it still cordoned off. i do like, by the way, that the industrials snapped back today. i hope it wasn't all short squeeze. it did seem to be heavily motivated by shorts covering, though. there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise i'll find it right here for you on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. i will see you tomorrow! hello, you're watching "worldwide exchange." i'm ross westgate. president vladimir putin makes crimea officially part of russia. the russian leader will address his parliament in two hours. stocks struggle with warning signs from china following weaker house price data and concern of a property firm default. new spanish slump, the board is urging shareholders to eject volkswagen in the shares saying the automaker is too low.

and janet yellen kicks off her first ever fed policy meeting today as the chairman took the central bank squeeze as forward guidance. >> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. >> all right. a warm welcome to today's show. vladimir putin has signed a dedegree which recognizes crimea as a sovereign state. russian president is now expected to sign the treaty, now expected to outline the next steps in the region's annexation as he addressed the -- in around two hours. meanwhile, vice president joe biden is headed to poland. he's set to meet with the president and prime minister as well as the prime ministers of lithuania, estonia and latvia. steve is in kiev and joins us for more. post that declaration for putin

and ahead of his address to the doom duma in two hours, steve, and what is perceived as light sanctions by investors from the west, what happens now? >> i think we switch over to what they call kremlinologyists, who pick up on every nuance and subtly. it seems to me, ross, we have a twin track now. we're watching what's going on in russia. one, of course, the affirmation of the did you ma from russia of the independence of the crimea which mr. putin, of course, has recognized. what does he do next? does he start the formal process or does he start diplomacy with the west from kiev regarding what happens in the broader picture here, as well? because as well as that very big slump to the west, so to speak, in recognizing the independent state of crimea, this business held up not just an olive

branch, but an indication there could be some diplomacy. what he wants at the moment tends to be unacceptable to ukraine to the west, but having said that, it's the start of the process and it has been mentioned that he wants recognition of the referendum. he wants a new ukrainian constitution, more autonomy for the are the and military neutrality for ukraine. some of those points including political neutrality with the government here looking west, perhaps unpalletble at the moment, kiev politicians more generally. but it is interesting that that could well be the start of something which the markets appreciated yesterday, didn't they? the markets went risk on because they thought a lot of the risk had abated somewhat. that was partly because, as you mentioned, ross, we had tepid sanctions from both the u.s. and the eu. most of the names on the list i don't think most people had heard of. they certainly weren't in the

most inner circle. is that a sign that, yes, the west has done that? but there is a lot of room for maneuver. one, putin talking about diplomatic efforts. two, the sanction. given maneuverability perhaps in place of diplomacy. in the last 24 hours, i spoke to a lot of very important people, including the two potential leaders in the presidential elections. either man could potentially become the next president of this country on may 23rd. mr. klitchko was pessimistic. he said no, they don't just want crimea, they don't just want east ukraine. they want kiev and the whole of ukraine. both those gentlemen all wanted diplomacy and hoped that was the

way forward. back to you. >> steve, for now, thank you. that's the latest from kiev. if you've just tuned in, as well, from north america, welcome to the start of your global trading day. the dow snapping a five-day losing streak. up to 1.2%. this morning, we are trading below fair value. so we're at record lows by about 10 points. the nasdaq is down about 9 points and the s&p 500 is called lower by about 3 points. the ftse cnbc 300 is down around 2 points. and european equities up 40 points yesterday, it's down 15. growth is under pressure again today with spain. we'll get into that a little later. xetra dax down 0.6%. the cac 40 is down 0.2%. we are up in russia by 0.2%. on the bond markets, treasury yield late friday with a yield of the ten-year, 2.64%. the yields rose yesterday.

today, 2.67% is where we stand. prices falling on monday. of course, the fed's two-day meeting starts today. it will be interesting to see where the end of this meeting, they do anything with their jobless -- 6.5% or not. let me show you where we stand with currency markets. euro/dollar, not far away. above 1.39%. the 2 1/2 year high was hit last thursday. but remember, inflation, the print in february was revised lower to a joint low since november 2009. so there still is deflation. we'll get into that, as well. that's where we stand right now in europe. what happened in asia while you were sleeping in north america? sixuan. >> thank you for that, ross. china's new home price growth came in at 8.7% in february, slowing down from the 9.7%

on-year growth in january. towards that chinese property developer was near bankruptcy with debt exceeding $500 million. as far as markets are concerned, property majors such as china merchant and polireal estate were down about 3% today. analysis say slow house prices pbo see more flexibility in terms of policies. meanwhile, beijing vow toes establish a nationwide realistic registry system before 2020 starting with housing registration for government officials as part of an anti-corruption effort. as for the rest of asia, we saw some bargain hunting today. the nikkei 225 ended higher by almost 1%. the kospi up towards a second straight session. australian miners rebounded as copper prices steaded and the new zealand market managed to hit its all-time high. tencent rallied over 5% today in

hong kong after four days of losses after the pboc halted some of its internet finance channels. the company cashed out $1 billion hopping congress worth of shares in china vision media with a profit of nearly $800 million. this as shares skyrocketed recently after alibaba's takeover. we'll be keeping an eye on tencent tomorrow as it is due to report its q4 earnings. that is a look at asian markets. back to you. >> thanks for that, sixuan. european stability mechanism was set up to bail out troubled countries and their banks with a maximum lending capacity of 500 billion euros guaranteed by member states. germany shares its guarantees amounts to more than that of any other country. we'll bring you an update on that as we get them. meanwhile, eurozone inflation is at the same low level that triggered the surprise rate in

november. revised down to 0.7%, the lowest in four years. joining us for part of the program today, adam posen, president of the peace institute of economics and former member of the bank of england's monetary policy committee. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> quick word about the low inflation in the euro area and what the appropriate response would be. >> the ecb has been unwilling to pay the price to fulfill its mandate and keep inflation where it should be. >> at 2%. >> right close to or at 2% and they've lead let it go because they're scared. they're scared of the wrong things. they're scared of politicians and they're scared of germans. unfortunately, if they could do another rate cut, it's not likely to make much difference. they'll have to do something more ambitious, greater market operations or long-term repose.

they've disclosed many of these things, but none of them seem to be in the offing right now. >> why do you think that is? i think it's a combination of not understanding how serious this could be. it doesn't have to be literally deflation. it's just if you get stuck in a draft where inflation stays very low, it feeds on itself and drives down wages even further, drives down consumption even further and gets you into an ongoing cycle. i think the other reason is, again, politically, you mentioned the constitutional court in germany. there is this threat that german law could supposedly interfere directly with what the ecb is doing. >> and there is this view the periphery as we go from a market perspective, yields are trading at a record low. spain is clawing its way back. are those valid -- how valid are those points? also, when you look at italy is still looking very weak. >> let's start with the agenda.

40% of the euro area, france and italy, have not done reforms, still have fiscal problems, still have major growth problems and rising unemployment problems. you would want somebody to do something about that. spain, one, it is true they're back in a way, which is great. great for the euro area. they stay with the fundamentally productive countries going into the crisis. their fundamentals were not so bad. and so if there had been more write-off on loans, they could have avoided a lot of this in the last couple of years. what does that mean for the ecb? the fact that ireland and spain are bank, it means we're not so worried about tail risk, but therefore, there's less divergence within the euro area, so you can get a policy against this widespread disinflation. i don't understand the problem. >> and do you think they can do qe? >> legally, iepts straightforwa straightforward. they would have to buy a basket.

but they've done qe before. it's not a legal problem. >> stay there. more to come from you. the fed kicks off a two-day policy meeting today. could it become the late he to changes forward guidance? see new a few moments. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

vladimir putin officially recognizes crimea as a russian state. changes in forward guidance on the watch, as janet yellen chairs her first ever policy meeting. canadian mark carney stamps his authority on the bank of england. a new deputy could be announced as early as today. >> we'll bring you the update on the results of that as soon as we get to them. meanwhi meanwhile, the federal reserve and the fomc begins its two-day policy meeting today. the decision and u.s. forecasts are toous due wednesday, 2:00 p.m. eastern. and it's janet yellen's first

news conference as fed chair which feels at t 2:30. investors expect the fed to continue its bond buying program. several officials have suggested scrapping the threshold of describing general changes in the jobs market inflation that could trigger a rate hike. we'll get more from adam on that. we just heard that the carlsberg court, as i understand it, has approved the esm rules, the esm is in line with the constitution. so any potential market threat from that has been taken away. the esm has been ruled in line with the german constitution. there we go. the man reading out that ruling is sitting down taking his hat off. a quick word on that.

this should be the end of it. >> the man with the hat has now once just kicked it upstairs. just get on with business. >> yeah. they were never really going to -- >> if they had, it would have been disastrous. but it's like courts don't usually go too far against public opinion. >> the fed, what should they do with the unemployment? >> i think what bill dudley and charlie evans have been talking about, which is taking a page from the bank of england is right. what does that mean? it means get rid of the simple forward target guidance and size things up. and size things up in a good way. i don't want any more fuzz. >> no. this is saying the professors used to say, nothing as simple as it can be. when we kick to a single

unemployment target or a single growth target, it confuses people because no one assumes you're going to ignore the sake of inflation for the sake of that target and no one believes you're going to have to change that target over time. conditions change. you don't want the forecast right, that's life. therefore, talking in this more wholistic way, and saying, broadly speaking, this is the path we're on. this is where we want to go, here are the risks, here is what we're going to try to do and we'll update you, this is the mature conversation you should have. >> without targets. >> well, with some targets.

around 2% for the u.s. better is this happening without financial stability. so you need to put a little more meat on it. but basically, yeah, that's what you should be doing. >> who is the guidance important for? investors in the market or as mark carney would say, it's business in the public? >> i think it's much more importantly about the market. what you're trying to do in the current situation is you know that rate hikes are in the off. be it in the uk or in the u.s. you're trying to get ahead of it and say don't raise rates too quickly in the market. don't overreact. that's fine. that's guidance in a light sense. but, you know, obviously, the general public and businesses want to know what's going on, but it's not like they read off day-to-day, word by word. >> what is your view of when they -- to the u.s.? >> i think people are underestimating how soon they'll have to go up in the u.s. >> how soon? >> yeah. even though i've always been a dove, i think i'm quite bullish in the sense that i think growth

is going to be stronger this year. i think we're still going to get the 3% reel. i think that the unemployment rate is going to come down. actually, it's not going to come down that much. participation, i think, is going to be more fluid than people are expecting. we've tended to write off too many works. you put that together, that's a low inflation high -- scenario, a stable economy and the fed is going to want normal highs. i think maybe three or four months sooner. i tend to believe normalization won't be that hard. >> before we go, what would you describe in this starting point? what is normalized rates? >> normalized rates would be getting back to positive. so that means you're going to be moving up around 200 basis points before all is said and done. >> adam, stay there. plenty more to come from you. just a reminder, what's on the agenda today, february cpi is out at 8:30 eastern. also at 8:30, we get february

housing starts. expecting an annual rate of 910,000. building permits are forecast to remain unchanged. after the close, we'll hear from oracle, adobe systems and solarcity. still to come, obamacare reaches its latest milestone. a sign up surge. more details, coming up. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances.

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if you're just joining us, currently the s&p is called lower by 3, the dow is 26 points lower and the nasdaq is called down by around 10. this is bank of england governor mark carney may announce the appoint of a new deputy governor today. still with us, adam posen and helia, cnbc's uk business editor. there is speculation. >> took pretty heavy kickings last week at the treasury select committee. they were in the committee for about 4 1/2 hours and asked about, you know, the king of forward guidance, about scotland, and, of course, about

all of these alleged governance problems when it comes to the for ex probe and the bank's involvement, which brought up all these memories of what has gone on. and i think paul fisher, who you refer to, has been thought of as one of the potential candidates for this role. this is charlie dean's role. the deputy governor of the bank of england. but i think he had a particularly tough time because of basically he was questioned several times about what was rigging, what wasn't rigging, why the information wasn't, i guess, extended, why his people weren't told that if people in the market, even if they were hedge funds, had concerns or even if traders had concerns that hedge funds were manipulating the price, then why wasn't anyone told? and the treasury select committee said we've asked you many times if there were any other benchmark rates that could

have been manipulated and you haven't come forward, why that? >> so they're going to announce the fourth deputy governor today. >> announcing the success and then they're going to have a fourth deputy governor which in my opinion is one too many, but okay. >> do you think there's a problem with corporate governance at the bank of england is going to be addressed by carney? and governor carney is going to be busy doing all this institutional change. it's really not an organizational problem. to me, it's a problem that they just had the wrong values. there was too much faith in self-regulation by the market, too much faith in these private -- there wasn't meant to be rigging.

. this is what else is likely to be libor? that, to me, represents the fact that there was just too much faith in these arrangements. paul fisher, i can say 100% is not cooperating in any way. i worked with him for three years. he's a great person. but that question about the culture at the bank, if we let these fixes go on, if we don't do things in the open market, that's what has to change. have a different mind-set. and so if carney can change the institutional structure, but i'm hoping what's behind it is that is to embody the mind-set. if it just changes the institution, and the start of laissez faire, then off problem. >> i remember when we spoke, they said, look, the long policies, slightly misguided, the economy is rebounded.

. how about for the coverage tomorrow? >> i will, indeed. >> thanks for that. still to come, reportedly expecting too nouns layoffs, we'll bring you the details right after this. right after th.

the headlines today, russian leaders will address parliament right now. more warning signs in china following weaker house price as property firms default. and germany rules that europe's bailout fund is in line with its constitution, upholding its 2012 preliminary ruling. janet yellen kicks off her first ever policy meeting as chair today. the central bank reviews its forward guidance.

>> announcer: you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. very good morning to you. the latest press conference in malaysian flight 370 is due to start sharply in kuala lumpur. we'll get to that briefing when it begins. meanwhile, if you've just joined us this morning on, after a snapback session yesterday, the dow up 81 points, the s&p up 17. futures are indicating we're going to be lower this morning. the dow is some 29 points below fair value, the nasdaq is around 10.5 points below fair value and the s&p 500 at the moment is 3.8 -- yeah, 4 points below fair value. the bank of england we were just talking about, adam posen, bank of england's governor for monetary policy names the

outgoing chairman as the chair of the bank of england's supervisory court and ma chafic as the governor responsible for market and banking. from the 1st of august 2014. chaffic is the new deputy governor responsible for markets and banking. they did announce this. >> this is terrific. these are great choices. ben joined the mpc live is a first rate economist. he used to do the data on the uk economy for goldman sachs. he has very creative ideas about how capital problems have affected productivity in the uk. he's committed. he'll be a great choice to succeed charlie. terrific uk public servant, had one -- which the department of international development here in the uk has distinguished

herself in great form in the imf. makes a lot of sense for the uk to bring her home. those are two very strong choices. and i governor governor carney and the chancellor a lot of credit. >> i guess that means fisher may be leaving. >> that's up to him. as with paul tucker, there are individuals involved and you decide. paul fisher has been a very dedicated public servant to the bank for a long time. he'll make his choice of no charge of opportunities. >> all right. so that's the latest announcement from the bank of england. meanwhile, the press conference on -- the latest information on flight 370 press conference is just under way. let's listen in. >> -- territory and also within the search sectors. my colleague, the foreign minister, will give a more detailed statement on our diplomatic efforts at the

moment. on the lodgistical front, over the past 24 hours, we have been working hard with other countries to mirror the search corridor. our focus is on four tasks, gathering information from satellite surveillance, analysis of surveillance radar td data, increasing air and surface -- and increasing the number of technical and subject matter experts. on satellite surveillance, i cannot determine who has what land capability, but i can confirm we have contacted every relevant country that has access to satellite data. on analysis of radar sector in the southern corridor, australia and malaysia have agreed to take the lead on their respective parts of the corridor. in the northern corridor, china

and -- have grate agreed to lead. on air and surface assets, i have spoken to almost all leaders to request further support, including assets with deep ocean surveillance deception capabilities. we're asking for departments who have assisted as before to take another look at the raw data. in the northern corridor, we have divided the search area into seven quarters. each of the seven quadrant sess 400 nautical miles by 400 nautical miles or 160,000 square naut miles. the southern car door has been divided into seven quadrants. just like in the north, each quadrant conference an area of 160,000 square nautical miles. the entire search area is now

2.24 million square nautical miles. this is an enormous search area and it is something that malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. i am, therefore, very pleased that so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and offer support to the search and rescue operations. the malaysian navy has two more ships in the southern corridor. this deployment includes helicopter, which can operate from either ship. this brings the total number to -- helicopters. today, malaysia dispatched two c-113 aircraft in the target search corridor. other countries are also searching with the following assets.

the united states has deployed one -- >> we're just going to leave that press conference there. the size of the search area now is rather outstanding. we'll get more details as they go through that. meanwhi meanwhile, we turn our attention to china. new home price data slows for the second month in february as weaker demand and government manages to curb. some warn that more developers could face similar pressures as volumes slow. yields on property prices have jumped as a result. joining us is daniel morris. he's in new york. with me in the studio, adam posen. daniel, good to see you. what do we make out of this latest bit out of china? along with ukraine, it's the asset sell-off that we've had. >> honestly, we've been worried about thinking about hand landings, soft landings in china for a couple of years.

and it's difficult to get a real firm deal on what the outlook is. the data so far has been mixed, certainly from weak numbers. the export numbers were shocking for last month. but at the same time, there is some reasonably positive moves. as you look at pmis for the service sector, cha makes up half of the economy, we focus a lot of the economy. so retail sales really wasn't as bad as people thought. it definitely makes not a real indication. and i think until we do get a better idea if growth is slowing, how much it's slowing, we're going to see a lot of this volatility continue. >> yeah. how are you supposed to trade it, then? or not let it affect your investments? maybe that's a better way of asking is. >> well, yeah, we serm don't try to view it as a trading market. there's always the distension you need to make between the chinese economy and necessarily investing in chinese equities,

you know, that can be a challenge just because of the degree so much government owns and controls a lot of these companies, not necessarily managed for the benefit of on minority shareholders. we tend to think more about what the im mitioncatioplications arr china. domestic demand in china is reasonable, that may bode well for companies that nonetheless are looking for imports into china, looking to meet the domestic demand. >> adam, they have had a big property boom. they've had unstable credit creation. they've been the public sector taking in too much debt. they have to let the air out of those things. >> right. >> can you do that? >> we have to not fantize that it's going to be bloodless.

but i have to give the peoples bank of china credit. they were very aggressive over the last 18 months in saying we're going to try to stop this bubble. they've thrown almost everything at it, administrative measures, letting them be now and a wider band. all kinds of pressures on them. and then a bond issuance just failed, i guess, what, about a week ago. they were very clear that this is part of the process. we're not going to panic. so i think it's not going to be bloodless, but people have been having to make the call. how much of the slowdown is intentional and how much is getting out of happened? i think they're doing a pretty good job of keeping it at the intentional rate. >> all right. stick around. mean wile, other stories we're looking at today, vladimir putin has signed a decree which recognizes crimea as a sovereign state. the russian parliament is gearing up to make crimea part of russia. putin is expected to outline the next steps in the region's annexation as he addresses the duma in around a half an hour.

shareholders have been urged to reject volkswagen's bid for the remaining shares in the automaker. the swedish auto company says the proposal did want reflect its long-term prospects. shares are trading lower, down 3%. sony picture sess reportedly expected to announce layoffs to its studio operations in the u.s. and abroad. it's sony interactive. excuse me. will get hit. sony is under pressure from dan loeb. last month, the company aimed at $100 million in cost cuts. sony pictures fell more than 4%. now, disney holds its annual shareholders meeting at 1:00 p.m. eastern. no major fireworks are expected, unlike last year, when 35% of shareholders voted in favor of a

proposal to split the chairman and ceo rules. disney recently extended the contracts through to june 2016. the stock is up nearly 150%. since co-founder jack dougherty joined the board. disney stock up about 1% in frankfurt. still to come, the clock is ticking for americans to sign up for health insurance. two weeks ago, obamacare hit another major milestone. we're going to run you through the numbers. the numbers. thing looking good. ♪ velocity 1,200 feet per second. [ man #2 ] you're looking great to us, eagle. ♪ 2,000 feet. ♪ still looking very good. 1,400 feet. [ male announcer ] a funny thing happens when you shoot for the moon. ahh, that's affirmative. [ male announcer ] you get there. you're a go for landing, over. [ male announcer ] the all new cadillac cts, the 2014 motor trend car of the year.

sglees are your headlines. vladimir putin officially recognizes crimea as a sovereign state. forward goois guidance as janet yellen chairs his first ever policy meeting. and the esm has been ruled legal. now, there's just two weeks left before open enrollment ends for obamacare's health care

program. and it appears procrastinators may finally be getting around to signing up for insurance. bertha has more for us from cnbc hq. what's happening now? >> good morning, ross. yeah. a pretty big milestone. my prediction for enrollment is out the window. i predicted all the problems we saw last fall, that they would be between 4 million and 5 million. but now the obama administration has said more than 5 million people have enrolled or signed up for insurance plans since the program began on october 1st. that milestone comes three weeks since the government said the deadline had topped 4 million. the deadline to sign up is march 31st. fast approaching. the new tally leaves the administration about a million shy of its target of 6 million enrollees in health plans. the numbers were disclosed on monday.

she says the if he had federal health care website brought more than 4 million visits last week and call centers took more than 130,000 calls last weekend. tavener says the pace of enrollment is at its highest since late december. that's when we likely see young people who tend to hold off. i'm getting coverage until they have to. so a lot of folks rush in at the end of disease. now if you don't sign up before the 31st, you won't be able to until later on this year. president obama needs that to help make this program a zes. cms hasn't disclosed so many of the 5 million people have paid for their insurance, which is required for enrollment to be official, obviously.

it's estimated between 15% and 20% have not paid even on those other plans. 10% will end up not paying attention. the agency hasn't said what percentage of those folks who are signing up were previously uninsured. critics have claimed the bulk of enrollees are just re-insurancing. but we've seen polls from gallop that they have gotting new insurance. california said it reached the 20 misdemeanor mark. for them, the payment rate is at about 85%. so that gives you a sense of how it's working out across the country.

>> speaking to the media, industry executive necessary san francisco, microsoft has had ipads and iphones in its office ready to go for the several months, but delayed releasing them due to internal divisions. the company gets around $2.5 billion in revenue by keeping its -- off the ipad. and a report out of taiwan suggests apple is gearing up to produce the iphone 6. pegatron is reportedly expanding its factory space. still to come, janet yellen prepare toes chair had i her first fomc meeting. what does it mean for investors,

anyway? we'll get to our guests, daniel right after this. after this. these days, everything your business does is done on the internet. and tomorrow you'll deveno more. that's what comcast business was built for. slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. sign up for internet and voice and find out how to get four weeks of tomorrow ready internet for free. and you'll be ready for tomorrow too. comcast business. built for business.

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doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. the s&p is currently called lower by 3 points, dow jones down by 26 points and nasdaq lower by 10 points. february cpi is due out at 8:30 eastern. also at 8:30, we get february housing starts. they're expected to rise 1.4% to an annual rate of 910,000. building permits are forecast to

remain unchanged. after the close, we'll hear from the likes of oracle, adobe systems and solarcity. it's the first day of the 32 day policy meeting. unemployment hits 6.5%. some officials are suggesting scrapping that in favor of changing inflation to trigger a rate hike. daniel, adam has said they should change it, they describe the unemployment rate and go to a broader stake rate. if they do that, how will investor read or design the tea leaves? >> it was always going to be difficult for them to come up with a credible commitment to keep rates low for a fixed rate of time. it was going to depend on facts on the ground, what unemployment

numbers are doing. so i think investors are used to this. this is the way it's always been. it will fend how the economy is growing. this f they change their threshold, i don't think it will have that big of an impact on the markets because investors are used to this and have been expecting it. >> and you think what, 3% growth? >> i'm on the upper end, but i think we're going to get 3% growth. >> if investors are right, how does that translate? >> the forecast for growth is about that, as well. that would all be positive. we should see longer term interest rates going up because of stronger growth. with the slack, we know it's still in the economy with the number of people that have dropped out of the labor force. i still think those are pretty sufficient. so it would be in a fairley benign environment that we can have accelerating growth with really little potential for any kind of wage inflation. that should be fairley good for

equity markets. >> wage inflation, it's sort of a profit place, isn't it? >> yes. danny and i have been arguing that we should be looking at wage inflation instead of that unemployment in a sense it's a better indicator of where the job market is. when you look at that, you end up being very calm. wages have gone nowhere. but in terms of the short-term forecast what the fed has to cope with, it's very reassuring. >> adam, good to see you. thank you so much. always good to see you. daniel, thank you, as well. daniel morris joining us from tia crest asset management. good to see you, too. don't forget, viewers in the u.s. and asia are about to get to "squawk box" in this weird time zone when the u.s. has moved to summertime before the rest of europe. anyway, "squawk box" is coming up next. for those viewers here in europe, if you're watching, can germany remain an export based economy? we'll get the latest with the zew sur day due.

second half of "worldwide exchange" coming up.

good morning and welcome to "squawk box." the magic kingdom is getting set to open its doors to shareholders. good morning, it's tuesday, march 18th, 2014, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with

andrew ross sorkin and steve liesman. joe is off today. we have a big lineup this morning. ursula burns will be joining us at 7:30 a.m., followed by john veehmeyer. then we have an exclusive interview with carl ice. that's coming up at 8:10 eastern time. stick around for those interviews. >> i hear your voice. >> i know. i've been trying. it's better than it was an hour and a half ago. >> if you need help, just -- >> better than it was a half an hour ago. >> just signal and we will jump in. >> i'm here. i wanted to be here. i feel okay, it's just that my voice is going. we're trying this morning. our top story this morning, the fed is kicking off its two-day meeting. the central bank is widely expected to stay the course both with the pace of tapering and with interest rates. but with any meeting, it will be the language surrounding that decision that will keep investors on their toes. that and janet yet