wesbury, long island, at noon so i can sign your copy, your own personal copy of "get rich carefully." we had a lot of fun last night at barnes & noble, i'd like to see you at costco. there's always a bull market somewhere, i promise to find it for you here jim cramer and i will see you monday! here comes the ec-mails. thousands of documents related to the bridgegate scandal. so far, no smoking gun for chris christie and he's still standing. a live report with all of the latest coming up. and a soft jobs report nothing but a weather-related fluke. but why have millions of americans dropped out of the labor report? where have they gone? are they dependent on the government benefits? and the obamacare nightmare about to go front and center once again. the two million people who allegedly signed up, it may be

that only 50% have actually paid. team obama finally just fired the company that built the terrible healthcare.gov website and health insurers now are petrified that they are going to lose their federal government bailout. all those stories and more coming up on "the kudlow report" beginning right now. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." we're live here at 7:00 p.m. easter eastern, 4:00 p.m. pacific. new jersey lawmakers released thousands of documents. cnbc's own eamon javers is joining us. >> a lot of this stuff has been subpoenaed over the last couple

of months between folks in chris christie's camp and the port authority. we're seeing e-mails from people who don't like each other very much to other people that they don't like very much but nothing so far here to contradict what chris christie said yesterday, which is that he had no idea that this all was going on. let me give you a sense of the flavor of the e-mails. one of them in particular is from patrick hoyt, the head of the port authority. he's a cuomo appointee e-mailing after the shutdown. he call it is a hasty and ill-advised decision resulted in delays to emergency vehicles, had an adverse effect on the economy, on both new jersey and new york side's of the river. he said i will not allow delays and travel on yom kippur and i believe it violated federal and state laws. also in there, layer year, is an

e-mail from a person complaining to the port authority saying, you know what, her husband just got a new job after being laid off work for over a year and he was 40 minutes late to his knew job. she's very worried about him losing that job and complaining to the port authority that they are not taking this problem seriously enough and creating all of this traffic for people who are simply trying to get to work. a lot here to pour through but complaints and nastiness between these local officials in these e-mails. >> the port authority arguing as it has for many decades. eamon, thank you. appreciate it. let's bring in our cnbc contributor, keith boykin is here and m.j., senior political reporter, and talk radio host, larry o'connor joins us, i believe, for the first time. he's editor-in-chief. thank you. appreciate it. i want to start with darryl. so far these documents, this is

inside port authority stuff. is that fair? this doesn't really reach into the christie administration, doesn't tell us anything about that one-hour meeting where allegedly everyone said that everything was fine? >> not yet. there's been no smoking gun, as you said at the top. i think we've seen the headline documents. i think what we saw on wednesday were the main documents out of that thing that put this in the christie administration with bridget kelly but so far i haven't heard of anything out there that would contradict anything that christie said in this press conference and anything else that would tie it to any other administration people higher than the ones that have been implicated into it. >> let me go to larry o'connor. i thought christie did a very good job, a very good and effective job yesterday but i don't think all of the buttonholes are closed yet. okay? one of the issues that i want to ask about tonight, i want to begin with you, why do you

suppose his two guys on the port authority, okay, wildstein and whatever the other guy's name was, why do you think those two guys, who were appointed by christie, who have known christie for a long time, why is wildstein taking the fifth amendment before the new jersey assembly and why didn't chris christie call them when this whole thing began? why? >> that's one of the reasons why the media has continued to cover this the way they have. christie should be an honorary kardashian at this point. cynics will say it was plausible for denial. she lied to him. not because of the traffic problem. not because she did what she did. just because she lied to him. otherwise, he would have fired the people at the port authority, if he could. >> beroni is the guy's name i

was trying to ig if out and wildstein. chris christie associates, colleagues down through the years. they don't have the best of reputations, i might add, according to roger stone's own website. he knows a thing or two about that. but are they covering up the debate inside the port authority or are they covering up conversations they may have had with governor christie and/or bridget kelly? see, that's something i don't get. >> i don't think the public knows that yet either. i don't think christie in two hours yesterday answered that question. the first question i had was, what about wildstein and berroni. they resigned from their posts at the port authority. why did they leave? what did he think they were leaving for in the midst of the scandal? was there no reason for him to

investigate and connect the dots and the idea that bridget kelly, this top aide to governor christie just on her own woke up one day and decided she was going to cause a traffic jam doesn't hold water. >> that is absolutely key and that's a major point. on the day after the news conference, we learned a lot about bridget anne kelly. hard-working woman, mother of four. >> very loyal. >> loyal to christie. but someone who worked her way up from the bottom. she doesn't come in as a super big shot and so forth and so on. it just seems hard to understand, for me at least, that she would be the one to give the order and pull the trigger to cause the traffic jam in ft. lee. there's just something that doesn't -- maybe it was the campaign manager, stepian, maybe he pulled the trigger on that. but it doesn't make sense to me that she would do it and i think that's a missing link in this story. >> i agree. as a former staffer to senator

rick santorum, one of the things that i think happened is, a, there was a culture in that office where the deputy chief of staff was enempowered to do these types of things, in other words, be the hatchet woman or was told to do this thing. that was such a big thing to do. i don't know why she would do that if she was not, a, empowered to do that and, b, told to do that. she is telling people, look, i was thrown under the bus here. >> darryl, can you confirm that what bob traynham just said? is she telling friends that she was thrown under the bus and do you brief that this kelly was the one who pulled the trigger and gave the order? >> your sources are better than mine because i cannot confirm that she is saying that she was thrown under the bus. but absolutely not. there's a hole in the e-mails. you have the august e-mail where she says, time for some traffic problems. wildstein's only response is "got it."

so where is the explanation of what traffic problems means. wildstein seems to indicate that he knows what she means. so either this was in place ahead of time and she was given the go order or there had to have been a substantive conversation about what traffic problems means. a month later we have backup problems on the george washington bridge. >> let me ask my question again. okay. this thing breaks out in september. three, four days, big front page news. everybody has gone bonkers other this thing the the governor is a pretty savvy guy. why doesn't he pick up the phone and call his two guys or one of his two guys. ? he's known them for a while. what is the -- darryl, what is the buzz in new jersey political circles about an obvious question that if i'm asking it, all of you smart reporters are asking it? what's the buzz on that? >> it's skepticism.

he came out yesterday and unequivocally said he didn't know any of this was going on. this happened around him and didn't know it was happening. but when you go back to the questions that at the time this happened and then later during press conferences he was glib about it and then when bill berroni testified that this was all about a traffic study, we all asked, have you asked for the traffic study? have you gone and taken that step? no, i believe bill. i have no reason not to believe bill. so i'm taking his word that it was a traffic study and that, to me, didn't really make sense. you know, this thing is falling apart and you don't take the next step to say, all right, where is this thing? produce it. >> i don't know. i'm not making judgments. i'm just asking the questions, right? i'm being a correspondent here. i don't know. >> why are they being so petty. >> who is they? >> why did bridget anne write that e-mail? what's the point of causing traffic problems in ft. lee?

>> because they can. this is about the abuse of power. the teachable moment is the more power we give to the government, the more it will be abused. this sort of thing happens in chicago, it happens in new york and new jersey and suddenly reporters are acting like casa blanca. >> as a former staffer, for someone to be empowered to do something like that, that's a big, big deal. >> i remember a long time ago when i worked for michael dukakis in 1988, the very first day when i let him, he fired me and brought me into his office because he was a micromanager. for everybody he hired, he brought me to the office and said never write anything down on paper that you don't want to see in "the boston globe." that's politics 101. the people writing this down is really arrogant and petty and i don't understand why they would even bother to put this in an e-mail. >> because clearly if you're that naive or that arrogant to put that in writing and to ask

for something like that, there's a culture there. you don't just do that. >> jeff connor, part of the story of the one-hour meeting that christie had a month ago with the senior staff where he asked them all if they knew anything about this and they all said no, but part of that story that i think i learned today -- i wasn't sure i learned it yesterday -- he walked out of the meeting but his general counsel interviewed individuals in the meeting. now, joe, here's the question. why didn't the general counsel operating on behalf of the administration ask for e-mails, a full accounting of e-mails from the various senior staff people who were in that meeting? to me, that would be almost automatic. you know, on wall street and in financial prosecutions and so forth, whenever there is a hunt, they immediately go for the e-mails joe. why do you think, larry o'connor, that they didn't do that this time? >> again, because i think they really didn't want to know the answer to the question.

listen, this stinks to high heaven. it really does. the only way that chris christie is clean on this is that there isn't a paper trail. >> you don't buy christie, right? >> i believe what christie has said. he didn't know. they kept a cushion around him. they kept a bubble of deny yeah built around him. the same thing happened with lois lerner and the irs. >> the primary difference is that there's nobody in the white house who has been connected ar even if they did t. they didn't write an e-mail that would orchestrate this thing. that's just so dumb. i remember having a conversation with larry a few months ago when the irs scandal first broke and we were talking about the idea that the president would actually sit in the meeting with the irs commissioner and plan

this all out, which was the accusation. that's not how scandals happen. >> this one didn't work that way either. larry is asking why didn't chris christie make the call and make the questions and direct these things? same thing. it's the same thing. >> but there was a high level efficient in his inner office, deputy chief of staff. that's what is so remarkable about this story and so different from all of those other stories. >> and i just don't believe she pulled the trigger. darryl, i'll ask you to end this up. it looks to me like there's a developing consensus of political wisdom that if the e-mails and documents and whatever is coming out of this assembly and so forth, if there's no smoking gun, then governor christie is off the hook. do you believe that? >> off the hook is a strong word. yes. i don't think this ends him. if there's a firewall and we've seen everything we've seen, that doesn't end chris christie. if it takes him into another step of his administration and hits the general counsel, that's a different story. but if we've seen what we're

going to see, i think eventually this goes away. >> but it does underscore the bullying issue. >> sure. it adds to that narrative. >> no question about that. >> it underscores that narrative. >> kellyanne conway said last night in response to my question that governor christie had a burning bush moment, that he is a changed man, that he's now calmer, more humble, and more contrite and that this is going to be the new chris christie. he had a burning bush come to jesus moment, larry o'connor. i want you to end this on a come to jesus moment. what is your take? >> there's no come to jesus take here. if that's true, his political career is really dead. because what we like about this guy is the bully. listen, that's the concern. is that the bully thing is going to stick with him and you just heard it on the panel and the media and democrats are going to use that word against him. this confirms that perception. >> we believe this is in the hands of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.

larry, thank you, bob traynham, you are all terrific particular for your insight. when will the government harassments of the big banks shakedown end? i say never. they are like public utilities. they are defenseless against the government's assault. now estimated at $50 billion. what about the disappointing jobs report? why would 91 million americans drop out of the labor force? elaine cho and jack bernstein are going to debate that in a few minutes and don't forget, free market capitalism is the best way to prosperity, but you have to work. i'm looking for the 91 million. maybe we'll find them. we'll be right back. pundits are saying that this could heard his 2016 presidential campaign.

now that christie is denying anything, he sounds even more presidential. that's what presidents do. they deny everything. >> i'm so sorry i was late getting out here. apparently i pissed off chris christie and he popped the tires on my city bike. she keeps you on your toes. you wouldn't have it any other way. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess.

side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about experiencing cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial.

it seems like every day that the government's shake down of banks gets larger and larger. the new report shows that the wall street banks could end up paying a total of $50 billion to settle charges from the mortgage crisis. here now is josh rosner and william isaacs, bill isaacs, fdic global financial institutions and former chairman of the federal deposit insurance corporation, fdic. happy new year. jamie dimon tried to fight back and basically got his face ripped off and jpmorgan is at the top of the heap. now it seems like the banks are defenseless and the government will have their way with them. what's your take on this? >> i don't think there's much that the banks can do. they would like to fight.

in many cases they believe they clearly have the better side of the argument but just can't afford to take on the government. there's way too much at stake and the government has too much control over them and their future activities. it's just not feasible and economically start for the banks to fight the government. they might as well pay what the government is asking for. put it behind you. that's what they are doing right now. >> josh, you disagree with that? >> well, i agree that they have little choice but to move forward. and i think bill didn't answer and i think rightly so whether the banks actually violated and gave reason for the fines and penalties. at the end of the day, if you recognize that the financial crisis cost the economy $14 twril trillion, 50 billion doesn't seem like much at $165 per person. obviously they didn't have everything to do with the crisis but they certainly had a part.

>> what about government regulations? what about your own book? what about fannie and freddie? you wrote about this at great length. >> absolutely. you're right. >> we were on this set talking about it. you look at these numbers. i looked at the jpmorgan numbers. there was 11 billion or $13 billion. this is the stuff that is going to bailout homeowners mortgage. this is going to bailout groups like acorn. they don't call themselves a.c.o.r.n. now but they are community organizers. it's totally political and regulatory and a government takeover. >> if you go to the question where the money is going, i would say that that does raise questions. at the end of the day, investors were the party who were hurt most by violations in mortgage origination, securitization yet received very little where homeowners were not harmed by the securitization problems.

they were harmed in other ways and in some ways caused their own harm. but how that money is allocated, i do recognize, is problematic. >> larry, let me make a couple of points here. >> please. >> three of the biggest settlements have come against bank of america and jpmorgan chase and wells fargo has made a settlement but smaller. initially those cases acquired bear stearns, wamu, countrywide, golden west, wachovia, and golden lynch. they did it without government assistance. they stepped in in the middle of a crisis and acquired these large mortgage lenders who created most of these problems. they took enormous burden off the taxpayers. they really helped the economy. god knows what would have happened had they not stepped in and done these things. i'm not saying they didn't have profit motives for doing it but they were doing it at a time

that they were needed and yet the thanks i get is lawsuits totaling $50 billion for the problems that these other institutions made. >> hold on. i think that's an oversimplification. when you acquire the liabilities, you acquire the liabilities. where they didn't get risk share from the fdic, for example, they knew what they were acquiring. >> no, they did not know what they were acquiring. we were in an emergency situation. >> jpmorgan, for example, had done due diligence on washington mutual long before it failed. >> you cannot do a full due diligence on a $300 billion institution in a week. >> did they acquire or didn't they -- >> these people were moving practically overnight and had no idea, no ability to go into these large portfolios to figure out what was going on. but the next crisis, who is

going to step in in the next crisis? i don't think anybody is. i think we've really made some serious policy mistakes by punishing these institutions and making these acquisitions under these conditions. >> something to think about, josh, i'm not making the case that no mistakes were made. i'm not making that case. banks made some mistakes although i think bill isaacs's point about the rush to -- i think that's something they should have kept and given some forebearance on by the government. but you look at "the new york times" story today, $50 billion for six banks or so. it comes to roughly half their profits, half their profits. i acoupssume they have a capita absorption to cushion this. but when you think about it, since you don't know precisely how much it's going to cost and already it's half the profits, no wonder the banks are leaving their excess reserves undeposited at the fed and don't

want to put the money at risk because they are not sure how many fines they are going to have to pay and for how long. and you've got dodd frank and these are arbitrary, discretionary, regulatory decisions. the banks have no clue what it's going to cost them and i think that's one reason why this whole recovery has been like a stubbed toe. >> well, there's a million reasons why this recovery has been weak, including the fact that the consumer hasn't fully deleveraged yet, including the fact that, yes, in many instances, in many cases bank supervisors are requiring banks to hold risk exposures, et cetera. at the end of the day they were able to make more money by trading on those deposits, the deposits in reserve rather than by making loans. they were getting a higher rate on the trading profits. so that's gone away. i recognize that.

at the same time, if you look at dodd/frank, you have to say, to bill's point, if he were to implement dodd/frank or the intent which isn't working, doesn't work, if we were to do that krea that correctly, we wouldn't have the banks there to do the bailout. >> larry, real quick -- >> real quick. >> the other major problem here is that if we really have wrongdoing here, let's go after the individuals who committed the wrongdoing, nothing the institutions and punish the shareholders who have already been punished. >> that's a great point. >> i think we have to go after the individuals and the government hasn't done that. >> and it burns me up where this money is going. it's going to political allies of this administration, community organizers like a.c.o.r.n. and they just changed their name. i know mistakes were made. we'll revisit this some other time but i'll tell you, this is a government assault on corporations, the likes of which

we seldom see. i appreciate it very much. >> thanks, larry. is there a company that is in deeper yogurt than target is with its customers right now? the breach keeps getting worst and worst. courtney reagan has the latest on target's troubles next up on "the kudlow report."

welcome back to "the kudlow report." new reports that the target

breach may be bigger than we thought. cnbc's courtney reagan has been all over this. good evening, courtney. >> good evening. the data breach is a little broader reaching than it had first announced. target saying that 70 million target shoppers may have had their names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and addresses stolen during that same time period of november 27th to december 15th. this 70 million is in addition to the 40 million consumers that may have had their credit or debit card information stolen. that would make 110 million target shoppers possibly impacted. the company does think there is some overlap. so it probably won't be 110 million but how large that overlap is, target isn't able to say at that point. target will say shoppers will have zero reliability related to this credit breach and will get a year of credit protection.

further, the company has lowered its earnings forecast for the fourth quarter. stocks fell 2.5% after the announcement of the data breach. target has begun to pick up again in recent days but apparently it's not enough to make the retailer con iffident its fourth quarter results. the question is, how much will this data breach cost target and what it takes to update the technology? lots of unanswered questions tonight. larry, back to you. >> thanks to courtney reagan. even worse than the disappointing loss, we have learned that 91.8 million americans have dropped out of the labor force. former labor secretary elaine cho and jared bernstein will join us to talk about that. and people who have signed up for obamacare have to start

paying for obamacare. why the next three days are crucial for team obama. please stay with us. i need proof of insurance. that's my geico digital insurance id card - gots all my pertinents on it and such. works for me. turn to the camera. ah, actually i think my eyes might ha... next! digital insurance id cards. just a tap away on the geico app.

could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, it does make a sound? ohhh...ugh. geico. little help here.

the labor department announcing a big jobs miss today. the economy heading just 74,000

but i say this is just a weather-related puck. don't worry about it. 374,000 people left the labor force. here's the killer. 91.8 million americans have now left the world of work. that is an incredible number. to talk about this, joining us now is jared bernstein and former u former u.s. labor secretary herself elaine chow. it's good to see you both. happy new year. >> happy new year. >> i don't think the economy is falling apart. all of the data points are decent, at least decent. it's 91.8 million. 62.8% participation rate. it's this 58% employment to population ratio. these are bad trends, elaine, you know that.

these are trends that, by the way, started 10, 12, 15 years ago in some cases. why is this? why is no one working? >> well, labor participation rate was not a 62.8% in 2008. during my tenure, the labor participation rate was 51.4%. so in the last five years there's been a precipitous drop. nevertheless, the question that you ask is a very relevant one because that's the one we're debating in the congress right now about how to help the most vulnerable in our society, those who have lost their jobs or those who are out of the workforce and how do we retool them, retrain them to get them back into the workforce so that they can find good paying jobs and with great futures? because the sad truth is, the longer a person is out of work, the harder it is for them to come back. and that is why the long-term unemployed number of 37.7%, again, it's increased as well,

that is very, very disturbing. >> you know, when you look at these numbers -- and again this comes from zero hedge -- 91.8 million are left to the labor force. the total labor force, as you may know, nonincourse rated over 16 years old is 246 million. and this low participation rate it did click. in 2000 and 2001 it went up and then dropped down a bit. this is the factor. the primary group, the primary group, ages 25 to 54, this is like the heart and soul of the workforce. >> uh-huh. >> now 21 million of them have dropped out. and it's been a steady decline since the middle '90s, jared, but now it's up to 21 million. if it they are not working, who the hell's going to work? >> look, i think that's precisely the right group to look at. one of the problems that you have when you get into these labor force discussions is

people start invoking the baby boomers. of course, there is something to that but i believe the dull being of the decline has to do with the kind of factors that secretary chao was talking about, underlying weakness. by the way, since we're talking about data here, which is actually a very good thing to do today, if you separate that by gender, you find that most of that decline -- i think actually all of that decline is among men. women's rates have increased. they are not increasing as quickly as they used to. i think they have leveled off. one of the things we know we have in our job market is through the hallowing out of the manufacturing sector, blue collar guys have had a great deal of difficulty getting back into the job market. >> elaine, are we not paying people enough? in other words, after tax, after government benefits, maybe it just doesn't pay to work. maybe people would rather go on

the government benefits. maybe people want the earned income tax credit and if they make -- >> you don't get that unless you works, larry. >> maybe at a certain point you don't want to work any harder because you're going to lose your tax credit and government benefits. you know what i'm saying? >> i'm not demeaning these people. i'm looking for incentives to work because we're running out of labor force. >> the original intent of the uninsurance program was a good one. it was to ensure that people would be able to sustain themselves during again, a very vulnerable period in their life and the communities can continue injection of spending and cash. but you're exactly right in talking about incentives. are we up to the point now where the incentives are not right and we need to find the right incentives to get people back into the workforce so, again, they are out of the workforce for so long. their skills become very rusty.

technology changes at the workplace and it's harder for them to come back. the best training for a person, or the best job, the best help for a person out of work is a new job. >> so i think the problem with the incentive discussion, i think you're certainly on to something there but it's quite a small part of the problem right now. the incentive problem basically says if you tweak the tax code a little bit, people will come into the job market and find jobs. if the jobs are not there -- that he a good day to be talking about the weak labor demand and the job market -- you can't expect people to find jobs. we have three people per job opening now. that's way too high. the demand high is where the constraint is. >> i think that's an excellent point. we need about 200,000 net new jobs to be created every month. >> at least. >> to keep up with the growth of our population. >> and if for some reason the last two recoveries have been very slow job recoveries, i

mean, they have, it's a bipartisan thing. i tell you, you guys think i'm crazy. i'm into that abolish the corporate income tax. just apolish the whole thing because that would boost wages and that would lower prices for c consumers. i think we need a kickstart for this whole story. all i know is 92 million people not working. elaine chao, thank you. jared bernstein, thank you very much. folks, let me just tell you that despite the lazy jobs report, the fed is going to taper more this month. they are going to eliminate qe 3 and, also, there's a stock that you could have had for $69 a share on monday. you will not believe where it closed today. we're going to give you the full story just ahead on "the kudlow report." aflac!

aflac! got 'em. ♪ yeah, he's clean, boss. now listen to me, duck. i have an associate that met with, uh, an unfortunate accident. while he's been incapacitated, somebody's been paying him cash. now, is this your doing? aflac? now, if i met with some such accident, would aflac pay me? ♪ nice. this is your stop. [ male announcer ] find out what aflac can do for you and your family... aflac? [ male announcer ] ...at aflac.com. for you and your family... aflac? so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there ar24/7.branches? i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches let's us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. a new way to bank. a better way to save. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

if ...hey breathing's hard... know the feeling? copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. spiriva helps me breathe easier. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? don't wait to ask your doctor about spiriva.

over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ welcome back to "the kudlow report." take a look at this chart for intercept pharmaceutical. today it went up to 445. the reason, intercept has a drug to treat chronic liver disease. it was so successful that the

trial has ended early and now it wants to treat sclerosis of the riv liver. it jumped up 500% in just two days. larry? >> thank you, jackie deangeles. we have larry joining us. i don't care how fluky the jobs report is. they are going out. they are going to taper at the end of this month and forever after, stanley fisher is going to be the chairman. bonds rally today and the rate dropped to 289. i say -- i say, get the heck out of bonds. >> you're right, larry. no reason to be in bonds here. the only problem with bonds is trying to find the safety for your portfolio. there's going to be economic data, as we learned today, it

doesn't go in a straight line. from a yield perspective, there's no reason to be in bonds here or at least government bonds. there's high yield bonds attractive here. bank loans without facing a risk of much higher interest rates that we're likely to see over the course of the year. >> larry, you're right. rates are going to normalize. stocks may correct a little bit but my other pipe phypothesis, prices are coming down, no new taxes coming in this year, at least no breakdown in washington. i think the economy is in it. it might grow at 3. i think you get a pretty good stock market out of that. >> larry, what is interesting is not the data but how the market reacts to the data and the market had a surprisingly bullish reaction to questionable data. i think what is surprising is today was the stanley fischer

rally. they say, this is great. this the ying to janet yellen's yang. traders, now, maybe they like the super dubbish yellen but if he can that would be the bullish things that we've seen in a very long time. >> that is extremely well said. that is extremely well put and i think you're extremely right. jeff, what is your market outlook right now? tell us where you are. >> you know, i think we're going to see another year of double digit gains for the stock market. one thing i worry about is where the volatility is going to come from and i think it may come from stanley fischer. the fed's biggest job is to a less direct approach to the markets over the course of 2014. they failed on communication in 2013 whether it was fooling the markets two of the last three meetings with what they were going to do, communication has

been a weak spot. yellen has to get better at it and fischer says don't communicate. it's not going to like the silent treatment. >> he may whisper, hi, i'm stanley and qe 3 is cooked. it's over. i think that's the message. and by the way, i don't know that miss yellen is going to disagree with him. if you listen to most of the fed presidents, the governors, they want to get out of the qe business. i call it the water cooler talk. it's not working. it's not even picking up the end to the money supply. it's clogging up the arteries of the financial markets risk taking. they want to get out. i think every investor listening to this should recognize the fed wants to get out of the qe business. period. end of sentence. >> the economy wants the fed out of the qe business. stock investors don't know what they want. they are so short sided and short oriented but successful in shrinking government in israel, that's what allowed the private sector to grow and that's what

is really critical here. yellen, she's so focused on kwapt state t kweant fa quantitative easing. i think he needs the support around him to make it happen. it's not on investors' radar screens. even if you have to digest earning seasons, all those reasons that the mark yet is going to get comfortable with, this could be a whole new game. >> all right. 10% gain this year. we will see. profits go up. larry, jeff, thank you. great stuff. appreciate it. folks, don't forget about obamacare. even though the white house may want you to. this is when we're about to find out how many people are actually paying up for coverage. we have the latest from the man who is the number one expert on obamacare in america. he joins us, next up.

and it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb.

ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b,

are prone to infections, or have sympto i just knew from the get-go that i was... flat out getting a good deal. when you're ready to buy a car, save time, save money, and never overpay. visit truecar.com president obama had a lunch date that doubled as an obama care photo op today. he's trying to get young people to sign up. also today, the administration dumped the terrible healthcare.gov website and in a new twist, insurance companies are starting to panic because of the federal expected bailout that may be knocked out of the box. here now, we welcome back bob,

president of the health policy and strategy associates. bob, we're going to have to go lightning round. i just want to ask you, some stories circulating in the papers that consumers are blaming insurance companies because they are not getting their i.d. cards and so forth. is that the right -- i thought the insurance companies had to wait for payment and were worried about the back end of the website. tell me why people are jumping on insurance companies now? >> well, because they paid the money to the insurance company, they expect a service. over the last 90 days you and i had the conversation a few times about how badly the back end of healthcare.gov is not fixed. it's still in pretty tough shape. this is going to lead to a customer service nightmare. you and i talked about this a number of times. the customer service nightmare is here. healthcare.gov is not working very well in the back end. you had a flood of enrollments that came in. probably half of the people came in in the last three weeks of december. the insurance companies needed two to three weeks in a normal situation to get these things

processed. they've got many more enrollments than they could have expected because of everything or handle under any circumstances and so you've got a real mess. health ca healthcare.gov can't make changes in these people's enrollment. >> what percent do you think have actually paid? i read in the paper that people say i pay 50% or 60%. that's not a full payment. insurance companies can choose to carry them but they don't have to carry them. >> the insurance companies are in a tough spot. as of a couple of days ago, 50 to 60% of people have paid depending on the insurance company. that may be better than it really sounds because people sometimes have until the ipd of the month to pay. i want to be clear to any of your people watching, if you sign up for health insurance, you better have paid for it already but, that said, many insurance companies are letting slide the date. they are working with people.

they are doing rob bo calls. one large health plan is waiting in until the end of the month. they are working as hard as they can to get these things paid for. they don't even know who some of these people are. >> let me go to the last one tonight. there is a political brew ha-ha brewing tonight. senator rubio and others are now attacking the so-called risk corridors and the reinsurance which do have the appearance of bailing out the insurance industry. industry reps want to talk to john boehner and eric cantor and so forth. how real is this? because there may be a revolt against the bailout? >> well, it is clear from my conversations here in washington that conservatives see it as a co-conspirator with the obama administration. i'm not sure that's fair. but they are mad at them and there's a provision in obamacare

that provides reinsurance or support. you have millions of people coming into this program sooner or later. many of them very sick. they are going to cost a lot and there's a mechanism to soften that blow. it's a bailout for the uninsured. >> i want to spend much more time with you on this point. this is going to be a hot political point. bob, thanks for your time tonight. that's it for tonight's show. i'm kudlow. we'll be back on monday. [ male announcer ] nearly 7 million clients. how did edward jones get so big? let me just put this away. ♪ could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

and shift through all eight speeds of a transmission connected to more standard horsepower than its german competitors. and that is the moment that driving the lexus gs will shift your perception. this is the pursuit of perfection. will shift your perception. but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor.

a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer, worsening prostate symptoms, decreased sperm count, ankle, feet or body swelling, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing while sleeping and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron.

>> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... in chicago, charles martin owns a lucrative currency brokerage but lives like a hollywood big shot. >> i think that was his goal in life -- to become a superstar. >> narrator: it's a game of make-believe with a very high price tag. >> he dropped $1 million on private-jet travel, a 2006 bentley, ferrari, bmw, land rover, hundreds of thousands of dollars at a strip club. >> narrator: and when the credits roll, he and his partners stick their clients with the bill. >> what dawns on me is nobody's gonna get a dime back ever. >> narrator: and later, miami accountant juan carlos rodriguez promises to make his friends rich.