipartisan solution. >> so we encourage congress and the white house to put aside the political rhetoric that still invades this conversation and rise above it to make sure that we have revenue necessary in order to move this economy

forward and entitlement reform that helps make sure this nation is a safe and wonderful place to live. >> mandy, they're going to be wrapping up here on capitol hill and heading down to the white house for meetings with the president later on this afternoon. it's been a very busy day up here, bribe, up on capitol hill. no killer whales here but a lot of killer ceos, brian. >> yes, and bertolini did say "rise above" in than sound bite. >> yes, did he. one of the ceos that was there, the ceo of home depot, joined by his number two cfo, carol tomei. s she's been named one of the 50 most powerful women in business. i'm honored to be here and thanks for joining us in your town. >> thank you. welcome to atlanta. >> home depot powered that. i should note. they were the best performer of any company. eck

equifax was number two. is business that good? investors buy stocks based on what's going to happen, not what has happened. should we anticipate this good of a 2013? >> well, thank you for acknowledging our performance. really, our results are based on a number of things. great execution by our team. we're getting a little help from the housing market, too. as you think about what will happen into 2013 we're seeing signs of recovery. we're not fully recovered but we're seeing signs of recovery and that's a good thing. >> is it going to be a temporary bit of help from the housing market or are you projecting this will be a real long-term housing recovery? >> well, we hope it's a long-term housing recovery. >> we all do. but you got to project out. are you projecting that? >> well, we believe that there's pent-up demand. there are 2.1 million people who want to get into a home so there's pent-up demand. there's never been a more affordable time to buy a house in the history of our country. wow, pent-up demand and affordability. that's terrific. just got to make sure that the mortgages are available.

so there are a couple of thins that are happening in terms of mortgage financing reform that we'd like to see come through in a powerful way because that would really propel a strong housing recovery. >> which is interesting. as your role as chairman of the federal reserve bank of atlanta you advise bankers on what you're hearing from the economy, i would imagine. >> yes. >> so what are you telling federal reserve members? >> well, we tell them a lot of things. we tell them what our customers are shopping. as you can appreciate, we have a lot of customer transactions in our store every week. we can tell them right now that customers are sthopghopping acr the store which is a good sign of recovery but they're not spending a lot of money on big ticket items yet. they're focusing their dollars on repair and remodel. as we see them start to spend on bigger ticket items, that will be proof positive of recovery. >> i'm going to jump in here, carol. i believe tonight the home depot ceo is going to be among many ceos who are going to be meetingality the white house this evening with president obama. i'm not going to ask you what

you think he's going to say. i'm going to ask you if you were going tonight, what would you say to the president? >> well, the first thing i would say is thank you to the president for asking business leaders to spend time with him and his cabinet to talk about the issues that are facing us. we think that's a great move by our president. and then i'd be responsive to the questions that would come my way. >> carol tome, thank you for joining us. hope to see you again on cnbc. >> thanks, brian. >> take care. one guest down, many more to come. coming up, we've got the ceo of newell rubbermaid, the mayor of atlanta, and arthur blank. billionaire co-founder of home depot and the owner of atlanta falcons is our special guest as our recovery road trip ends with the number one city for the smas stock market for the past year -- hot-lanta, georgia. there can be only one number one. the city with the third most fortune 500 companies in the

country has the single best stock market over the past year. we're talking atlanta, georgia, where stocks have been as good as a cheese dog and a frosted orange from the world famous varsity. and it is not just the big three of coke, home depot and u.p.s. newell rubbermaid, equifax. the capital of the south was the only one of our cnbc city indexes to have every stock higher over the past 12 months. average return just under 23%. it only beat out charlotte by a few tenths, but a win is a win and atlanta is cnbc's best city for the market over the best year. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes,

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atlanta is getting ready to ev its engine for porsche. local and state officials broke ground just yesterday for the carmaker's new north american headquarters. it is on the side of an old ford plant near atlanta's airport and the cost of the complex is around $100 million and it will create 100 jobs when it is complete in late 2014. i am sure not just georgians want to get their hands on porsche's newest car, the cayman 2013. company gave a sneak peek to cnbc at the l.a. auto show earlier on today. wipe off that drool from your face, brian sullivan. >> little underpowered. i'm more a gt 3rs guy but i

wouldn't turn it down if somebody gave it to me. joined now by a man that's very happy about the story you just told us, the mayor of atlanta, kasim reed. estimated 400 jobs. congratulations on winning our recovery road trip best stock market over the past year and it's much happier than when we spoke a year ago about job losses. >> no question. i think it shows that our fundamentals are strong. the win for the porsche north american headquarters was huge yesterday. we had officials from germany here. i think we've got the right mix. we have the busiest passenger airport in the world. we've got great global connectivity. you can get to 80% of the u.s. in two hours or less. then we've got wonderful businesses like the ones that you're interviewing today. we've got the fourth largest concentration of fortune 500s in america. >> and the lowest relative cost of doing business of any of the top ten metro areas. but stock returns are one thing,

mr. mayor. transforming that into income gains, into job growth in the private sector, into reducing unemployment, that's another story. you still got some work to do. >> we have a lot of work to do but we've come from 10.2% 208.2% right now in the last quarter adding about 19,000 jobs. our trends are moving in the right direction. we just got a huge decision from the federal government regarding deepening the port of savannah. so it will be ready for -- >> how will that help atlanta? >> it's huge because all of that cargo and freight that comes in internationally is dispersed through the metro system adding a nice claire of blue collar jobs and jobs that require technical skills as well, feeds in to the airport. we have a growing air cargo logistics capability so that flow from the port through the capital city to the rest of the southeast is generating jobs for us. >> mayor reed, how likely is it that you're going to be able to realize this vision, what you call the trail of prosperity, the high-speed rail between

atlanta and savannah? >> i think we're going to get that done. i think it's going to change georgia because we need to have two dynamic economies. the savannah port is the fastest growing port on the eastern seaboard. fourth most successful port in the united states of america. now we'll be able to deepen it from 42 to 47 feet. that's critical. all of that cargo and freight that's coming in internationally is going to move our city forward. you know well that the leading cities of the world have great ports and great airports. we now have those two things. >> some of your companies here in fact like newell rubbermaid used to be based somewhere else. years ago they were in illinois. now they're in georgia. >> yes. >> you going to lure more big companies here? >> no question, we're going to lure and we're going to grow. so porsche was -- >> do you have interest from other big companies that are talking to you about coming here? >> yes, no question. just a little while ago we moved

the air cargo headquarters from british airways from new york to hartsfield-jackson. we've really been lining up win after win. we just had carters which makes children's clothes. they own oshkosh just had a significant expansion in the city of atlanta. and we're holding our real stars so the coca-colas of the world are expanding. we're holding them. home depot expanding, we're holding them. u.p.s. so it's not really all about the grab. it's also about holding your stars. >> we're going to let you go. we've got arthur blank here. we'll ask if he is going to guarantee a super bowl nap could be a lot of money for you guys, mr. mayor. thank you for joining ushappy h. see you again soon. coming up next, what's the real motive behind all of those special dividends? we investigate for you. and who do you have coming up as well next, brian? >> i kind of gave it away in that interview. newell rubbermaid. the ceo of one of their top five

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t-minus 33 days until it is cal cliff deadline. 54 companies have announced a special dividend since the beginning of the month. two words we're hearing a lot of these days. question we have though -- does politics have anything do with it? silly question. hampton pearson's been digging into this. ham? >> how you doing, mandy? as you mentioned, 54 companies have announced those special dividend zips the beginning of november. that compares to 44 in all of 2011. now this is from the companies in the russell 3,000 with a market cap of over $500 million. but the politics, if there are any, may surprise you. take a look at a couple pie charts comparing those political contributions and those dividends. first of all, 67% of those special dividend companies made contributions to the romney campaign. just over $287,000.

33% to president obama for just over $143,000. now we've got a similar breakdown when you look at contributions to political candidates. 68%, just over $1.4 million to gop candidates. 32%, $690,000 to democrats. now costco, of course, making market moving news today announcing a $7 per share special dividend to be paid before the end of the year. if we go over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year, that tax rate on dividend goes from 15% to just over 43%. i think it is safe to say that there is bipartisan support among investors and shareholders for those special dividends now and not seeing that dividend tax rate skyrocket after the end of the year. >> it does seem to make sense. hampton pearson, thank you very much. now, let's get back to our recovery road trip to atlanta where we find you once again, brian. >> thanks, mandy. in fact, the ceo of the company

we're going to speak with right now just raised their dividend a couple of weeks ago by 50%. that is null rewell rubbermaid, of the five best performing in the atlanta intext. michael polk, thanks for coming on cnbc. you guys raids tsed the divident heading towards the end of the year, any thoughts of a one-time special big dividend? >> i don't think we'll go down that paths. of course that's the board's -- at their discretion. i doubt they'd choose to do that. we increased the dividend 50%. it is the second dividend increase we've taken this year. >> when you took over the company there were some issues. it's been a reorganization. a couple weeks ago announcement of job losses. but most of the job losses that you guys are doing are in the european markets. correct? >> that is correct. what we're trying to do is transform this company from a holding company to an operating company. >> what's that mean? >> take the structural costs out

of the organization and put that money behind brand programming to help drive growth. we think that's the right choice to make. this company's been managed historically as a set of autonomous businesses and we are looking to build scale across the areas -- >> like the whales behind us, you're merging them into one pod as opposed to -- what does that mean? >> where it makes sense in the administrative area, we'll play for scale. where it makes sense to maintain intimacy, which typically is in selling or marketing -- we want to sell more sharpies, we want to sell more irwin tools, graco car seats. >> when mandy signs autographs, sharpie is the brand pen of choice. >> i would like to jump in here. we've got a guest coming on later on in the show -- there's nye sharpie -- tim paris is going to join us later on. he says that you are a serial acquirer with a really good

history of integrating companies. so my question to you is what's going to be next on your acquisition list? are you going to make an acquisition in the next 12 months? >> look, our goal is to unlock the organic growth potential in our business. our focus is in that area. over time we've certainly got flexibility in our balance sheet and we generate a lot of cash. we'll have lots of options to tack on companies, bolt on companies in our core categories. for the time being i'd like my team focused on generating a more consistent cadence of delivery through organic growth. >> how are you -- last question -- preparing for the fiscal cliff? >> look, i think -- we hope that our representatives in washington come together -- >> hope is not a strategy. >> well, look, i have a reference point here in georgia. you look at the work that mayor reed and the governor have done from opposing points of view on political perspectives but coming together in service to a community. i hope they serve as a reference point to our legislators in washington.

>> all right, michael polk, ceo of newell rubbermaid, coming from a food company, used to be at unilever, maybe he will be a "cereal" acquirer. >> the belugas can do better jokes than that. up next, we're street talking with herb. wait until you hear what the ceo of groupon just said about his business. also the powerball jackpot is up to $550 million. we have your payout prediction plan and one thing you should not do with all those money. "street signs" is back in a moment.

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as you might have noticed, brian is out in atlanta today. he is back tomorrow though. but in the meantime we have herb here to warm the seat for him to

do "street talk" as well. let's get to deckers. this company we've been talking about a lot this week. >> a lot this week because this is a company that over the past month or two, since they have earnings, company's done pretty poorly but the stock has come way back. up today big time. showing off the new uggs. stern aig analyst poser who has been negative on the company was not invited to this. why is the stock up? people talk about acquisitions. rumor, rumor, rumor. who would buy the company? i started talking to people, strategically people think, hey, maybe a good fit with vf corp. >> joseph a. bank i believe brian bought a jack or coat from them just last week but today, dropping like a stone. that coat purchase did not help. >> this has been such a long-term battleground stock. i've written about it for so

long until a year ago when they finally won. they had earnings last night, not what people expected. i think what's very interesting here is while comp store sales were positive, honestly the company's talking about -- this is a company known for promotions. additional markdowns. need more promotions. if you take a look at the company, the sales trend, the earnings, not their friend. i should also mention margins. at this company, really going down over the past year. they reported this morning, out last night. >> jcpenney, it would be completely wrong if we didn't bring you in on this story today. it is getting a boost. >> i think it is getting a boost as a result of jim cramer. >> the cramer effect! >> he had had the pbh chairman on and the chairman specifically called on penney saying the izod stores are helping the pbh businesses. first thing i did was e-mail jim, that was interesting. certainly that may be having -- we never know why stocks are up but that was the only positive news. >> looking at sodastream.

>> for what reason they go hand in hand with gncr. >> some said that will be technology that will change soda consumption like the keurig did. i don't think so. it has a cash flow issue. but on the other hand sales going through the roof. we'll see if it gets this pop that people have been expecting for a long time. >> i'm going to keep the beverage theme going here. don't know whether you noticed or not, starbucks is out with its most expensive coffee ever. for a cup, you will have to pay $7. now the interesting thing about this is apparently it is a very rare variety that's only grown in central america. apparently is very difficult to grow. it is called the geisha. the variety of coffee. central america? geisha? isn't that like japanese? apparently for an eight-ounce bag it is $40. >> but if you like coffee, you'll pay for it. >> i don't know. $7 for a cup of coffee?

have to be a pretty darn good cup of coffee. >> some people like to pay up. it is a luxury good. herb, julia boorstin is following the story of the ceo of groupon. he's been talking a lot today and he has a lot to say, right? >> that's absolutely right, mandy. andrew mason, ceo of groupon, defended his leadership at business insider ignition conference earlier today on the heels of reports groupon's report is considering ousting him. news sent the company's stock moving higher late yesterday. listen to what he said. >> here's a news flash. our stock is down about 80% since we ipo'd a year ago. it would be weird if the bortd wasn't discussing whether i'm the right guy to do the job. and it's actually their chief responsibility to ask that question, as they have asked that question in the past. the only thing unusual is that it is showing up in the newspaper. >> mason says he has no plans to step down but he would if he didn't think he was the right

man for the job. whether mason is pushed out depends entirely on the support of groupon's most powerful shareholders. along with mason, the three of them control 55% of voting shares. mason says he's focused on building on groupon's strengths which include its new goods business and mobile. half of groupon sales over thanksgiving weekend were on mobile devices. while mason points to these strings, he pointed to the challenges of running a company that's certainly in the spotlight. >> groupon has always not been boring. sometimes in ways i wish we were more boring, like around our life as a public company. >> mason sounded chastened but he criticized the media for focusing too much on the plane crashes and not enough on the sort of safe landings. he pointed out the fact that he says that groupon's marketing power is much more effective than say advertising in a newspaper. mandy and herb, it doesn't seem like newspaper advertise something a business one would

want to aspire to right now. >> i don't know what he's talking about when he talks about looking at the bright spots. this is a company where there have been very few bright spots and you start to wonder if he's just sort of hanging on by a thread. that was such a fascinating interview and the report of what he said. but i mean, come on now! he's on my short list of worst ceos of the year. he doesn't even think that should be talked about right now? obviously his time would appear to be limited. >> well, it's interesting, he's really trying to pivot groupon away from being just a deal a day company to being sort of an operating system for small businesses and in september he unveiled on cnbc his new mobile payment for small businesses. the question is whether they can maintain that deal a day business growth especially overseas where it's been struggling and also try to build up some of these new revenue

streams. >> it is a really tough industry. so much competition. so much deal fatigue. >> the only good news is some of the competition has fallen away simply because they -- no one can make a go of it. >> share price down four-fifths since the ipo. thank you julia boorstin. pressure has been turned up on hedge fund giant steve cohen. kate kelly, what have you learned about this story? >> you're right that the heat on sac capital turned up about a notch this morning with the firm's own announcement to investors it received a wells notice from the s.e.c., a warning the agency may file civil charges against the sac. up to know now they've only charged a former trading member and a sid sidary unit but that may change. the rev lake came through a half-hour investor briefing call in which sac founder steve cohen expressed his continued belief that he has acted proechtly. he then turned the call over to his top lieutenant who said sac

received the notification from the atecy last week and that it continues to cooperate with the government's investigation. this is a difficult one though because it was already ensnared steve cohen personally by alleging he was deeply involved in a decision to sell stock positions that were likely to lose value because of an event that hadn't yet been made public in the summer of 2008. it is not clear what cohen himself knew of the non-public information and he was not personally warned in the recent wells notice. that's important to point out. still, he could always be charged by the s.e.c. down the road. and, there's a long history of the s.e.c. filing civil charges against companies and even some hedge funds. settling with the agency cost pequot $27 million two years ago and the hedge fund manager phil falcone is still fighting charges. arthur andersen and aig have also been through this process. it can be very costly and hard to come out the other side. >> wondering right now is whether people are starting to yank money. >> that's a good question.

definitely the question of the hour. it would seem they wouldn't put a call like this together if they didn't at least have concern investors were voicing. i have heard of at least one entity that filed notification it wants to redeem. that will be in the first quarter because the window for this past quarter has already come and gone. i've talked to others who say -- brokers in fact who say their clients, particularly high net worth individuals are raising a lot of questions, what's the future of sac, what if something happens to cohen and he can't run it. their cap stital is awfully sec but the vast majority belongs to either cohen himself or other insiders. only talking $6 billion, maybe $7 billion, a third, but that comes from the outside. we're going to head back to hot-lanta for a look at the city's top stocks. we are going to be talk offing everything from building supplies to credit checks. you name it, we've got it. and then we tell what you could happen to that $550 million powerball jackpot if we go over the fiscal cliff.

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coming up on "the closing bell," tax hikes alone won't even make a dent in our debt. we're going to hear from one ceo who says our economy is in deep trouble without significant spending cuts as well. plus, we're going to hear from one democratic lawmakers willing to dive off the cliff if that's what it takes to reach a good deal on tax hikes. find out why your retirement could be at risk courtesy of a possible fiscal cliff deal. first though, more "street signs" with mandy right now. >> thanks a lot, michelle. $2 is all it takes. it could be your ticket to the life of luxury. that's how much it costs to get in on the record powerball jackpot. we're now at $550 million, guys. you got to be in it to win it. the draw something tonight. with the flurry of ticket sales, the pot could grow even larger. lottery officials put the odds of winning at 1 in 175 million. right now on cnbc.com, john

carney has worked out the logistics that tell you what you need to do to guarantee that win. not sure guarantee is the word we can use here. nonetheless, say you win the powerball jackpot. how will the fiscal cliff impact you? there are a ton of different factors and scenarios here. this isn't exactly a science but let's just assume you're a single filer who hits the $550 million powerball. you take the lump cash payout of $360 million. assume the current federal tax rate on lotto wings is say 35%. you walk away with about $234 million. not bad. but, if we go over the fiscal cliff, taxes on those wings would spike up $16 million, meaning you'd walk away with a mere $218 million. thanks to our friends at the tax foundation for helping to crunch all of those numbers for us. even if the tax rate was 80%, brian, i would still be in it to win it because you know what? few million dollars?

it's worth it. right? for $2? just a little ticket? >> there's two reasons not to buy a ticket. number one, the odds are almost impossible. number two, the winning ticket is right here. . >> no, that's not right. >> ted parish is with us, principal and directser of investments and hensler financial. if i win, whoever wins powerball or any lottery or comes into a lot of money, whether an irhair tans or what it is, what's your first recommendation? call you, right? >> call me and i'll strike you a really good deal. but you should invest for the long term first of all. nothing's changed. tax rates are definitely going to go up but that doesn't make stocks or bonds any more or less attractive. the rates are going to go up. dividend yields are going to be a little bit lower after tax but in the end, stocks are still the best -- >> don't buy a solid gold

lamborghini. >> i think you would be a paying a little bit too much for that right now. >> one of the reasons we're doing this recovery road trip is to uncover companies in areas that maybe our viewers aren't that familiar with. we know the biggies here -- coke, home depot. what are some local companies that you like? >> i like aaron's rental. they're a counter cyclical company. when things are bed, people rent furniture more than they buy it. now i think with the economy emerging and expanding, people are still giving aaron's pretty good business. >> that would seem to be counterintuitive. if things are bad they rent, but if things are getting better around they seem to be, wouldn't that hurt aaron's? >> they've been pretty good in their marketing. i think you have more people -- loirn come people go in and actually buy furniture from aaron's on a rent-to-own basis. another company is intercontinental exchange. that's the clearinghouse basically for swaps and

derivatives. i think dodd-frank will actually do them a good service by enforcing a clearinghouse, central clearinghouse. they're going to benefit from that. >> the i.c.e. who our viewers know pretty well probably don't know they could benefit from dodd-frank. >> definitely. i think the company is very profitable because it is not a brick and mortar bank. it is very similar to a technology company. their operating costs have held in check. >> okay. quickly home depot, u.p.s., coca-cola, you invest in all three of the biggies here in atlanta. >> of course. i can't say anything bad about home depot right now. they've been on a roll. i think they have very good management ript nght now. previous management made some big mistakes but i think blake has done a great job and getting merchandising in order. they closed their big box stores in klein which i think was a good idea. i like management more now and

the stock has done really well. they've beat their numbers the past six to eight quarters. >> ted parish, thanks for coming on our recovery road trip. let's get a "market flash." brian, we're catching shares of timken. noting relation and investors has taken a stake in the company and will push for a break-up. timken shares are up there this year, up 11% on that report with that breakup possibly waiting in the wings. brian, back to you. coming up after the break, a very special guest, a guy that i'm very happy to have on the show, arthur blank, co-founder of home depot, billionaire, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to charity and also owns the atlanta falcons who are 10-1 and have a big game tomorrow night. will he guarantee a super bowl victory? i don't know. but i'm going to ask him right after this. t 16. you know, one job or the other.

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well, i've just been informed there's only seven inches of glass between us and these whales. now i'm nervous. i wasn't before. i'm not worried about me washing away. i'm worried about our next guest washing away, arthur blank, co-founder of home depot, owner of the atlanta falcons. mr. blake, it's a real privilege and pleasure. >> it's really good to be here. it's always great to be in the aquarium. >> i know. watch out. i'd love to talk about the falcons. 10-1, big game tomorrow. i want to ask you about atlanta. home depot here, what makes -- i'm throwing up a bill softball for you. what makes atlanta special business-wise? >> it's got great balance to it. it's a great place to raise a family. it's a great place to start a business, grow a business. it's been a unique growing market for many years. there's a great history of collaboration from a business standpoint, from a political standpoint. great schools, great airport.

a lot of wonderful things about atlanta. the weather is good. obviously, your football team is here, our football team. >> the football team is not bad. you came up humble beginnings, northeast california. rubbermade used to be in california. now they're here. if you were the ceo of a new york or chicago company today, would you like to move to a place like atlanta? >> i would because i think it's very important -- it's always been important to be happy. critically today associates are making a lot of decisions about where they want to spend their time, raise their families. this is a great place to raise your family. it's an area that supports businesses and understands businesses and has a long history of good collaboration between business and -- >> that's good for here, but isn't that bad for new york and chicago and those places, which appear to be, for a lot of different reasons, just increasingly noncompetitive? >> i don't know they're not competitive. i come from new york. i have a bias towards new york. chicago is a great city. san francisco. a lot of the great northern cities and west coast cities

have their traditions and history as well. atlanta has been a unique place as the hub of the southeast. i think it's a great place to have a family and to build a business. >> how worried are you about the fiscal cliff, sir? >> like everybody else, i'm worried about it. i think if we could get more of our political leaders to mirror someone like john lewis who's been in the forefront of political leadership for years and represents the american population, doing the right thing, i think we'll be in a good place. i wish our politicians would take more of a role of leadership, political leadership, personal leadership, personal courage, and make some of these decisions instead of having january 1st come and having to respond to things happening. we ought to be making those decisions and making them for the populations that we serve. >> you want them to operate more like a business. >> i do. >> less finger pointing, more getting things done. >> more collaboration. in biusiness and in life, in an sense you work with people, it's always about collaboration.

it's always partnerships. seek first, then understand. then be able to express yourself. i think our politicians need to do more of that. hopefully, given the closeness of this last election, they can listen to each other well. >> you going to make it to the super bowl this year? >> speak to the whale behind me and ask him. we're in a really good place. we're 10-1. i'm confident. we're playing a very, very good team that we have to play very well against. a lot of football left. obviously, getting into the playoffs. we're in a good place. >> mr. blake, it was a pleasure. mandy, this is a self-made billionaire. if more people in congress thought like him, we might get more done. >> send him to the white house. you said you were nervous about having only seven inch of glass behind you. imagine how the whales are feeling. coming up next, the

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