good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with andrew sorkin. we have one more day left for trading of march 2014. so far the dow is down 1.5%. the nasdaq is down a half percent for the quarter. and the s&p 500 is up by .80%. all three averages are on track for the worst quarterly performance since the final quarter of 2012. if you take a look at the u.s. equity futures this morning as we look at the last trading day of the quarter and the month, you can see right now that the dow futures are indicated up by 60 points above fair value. right now the s&p futures will be up by 7.5. and the nasdaq is up by 17.5. starting tomorrow there's economic reports every day leading up to friday's big jobs report, including the unemployment data on wednesday. right now the estimates for payrolls is 195,000, but there's

still a lot of time between now and friday at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. we've got a lot to think about this week. we'll go to andrew with today's top corporate stories. good morning. good morning, becky. we have a number of big corporate stories. tomorrow gm's ceo mary barra is facing a congressional panel to try to get to the bottom of the automakers recall crisis. she'll be asked why it took so long for the company to identify and address ignition switch problems. auto parts maker delphi told investigators gm approved ignition switches for cars that have now been linked to 12 deaths, even though the parts did not appear to meet the company's specifications. and according to a house memo, federal safety regulators decided not to initiate a formal investigation of problems with the ignition switches of chevrolet cobalts and other cars even after investigative groups reported it knew about 29 complaints, four fatal crashes and 14 field reports that showed the problem was preventing air bags from deploying. so there's going to be a lot of news on that story. then one of the nastiest

smartphone battles is headed back to court. apple and samsung accusing each other of once again ripping off designs and features. the trial starts later today to mark the latest round in a long-running series of lawsuits between the tech giants. the latest apple/samsung will be tried less than two years after a jury found samsung infringing on apple's patents. they are appealing the case and will have to continue to sell products using the same technology. today apple is accusing samsung of infringing on five patents on newer devices that include the galaxy smartphone tab leapts. and in a counter claim, samsung saying apple stole its idea to use on iphones and ipad. maybe these guys should just get a room. >> and we're going to you crain needing a patent. i wanted you to do putin and some buttons. >> putin, patents, anything with a "t." it's march 31st, which is

obamacare day. couldn't they just have waited one more day for april fool's? wouldn't have been a better -- >> clever. >> wouldn't that have been more semietry call. >> joe has been waiting to use that all weekend. >> i just came one that. when i'm on tv, i can think really quick. >> i'm too slow for that. i have to prepare. i have to have everything mapped out with the script. >> you are a print guy. i have tried to explain that to people. when you come up with something good, it may be taking you four hours. >> all the hours you have given me is generous. four days, four weeks, four months, four years. >> can i tell you both something? what i'm waiting for now is like the next premier of the next walking dead season. >> stop. i don't want to get into it. >> i just am telling you it's probably going to -- the way it ended last night. >> the one thing i can say is i like watching, i'm three episodes behind. i like to watch it that way

because it is never satisfying to have one hour. >> i'm just saying it is frustrating for know have to wait around for you to -- >> i'm sorry. >> i guess i'll respect your -- >> thank you. >> there's a commercial where the husband -- did you see the one where the wife, they are watching something, and he can tell that she's lying about that she has watched it. she's all the way on season two and he starts crying, which is where i'm sort of -- because i can't talk about it with anyone. the clowns upstairs didn't watch it. they watched "60 minutes." figure that out. which we did. >> and becky did, too. >> i didn't. >> she's got -- kyle is 2. how is kyle? >> he's great. he's good. he was leer last week and joe did the monkey sound. >> i know he does a monkey. >> he's in love with him. he says, let's go see that joe guy. >> easy to fall in love with a monkey.

>> he's trying to imitate it, too. >> i can't help it. it's just bad when a monkey misbehaves, as you know. because you know what happens after that. do you know what happens after that? >> what they fling? >> no, if they are bad, you need to -- secretary of state, john kerry, you need to punish them. secretary of state john kerry -- his russian counterpart sergey lavrov discussed ways to diffuse the crisis this weekend. kerry made it clear how washington still considered russia's actions in crimea illegal and illegitimate. someone kept sending stuff, barack obama sings cry me a river. and there's a picture of him and he looks like he's a frank sinatra album cover and there's "cry me a river." that's kind of funny. kerry said after the four-hour meeting with the foreign minister that while they deferred on events leading to

the crisis, both sides want to meet the needs of the ukrainian people. i feel like i'm getting played through our leader. through our leaders i feel like i'm getting played. lavrov has no intention of sending armed forces into ukraine, though it is ready to protect the rights of russian people. >> what does that mean? >> when he call odd obama, he probably said, barack, and then the president is probably like, vladimir, what? but then they talk. once you talk on the phone like that, it is very unlikely and diffuses the attention and allows to him consolidate everything he's done where you know he's talking -- >> the next game he wants to keep a lot of you. the it is just kind of -- you have to kind of admire that a little, don't you? just in terms of the --

>> what's going on? there's something else in the markets here. >> maybe westgate, where has me been? let's go to ross westgate standing by in london. do you feel played, ross? it seems like we just -- >> whoa! >> we haven't seen you in six months and your late coming on. a pre-madonna. do you feel played by putin? he's skillful, isn't he? i kind of have to hand it to him. >> look, his political skills are international. what's interesting is we've had a number of german executives cite sizing their own politicians for not engaging with putin's mate. we should have incorporated joel

sooner. and german has a lot of interest in dealing with russia, so there's a better solution in their eyes. but they have been critical of the west response. we sort of go to your point really that putin may have outmaneuvered everybody. we'll show you where we stand as far as european equities are concerned. the midway point, we are down at the session low. advances and declines is fairly easily matched 5-4 with outpacers and decliners. the ftse 100 was up .9 % last week. this morning we are just up .20% for the ftse 100. march approvals were falling for the first time in a year today with a strong housing recovery

are like, well, today we are focusing on the eurozone. the latest print of up nation has the lowest since 2009. bear in mind, it was .7% last month and is expected to be a 2.6. we know prices have come down and places are not going up in easter. so they have come out to say there's room to make more easing, don't mind the reference, but a lot of comments out already over the weekend. so just simply say we don't believe there's a deflationary threat. that doesn't mean pressure won't ramp up.

that's where we stand now, back to you. >> thank you, ross, very much. by the way, ross, where have you been? why haven't we seen you in forever? >> because -- because we've been still in wintertime. and we have only just switched to summertime. so there's this three-week period when you and i, we are on air at the same time. >> so you can't do anything with this. >> that makes sense. good to see you again. we welcome you back from hibernation and we'll see you again soon. by the way, tonight mac marks a key deadline under the affordable act. consumer sign-up through this is tonight at midnight ooemp time. they set their own deadlines, but if you already starting signing up. you can go ahead and fill it out for some time to come still. >> there's a lot of wiggle room. give it to midnight.

at 12:01 it is safe. that was good. that had to be in -- >> that was part of the strategy. >> they are laughing at all of us, the people in congress. >> it's a big week. >> the joke's on you. >> it's always on me. this health care deadline is coming up on april fool's there. and gm's hearings, those negotiations and then we have everything going on in ukraine. joining us now is chief corresponden correspondence, it sounds like there's so much wiggle room there's no deadline, is that right? there's going to be flexibility that's marginal and limited. what the administration says is that if you have started the process or you say you've started the process, you're going to have something less than a week to finish these

products. >> i could say that it's just a few days that the stake is pretty low. the purpose of the deadline is to prevent people from signing up when they get sick which destroys the risk pool in the exchanges for the insurance policy companies. but if you are just extending it to wednesday or thursday, which is not an open-ended extension that goes a couple of months. the administration says in less than a week they will go through the people who started the process, so we'll find out very soon what the totals are and who will be risk iing and speculati that somewhere close to 20% people of those signed up, 6 million people, have not paid their premiums yet. >> that's right. and those people will fall out. the data so far, becky, suggests about 80% of the people who sign

up eventually pay their insurance policy, so those people will be off the board. >> so you should take 6 million and take 15% to 20% assuming those people will never be ma ticklated in? >> not necessarily. first of all, this was a big lavrov association over the weekend. over the weekend, places like texas, california, other places where people were signing up. so they are going to go well over 6 million. it wouldn't surprise me if they originally get to the meeting. me don't pay the premium with the key amount out. healthy people to balance out

the older skip people. that's how it works, is there anything meaningful happening here? >> i think the stuff we have already heard from the house committee is pretty damming for gm, so it's a pretty big moment for mary barra to try to explain how she's going to turn this situation around and remedy some of the negligence that is pretty apparent. >> what's on the line here, j n john? other people's jobs would be on the line. for some reason just because mary got into this role, she's really not on the hook for this. so it becomes complicate d. unless we find out she knew, which raises the stakes. >> i think it's not about her survival in the job, but it's more about what sort of

leadership she exercises going forward. >> finally, any thoughts to help us through on ukraine where it is headed this week? >> i'm struck by joe'sed a prags for the dictator. he's pretty good at getting votes in the durks umcountry, he you ever seen the movie "alien"? you have to add mire it in terms of its -- >> it gets stuff done. >> you cut it and you can't kill it like that, you can't kill it this way, just in terms of pure efficiency and competency. i'll set it about some people who are going to run for president this next time. you have to keep in terms of the single-minded focus. >> i will say, joe, we were talking about deadlines.

and i think this will play out for a long time with negotiations over trying to sort of back out of this diplomatically. putin, by calling the president on friday, either signal that he was looking for a way to diffuse it or he was trying to help himself politically. >> george is gone, syria we have totally played and is no better there. and we look like idiots. is he going to take crimea? everything he's wanted to do. and we keep forget iting, i'm n looking into what's happening in georgia. we have a very short memory. >> the way it was laid out is insulting because it is orchestrating to the press how they are taking over the rest of the country. >> our options are not very good. >> but he's going to get what he wants and i think if you were

getting a 90% to providence. and all we do is call them a regional power. he's like laughing. really? >> what would you have us do? >> i'm not sure. keystone might help. i would ramp up our coor most robust way. and nobody is talking about the troops, and that's simply not going to happen. but the change in u.s. energy policy is likely to -- if that comes out of this, this would have had some positive benefits. >> those are great options. we take the hydro carbons out of the ground and are extinct by 2050 anyway. >> we have more time than 2050. >> you're right. thank god. they are so good at predicting the future among this.

i like south carolina. i like their move right now. the coldest winner in 50. >> we'll talk about the weather coming up, but first, whether the stock market is rigged. that's what author michael lewis is saying as he declared that with flash boys on 60 minutes last night. we'll check out what all the buzz is about this morning on the executive edge as we break out a check and the price of gold this monday morning. 1,295.4. we are back in a moment.

welcome back. it is time for the executive edge. last night on "60 minutes," michael lewis, the author of "money ball" talked about his new book called "flash boys" taking aim at wall street and high frequency trading. >> the stock market's rigged. the united states stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged. >> by whom? >> by a combination of the stock exchanges, the big wall street banks and high frequency traders. >> the story highlights the trader name brad and how he figured out why high frequency trading was doing to his orders and the millions of shares. he formed iex as a result to combat abuse against the existing community. gentlemen? >> the cat's out of the bag and

this will be rectified quickly. >> it should be rectified. what i was surprised they didn't talk about on the program was the role of the new york stock exchange and the role that nasdaq plays, it is not like they are laying off five guys to get faster but are paying for access to nasdaq and the new york stock exchange will still you faster access for money. that's a different -- that's funny that you mention different than who can be on there. >> ur you're making a point that they are complacent enough to do what they do. >> it is good enough for their liquidity. >> i thought what was nice is seeing the real fiberoptics cable, that they actually put it on a reel so it takes longer to balance it out for everyone else. even if it is 2 cents a share or a penny a trade, if you are able

to see what people want to do and front run, which is the legalized front running. >> the question is why do the exchanges do it? because there's revenue in it. and that was not touched upon. >> i ordered such fun book. it just makes the cost of doing business a little higher. we have been driving down the cost since the regulation of the stock market. this will take care of itself. >> in a time when you're trying to create a sense of symbolism -- >> it is hyperbole. we have always said that small investors can be like little mice running around with the big elephants. elephants can't get out through the bars but little mice still have a lot of opportunity. if you -- if 2 cents aren't going to make or break you in the stock market, right? a higher phil, if it is just 2

to 3 cents higher than you thought you would, you are right about buying tesla or -- >> looking toward putnam retirement. i'm just saying it's rigged. >> that should not be allowed. >> and you can also -- someone is trying to sell books, too. >> and "60 minutes" is trying to stay relevant. >> i don't disagree with you. >> right. i think the key is that this does need to be fixed. any type of stealing is there, but the idea that you as an average investor can't make money off of it, it's not the right thing to be doing their alternative too much. i think i agree with michael lewis and joe that they should eliminate this, the exchanges are popular looking for rev nol and the amount of money that has

higher, 5 cents, we have removed the margin in part because of the high-speed traders and other people to provide the liquidity. i don't know if that's a valid argument. >> it totals hundreds of millions of dollars if not more. anybody gets their first. >> and if you know what trades are coming down the road, you can get in to position yourself. >> there's -- i thought it was interesting to see ihorn and iex is still up a fraction, but i would think that would be not that hard to write software to allow you to balance out timing like the iax was able to do.

>> i allowed rescue workers to hit the exchanges and get a fair table. it really was not that difficult, andrew. >> but you have to wonder if the regulators are going to get a call. it was a high performance pascal. >> nice. >> i'm doing it through the cloud. >> the regulators will get involved saying that you can't do this anymore. >> i was thinking carl eleven levin. i kind of like him again after the -- i remember what he did. he thought that taking -- getting rid of the filibuster role was a bad move and violated the senate sort of -- what if you lose the senate? >> have the senator on to see

what he has to say? >> okay. >> when we come back, the new quarter hits off tomorrow and the jobs. what should we expect? that's coming up next here on "squawk." you probably know xerox

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good morning. and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernan along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin.

citigroup says executives at the bank are promising to bolster the auditing process. the failed stress test means the bank has to wait at least a year or at least until next year to increase, not to increase but to pay a dividend or to increase the stock buy-backs. and new york state joined new york city in a lawsuit against fedex. the company is accused of violating state and federal laws in delivering cigarettes to residences. the suit involves a fedex partnership with a smoke shop that ships untaxed cigarettes. and automaker tesla striking a key agreement with new york state to operate the five existing retail locations. any additional locations are covered under the franchise laws. tesla ran into trouble for selling cars directly to consumers without going through a dealer. >> they didn't talk about that at all. they didn't talk about that or really the safety stuff.

>> no, they didn't. although we saw the batteries going into the bottom of the car. and you know what else they didn't do that i thought was so weird? citi announced plans for a $5 billion plan to manufacturers. they didn't say in texas. >> they said in america. >> yeah, but they department say in texas. "60 minutes" and texas don't get along. they don't. >> i don't think -- >> i wouldn't go that far from a conspiracy. >> i would have said in texas, just as a writer. >> i'm just saying in the united states. >> i know, but it's interesting you start in silicone valley in california and are still going to texas where you can't get -- where you have to have a dealership. i just thought it was an important part of the story. cbs -- >> can i say, i watched the show. i was glued to the show last night. >> he is definitely going to texas. >> i was glued to the show, so i can't -- >> i watched elam.

>> maybe they are still negotiating on the dealership. >> i thought it would be nevada or arizona. i think there were several places, including some place in new mexico. we'll look at the markets this morning with the futures indicating higher on the last trading day of the quarter, although right now the dow futures are up over 50 points of fair value. they have not indicating where the market will close so we'll see closer to the open this morning. right now if you see what's happening there in the early trade. at this things, ftse declines for the dogs and hat. in asia you will see the nikkei closed up .90% with declined for .4% for the shanghai indexes. and oil prices this morning are looking down 27 cents. wti is above $101.43 a barrel

right now. let's take a look at the prices. take a look at the ten-year note, the yield is 2.741%. we have a lot of economic data. on wednesday we get the ap numbers. on friday the jobs report. and all that will be thanks to the monday barkts watching closely for clues as to what the fed will do next. the dow is weaker up against the yen. the dollar prices have come back down for gold. they are at 1,295.2 an ounce. >> i've already awarded it to texas. there is one trading day left in the first quarter as investors are looking ahead to friday's jobs report. joining us with more on the markets is david joy, chief market strategist at ameriprise

financials, paul shepp is here, and david, tell us what you expect to be key for how the markets are sizing things up. >> yeah, it's going be absolutely key. if you look at the average of the last three months, we created 130,000 jobs. a significant it then maybe we can finally put the weather, bad weather behind us. there are estimates to be as high as 225. he could be reinforced by the view that the economy's better days are ahead of him. >> paul, what do you think? we are trying to figure out what happened with the weather, if that was a huge impact on what we saw with jobs to this point. do you think we'll see a strong number this time? >> i'm not an economist. picking a job number is almost a coin flip, but i would say it's

higher than it has been the last couple of months. it would be great to blame the weather on every single issue, but i think the weather is behind us with a strong support every tomorrow. i don't think the q3 will show till next year, unfortunately. >> what do you think the market is keying off of right now? >> listen, the market has been a trading range now for over a month. the bulls and bears are in the tug of war. they have fought get a better run to the upside. >> david, do you agree with that, because we are a quarter in on this and things have not developed as a lot of people anticipated or expected when we started january. >> yeah, i actually have a slightly different view.

i think if you think about just how bad the first quarter was in terms of growth and in earnings growth, expected to be flat or down, but it was something symbolic for the bulls. >> as things have been so bad, you're surprised things haven't traded weak er. and so in honor for the stocks to move higher, the data has to firm. if you think about earnings expectations for the rest of this year, we need to see double-digit earnings growth in the remaining three quarters of the year. so economic activity is the key to that story. so i think right now the bull side of the argument has kind of held in there pretty well. if you will, it's okay in the first quarter. but it will all depend on where the stock market ends the year. >> well, i think it's going to

move higher in the intervim between now and maybe labor day or a little bit beyond that, but i think at that point the market will begin to look forward to that first rate hike and if you believe what janet yellen had to say. it was six months after the edge of tapering in your pickup. that's still below the market of next year come plains. i think if that turns out to be the case and the market bring that is forward. we'll see a correction in the fours quarter or thereabouts and maybe the year ends pp pp. so that's not a whole lot of upside. either the economy is bad or the economy is good and the fed will move sooner. >> well, there's a correction out there, but i don't think it means the end of the bull market by any means. i think there's a wobble there and maybe we pull back to a certain extent, but i think the

economy would be on firm footing to allow the market to continue to move higher eventually. but i think we have to get through this period of time where, you know, rates start to rise. and i think when that happens, you're going to see a lot of adjusting in portfolios and some of the air comes out of the market at that point. >> paul, how about you? what do you think stocks end up doing for the jeer? >> we thought coming into the year it was going to be a digestion type year like 1992, 2004, 2005, where we tread water for most of the year and then we have these kind of sharply higher periods temporarily. i think we'll end the year higher on balance. the bull market lives on to early '15, mid-'15, no single sign that is the bull market is ending. not one single sign. contrary to what everyone else believes. listen, if the market is going to correct this year, i think it will do it before the fed raises rates. we all know rate hikes are coming. you can disagree all you want, but the market will correct before that. and let's remember, the ten-year

is almost double from its low. so rates have gone higher. it's not the short end of the curve yet. >> thank you, gentlemen. david and paul, great to see you both. >> thanks. coming up, setting up the final four. we'll check out the match-ups and what is left for everyone's brackets. and we have a bit of hollywood news because this weekend "noah" ruled the box office raking in $44 million. we'll talk about it as we head to a break. and check out what's happening in europe. here's the markets, you can see it right there. we are back in a moment.

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♪ welcome back to "squawk box." chicago, it was nice to be there last week. look at the u.s. equity futures at this hour ahead of the markets, looks like we have green arrows. the dow opened 47 points higher. the nasdaq is 15 points higher and the s&p 500 will be opening up just a little over 6 points higher. coming up, florida, wisconsin, uconn and kentucky are moving on. i can't believe we actually -- >> that was amazes. i don't watch a lot of that stuff, but that was amazing. >> there were a lot of games like this, but i can't believe we actually let buffett pretend that there was a chance. we had the -- >> i even filled out a bracket thinking, yeah, maybe i'll do it. >> the final four storylines to

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did you take them? i didn't want take them. >> i took them to beat pittsburgh. >> i knew how good pittsburgh was. we are down to the final four. i quit picking with my heart. in the ncaa tournament, wisconsin, florida, uconn and

kentucky all headed for texas for next week's showdown. next weekend. which team is going to go all the way? joining us is david brigs on the nbc sports desk networks. david, i want to start with something personal again. >> okay. >> i don't like to complain about officiating, and i don't know what you can do, those guys try to do the best, they are doing replays now, did you watch the arizona game? i had arizona going into the final four. >> i think the officiating the last three our forgames has been atrocious. >> did you see the charging foul? >> yeah, but that evened out. there was a bad call each way. >> no, no, i thought they got it right with who had the ball with three seconds left, but they should have had a chance to win with that last possession. that was absolutely ridiculous, that call. you didn't even -- >> it was the wrong call. i think there were a lot of -- >> ten seconds! they don't let them play with ten seconds, are you kidding me? >> if you're going to slow the game down and kill the suspense for five minutes, let's just let

them play because you're not getting all the calls right. so let's let them play, let's let the kids decide. the officiating turned bad. >> my next question is how do freshmen not distinguish themselves during the regular season and then how do they turn into the harris twins when push comes to shove and not miss? >> not just during the regular season, harris couldn't hit an entire thing until the final minute. >> how about shabazz? >> but he's a guy you have seen. this is a senior. he's a lot like the guy that won the title. it takes a while to come together. these are superstar kids. >> that doesn't work because they are in the nba as sophmore. kentucky is the most talented team in the final four. >> that's the way it looks. although florida, you have the center who -- patrick, everything sort of -- >> they do strong men workouts

in the offseason, flipping over tires and whatnot. >> i think i can take him. yeah, yeah. i do have florida, yeah. >> i think florida still cuts down the nets. >> i was spiurprised it wases a close as it was for a time. >> they play uconn. >> 71-48 or whatever it was. >> 81-48, uconn to louisville, just a couple weeks ago. and everyone left them for dead. uconn is done, louisville could win the national title. instead it was a wake-up call. sometimes guys need an embarrassing loss. >> i'm going to use this opportunity to announce my contest for next year. >> the billion dollar bracket? >> he's going higher. >> i'm going 100 billion for anyone who gets it right. >> 9.2 quinntillion.

>> because there's so many zeros, we don't understand what that means. watch how this plays out, now we know. i can't even pick a single game. >> espn had 11 million brackets. only 600 people got the final four. usually you have thousands of people to get the final four. >> is this year harder than other years? i always feel like it's like that. why only 600 people in the final four this year? >> the combination of uconn and wisconsin, outside of stores and hartford, connecticut, not many people thought uconn as a 7 seed would be. if kentucky came together the way you knew, who had florida? >> i had florida. >> i think florida over kentucky, yeah.

you've got orange and blue bracelets on, you've got the gators. >> that's for the knicks. >> who may make the playoffs. >> that brings me to the next subject, and that is i don't know what to do with paying athletes and the union issue, but i kind of think maybe these guys are maybe athletes first because they get -- >> they clearly are not students. there clearly is some way to pay them, but even warren buffett couldn't find a system to keep corruption out and allows the kids to get money. title ix will sue if you don't pay the women. >> they had three corners the same way. but how do you let men get paid and not women. >> it is pandora's box. it will be a mess. >> it will change. >> it has to.

you mentioned the nba, i realize it is professional. i'm only interested in the march madness. i don't ever watch the nba. >> they are making a billion dollars in ad revenue. a billion dollars. >> it's a better spectacle than -- >> there's got to be money that trickles down. >> would you do 35-second shot clocks in the nba? >> i think college needs to change the shot clock. >> no! no! >> some of these games go too long. >> that's because the last five minutes make it worthwhile. the only thing wrong with the nba is the kids coming out of school for one year. >> run and gun, run and gun. >> i think the quality is just so crappy. you have to take away the one and donees. kentucky is the perfect example. the whole team is going pro, maybe two years. >> if you pay them, you are not going to be paying them a lot, though. so you're not talking about competing with the nba. >> very small. it may just allow guys to make money off their likeness.

>> i can understand that. profit from yourself and from your own image. if somebody picks you up and puts you in a video game, you should get paid. >> maybe that's the way they keep the title 9 out of it. because otherwise you'll have to pay everybody. so not an nba fan, huh? >> i was at one time. magic and larry ushered in an era where i was into it. >> kevin durant, lebron james, it's not too bad. >> it's nothing like when michael was playing. >> no, it's a far cry from that. >> lebron has games -- we watched shabazz hit three-pointers under the gun, but lebron throws them in -- and andy drives, he's like the greatest ever, probably. and i still don't watch. why? >> the problem is the east and the teams like the knicks as andrew will tell you, the knicks are an atrocious basketball team to find their way into the playoffs for the eighth spot in the eastern conference.

it's just awful basketball. >> my brackets were probably better than yours. >> probably. >> in any case, i saw the main guy for -- i don't remember who he was, but no one left. >> most every analyst had michigan state whipping it all. but i had florida and still went florida. >> you do? give me the two games on saturday. >> florida and uconn at 6:00. uconn could win it all. i still think florida, four seniors, billy donovan won two titles, they get there. kentucky, again, more talented. florida has beaten them three times this year. i don't think wisconsin can get through kentucky. they have big bodies all over the place, with kentucky, florida, kentucky, no one liked the sec going into this tournament. and then i'm hoping good versus

evil, florida over kentucky, because evil is the one and done system. how open they come up short to florida. >> thank you for coming. did you tweet anything to josh? >> no, but welcome. welcome aboard. welcome to the family. >> how does that feel? anyway, thank you. >> that's a lot of money he was making, joe. >> god bless him. >> thank you for coming in. great to see you. we go have a big week coming up in the markets. and we have a team of guest hosts ready for action. it's the birthday boy. politico's ben white and rob cox. they will both join us next here on "squawk." >> is that a peace sign? impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? 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.

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getting ready for the new quarter. we have a team of guest hosts. >> free markets, fair markets, fast markets. >> stock market's rigged. the united states stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged. >> we get a reality check on michael lewis's new book "flash boys." arianna huffington will tell us about some of the keys to increased productivity and happiness. welcome back, everybody. this is "squawk box" right here on cnbc, i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. been watching the futures this morning. on this last trading day of the quarter, the futures are indicated higher. if we were to open right now,

dow would up by 50 points, the s&p 6 points and nasdaq 14 points. the yield has pushed back above 2.7%. in our headlines, general motors ceo mary barra will be testifying before congress this week, answering questions from both house and senate lawmakers over the faulty ignition switches that have been linked to at least 12 deaths. gm is under fire for its handling of the situation which has seen the automaker expanding the recall to 2.6 million vehicles. the supreme court considers a key case for the computer software industry. the justices will begin considering when software is eligible for pat enthe protection. google, verizon, microsoft and hewlett-packard are among the corporate giants who have filed legal opinions. it's an important one because of the patent trolls that are out there.

an australian warship containing a black box deer has joined the search for the missing malaysian airlines jet. that comes as new debris is being examined to see if it came from the jet. so far, none of the debris has been determined to be from that missing flight. let's get to our monday morning round table. ian shepardson is chief economist at pantheon. rob cox is global editor at reuters breaking news. guys, good to see you here this morning. >> good to see you. >> we do have a lot of things to talk about. one of the things we started talking about last hour is high frequency trading. is michael lewis right? is the stock market rigged? >> i don't think it's rigged, no, obviously there are issues with high-speed trading and people jumping ahead of other people's orders and making money off of the market structure.

>> that seems rigged to me. >> rigged is a big word. >> hyperbole. >> hyperbole. >> somebody in aggregate is making money out of that. i think he's hyping it up, giving people the wrong idea. >> should it be allowed. >> high frequency trading should be done. you shouldn't be able to front run other people's orders. >> isn't that effectively the value for high frequency trading. >> you have to ask smarter people than me. >> if you take high frequency traders out of the mix, one of the things the exchanges will tell you, is that it somehow provides liquidity, helps the market, does all of these things. is that true? is it not true? >> the margin provides liquidity. there's plenty of liquidity in the u.s. market anyway. half the market is high frequency trading. >> half the market, half the volume. >> half the volume, yes, but not

half the real money. it strikes me, when paul volcker referred to banking socially useless. this is another one of these things to build big businesses now on something that adds really nothing to anybody's quality of life in any conceivable way as far as i can tell. >> you remember hot money, this concept that money comes in. when you need it, it's not there. this is hot liquidity, isn't it? it comes in, it's not there when you need it. to ian's point, the question is is this socially useful? i don't mean socially is it good for everybody but is it good for markets? does it create a problem for the structure of the markets? does it actually endanger small investors? i think that's the question. if you pull back and ask, that's got to be a question. when you think of michael lewis's book, i read the exerts from "the times" today. you identify somebody who has identified a problem and then that problem turns out to be a big problem. in the case of the big short it

was. what are the people that protect investors doing about this and pull back and say are there solutions? >> this isn't exactly a new problem. he hasn't discovered the idea of high frequency traders out there. there's an attorney general investigation in new york looking into it. people are considering rules, whether this should be blacked. there's exchanges being created to circumvent these guys. >> what's the implication for the new york stock exchange, for nasdaq, if you owned those stocks, for example, given the revenue that i assume will get cut out eventually if we believe that this system changes? >> that's a good question. i mean, there are a couple ways to deal with it. think about what is the solution to it. there are a whole bunch of ideas. some people say ban it outright. >> this iex thing from a software -- >> it's a private market, sort of solution to it. but it's probably not going to be the solution to the whole problem. the other question you have, i don't know if you've heard this, italy has started a tobin tax of sorts. >> right. >> i think it's early days, they

only started last fall. that's basically designed to get rid of uneconomic trades. they will be uneconomic if you add 0.01 cents. >> it becomes a transaction tax. >> i don't you can use that to maybe offset other taxes. it might have a good public policy response. i mean, you have to ask whether there's a problem. i don't think we've actually identified that yet. >> you're saying there may not be a problem. >> i'm saying we don't know the dimension of the problem. >> we don't know how much it's disadvantaging individual investors. >> that's michael's contention. >> i think it's worthy of further investigation. >> of course. >> again, what's the s.e.c. doing about this? are they, wait, michael lewis wrote a book. we better get one of our 400 commissioners. >> i put this in the libor category. >> this will run and run. the cat is out of the bag right now. >> that's what i said. >> michael lewis writes about it more entertaining than anybody else. >> you'll have to say, okay, what are you going to be able to

say that will bring this to the level of hype that our viewers are expecting. >> how about if i stay the entire stock market is rigged? okay, we can do it, we'll put steve croft on with you. as long as you have a way to totally outsize the story. meredith whitney, you've been on cnbc a million times. what can you say to get on "60 minutes"? how about that 100 billion of municipalities are going to go bankrupt? okay. now kyou can come on "60 minutes." this is the way "60 minutes" operates. >> amazon drones. why should you be on "60 minutes." >> we have drones flying. >> that's a start. that's a start. >> drones trading your stocks. >> that would lead "60 minutes." >> let's talk about gm. this thing is getter bigger and bigger, the number of cars recalled 2.6 million, mary barra going before congress to testify this week. what happens in washington? i'll defer to you. you're the washington guy. >> she's obviously going to be in the hot seat in the house and

senate. in her defense she was not there for a lot of this. she can basically say this is how we're addressing the problem. obviously we've made major mistakes here. we're addressing them. i think regulators have more to be concerned about. >> why didn't they catch this. >> why didn't they do more when it was initially brought to their attention. they just basically blew it off. i think they'll look very bad and she'll have an opportunity to explain the case for gm and what she's doing to mitigate the situation. >> i said to john harwood in the last hour, though, this seems to be lacking -- not say it's lacking drama but the -- what's at risk here for mary or for anybody at gm at this point? >> there's not much at risk for her. >> she's new to the title. she should come and talk about it. >> she's not dealing with it. >> she is not. >> she's out of there. >> it's not one of these washington show hearings where

somebody will be vilified and attack and their reputation is at stake. it's not like that. >> it might be a big story if they find out there was bankruptcy fraud and the government bought a bill of goods. that might turn into something. >> my question is was it -- potentially was the bankruptcy fraud and worse, do you think anyone inside the government knew anything about this? >> what's good for gm is good for america, don't forget. there's a long-standing belief that general motors is america. >> not only that, if you read home and jenkins, these were cars that helped the company meet its cafe standards. to make money they need to sell suvs to subsidize these things. if you can't sell those, you're not going to meet the kfa standards. these are the cars that get them up to 30 miles a gallon. i think they had a vested interest in keeping these things without having a problem. >> it vilifies the bankruptcy process they went through. all along it was obvious this was a clean rinse bankruptcy, you basically took a balance sheet, an excel spreadsheet,

chopped it in, whatever, a third, and then said, okay, you're done, you've actually restructured. a proper restructuring should go much deeper than that. what you have, this is general motors culture. that's a cultural problem. how mary will deal with that over time, no matter what fines are levied as a result of this, they will be substantial, they will be -- toyota set a floor. but that's going to be the real hard thing for her to figure out. >> all right. gentlemen, you're with us for the hour. we have a lot more to talk about. i want to get your thoughts on the jobs number that's coming up. if you let us right now, we'll take a quick break. >> you still look like a linebacker. you're a big dude. >> thank you. >> you're big boned. how much weight have you lost. >> 25. >> 25 pounds. yet you, you know, you weren't happy that i -- i inspired you to do this. i talk about you on the air. i do say you have ugly glasses. that's all. google glasses that you're saying. >> i can take that.

i appreciate the inspiration. >> you're in great shape, you look great. i'm a giver. i'm willing to take the heat. >> that's all you do is give. >> give, give, give. >> i'll take whatever you give. coming up, free markets, fair markets, we'll continue the conversation. is the market rigged as michael lewis is claiming? we have a segment on that. at the 7:30 a.m. hour, arianna huffington will join us as our special guest. she's redefining success with her new book. as we head to a break, check out the dollar this morning. "squawk box" coming right back after this. when does your work end?

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welcome back to "squawk box." with an obamacare deadline looming, the healthcare.gov website is down now. a software upgrade is currently being completed. >> you think this is funny? >> i'm suggesting scheduling the upgrade today probably not a good idea. should be done later this morning for folks struggling on the website. >> glad you're enjoying it. people having trouble getting health care and signing up. >> applicants can leave their information to be contacted when it's back up.

anyone who begins the process will be allowed to complete it after tonight's midnight eastern time deadline for enrollment. the deadline doesn't matter. that's what i've been saying all morning. >> please sign up. go on between the ferns, please sign up, do this. if you're young, please. >> you want to tell the joke about the deadline? >> that at exactly 12:01 when it's april fool's day? it's not a joke. i think they planned it that way. it's a joke on all of us. >> they will announce that obamacare is not a real thing. >> this has all been a joke. >> we'll continue our conversation about the controversial new book by author michael lewis, contending that the stock market is rigged by stock exchanges, big wall street firms and high frequency traders. >> who are the victims? >> everybody who has an investment in the stock market. they're able to front run your order. >> what do you mean front run. >> identify your desire to buy shares in microsoft and buy them

in front of you and sell thm back to you at a higher price. >> joining us now is the co-head of equity trading . he's the co-author of a book. the question i have for you this morning -- >> where do you come down on that? >> i want to know how you fix it and what it does to the established exchanges in terms of their business, given that they are taking in, i imagine, huge revenues as a function of selling certain people higher speed access than others. >> that's really the story of michael lewis's book. it's about the enablers. the attorney general a couple weeks ago talked about the enablers of the system. and those are the stock exchanges, all sorts of vendors that supply the system. it's an overly complex system to do a simple task. you want to buy, i want to sell, let's match up. you have intermediaries,

otherwise known as scalpers in the old days. they would get their piece and move along. nowadays, the system is dominated by scalpers and only 15% of the order flow is institutional flow. first address why this is happening. it's a fragmented market created by regulators. okay? we seen the book already. we got an early look. michael lewis sent us a copy of the book. i read it yesterday. it is an excellent book told by a very good storyteller. this is where -- my book is complicated sal and i wrote a book based on our experience as traders. it's a complex book with a difficult subject. michael took that subject matter and made it readable for the average investor. when you read this book, your blood will boil. how could this be? how is this happening? there comes your question. how do you fix it? >> the exchanges are not just the ones doing it. they're profiting from it. >> absolutely. there are 13 stock exchanges in the united states of america.

why? because they're creating -- >> what percentage of the new york stock exchange is revenue or nasdaq's revenue comes from the high-speed stuff? >> look at it this way, cash equity trading from nasdaq is 7% to 8%. where is all the rest of the money? they have a diversified business. a good chunk is from data sales. we say it's the data exchanges now. they're not stock exchanges. they sell everything, everything you want to get your system faster than somebody else. here's the trick. i heard you talking before about rigged. rigged is a word that everyone is capturing this morning. that's not the story here. the story is, like we said before, how do you fix the system? it's very simple. the regulators aren't doing their job here. the regulators are actually enabling this to happen. we don't want to ban hft. i don't know what hft is. anyone define it? i was on a subcommittee where we were supposed to define hft.

>> you say the regulators aren't doing their job. the s.e.c. has approved these co-locations and all of this type of behavior. >> absolutely. because here's what the hft proponents will say, this is available to everyone. that's who, of course, tight spreads. it's available to everyone. you can set up your own, buy a $10 million switch. >> who wants to do this? maybe the s.e.c., maybe they decided not to look at it but have absolutely approved this siene is complicit in the situation. as well as the exchanges and entire system. the story of michael lewis's back is a story of a complex system that has built-in arbitrages and trap doors. >> you still haven't told me the fix. >> here's a very quick fix. what brad and ronan are doing at rix. >> it's the stock exchange featured in the book. >> it's an alternative trading

system, which is transparent by the way. they have to file but they don't file it. >> goldman sachs is now behind this. >> no brokers are allowed to own iex as opposed to exchanges where there's so many brokers and so much -- i don't even want to -- intertwining between them. how do you fix it? what iex has done and what we agree with, they've got rid of the make or take model, the rebates that people are paid in order to jump the line. it's a flat fee, full disclosure, we're a supporter of iex. get rid of make or taker. get rid of order flow. you don't need it. take a look at the data fees. the timing difference is what causes hft to be successful. if you get rid of the timing differences, you won't have built-in arbitrages anymore. >> no cutting the lines essentially. no ut kg the lin-- cutting the .

no way to get there first. >> there's always going to be technology, somebody smarter and quicker. you don't need a system built that encourages a wire to be built, michael turns about spread network in his book. >> just to play devil's advocate, on the other side, if somebody is always going to win because of technology, figure out the better way, even if the exchanges come up with a system, what do you do? >> you don't need to encourage it like you do now. you probably want to discourage it. a good marketplace is a fair marketplace where participants participate. hft can be in there, value investors, growth investors. we all get together and find that price that's the right price. >> if iex does what they're supposed to do will they put themselves out of business? do they have a patent on what

they're doing that they'll license to these guys? >> no. their timing technology is genius, how they're slowing it down. the other exchamplgs have conflicts of interest and so many other things they will never do it. we have a lot of hope in the new york stock exchange with jeff sprecker and the new ceo there and their crew coming in. if they do do what iex has done, they'll lose money right away. do you have the guts and courage to do it? we dare you. >> thank you for coming on. >> lovely to see you. this guy. >> if you got rid of the goldberg apparatus. >> that's what it is. >> my son built a roller coaster for school the other day. it was a rup goldberg. nen we come back, kneneiel kashka

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. we have headlines for you. lululemon among the stocks we're watching, it's rising in premarket trading after it was upgraded from outperform to neutral. the firm saying bad news priced into that stock and it foresees a rebound in investor sentiment. also on our radar stock this morning, cal-maine foods, the nation's largest producer of eggs, earned $1.77 per share, well above estimates of 1.41. cal-maine benefitted from higher egg prices and strong sales in its specialty egg business. >> no carbs. >> for years people thought eggs were a cholesterol builder. they say not so much. >> this is a sorkin family favorite, disney's "frozen" is in the record books. i think our family helped a little bit with this. it is the top grossing animated

film in box office history. >> wow. >> as it topped a billion dollars in global ticket sales, movie opened just before thanksgiving. >> that's movie, not even dvd. >> not dvd. it's now on itunes. we're on the eighth or ninth viewing in the sorkin family household. >> the movies are on the dvd. >> we've seen it twice in the theaters and seven or eight times at home. >> i was embarrassed for you. >> don't be embarrassed for me. >> the princesses. it's about princesses. my son loves it, too. >> there's a couple guys. >> olof the snowman is fantastic. >> i hear the song constantly. >> let it go, let it go, i can sing it. >> i haven't seen it but i have seen the last episode of "the walking dead." >> shut up already. more and more companies are moving to cultivate a healthy bottom line.

banks urge analysts to do the unthinkable and take weekends off. arianna huffington joins us, she's the president and editor in chief of the huffington post and author of "thrive." she's one of the top 100 contenders in cnbc's first 25. and you know, i've said this to you, you had me at hello typically. and you also complete me in certain ways. you're my yang to my ying in certain ways, politically and a lot of different ways but also in this respect. i want to refine my thinking here. in europe they say we work to live. over here they accuse us of living to work. i think that the european fight by doing some of what you say in this book, enjoying life more and taking time to smell the roses, it doesn't help when you're averaging 1.5 gdp growth for 40 years.

people are 60% less well off over there than here. can we combine both, use this to be even more productive? >> actually europeans are not by any means the ideal here. the ideal is just what science is showing us about performance. you know, sports, elite sports are really ahead of business right now. they have already incorporated an adequate amount of sleep, meditation, yoga, into the training for olympic athletes, into the training for the best, lebron james, kobe bryant, so this is not new agey, flaky, california, way of living. if you care about high performance, you nurture and protect your human capital. look about the silicon valley tech startups, three out of four fail. if you look at the am of sleep deprivation, exhaustion and

burnout, you see your cognitive functions are not as alert. i have 55 pages of scientific footnotes in the book for stubborn skeptics like you. >> i like that you're using this as a tool to actually be more competitive in the workplace. right? you're not saying to be less competitive. you're just -- you don't want burnout. type "a" people die at 50. >> or have heart attack. 75% of our health care costs are for preventible chronic stress-related diseases. businesses lose $300 billion a year in the states because of stress and an additional 200% more because of indirect costs like absenteeism, low productivity at work. the evidence is overwhelming. it's just a delusion. >> there are people, if they sleep more than three hours a night, if someone gets eight hours, they go -- >> becky, don't you think it's

men who think sleep deprivation -- >> yes, i hate that. >> you have to stop bragging about how little you sleep. >> i need 7 1/2 to 8 or i kind of need a nap. >> if i go to my boss and say i need to get more sleep, i should have eight hours of sleep, i should take a yoga class during the day, i need my weekends off, they're going to laugh at me and say we'll find somebody who will do the job we need done. i love my employer. don't get me wrong. this is an ideal. how does it translate into the workplace. >> 35% of large or medium-size corporations have adopted stress related practices. i don't mean just google and silicon valley. i'm talking about aetna and target, nike, a lot of companies are now doing that. you're absolutely right. there are two worlds co-existing, the world of your boss who may be mired in the old

paradigm and the competitor incorporating that. >> if you or your assistant were to send an e-mail to an employee at 11:00 a.m. and that employee wrote back and said i have my yoga class then. i'm seeing my trainer at 11:00. could we make it 2:00? would you say fine? >> that's not what we're talking about. we're talking about giving yourself enough time to renew, recharge. >> the impetus is on people, not on corporations necessarily. >> i think a lot of corporations look at -- we have mark bertolini. he's made this available to his 49,000 employees. he brought in a university to study the results. they found a 7% reduction in health care costs and a 69 minute a day improvement in productivity. >> you're an expert on yoga.

you can confirm this. he claims that there is something he does called a downward doggy style. >> downward doggy style. that sounds to me like something that's -- yoga only is -- you do it alone. you don't need two people. is there something called downward doggy style. >> it's called downward facing dog. i hear he's great at it. >> you know how much sleep he got last night? 7 hours and 42 minutes. >> that's unusual. >> that is unusual for me. >> don't you think he looks more alert, more interesting, more handsome? >> thank you. >> in the book, has there been a study that shows a correlation between productivity and all the stuff you are talking about? >> absolutely. masses of studies. >> it's in the interest of a company to foster this? >> there's no tradeoff. that's the point i'm making. if you look at our lives, i was

at a friend's memorial, our eulogies are not our resumes. have you ever heard anybody eulogized by saying you know what, george was amazing, he increased market share by one third. we also need to integrate all these things, wisdom, wonder, joy into our lives. life is not just our to do list. >> arianna, we talked about meditation before. you're pushing companies to do that. in open floor plan operations, businesses, how do you get people to take 20 minutes to close their eyes and do whatever they're going to do in an environment that's not conducive to it. >> they can do it before they get to work. secondly, employers may have nap rooms to go to be by themselves. whatever it takes for people to recharge. >> he won't tell me his mantra. why can't you tell someone what your mantra is?

>> first of all, your own mantra is just for you. here's the thing. you don't need a mantra to meditate. use your breath. focus on your inhale and exhale. >> i don't need a mantra? >> you don't need a mantra. focus on your own bothing. the amazing thing here are the people who are meditating, not just andrew ross sorkin but ray dahlia, the ceo of bridgewater came out, not as being gay but being a meditator. 2013 was the year of ceos coming out as meditators. >> do you ever -- sometimes i take a power nap where i'm in a zone where i'm not really asleep. is that different than meditation? >> if that's what works for you, that's what works for you. anything that helps you disconnect from all your devices. because don't you think we take better care of our devices than we take care of ourselves. >> i agree. it's one year that your best huff post team blogger has been doing it for one year. >> this is his daughter.

very popular blogger. >> she writes things that you would identify with, too much make-up. i read that one. that spoke to me. when you wear too much make-up. you can read huff post teen. you don't have to be a teen to read huff post teen. you don't need to overdo make-up and go in there for an hour. i can look fine, right? >> you look great. >> when is she going to come and co-host here? >> she's done a little bit of that. she's been on -- >> she's been on huff post live. >> she's a huff post celeb. >> thank you. that was good. >> congratulations on the book. it's called "thrive," go out and get it. >> i feel more relaxed already. >> arianna is calming. when we come back, the meeting, future of technology, the boston red sox teaming up

with sapient to attract younger fans. >> and also, neel kashkari will be joining us right here on set.

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welcome back to "squawk box." it is the start of a new season today for major league baseball.

the world season champion boston red sox are going to take on the baltimore orioles this afternoon. the franchise is announcing a new multiyear partnership with sapient to bring the stadium experience into the 21st century. joining us to talk about, managing director of fenway sports group, parent company of the red sox. we also have the ceo of sapient. help us through the technology of what you are trying to build, how the experience inside the stadium will change. i'll start with you, mark. >> thank you. good morning. happy opening day. good to be with you. we are really enthusiastic and excited about our relationship with sapient. they're going to be allowing us to explore opportunities to really enhance the game experience for our attendees, particularly some of our -- many of our younger fans coming to the ballpark. they are experts in the space. they do great work with a number

of huge brands around the world. and it's going to be great for us to tap in to that experience, to help us connect with these fans in a really meaningful way. >> what does that look like in reality? is this in large part a kunfuncn of a new generation that enjoys watching sports on tv more than they do in person. >> thank you very much. the point you raise is right. the challenge is to attract a younger fan that has different expectations in regard to experience and particular technology, a mobile device-aided experience. the challenge for that experience to be a companion experience to the game so it enhances one's experience of the action on the field and doesn't distract from it. >> does that mean everybody in the stadium will be sitting there with their iphone tweeting to each other -- what are they going to be doing? >> that's happening today. one out of every two people in

the ballpark is on his or her mobile phone. the challenge is to make that an integral part of the game. we'll be thinking with many things, ordering food at your seat, how you might think about the use of the mobile device for social and other things. we're at the beginning now of exploring all of the options in front of us. those are some of the things we're thinking about. >> in terms of monetizing this mark, how do you make that work? >> well, as we develop these technologies and experiences for our fans, if there are ways to integrate some of our corporate partners into the mix, we'll absolutely be exploring that as well. >> ticket sales going to go up? rather ticket prices going to go up as a result of all this? >> i don't think so. i mean, we've established our ticket pricing for the upcoming season and i don't see that -- this having impact on that whatsoever. >> bill, what's the coolest thing you think you've done,

that we may see in the world of baseball soon? >> we did something very cool for espn xgames where we instrumented the athletes to bring the action closer to the fan. if you were sitting in the stadium and watching the events you were able to see the action from the vantage point of the athlete. that's what fans fundamentally want, andrew, is to get closer to the game. >> are you going to put stuff on the players, on the baseball, on the hat, on the glove? >> we don't yet know what we're going to do. we're not bounding out exploration at all. >> are there certain things you'll need approval from the league? that's probably a question for bill. >> we will certainly be working very closely with major league baseball events for sure. as mark can attest we have a productive relationship and partnership over a long number of years. we'd expect the richness will continue. >> bill, mark, congratulations on the new season. good luck with the new

technology. one of you is going to the white house tomorrow. is that right? >> unfortunately we have a busy week getting ready for opening day on friday here in boston. i'll be back here. >> you can't make it to see the president? you're too busy for the president. that's okay. >> unfortunately not this year. >> thanks, guys. >> andrew, thank you. when we come back, our roundtable of experts sounds off on what investors need to watch this week in the markets. at the top of the next hour, banker turned politician, neel kashkari will jone us to talk about his run for governor of california. "squawk" will be right back.

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iwe have three guests this morning. ian, we had on larry lindsey who did some very -- i mean, he used data and figures and made the case that either we go up more quickly with rates or the economy stays at 2%, that we can't have 3% with rates where they are right now. it was kind of a catch 22 on the prospects for having our cake and eating it too this year. are you at 3%? >> not quite. it's going to be a real struggle to get to 3 this year. >> because of first quarter. >> the second half, 3 plus is eminently achievable.

there's no free lunch here. if we accelerate we'll -- >> what were the numbers? i've forgotten. >> if you get to 3% you'd have to have the unemployment rate come down a tenth of a percent every month. >> this is the problem in a nutshell now. what the fed is forecasting is that we do accelerate over the course of the -- but especially next year, the rate of decline of unemployment slows down a lot. either they're expecting some miraculous rebound in productivity or they're expecting a big rebound in labor participation. and there's no evidence that either of these things are happening. if they don't happen, then unemployment will keep falling by that one-tenth every month. before you know it, we'll hit where we're supposed to hit, policy rates have to be neutral and rates have to go up faster. the reason we're getting to this crunch point, unemployment has continued to fall faster than they ever expected. that's fine when it's falling

from 10 to 9 or 9 to 8. but when you're looking at 7 to 6 or 6 to 5. >> is the fed buy itself wiggle room by saying we don't believe the official un34r0i789 rate, we think the problem is much bigger? >> they're trying to do that. janet yellen was talking at the fomc about the idea that there's broad underemployment, a big broad measure of labor participation. she then said the unemployment rate headline is the best measure we've got. headline and short-term unemployment now back to normal levels. and they struggle with that without raising rates. >> profits are great, corporations are doing great, the stock market is up 30% last year and it's held on to those gains, up a little bit this year. >> yes. >> we also had someone last week that said that a lot of that is fed induced, therefore, it's not supported by underlying

fundamentals. so the market could pull back 25% in his view. based on where the market is right now, is it assuming 3% and how much of what we've seen is due to the fed? >> the initial kickup was due to the fed, qe 3 was hugely helpful, no question. >> are we caught up. >> valuations are okay. the market doesn't look crazy to me now. it looks like in a reasonable place. over the course of this year if we get a shock change and they become more aggressive because wages accelerate or something, there would be reaction. >> murphy's law does not kick in where the fed has some really messy exit. that's not looming in front of us, where there's a day of reckoning for all of this. they've pushed off pain for a lot of people and taken our fortunes on their shoulders. is it a free lunch? >> there will be disruption, a

period of adjustment and there's going to be really bad days on those days when janet yellen says the foreguidance stuff, maybe, don't take it so seriously or the dreaded dots in the fed forecast for the interest rates start to move higher. those days will be bad days. because the mark set not fundamentally overvalued i don't see this being a calamity. >> we're better off for what the fed did. >> we are. the alternative was worse. >> we'll never have a day of reckoning. >> we'll have an extended period of unwinding which maybe is not the same as a day of reckoning. >> if we can unwind and end up where we are right now, it was a complete unmitigated success. >> i'm not suggesting we're going to unwind without any pain. even when they raise rates we'll be sitting on a $4.2 trillion balance sheet that somehow has to shrink back to 1 trillion. the idea that it will go beautifully smoothly and nothing

will go wrong, that doesn't work for me. i don't think it necessarily has to be a disaster either. >> does this keep you up at night. >> the dislocation that will ultimately take place when they start pulling it out. >> i take one exception to that. there are areas of great excess in the market. when i spend a bit of time looking at the ipos and the governance is off the charts, saying valuations are impossible to actually reconcile. >> protect, yes. >> i look at this, i see shareholders giving up their rights in every single one of these ipos. at least those things we consider those rights. >> ian, real quickly, on the friday jobs number, are we going to get the big snap back that democrats are looking for? >> the consensus is 200. which is just where the trend was before the weather. everyone is being cautious. i'm sticking my neck out and saying 250. it if it was 300 i would not

fall off this chair. it's a long way down. >> i hope you wouldn't. >> happy birthday, ben. >> thank you. when we come back, neel kashkari joins us for the remainder of the show. we'll talk markets, politics and the recent earthquakes in california where he is running for governor. "squawk box" will be right back. growth? growth. i just talked to ups. they've got a lot of great ideas. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics. they're the days to take care of business.. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner,

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the banker turned politician, former pimco managing director neel kashkari joins us for the remainder of the show from job creation to investments, we cover it all. >> the ceo of citi national bank on what's hurting midsize banks. plus, is the stock market rigged. >> the united states stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged. >> michael lewis's latest book raises eyebrows on wall street. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide, i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin, in studio sharing his

thoughts, neel kashkari, former manager director at pimco. he's now running for governor in the state of california. we'll talk to neel in just a moment. you left before mohammed, huh? >> i left a year ago. >> do you know whether -- you weren't there for that argument either, were you? >> thanks for having me today. >> the one where he said i'm tired of cleaning up your extramt. >> they're both talented, pimco is a great firm, deep bench. >> i had to get ahead of andrew. what do you think of bitcoin? just kidding. i asked andrew's two questions. you're out. you're done. let's get to the headlines. we'll get back to neel kashkari this morning. the final trading day of the first quarter on monday morning.

a good looks like it will open higher, 61 points higher, s&p 500, 7.5 points higher and the nasdaq up close to 18 points. nonetheless, the major averages are on track for their worst quarterly performance since the fourth quarter of 2012. let's take a look at shares of johnson & johnson. they've accepted an offer from the carlyle group to sell its ortho unit. 971,000 cars was added to the list for gm, bringing the total to 2.6 million. mary barra will be answering tough questions about the recall from house and senate lawmakers. michael lewis's new book, "flash boys" generating interesting conversation this

morning. lewis called the stock market rigged in favor of high-speed trading. >> the stock market is rigged. >> by whom. >> a combination of the symptom exchanges, the big wall street banks and high frequency traders. >> lewis's book highlights a trader named brad katsuyama. the methods while legal cost the rest of the markets billions of dollars a year. he figured out a way to defeat the problem and has launched a new exchange that he says will level the playing field. we've talked a lot about this this morning. we'll continue to talk about that. our guest host for the hour as we mentioned, one of "squawk box's" very own market masters, he's on set with us this morning, neel kashkari. he is a gubernatorial candidate for the state of california. he is also as joe mentioned former head of global equities at pimco. it's great to have you here. >> does he get to keep his

market master status now that he's going into politics? how does that work? >> that's a good question. you say you've been focused more on what's been happening on the campaign trail. >> absolutely. i left pimco, spent an entire traveling the state, meeting with families of all walks of life to consider whether it makes sense to run. i made my decision to run and launched the campaign in january. >> just your general sense of where we are right now, there's huge questions of whether we've gotten too far ahead of ourselves. >> i don't see a strong catalyst. at the end of the day we can't keep living on the fed. we need real economic growth and see innovation drive the economy. i don't see huge catalyst for strong economic growth. the energy sector obviously in texas and north dakota and other states is doing very well. one of my hopes is that we can unleash that in california. that's going to take time. that's not going to happen between now and the end of the year. i don't see huge catalysts to the upside. the geopolitical risk you all

talk about every day are still out there. >> huckabee had to quit fox when he was going to run. remember? maria shriver couldn't do -- >> the market master thing is over. >> i was never a paid contributor here. >> right. >> volunteer. >> he was just a -- right. >> you're not paid financially but the stature and the being, sitting here on this set, that's like the mastercard commercial, priceless. >> we may have to pull it back. >> i was surprised when i saw some of the statistics. i knew california had fallen on tougher times than the past but the idea that california is only the 47th fastest growing state economy when it comes to the most educated work force, it comes in 48th. how did that happen? >> over 30, 35 years, california's economy has slowly declined. the danger is people have gotten used to it and the middle class has been destroyed over the past 30, 35 years. we were around 25th in 1980 for

jobs. we're now 47th. we were 25th or 26th for poverty. we're now number one. >> california is number one for poverty? >> number one. 24% of californians live in poverty. most families look across the dinner table at each other and say what is he talking about, a come back? we're not back. people want a fair chance to work hard. my platform is about growing the economy so we have good jobs available and fixing the schools so kids get a good education. >> there was an article in "the new republic." you're the guy who created t.a.r.p. in some quarters, that is not a popular -- >> especially in california. >> especially in california. you say that you own t.a.r.p., this is yours and you're not running from it. >> i'm running towards it. this is the best example we have in modern american history of republicans and democrats working together and putting their country before political careers.

isn't that what we ask our politicians to do? i'm proud of fact that we stabilized the economy. we hated to do this. we want to let all the banks fail. but when it come down to it, we worked together, made a profit for the taxpayers. if we can get them to work together in washington, that gives me confidence we can get them to work together in sacramento. >> is that a message you say you've traveled the country, talked to people all over the place, does that resonate with average voters? it's one thing to be talking to people around this table about that. >> the financial crisis years ago. most voters are focused on their own lives. they're focused on the fact that they need work, their kids are stuck in failing schools. when are we going to get a fair chance? i've traveled around the state, people don't want welfare. they want a job. >> aren't they angry? the banks got bailed out and the people on main street got left holding the bag? >> most people are saying where

can i get a job? that's really -- most people are focused on what's happening to them today, college students graduating with thousands of dollars of debt, those lucky enough to go and no job. i hear this all the time in california. kids who grew up in california say i can't stay because there are no jobs here. i have to move to texas or move east. to me, i'm trying to bring the big economic issues back down to what does it mean for families sitting at the dinner table talking to each other. >> neel, what did jerry brown do in terms of closing the deficit to get where he is right now? look at illinois tried to soak the rich and it was counterproductive. i think it's gotten even worse. how did he do it? >> governor brown passed a temporary tax increase on the high earners and the stock market boom last year. there's a windfall. california still has around $500 billion of unfunded liabilities that are totally unaddressed. in a sense -- >> 500 what? >> $500 billion of unfunded

liabilities. a smart columnist in sacramento wrote california is like the family that macs its minimum credit card payment but has a join the mortgage that it still can't afford. governor brown has not addressed the situation. >> in terms of business migration, we know about silicon valley, that's a bright spot. has there been an exodus of other more mainstream established corporations because of either regulations or taxes? >> yes. for both. it's an exodus which is alarming. almost every week -- >> you can put your finger on it, cite figures that show mainstream companies are leaving california? >> you can cite example after example. there's no database, it's hard to quantify. people look at u-haul rates. renting a u-haul from california

to texas is more expensive than the other way. you all probably saw elan musk announced he's going to spend $5 billion on this giga factory. didn't even consider california because the overall business. >> i awarded texas earlier today. >> did you? >> i thought it was decided. i just assumed. that's where i'd put it probably. what is it? cal tech and stanford? why is that still the place to be? why did mark zuckerberg ren that the -- rent that house out there. >> it's a special place. we do high-end innovation exceptionally well. when you convert to to manufacturing, the state is much less economically competitive. as the men and women working on the factory floors are the ones that hurt when these businesses go out of state. the factory owner will do fine.

elan musk is going to do fine. the men and women on the factory floor get hurt by this. >> this is a richard bernstein question. california running a surplus. should it be used for spending for tax cuts or retire the state's outstanding debt? >> i think overall we need to start a process to retire the state's long-term liabilities to me, the way we address our fiscal situation is putting californians back to work. >> you cut the taxes before you'd cut the debt? >> there are other things we can do. unleash our oil and gas sector, reforming regulations, making sure we have enough water to feed our farms. there's a lot we can do. cancelling the high-speed train. to me, if we put californians back to work, we have more taxpayers in the state. we have more tax revenue, then we can address the long-term liabilities and reform taxes, too. >> much more from you. >> i saw bernstein. i would never read his question.

anyway, are you a browns fan? what are you going to tell them. >> i always tell the truth. i'm running the most open and authentic campaign you can imagine. look, it would have been much more fun for me to be a 49ers fan than being a cleveland browns fan. >> you're not going to lie. >> i am who i am. >> do you think you can win votes in san francisco or malibu. >> it's interesting. >> you need orange county and sacramento. >> orange county, los angeles, san diego, i think so. a lot of people, even in the bay area say when is there something who will be a pro-growth economic person. when they meet me, they say we align economically. >> within we come back, more neel pmt and tne neel. we also have the ceo of city national bank.

he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

welcome back to "squawk box." russell goldsmith joins us, the chairman and ceo of city national bank. he chairs the midsize bank coalition of america. you say midsize banks are being hurt. are they being hurt by the big banks or being hurt by dodd frank because of the rules that really are for -- you may have a

take on this, too. >> all of the above. i think dodd frank has some really good ideas and it went after the biggest banks, the systemically critical banks. but when washington tries to kind of lay a broad brush across banks, it has a tough time distinguishing. >> your argument is what? it's cheaper for the big banks on a financing level? some people would argue that you now have an advantage over the big banks in terms of offering mortgages. >> i think what dodd frank set out to do was try to come up with standards that would apply to banks, the regulators trying to use those rules to build regulations. >> right. >> the kind of things you do for a $2 trillion bank is not what you need to do for a 20 billion, $30 billion bank. >> the piece of legislation that you think is severely injuring the midsize banks scenario. >> you go through a series of things, the stress tests are a

good idea when you're a $2 trillion bank. they make sense for a midside bank but on a lesser scale. >> if you look at the banks that have failed, they've all been smaller banks. you could argue because they're too small to be saved but that's part of what's happened here. >> i think what i would argue for, midsize banks in general would argue for is that the level of regulation, the rules and the laws take into account the fact that our coalition averages 17 billion, city national is about 30 billion. what you have to do, what you have to expect is different from a $2 trillion bank that's so much more complicated. >> what is the bailout czar? this is your constituent. what do you have to say about this? >> i think what he's saying makes a lot of sense. i would be surprised if the level of scrutiny you're under compares to what citigroup is under.

personally, you know your business much better than i do, i'd be surprised if you really are the under same scrutiny as the big banks. >> there's no question about it. midsize banks like city national are in much better shape, have stronger capital. i think often the regulators get it right. the law in fact in dodd frank recognizes the difference. i think what we've been trying to say is there are places that need some adjustment. i think dodd frank has swung the pendulum very far in the right direction. but in certain areas it has to equal that. >> you mentioned the volcker rule. are small and midsize banks participating in some sort of proprietary trading we don't know about? >> no. you don't have a scoop here, andrew. >> why is that a problem? >> under volcker, there's a 3% level of capital that's a cap on investments that banks can make. that's fine if you're jp morgan, 3% of capital is a ton of money. if you're city national or silicon valley bank, which is in our coalition, we invest in

companies, take some of our profits and invest in companies and have a strong track record. i think we should be able to invest a little bit more back in job creation and startup businesses and volcker is that 3% cap when you're a midsize bank is a little too low. >> there is a debate going on and the new york fed came out with a report only a week or two ago suggesting that fed financing that the two big to fail banks do have a financing benefit, that there really is a subsidy. >> right. >> that has been long disputed by the big banks, some of the smaller banks have disputed it, too. >> there's no question, they have an advantage both in terms of funding but more importantly psychologically. people know that those banks are going to get bailed out where as a midsize bank or small bank isn't. banks like city national have strong capital levels, don't do all the things people are angry about and are much safer.

there's a balance both ways. >> in russell's world, if you could be king for a day, would you split up some of the bigger banks? does that make sense to you? do you think there's a need to have big global banks? >> i think there is a need. the question is -- we have to look at the risks they're taking, the complexities and can they manage them? but i don't think size per se is the problem. it's the kind of businesses that you're in and it's the level of risk that you're taking, which is why midsize banks like city national that are not doing all these things warrant a level of legal rules and regulations. >> wells fargo, they're originating 30% of all mortgages in the country. does that make sense from a policy per spekt snispective? they're in your backyard. >> they're in everybody's backyard. we have to look at the way we finance mortgages. the government owns fannie and freddie. that's essentially the market

except for banks like city national who put jumbo mortgages on their balance sheet. congress lakes the 70 plus billion a year they're getting from the gses. now there's legislation being proposed to do something. i think that's a debate we need to have, we need to fix the mortgage situation in our country. >> bitcoin. >> what are you -- >> bitcoin. >> what do you think of bitcoin? i ask everybody what they think of bitcoin. >> he's awe ba banker! >> what do you think of bitcoin. >> i would not be buying bitcoin. it's kind of a ponzi scheme. it's not a currency. what is it? this is how we got into trouble with mortgages. we do a mortgage say it's worth $100, sell it to joe for $200, sell it to you for $300. somebody woke up and said a subprime mortgage isn't worth the paper it's written on.

>> what is the younger gubernatorial candidate have to say about this? >> everything you just said you could say about gold. gold has no intrinsic value. the difference is i can't invent gold. i can't invent bitcoin two, you bitcoin three and you bitcoin four. to me the fact there could be a thousand bitcoins tomorrow means that it's not gold. it's not scarce like that. some of these economic concepts that belong to currencies are not there. >> thank you for being here this morning. >> great to see you all. >> appreciate it. really appreciate it. thank you. when we come back, we'll have more from our guest host, neel kashkari and later, it's been 20 years since a major earthquake hit southern california. after this weekend's events, is there something even bigger brewer? cnbc's jane wells has the latest on the tremors and damage in the los angeles area. "squawk box" will be right back. i always say be the man with the plan

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♪ they're playing basketball ♪ we love that basketball >> the final four set kentucky and it's freshmen winning in dramatic fashion with a three-pointer, just three seconds left on the clock. they're shooting like 100% free throws. did you fill out a bracket. >> i didn't. >> did you like the browns?

>> i'm running all over the place. >> gluten for punishment. >> they're moving on to play wisconsin. i didn't like the call with arizona in the last ten seconds, offensive foul. uconn will be playing florida. shahbaz was unbelievable, beating heavily favored michigan state. fyi, the huskies beat the gators. andrew has the tease de jour of today. >> for your fyi. coming up, a series of tremblers punctuated by a 5.2 earthquake did more to rattle nerves over the weekend. cnbc's jane wells will bring us up to speed on how this will affect business. take a look at u.s. equity futures, green arrows across the board with the dow looking like it will open up about 65 points higher. back in a moment. security solution to keep your information safe & secure.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. let's check out stocks to watch in this morning's trading. panera bread up this morning after the stock was upgraded from outperform to neutral.

novartis shares are higher after the drug company announced it's ending a study of heart failure drug early because of strongly positive results. and medtronic benefiting from positive news. a study showed a nonsurgical valve used to treat children with heart defects continued to work well in all but a few patients after a year. aftershocks still rumbling californi california. jane wells joins us from fullerton, california, just five miles from the epicenter of the quake on friday. jane, good morning. >> good morning. this is where a lot of the damage happened. these homes have broken glass, chimney damage on the inside and in some cases, people have not been allowed to return home. though the epicenter may have been five miles away. this is the area where the quake was hardest hit, hardest felt. at this point, though, a lot of

people have been allowed to go back. there are a half dozen homes that are red tagged and one commercial building. 19 people still having to find other places to live. fortunately no major damage or injuries again, just like last week's encino quake. crews are mostly having to work to restore broken water mains and gas lines. disneyland had to shut down some rides on friday night but was operating normally on saturday. there have been over -- well over 100 aftershocks from friday night's 5.1 quake centered along the northern orange county, southern l.a. county lines. here's why this quite is disconcerting. it could do a lot more damage to downtown los angeles than the big one along the san andreas fault. this fault line is to much closer to town. it's the same fault line responsible for a very big

earthquake more than a quarter century ago. that was a 5.9 which killed eight people and caused over $350 million in damage in 1987 figures. also interesting about this quake, guys, it was -- had a few foreshocks meaning there were smaller quakes leading up to it. there was some fear that the 5.1 might be a foreshock to something bigger. at this point that does not appear to be the case. by the way, if you look at the map, l.a. isn't the only place feeling quakes the last few days. yellow stone had a 4.8 quake and a swarm of quakes in oklahoma which may or may not be related to fracing have led to the strongest trembler so far in that state with the strongest being 4.4. a lot more people live here and felt that 5.1 than live in yellow stone or in oklahoma. >> i like the way you said that, jane. we had a cnn reporter when that asteroid came close ask whether that was related to global

warming. it may or may not have been related to global warming. may or may not. it's one other the other. it is or isn't related to fracing. that give us a lot of info. >> there was some information that earlier quakes in oklahoma were related to hydraulic fracturing. there is a whole lot of hydraulic fracturing in oklahoma. >> i know. >> i am suggesting that it may or may not be related. i'm right. i'm right either way. >> you're always right. was it the one in october? i think it was october 10th, 1987. that was a 5.9? >> october 1st. that was a 5.9. >> i was at sixth and fig. there was a big building on top of me. everyone ran out into the street which are not smart. those are falling grass grenades. 5.9. changed my whole view of the world. were you there for the 5.1 this weekend?

>> i live 70 miles away. i did not feel the 5.1. the 4 in encino was felt at my house. of course i remember the 5. in wittier. >> i went out to a place called nicola's, a one-story building and drank for the rest of the day. i did. >> that earthquake, joe, was the first earthquake -- big earthquake in l.a. where everybody had car alarms. the big difference between that quake and the 1971 quake is that when that quake hit, every car alarm in los angeles went off. >> your whole view of reality, dogs know, the way they bark. you see flag poles going like this. you can't believe it. you can see it on tv when it looks like somebody is shaking the camera. unless you're there, you can't describe how terrifying it is. it is absolutely terrifying because you think the whole building -- >> it is but i would just say,

unlike the friday night quake when everybody was well awake and also the quake in san francisco in 1989 which happened in the evening, most of the big quakes in l.a. happen early in the morning. by the time you figure out and start having a heart attack, it is starting to ease up. >> it is. you wonder -- you feel like it's going to kick into high gear. it went for almost a minute. >> yes. >> you wonder if it's going to kick into high gear. it's scary. >> yes, it is. >> may or may not be. the earthquake may or may not be related to climate change, right? did you say that was well? >> it may or may not be related to -- >> cell phone use. >> the situation in ukraine. >> or the situation in ukraine. okay. jane wells. that scares me, the one under the habra is the one that goes up into l.a. >> and up into hollywood.

>> where do you live, neel kashkari, his gubernatorial -- >> in orange county. >> i called, because i've been traveling. i'm on the road constantly. >> you missed this. >> i missed this. i have an older lady that stays at my house when i'm gone. she takes care of my dogs. she said the house is fine. they felt the quake, my dog slept right through it. >> really? >> they are heavy sleepers. big newfoundlands. >> wow. okay. in your view at this point, you designed all these -- you didn't want to be a government orchestrater but you ended up being one. maybe you have experience to run california. as we said, that is something to overcome. people don't understand that main stlereet would have been affected if main street wasn't bailed out. >> that's what i'm trying to do in this campaign, talk about how these well intentioned policies have led to the destruction of the middle class. i bring everything back to,

again, i don't fault elan musk for making a smart business decision but we have to invoi s recognize the men and women who will not be working in that factory, they are the ones hurt by this. we have an environmental law in california, everyone knows it's out of control. jerry brown exempted this new arena from this environment law. if that is good enough for his pet project, why isn't it good enough for all the businesses and farms in california? we need a level playing field. >> michael lewis didn't say it on the "60 minutes" piece, i do know it's in the book, one of the things he argues about high frequency trading is the prospect, the potential for another crisis as a result of the trading in part he argues because you could have flash crashes and things like this. how much do you worry about that? >> i've seen some of the

coverage of it. it's hard to understand how these things will interact. we saw the flash crash. i can't imagine that's our last flash crash. do i think it's going to destabilize the whole system? no, probably not. >> do you think it should be regulated? >> of course i think it should be regulated. the idea of trading on nanoseconds or microseconds is benefiting the american consumer or economy, i don't buy it at all. >> the same thing you've seen happening in california in terms of business exiting, do you think part of our problem nationally is that the same type of policies are in effect, that drive certain facilities out of the country? >> absolutely. look at obamacare. health care is really important. i'm fortunate to have been able to afford my own health insurance. aside from the fact that my plan got canceled, my premium went up, what is it going to the job market? when i think about california and obamacare, we have 17% of

californians, no job or stuck in a part-time job. now we have a massive national policy -- >> u6. >> 17%. we have a massive policy that is incentivizing reducing hours and cutting number of workers. >> along with nine other programs that also -- >> exactly. >> they all get phased out at different levels of income, right? you have to make a lot of money not to stay at home, wouldn't you say? >> that's true. i think in their heart, most people want to work. most people don't want to live off of government support. to me, we just have to give them that chance. that means more good jobs available and a good education. >> charter schools. >> charter schools are part of it. we have to fix the traditional public schools, too. the one limitation with charter schools, it requires a mom or dad who thinks to send their kids to that charter school. what about the mom and dads that don't now? a lot of teachers in california

that i've met are frustrated at how they're microimagine mana-- micromanaged. >> it's not the teachers, it's the teachers unions. >> you're a champion of charter schools. >> i am but you have to fix the public schools. >> when you see what's happening in new york with bill de blasio. >> it's outrageous. we're talking politics. your viewers might get mad. all of these democratic leaders who talk about income and inequality, and they're unwilling to address the root cause, a failed education system. bill de blasio is attacking charter schools. you know what the obama administration is doing in louisiana to the voucher program which is 85% black kids, 100% poor kids. yet the democratic party is going after these big education reform movements. it's outrageous. >> do you want to take back your

vote in all those campaign contributions now from de blasio? >> zero. zero. >> wait till you and your lovely wife try to go out for a romantic ride and it's going to be me in a rickshaw pulling you around manhattan. >> i'm going to get in trouble. i like the horses. i lose points with certain people. are you for horses or against horses? >> i'm for horses. i'm thinking about the "seinfeld" episode. he fed the horse beans. >> i like the horses in new york. we'll have more from neel throughout the show. we don't give campaign contributions. >> zero. >> some of us don't even vote. >> you could if you would have. >> we we return, is the sun

about to set on solar stocks in this? are the stocks ready to fade away? find out in our what's working segment. that's coming up next. we've been talking about michael lewis's new book, in which he says the markets are rigged because of high-speed traders. leave a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/squawkcnbc. gunderman group is a go. yes! not just a start up. an upstart.

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welcome back to "squawk box." earlier we told you that the healthcare.gov website was down. while a software upgrades with being completed. that's now happened. the site is still noting an influx of visitors. tonight marking the deadline for health insurance signups for those signing up through healthcare.gov, states that operate with their own health care exchanges are allowed to set their own deadlines. as long as you're started the process, that counts towards having participated in the deadline. you might get a bit of an extension. the sun has been shining on the solar sector f, first solars up over the last year 150%, making it one of the best performing stocks on the s&p 500. joining us to talk about first solar and other stocks in the space is ben callow. the technology at first solar is superior, might actually help it beat some of its chinese rivals

at this point. >> i think it has room to go. sun power is my favorite. the important point here is that with the chinese guys floundering, you have sun power and first solar which are two of the largest companies with the strongest balance sheets that are able to invest in r & d and continue to increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of solar, making it more competitive with natural gas in many parts of the world, including the united states. >> how much of it depends on subsidies that come either from state or national governments? >> state subsidies are important. federal subsidies obviously more important. and they provide a runway until 2017, the end of 2017 for the solar market to develop. but at the same time, costs are declining rapidly throughout the whole value chain. and when we get to the other side of that, if the tax credits aren't renewed, we should see solar still cost competitive with other forms of fossil fuels.

>> can you break it down in terms of where it would be? if we get to 2017, let's assume tax credits don't get renewed. that's the worst case scenario for a lot of investors. if that's the case, where do you have to be in terms of putting it up against other fossil fuels? >> we're already seeing deals priced out that far, selling at 5, 6, 7 cents a kilowatt hour, which is competitive with natural gas. obviously the tax credits help but they don't need to be there, especially when we start looking at commercial applications, putting solar panels on top of a walmart or a target. and providing power in-house there or more industrial applications. at the residential level, there's all types of financing products that are developing. that's an important focus of the solar industry right now, as the invention of these financing products that makes solar cheaper for the consumer, whether residential or commercial. >> do you have any view about

tesla and what's going to happen to that in terms of its ability through this new battery infrastructure factory they're building and what that does to solar or other types of solar new energy? >> on the jobs front which you were talking about earlier, the obviously the new plant should create 6,000 jobs which is very important. it will also lower the cost of tesla's battery packs by an estimated 30%. which will start to allow grid level storage. mostly will be used at commercial industrial applications at first. but eventually at home. >> thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. coming up, a look at the trading week ahead and what investors will need to watch. "squawk on the street's" jim cramer will join us live. back in a moment. ♪

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new york stock exchange. jim cramer joins us now. i tell you what irritates me, "60 minute" piece our tory, could we have gotten the guy at rbc? it's like, what, it doesn't become news until "60 minutes"

covers it? meredith whitney, the same thing happened, why? tabloid? sensationalists or are they the gold standard for journalism? >> it's painful. it's painful, we've been covering this issue for years, saying the same thing for years. did we find the rbc guy? well, i mean, i don't know. we found many people trying to develop alternate changes and slow this stuff down. but i don't know. i was talking with david faber about it, too. the agenda gets said, but it should have been said years ago. nothing's going to happen anymore except more books will be sold, but that's okay. that's the way it is. >> far be it from you, you've got a few books, you're up there. >> i was like, well, that's the way -- that's how the process works. i'm going to buy a tesla, too. how did that happen? >> i know. that was interesting, though. >> i'll buy a rocket. i think they were selling rockets.

>> i didn't know he came so close to ruination in 2008. >> but then it all ends -- it's all -- all ends up well. it's like a uconn story. >> we talked about what a great game that was going to be, and it was. and it was shabazz. you know, i tried to hit some foul throws, just for the heck of it when i go to the gym, i hit the back of the rim, i hit the front of the rim, miss everything entirely. how do you get five feet outside three-point line with a guy guarding you and keep throwing them? how does it happen? >> i saw him get hurt last week, didn't matter. kentucky had some of these shots. unbelievable games they got interrupted by high frequently trading. >> shabazz elbow to the nose and came back and won the game. >> he's a titan. i hope we see him in the pros. >> uconn seems to rise -- they were playing home games, though, at madison square garden. >> that really does matter. that's going to change the

equation. >> looking forward to -- who do you got left? anybody left? florida? >> i still have florida, but it doesn't matter. you know you really had to thread the needle here. >> you did. >> amazing difficult series of brackets. >> i thought i would have arizona, florida in the final but that call, that charging -- i'm mad that the ref. i never -- i never blamed refs before. they didn't let that go, ten seconds left in overtime, and he didn't let that just happen? they had to call a charging foul? >> refs deciding games, we hate it. >> thank you. see you in a few minutes. >> when we come back, neel kashkari on the state of the economy, of california, and why he wants to win the governorship. right now, as we take a look -- as we head to a break, take a look at futures. dow futures picked up, 90 points. and the nasdaq futures up by 28. "squawk box" will be right back.

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back to our guest, neel kashkari, former pimco manager, now candidate, money in politics. your here, raising money, how much money does it cost to actually run an effective campaign in california? >> to get to the primary. joke, get to be the tallest smurf. we need to raise a few more. jerry brown's raised $20 million. meg whitman raised almost $2 million in her attempt in 2010. california's a big state. takes a lot of money. >> would you be for refirm on this issue? is there a way to take money out of the elections? >> i don't know how to do it. all that happens you cap the hard money, money that goes into a campaign, independent groups spring up, union fund it big business, independent groups, in unlimited dollars.

it's very hard. right now today a double standard, asset managers can't give what their -- if they're managing money, they can't give -- >> pimco, bill gross can't donate to you? >> bill gross can donate $150 to me. >> now that mohammed's out, can he donate? >> if he's watching. the high-speed rail contractors are unlimited, they can give money, and they are, giving money to governor brown. >> you're prepared to cut it out? >> yes. i've said, cancel the high-speed train, spend more building storage, capturing rain in good years, feed our farms and communities when there are droughts in future. >> tallest smurf. no one can get mad at that, because they're not real. >> may be little blue people somewhere. >> what color do they turn they hold their breath? >> i don't know. >> purple. >> maybe turn from blue to purple, that's an idea. why do you drive on a parkway and -- thank you, neel.

i'm going to use that, tallest smurf. >> good luck with the campaign. great to see you. >> that does it for us today. join us tomorrow. time for "squawk on the street" ♪ batter, batter, batter swing swing, batter, batter♪ >> good monday morning. happy opening day for major league baseball. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla. jim cramer, david faber at the new york stock exchange. we're going to close out the first quarter, as the dow and nasdaq could potentially end a four-quarter win streak, though futures are up. news about the market, including michael lewis on "60 minutes" talking about high frequency trading. chicago pmi today, jobs number on friday, of course. and the euro got