would call them out. i did this from on "worldwide exchange," i have to do it again. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ >> welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc this morning live in washington, d.c. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. coming to you from the business roundtable meeting in washington, d.c. we have a huge lineup. we have the ceos of caterpillar, cisco, american airlines, dow chemical, u.p.s. donald trump's campaign manager as well. kellyanne conway will join us at 7:50 a.m. eastern time with an update on the transition, plus we will be talking to house speaker paul ryan that will happen at 8:40 a.m. eastern time. you will not wanted to miss that. our host here in washington and for the next hour of the program is business roundtable president john engler, we will get the governor to talk to us in a minute about so many issues. thank you for being with us.

thank you for hosting us. >> thank you. >> before we do that, we have today's top stories to get to. mr. kernen and dropping the mike. dropping the mike kernen, is that what we'll call you? >> i figured that's okay. the president has done that. the current president. i've never seen the president-elect do that. but i practiced. you know, our great stage guy mac, he was underneath me because they didn't want to break the microphone. you didn't hear anything. it didn't shatter. let's look at the markets so far. u.s. equity futures at this hour are indicated fairly flat. we have an 11-point gain on the dow. you would say that's not much, but again, an 11-point gain. not down, it's been four, five weeks. seems like the down day has been rare. s&p off fractionally. check out the asia markets trading. shanghai. the nikkei finally, abe couldn't

do it, trump did. weakened the yen on something. european equities. europe probably after what happened yesterday here, adding to some gains. renzi who? i don't know. that didn't last very long. italy up another point. looking at crude. trading above 50. 50.97. >> couple other big stories, at&t and time warner pitching the benefits of their merger to an antitrust subcommittee today. while campaigning trump said he would block the combination of those two firms saying it was too much combination of power in the hands of too few. according to the prepared text, stevenson will argue that the deal will disrupt the longest established tv model in a way

that will benefit consumers, saying it would be a gross mistake to view this transaction as anything but pro competitive. senator mike lee will join us at 8:15 a.m. >> after boeing yesterday, you saw the next thing to come out was shares of softbank. s they surged after peotus -- you can't really use potus, but peotus, the announcement that the japanese telecom giant would invest 50 billion in business and job creation in the united states. trump making the announcement along softbank's ceo in new york. happened yesterday. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is masa of softbank from japan. he's just agreed to invest $50

billion in the united states and 50,000 jobs. he's one of the great men of industry. so i just want to thank you. >> thank you. >> almost surreal. you had the softbank guy, sort of sticking his chest out, smiling. i don't know where the boeing guy was. he was slinking around, no, no, i'm not ceo. softbank has a majority stake in sprint which also saw shares rise after the announcement. a dow jones report says the $50 billion will come from a previously announced $100 billion international investment fund set up with saudi arabia. some of the media is saying this was the best news in the works any way. trump will take -- >> this story was announced. >> okay. i read your mind. i almost said main tv would say it was already done. and here you are. >> here i am. softbank and saudi arabia people up for $100 billion tech fund this is back in october. >> i don't know.

i saw president-elect trump introduce the guy it looks like he got this done. >> just saying. here's a story that i think donald trump gets credit for, should get credit for. apple supplier foxconn is in talks to expand into the united states. the scope of the potential investment has not been determined. we will announce the details of any plans following the completion of direct discussions between the leadership and relevant u.s. officials. it's all coming back. do you believe it? >> this will be an interesting day. >> nice to see u.s. officials relevant. >> that's true. that's true. elsewhere, president-elect trump is getting ready to take office next month. on his agenda, getting jobs back in the u.s., rolling back regulations and cutting taxes. joining us to talk about how the president-elect could achieve his goals, mark weinberger. good to see you.

chairman and ceo of e-wine, tapped to be a part of trump's newly creative strategic and policy forum composed of 16 business leaders and will advise the president-elect on job creation and growth. also with us, our guest host for the hour, business roundtable president john engler, former governor of michigan. you're not doing that recount, you're not helping with that? >> they're going back and forth. i told you election morning my brothers were claiming that trump would carry michigan. turned out they were right. >> 0.2%. 10,700 votes. wisconsin, it's a bummer. she's lost 50,000 since the recount. that's going the wrong way. i don't think anyone is taking twitter away from president-elect trump. did either of you think it would be -- we've seen it used for a

lot of things. this is pretty incredible, earth shattering, gate changing, is it not? was yesterday not interesting to behold? >> every day seems interesting. i will say that. we shouldn't be surprised. the election was interesting. it's his attempt to continue to connect with the american people directly. bypass other forms that may alter his message. we'll have to see this continue up and down the next several years. >> governor, did you have dinner last night with some ceos? did anyone talk about this last night? >> yeah. before the election, everyone was traveling anywhere in the world, the first half hour was what the heck is going on. now i think it's amazing what's going on. four weeks ago this morning the world changed, we woke up and said my gosh, it happened. >> did anyone last night say that we were not expecting a republican president to say we want you to make money, we just don't want you to make too much money. i've heard that before. do you remember --

>> i said it. you say it every day. president obama said it about the banks when they were doing something with the credit card fees. you need to earn only what the government considers a fair profit. is a chill being sent down the spine from saying that boeing is allowed to make some money but not too much? is it different if it's with the government? >> i think it's -- this is a government expenditure. >> yeah. >> i think at some point the president will speak up and say why does it take two years to put an elevator in the washington monument. a lot of things that we became immune to, they just happened, he's now going to look at this as a businessman and say why in the world does that make sense. >> everybody remembers -- a positive, governor? >> i think definitely positive. the appointments are solid. picking people like mark weinberger and the team he put

together. this strategy and policy group is pretty powerful. what he's saying, i want to take the best business leaders in america who have been creating jobs, know what it takes to compete globally and say what do we need to do to get america working again? this group will be influential. we're pleased there's about a dozen roundtable connected members there. we feel back in the game. >> what does the boeing mean to the pharmaceutical industry. you remember what happened to the pharmaceutical industry when hillary clinton made some of her comments. >> here's the difference. the president-elect will say a lot of things. what is important to take him seriously. he'll change a lot. in the necessarily literally. he's sending signals on what he wants to the do in areas, he's not a trained politician. they're not things we're used to hearing. let's see how his actions come together.

that's what people are excited about. what the agenda that is going to be that hasn't been the agenda for many years, growth. >> the boeing -- that's one project, but it could be -- he put jim mcnerny on the same group mark is on, so there's not a problem with boeing. but this cost of a plane that i guess you could buy for 400 million, it's a lot of technology, 3.5 billion is the price. one plane, two planes -- >> three planes they say. >> through go. the reality is what trump is signaling is that it is not going to be business as usual. the reports are from the pentagon is that there's waste there. i puss sesuspect general mattisd that talk with president-elect

trump. >> you could argue it has been business as usual with the $1400 wrench. i don't know if he can do it -- he won't be looking at every line item itself, but someone who has been a builder, tries to get costs down, on time. that could be a significant -- in my cold open i said first businessman president. >> mark's business is in a lot of companies, but tone at the top matters. this is what we're seeing in terms of job creation, spending restraint, focus on the things that really matter. >> governor, i couldn't agree more with what you said. he's telling us what he'll focus on when he gets in office, some of these things may be unconventional, but as i go to this group, the first thing we'll talk about is having inclusive growth, all americans, create jobs, get rid of this division in the election. that will be incredibly important day one.

the whole country has to work together. two, work with congress to get your agenda done. it won't be easy. i was talking to many members, lots of different ideas they still have. >> take us inside the boardroom of a company that may be thinking about cutting jobs or moving jobs abroad. how does the equation change? you would make a presentation to the board, show them the math, then i assume you have to throw that piece of paper away and have a different conversation? >> you never made a purely math decision. a lot of companies moved overseas because they couldn't compete. there's always another side of a story. you are right. the pressure, it will be greater to explain yourself and say why, not just what you're doing. >> the math will be different. >> right. >> you add the pr hit into the labor disparity. you will get a pr hit. >> you are right. i can promise you any company that thought of inverting or

inverted never woke up and said this will be a great day. i will tell america i'm moving overseas. >> i remember visiting one company down in texas, they were the last u.s. company in their sector. all of their competitors were off-shore. they simply, as much as they hated it, felt they had no choice. they had to have a foreign headquarters location in order to compete tax-wise. i had companies in the u.s. say when it came to acquisitions, they were tired of getting their brains beat in by foreign competitors who had a tax advantage when it came to buying an asset. german company, for example, against a u.s. company bidding for the same asset. u.s. loses. >> one thing i'm impressed with, when you look at this group the president put together for this strategy and policy group, he didn't ask party affiliation, he said come and sit down, talk to me, tell me what you're seeing. we know trade might be an issue.

i think the president does want trade. he wants different deals. i'm going to be a huge advocate going in and talking about how important it is to grow not just america but grow us in the rest of the world. he's inviting us to have those discussions. that's important. >> governor, you know about manufacturing, you're from michigan, does the president ever say let's slow down technology? let's slow down automation? how do you -- that might be worse than outsourcing for what's happening. >> we talked about this we have some differences in the way we think about trade. we certainly don't disagree that fair trade is better and we ought to try to balance the scale. we look at job loss, in the campaign it seemed on both sides it's technology, the global

economy, probably 80% of the jobs go that way. foxconn, you had that story. a factory over there, they had a million workers. they're replacing those workers with robots in china. we have to have technology. but i would argue in manufacturing one of the things we've struggled with a bit is the miscalculation of what's in manufacturing today because all that technology, you put a opinion in there, writing code for that machine. today those are services. they don't score as manufacturing jobs but they're related and detependent on manufacturing. the plant has very few people in it, but there's an army outside supporting it. it's different. trump will be in charge of the next census, maybe we could get that calculated better. >> that was one of those he needed to be taken more

seriously not literally. and trump ran on what affects americans, and hillary clinton ran on what offends americans. maybe that's too simplistic, but sums up -- >> however we got here, we have a situation where the country is divided. job one has to pull the country back together. make sure he continues to recognize why he was elected, helping the american workers, jobs, he has to deliver. >> results will solve those things. >> results is the issue. >> these results were already in the works. >> if we broaden it a bit, to say the role of ben carson will play or those in housing and education, it's clear he's doing something that i think a republican has needed to do for a long time. that's focus on some of these urban communities which have been really left behind. he's gone right in there and there's tremendous opportunity. i think substantial openness to

say, hey, we'll listen. more power to him. >> mark, thanks. governor, you'll stay with us. if i get you the handheld, will you try the mike drop? >> i'm happy to try. >> we never have those. >> you want to do the rest of the show? >> you know what's bad, you have to interview and you don't know what you're doing, you talk like this, and that's what i kept doing. i would be back here. >> we should do the whole show like that. >> coming up, the parade of business leaders continues in washington, d.c. up next, the ceo of cummings, and still to come after that the ceos of caterpillar, cisco, american airlines and more. house speaker paul ryan will join us live at 8:40 a.m. eastern time. "squawk" returns in a moment.

they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful.

. welcome back to "squawk box." we are coming to you live from the business roundtable in washington, d.c. the next guest makes the case that expanding trade is good for u.s. companies. let's bring in cummings chairman

tom linebarger, chair of the business roundtable's international engagement committee. the governor is also with us this morning. thank you for coming in. >> thank you very much. >> help us understand your view of free trade relative to the trump administration and what you think that means to you. >> we are clearly, as a ceo of a manufacturing company that's global, we are interested in selling to the 95 percent of the customers who are not in the u.s. it's almost that simple. we think we have terrific technology, effective work force. ways to compete in every country in the world if we can get a reasonably good access and left playing field. so we would like to -- even as mr. trump said, we would like to see fair trade. we thought free trade agreements is what helps get that started. they are not all perfect but they get us engaged. >> during the campaign, trump made some bold promises, if you

will. behind the scenes over the past month, have you had any conversations with folks that are a part of the transition team? there are some thoughts that he will ease off the pedal of some things he suggested. >> we have not. business roundtable is meeting today. we should get some feedback from the transition team. vice president-elect pence will talk to us. we hope to get some thinking about where they are on trade and helping to drive job growth and economic growth in indiana. >> tom's location in indiana has given him some access to mike pence. >> first, when vice president-elect pence was governor pence, he was clearly interested in free trade, same as a congressman. i think he'll be interested in expanding trade opportunities. the question about what's fair trade and free trade what does

that mean in today's economy, these are important questions. >> what was your reaction to the carrier deal? >> they're down the street. so i -- i know the company. i know the challenges they were facing. and i know what it meant for those workers. it was a tough situation. what we want is to make sure american businesses can be competitive. some things you were talking about earlier with mark and tax reform, some ways we can be more competitive. >> it was a relief that the factory wasn't moving to new mexico, right? >> it's not that simple. i think all of us want to compete globally so we can build opportunities. >> you might think twice now, right? >> would you think twice or raise your land and say hopefully i get a phone call and get a better deal. >> i think a lot of companies have been getting good deals. >> i think most ceos think twice

all the time. nobody thinks i can wait to move some jobs. >> could trade deals -- it's possible to negotiate better trade. it's possible to negotiate -- i know it takes longer to do individual trade deals, could it end up being better if you did the work and the due diligence individually than thinking one size fits all for nine, ten countries? is it impossible? >> we may see it, britain may have to negotiate dozens and dozens individual nation by nation treaties. >> we may have to, too. >> yes. i think to tom's point it's spot on. you can negotiate better deals. you can have better enforcement of the deals we have, too. that's been a bone of contention. >> you can certainly do more trying to protect intellectual property around the word, that's a huge challenge for companies. it's hard to be the leader in all these areas of technology

and then have it literally in short order being, let's say, taken advantage of. >> one thing about regional deals that are helpful, what you are looking for is rules to operate by. when you have a lot of different trade deals, that's a lot of different rules, and of course harder to enforce. it's already hard to enforce the ones we have. one nice thing about standardization of deals, you see an operating method that everyone can operate by. including the countries you're trading with. it's good to see an operapaul r it, you'll have a chance to talk about this, more members of congress need to get out around the world themselves. our ceos are on the road constantly. too many members of congress are not traveling enough to see what the competition is and what needs to be done and to really

understand firsthand what's going on. >> from a policy perspective, do you expect emissions standards to change? and how that will affect your company. >> i don't think they will. i think the emissions standards, they've been stuff. they've been implementing under the clear air act for 20 years and changed dramatically -- >> but with very aggressive targets. >> indeed. air emissions have changed a lot in the trucking industry, i don't see them changing those. those are largely enforce today. there's not much left to do it's had a dramatic impact on air in cities and across the u.s. the technologies that we developed and people like caterpillar, you can ask doug about it, we can now use to export and sell to other countries that are also implementing standards. while those regulations were challenging for us, they helped us build technology that helps us compete around the world. >> so tpp, i know how much you wanted it.

that's not happening. so what would you like to see happen there? does tax reform and deregulation, does that make it a little easier to swallow? could it offset what you think you're missing in tpp? >> let me say first that i am disappointed. it's gone for now. i think was an opportunity for u.s. businesses to compete and grow in southeast asia. i worry about what it means for china's recp coming in behind and striking deals. we were not obsessed with tpp as a deal, we want to open the u.s. markets to other countries. there could be bilateral trade deals, another version of the tpp. i would love to see some of the l elements we put in the tpp, made it a complete deal, i would love

to see those terms in some of our existing trade agreements. that could happen. i don't want to underestimate tax reform. it helps u.s. companies to be more competitive. when we're in a deal, we'll be more effective trading with other countries. coming up, global engineering and construction company that builds everything from power plants to roads and bridges. the ceo is here to talk with us. or a sales event? the season of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order

or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. find out how american express cards and services but they demand the best shopping experiences. they may want the latest products and services, they're your customers. and by blending physical with digital, cognizant is helping 8 of the 10 largest u.s. retailers meet their demands with more responsive retail models... ones that transcend channels and locations, anticipate expectations... creating new ways to engage at every imaginable touch-point. it's a new day in retail, and together, we're building the store of the future. digital works for retail. let's talk about how digital works for your business. this is my retirement. retiring retired tires. and i never get tired of it. are you entirely prepared to retire? plan your never tiring retiring retired tires retirement with e*trade. i'm in vests and as a vested investor in vests

i invest with e*trade, where investors can investigate and invest in vests... or not in vests. sign up at etrade.com and get up to six hundred dollars.

♪ >> welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. u.s. equity futures, we'll check them. not a lot -- they have gotten better. up 14 on the dow. s&p had been down, now up a third of a point. nasdaq up a half point.

and someone is watching the shares of wendy's forest. >> nelson peltz. >> are you watching them. >> i am watching them. >> he is trying to increase his stake in wendy's. he previously held a 15.6% stake in wendy's. >> when is the last time you were at a wendy's? >> are you joking? >> no are you a regular? >> yeah. to get the fries. >> better than mcdonald's? >> nope, just closer. but decent. decent. i might get a frosty, not anymore, or a salad. >> salad. >> i do. i'm not kidding. tmi. >> talking about the dow, it's up over 5% following the election of donald trump. joining us to discuss business in the future of that sector is

the ceo of flor corporation. infrastructure infrastructure infrastructure donald trump has talked about it would be the benefit of it. what do you think is on tap? >> it's one of the most important things that i think the new administration can focus on. when you think about economic prosperity, you need good solid infrastructure to support business. >> what type of infrastructure? if you could have his ear this afternoon, maybe you will, i don't know. you could tell him these are the five projects to go pursue. >> well, there's two answers there. some of these programs that will unleash the economy, some of it is airports, roads, bridges. the other piece of it is i think there's an eagerness to get these things going. there's no such thing as a shovel-ready project. i think the gestation period for some of these big programs will be something we have to manage.

in parallel there has to be a regulatory forum it allow these things to happen. >> like the guy in the reagan administration. >> yeah. >> the president, to his credit, president obama, kind of admitted that shovel ready was not ready last time around. >> that's right. >> because of regulation. you can get a czar in there immediately that looks at what needs to be done? >> i think you have to. i think a great example is what governor cuomo was able to do with the tappan zee bridge. he pushed that forward because he had the president's ear. the loan programs and things like that were enablers to that program going forward in a much more rapid form than most of these big prapograms. >> trump loves to build. >> he does get this. i think it's important. it works in other countries, companies, all over the world.

in the u.s., if you go to a governor, almost all the major states have a one-stop process. they could bring everybody in the state government and say here's theimetable, we have to meet these deadlines. in washington, you may have an obscure agency that nobody looked at and they're in the way. >> the other piece of that is it was the new york thruway, so only they had to do the permitting. >> the amount of time upgrading ports, airplanes, relative to building the wall. have you thought about that issue, in terms of the economics of that? >> when you look at building a wall versus building an addition to a port or bridge, you're creating the next generation work force in a much more technical manner in terms of building these truck programs.

>> it's going to be afen fence a lot of instances. >> will you bid on that work? >> sure. >> this is also something the president-elect talked about, to do all of this infrastructure work in america, we have to train millions. if we get busy, the work force needs to be expanded. >> they're not ready to go right now. >> that's a great point. when you look at what's happened with tech schools in america, we left some people behind. when you think about economic prosperity, middle class, if you're a journeyman welder for us in the gull ever coast of the united states, you're making six figures. high wage and opportunity for people. >> when you are dock government work that you finally get, i want you to come in on time and below costs -- >> you have to come in below budget. >> not for nothing. there might be a tweet headed

fluor's way. >> we just finished a denver program from stapleton to downtown, we were a billion dollars under budget and on time. this is before the twitter threats. >> and i drive on the hot lanes that flour built, and they were on time and under budget. >> how much do you do outside of the united states? >> about 65%. >> you care about a territorial tax system? >> absolutely. that's the key to unleashing -- >> how much money do you have abroad right now. >> probably -- not that much. not like these other guys. we work in all these tax jurisdictions, we're not benefited by necessarily parking money outside the u.s. >> do both of you gentlemen think we can do a private/public system that works? i hear a lot of times they don't work. >> both of those two examples i gave you, denver and -- >> can they go to work? >> denver and tappan zee are

public/private partnerships. >> i think it varies. david would take a broad view of infrastructure, we would here, infrastructure is everything -- it is roads and bridges, it's ports, it's the inland waterways. you're going to have international paper on, mark sutton, it's reforestation out west. that's an infrastructure of a different kind. we don't manage many of our assets. it's energy, efficiency and government buildings. >> but also being thoughtful in terms of other aspects of infrastructure when you build some of these things. pipe lines, that's infrastructure. if you're going to do that, there ought to be fiberoptics going along at the same time. >> what is the gestation period in terms of the shovel-ready piece of it? how long does it take to begin -- now you're working in earnest because i have driven over the ptappan zee bridge? how long did that take in

design? >> from idea to approval was three years which is really fast. if you look at denver project from design to ribbon cutting, it was almost a decade. >> will the president-elect have to walk a line between insisting on domestic steel, insisting on u.s. workers, the wage contracts that some kay makes it difficult to be competitive? >> i think it's a balance. the tappan zee bridge is by america. it's more expensive but it is what it is. >> you have to hire certain union guys? >> it's a union job. >> union job. >> when you say expensive, how much more expensive? >> i wouldn't want to venture a number. >> 10% premium or 30%, 40%? >> in the case of some of them, it's the difference between getting approve and not

approved. you think i want to buy america, if buying something else allows the project to go forward because of the price differential, look at the economic benefit of that project going forward and the jobs that will take place there that wouldn't take place if you had a certain stipulation on a material. >> all of this factors into the nation's productivity which has been pretty flat. the opportunity to get a number of these investments launched and completed is hugely important down the road. >> david, thank you. >> all about jobs. >> did you used to work out on bridges? you're -- couldn't be like -- couldn't be like sir martin being here -- >> when you're driving across the tappan zee, you look up and see guys hanging by wires. >> you have to have the salad at wendy's like you. could not visit your job sites. i couldn't. i can't. i won't. >> he has a -- >> the elevator here with the glass -- >> yes. >> i didn't even like that.

>> come go with me. >> no. no. i'm afraid. can i wear a line? >> sure. >> do you do that? >> absolutely. >> a helmet? >> absolutely. >> we're bringing a camera for that. >> safety is number one. >> looking out at the tappan zee, when i saw a crane on top of the thing, people walking around on scaffolding. >> it's a special industry to be a part of. >> everything would be two stories if we were in charge, maybe one story. thank you. >> ranch house. >> that's right. >> coming up, the top stories. why the maker of the snuggy is suing amazon. then caterpillar ceo doug oberhelman joins us.

>> welcome back to "squawk box." time for the executive edge. apple and square have announced a fnew partnership. customers will be able to use money stored on square's virtual card to make payments using apple pay.

jack dorsey says the goal is to give consumers better and more secure options than debit and credit cards. >> people just want a more modern interface to their finances. something that is simple and straightforward and modern really wins. >> dorsey says many people hate the new chip cards, mainly because of how long it takes merchants to process transactions. you have had this problem yet? you put the card in, you have to wait. seems like you have to wait forever. >> a lot of places have the thing blocked off so you still have to do the sweep. the cards are confusing. the chip looks like it's on -- they got like a fake chip. i always put that side in. then they say no, not that side. then i put the other one in, it takes about 15 seconds. >> maybe this will solve the problem. if you get yourself an apple watch you'll go bing. >> you're not doing that. >> not yet. coming up, how will american manufacturing change under the trump administration? we'll ask caterpillar's ceo doug

oberhelman. he will join us next. at 8:40 a.m. eastern, house peeker paul ryan will be here to talk about the policy priorities for president trump's first 100 day there's office. he'll be here with us on set. "squawk box" coming right back. this car is traveling over 200 miles per hour. to win, every millisecond matters. both on the track and thousands of miles away. with the help of at&t, red bull racing can share critical information about every inch of the car from virtually anywhere. brakes are getting warm. confirmed, daniel you need to cool your brakes. understood, brake bias back 2 clicks. giving them the agility to have speed & precision. because no one knows & like at&t.

. in the business roundtable fourth quarter economic outlook survey, they on how ceos view president-elect trump, business round table chairman doug oberhelm oberhelman. still with us, governor john engler. you know what i have up? i have a caterpillar chart. do you know what you've done in 2016? >> we're doing pretty well. >> up 50%. >> nice round number. >> i also notice a slight upward trend since november 8th. you work as hard as you can every quarter. >> it's that simple, joe. here it comes. there is some truth to that actually. and actually what we've talked about -- we talked about this a

little bit. there's an optimism out there that helps people. and everybody wants to be optimistic about the future. short lived or not. it's been fun to watch. >> people out there are doing a drinking game with animal spirits and they take a drink every time we say animal spirits. there's a reason we say it so much. because how else do you explain what we've seen in stocks like yours since the election? how else would you explain it? >> you start out with the fact the economy isn't dead. it's a 2% economy. we surveyed yesterday, our ceos say gdp of 2%. and we start from there. but we all know and all of us know that in business there's just a few things that we could do that we ought to get out of -- and you've been talking about them for an hour. give us a number to take that number one. >> this is like your dream, the things we talk about with president-elect trump. infrastructure, tax reform, and deregulation.

it's like you've been a broken record. >> we have been on that. and our ceos again in the survey, five years in a row, we do it once a year in december. we ask what's the biggest cost you're facing. regulation. health care. stuff we've been talking about. we need to get some out of the way. >> everything that you're in you can connect the dots from, you know -- no one knows what president-elect trump is going to do, obviously, but if you just sort of think about it. mining, oil, oil and gas, infrastructure, you're in a pretty sweet spot. how were you feeling november 7th? >> i went to bed after 10:00 after i saw the wave come. my wife woke me up and said it's over. i said is that right? of course the stock market was down. >> for a millisecond. >> i thought here we go. then the next day, away we went. again, i think every new administration comes in with some degree of optimism. we've seen it almost every time.

everybody's hopeful something can get done. this is the first time we've had a pro-business government, all three branches, and i still can't believe this. i haven't looked it up. since 1928. >> with the state legislatures and everything else. >> no, house, senate, presidency. not to mention the states. and that is worth something for some degree -- >> everything's got to go right subpoena. >> that's right. >> there may be some more in there than is real. having said that, we've got some things we've got to do. we talked about tax reform top of the list. we think the government's ready to go on that. we're ready to go on that. all the ceos and all businesses can look at some degree of simplification to help. >> we've got the building trades coming in this morning, some of the leaders to meet with some of our members to talk about infrastructure. we think there's an opportunity to work across the aisle on that

issue. the president's agenda is there. we tell people get the white board out. many say can't consider that, not this time. now let's look anew. how do you get this country really competitive. you know, 1.5% gdp up to 3.5%. why not 4%? we can get there. >> you think that's realistic? in the next how many years? >> i think in the near term. i think give us a year. >> you think a year you get to 3%? >> we had 3% supposedly in the last quarter. and so there's a launch pad from there without some of the structural things. everybody knows government's being structurally reformed in some way. we get just half of those, we ought to be able to push this forward. >> we have plenty of economists that were dead wrong. i don't know how much faith we put in them. but they're saying two quarters of fiscal blowout, you know, feeling good about it. and then interest rates rise and, you know, it rises to the point where you're back to the

doldrums. >> joe, same pundits all the way through. >> yeah. same ones. they're still not shy. it's amazing. >> if you look at the world economy today, it's progressed. it's a little bit stronger. china's stronger. brazil's coming out of -- >> you're walking around here, doug, and we ask you this question. you have all these great things happening. how about getting called out on moving a -- you know, a plant to another country? how about getting called out on cost overruns and maybe we want you to make money just not too much money. what about the things like that? >> nobody wants called out on front page news. >> but did that cast -- you guys were probably in a good mood. when that happened yesterday, did it take it down a notch? >> nobody wants called out on headline news, but having said that, everybody knows government overspends on things. we've been through this for years. there's efficiencies in government we can get. i like the fact that we're talking about job creation and

keeping jobs here. will it change our behavior? yeah, we'll think about it. but with that we need some policy reform like tax reform. and the other things we're talking about. we get that, we create jobs. look, nobody wants to give up an american job. not one ceo. we want to make it easier. >> i guess we got to -- oh, it's the same down here. we never have enough time. but doug, thank you. >> thank you. >> hope to see you again. the new guy knows he's supposed to come on just "squawk box" right? >> he knows. >> no other network. not even another show on this network. if possible. and thank you, governor engler. what's wrong? >> love you. >> thanks for being here. we love having you at the round table. coming up when we return, find out how the business community is preparing for the administration. cisco's ceo chuck robbins is going to join us after the break. still to come, ceos of american airlines, dow chemical, u.p.s.,

and paul ryan 37 is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you don't. you partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. morgan stanley.

sometino big deal.shing my gums bleed. but my hygienist said, it is a big deal. go pro with crest pro health gum protection. it helps prevent gum bleeding by targeting harmful bacteria on your gums. left untreated, these symptoms could lead to more serious problems including tooth loss. gum crisis averted.

. business and the beltway collide. and "squawk box" is right there. we're in the nation's capital this morning talking to the leaders of some of the biggest and most important companies in america and the business round table gets ready to convene. in this hour, the ceo of tech giant cisco talks tech under trump. plus how does american airlines feel about donald trump slamming boeing? and will the spotlight turn to the skies during his presidency? we'll ask ceo doug parker. we'll also hear from dow chemical and international paper as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. beautiful shot. i'm joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin. we're live in our nation's capital this morning. talking to members of the business round table and the nation's lawmakers as well. in this hour -- no way. chuck robbins is here? i'll have to wait to see that. chuck robbins of cisco is here. >> actually right here. >> great to have you, sir. >> international paper ceo mark sutton and many more throughout the show. it's all leading up to our interview of the morning. these are all -- the ceos are great too. but we also have this guy. house speaker paul ryan at 8:40 a.m. for an extended interview. it should be plenty of -- given the developments of the last 48 hours and the last three or four months, it'll be really interesting to talk to speaker

ryan. the futures at this hour, positive again which is interesting in its own right for as many days where we come in here. at least the dow now. we had been positive across the board. flat on the s&p and the nasdaq. up about eight points on the industrial. let's tell you what's making headlines at this hour. how popular will a $10 cup of coffee be? more on that when starbucks holds its investors meeting on reserve brand stores. howard shultz will be stepping down as ceo in april to focus on that effort. we talked about it last week with shultz. pfizer has been hit with a $107 million fine in the wake of the epilepsy drug as much as 2600%. it's going to be appealing and points out its price was 25% to

45% less than a drug from another supplier. and mastercard dividend hike increased. the company also announcing a stock repurchase program of up to $4 billion. >> not much of a yielder, it doesn't look like. shares of sovt bank surging after hours. following president-elect trump's announcement that the japanese telecom giant would invest $50 billion in business and job creation in this country in the united states. trump making the announcement alongside softbank ceo in new york yesterday. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is masa of softbank from japan and he's just agreed to invest $50 billion in the united states and 50,000 jobs. and he's one of the great men of industry, so i just want to thank you very much. >> thank you. >> i mean, andrew, i know the traffic's bad, but isn't it kind

of cool that these guys come and they're in trump tower and they got these gold lined elevators and, you know, he hops on his plane and goes on the victory tour. i mean, this has never been -- it's a little bit surreal, isn't it? >> yeah. you don't see ceos do this in the lobby and just making announcements. >> in the trump tower lobby of president-elect trump though. let's go to my golf course next. i'll take you out. maybe take president obama. he'd like that. anyway, softbank has a majority stake in sprint which also saw its shares rise after the announcement. reports that the $50 billion will come from a previously announced -- >> little context. >> from a previously announced $100 billion investment. >> while i hope they will create 50,000 jobs, i think that's going to be a hard promise to keep only because if you spend $50 billion in tech land and we have a tech ceo on in just a minute, sometimes as we know with instagram and other things,

that it can only take a couple of employees to create huge value. >> don't rain on our parade. negative nay bob of negativity. >> just context on the deal. another deal, though, that's got a lot of people's attention today, at&t and time warner going to be pitching the benefits of their $85 billion merger to a senate antitrust subcommittee today. president-elect trump said he would block that merge saying it would be the concentration of power in the hands of too few. ceos will testify before the senate panel today. according to to prepared text, stevenson is going to be saying it will disrupt the longest established cable tv model saying, quote, it would be a gross mistake to view this as anything but pro-competitive. senator mike lee joining us at 8:15 eastern time to preview that. also there's been some sense that privately according to some reports the administration may

be more positive about this. >> i was going to say this is what you do. make calls to find out. you don't even have to make calls. you can just read it in e the articles being written. look at the people they're going to be appointed by president-elect trump. and they don't look like the same people that have been in those agencies before with net neutrality and everything else. and then, you know, you look at even the way the -- even the trump administration itself says we're going to let the normal course of action run its course with regulators. and there's now a feeling, i think, when you say it's better than 50/50 that goes through. it's probably more like 70% that it goes through. >> did we show the stock? time warner's now up. >> did you see -- i love this guy now. did you see what bucas said yesterday? >> about the first amendment and democrats being against the first amendment. >> i knew you'd love that. the citizens united argument he

was making. >> what a great ceo. >> we have so much to -- >> you're trying to get off the subject quick. what a great ceo. has he not done a phenomenal job at time warner? >> he's done a wonderful job. >> what a guy. anyway. okay. let's talk about this and a lot more. president-elect trump inviting technology leaders to a round table in new york next week. among those titans will be chuck robbins ceo of cisco systems. we're glad to have him on now. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> let me ask you this given you are a valley guy of sorts. and the valley -- >> van nuys? you don't mean like a valley girl? >> no. >> you mean silicon valley. >> yes. >> okay. sorry. >> i wanted clarification, thanks, joe. >> you know where much of the technology industry has been relative to donald trump. and so i'm curious, who make this call to you to say come on

over. was that an easy decision to say yes, i'm coming? >> yes, it was an easy decision. first of all, we're looking forward to having the discussion. there are clearly lots of issues that are important to the tech industry. and i think they have a lot to add relative to driving u.s. economic growth, driving global growth. of interest to us. and the other thing we're particularly interested in is, you know, we have been working with countries around the world on how this technology transition that's occurring can change gdp growth, change how they deliver health care, education, et cetera. we also would like to start a discussion with president-elect about how to drive a cohesive agenda for the united states. >> i want to read you -- if i can find this. i don't know if i'm going to find it in time. but there was a quote last night

that came from chris saka who said basically that nobody in the techland should be taking this meeting. and that if you were taking it, that you should be going to give hame hard time. >> well, you know, regardless of your political beliefs through the election cycle, you know, the democratic process is complete and we have a president-elect. his name is donald trump. and he's pro-business. everything he is talking about is about trying to drive the u.s. economy. i think he's also balanced in order for us to have a strong u.s. economy, we have to have a strong global economy. we want to be part of the discussion. >> totally different. the old tech and new tech. you know, you're talking about the -- >> let me ask you -- >> you're not calling me old are you? >> i want to ask a repatriation question. >> then i want to ask about cisco. go ahead. >> you have about $60 billion-plus abroad? >> yes. >> if you were able to repatriate that money, what would you do with the money? >> we talked about it in our last earnings call.

as you would expect, you know, we remain to our capital strategy. they do dividends buybacks as well as m&a activity. >> in the context of creating jobs, would it ultimately create jobs for cisco? >> i think it would. maybe not necessarily for cisco. i think it would for cisco. but it'll also create jobs beyond that. i think any time you -- if you think about the fact that we come back if we were to increase our dividend and that flows through to mutual funds which flows through and makes people feel better about their income. the amount of money that would come back that flow through in that way or companies on capital expansion, i think all that is good for business. >> chuck, anybody that's filed cisco for years nose that during a quarter by quarter analysis of how things are going doesn't work that well. because it's very lumpy, the years. network service providers have their own concerns on when they've closed the deals.

the last report, there was some disappointment in terms of the forecast through i think the current quarter. you mentioned about five or six things that network service providers were dealing with that were causing them not to be as aggressive. from what you've heard about all these things that president-elect trump is going to do, how many of those five or six things could be addressed by some of these things that, like, an answer for tax reform or deregulation or even infrastructure? i mean, because cisco will benefit from infrastructure too. we've got to update all the systems, right? >> i think a lot of those issues are related to uncertainty. we all know when there's uncertainties, companies don't spin. the more clarity we have which is another reason i'm excited about this session next week. we can begin to get some clarity. i think those customers as they have clarity on regulatory issues, some currency issues that may not be resolved in the

near term, but clearly those are going to help us. i'm glad you brought up the point of infrastructure, joe. because as we talk about infrastructure in the united states, it's not only, you know, hard infrastructure which we all absolutely believe we need. you know, bridges, better roads, et cetera. but we need that infrastructure to be smart and we need digital infrastructure in this country. >> where do you land on the at&t/time warner transaction? you're a big supplier to at&t. >> yeah. well, they're both great customers. and, you know, it's a -- i think first of all it's continued consolidation you'll see across the board. and i'll let the regulators determine how they feel about the competitive nature of it, but i think what it is representative of is just the complete understanding that networks are being dominated by video traffic. and content is incredibly important to carriers like at&t. and i think that it's -- >> where does cisco stand on net

neutrality? >> what we've always said is we believe you need a fair policy that isn't restrictive on, you know, traffic that allows traffic to flow. but also gives the opportunity to deliver premium services and/or mission critical services. if we get to a place where we're doing a good job delivering health care over the internet, i think we'd want to prioritize. >> what would be better for your business though? >> i think an open internet that allows companies to invest. so one that protects the investments and allows companies to build businesses off of it, but also doesn't impede the free transmission of information. >> okay. chuck, thank you for coming in. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> visit us in new york next time you're in town. >> thanks. >> i've got more to say. >> i've got more to say. >> stay here. >> all right. >> we got to go and we're going to go. but i think that new tech run by all these guys that are probably

in their late 20s, mid-20s, it's the social issues that i think -- either that or they like the cronyism. the government cronyism. when eric schmidt can go on with a hillary button and and get past the ropes. because just purely on business, on unleashing the private sector, it shouldn't have been hard to pick. should it? >> well, you know, my view is simple. i have -- >> you see what i'm saying? >> putting him in a tough place though. >> okay. but the guys with the man buns and everything that are doing these new start-ups and stuff, they're the ones more -- they're more worried about being offended than being affected. that's what we were talking about earlier. right? >> i have employees that fall on both sides of this thing. i've got customers on both sides of this thing. >> you're walking a fine line. >> what i have to care about are the policy issues that are important to our customers. >> right. >> that's what i have to care about. >> right.

and they're out there wringing their hands. california's going to secede or maybe it's going to be the republic of silicon valley or something. you didn't mean van nuys, you weren't talking about reseda? okay. now we're going to go. let's check on the markets at this hour. >> thank you, chuck. >> thanks. >> the futures up four. it's mixed. down in the s&p and nasdaq. "squawk box" live from where we are down here in d.c. the nation's capital. we're coming right back. coming up, the ceo of international paper talks government relations and the global business environment. mark sutton is our special guest right after the break. this is where i trade andrs. manage my portfolio. since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets.

okay. i'm plugged into equities- trade confirmed- and i have global access 24/7. meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. visit learnfuturestoday.com to see what adding futures can do for you. they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful.

international paper recently completing its $2.2 billion acquisition and a big bet on rising global demand for paper products here in the u.s. stock is up more than 35% year to date. joining us now with his business expectation under the incoming trump administration, mark sutton international paper ceo. thanks for being here.

couple of economic indicators we fall back on. yours is one of the best, obviously. if you do anything, it's going to involve packaging or sending something in a container somewhere. the other one is i-75, the number of trucks on this interstate in cincinnati. already are you seeing at least -- here we go. animal spirits again. it's different since november 8th, isn't it? >> we were just talking about that. the corrugated box is part of every supply chain at some point in its life. we started to see a pickup in the third quarter. . you look at the gdp number, it was the consumer part of gdp that drove it. box demand is directly correlated to consumer behavior. and of course the transportation index indicates obviously products are moving. so we have seen it pick up the second half of the year is much stronger in packaging demand. >> you've seen the latest narrative. and that is that the president is handing off a very strong economy to president-elect

trump. and a lot of things where all the ducks are already in a row for us to get to 3%. >> i've seen it. not necessarily unfair one. >> is there something to that? or already are you sort of seeing a thawing of maybe some of the headwinds that we've had for the past eight years? or perceived there will be a thawing with taxes and regulation? >> there's hope there will be more engagement on regulatory issues and tax than we've had recently. but i wouldn't call it very strong. 2% -- >> that was andrew's. >> we would have much more demand. >> it would be great. you don't even have to do infrastructure. just need better economy. >> we need our products to get to market efficiently. >> if you had a better economy it would be -- >> it would be an immediate flow through to our company. that's where we would add capacity where we needed it for

jobs. we've got a great business and it really depends on the health of the consumer in the u.s. where most of our business is, but also globally. >> whereas all your plants here, how many here and abroad? >> we have several in the u.s. we have converting factories. then we have a hundred or so overseas. a lot of our products are really made and consumed in the same region. because the drive is access to the fiber. >> what if it wasn't clear it was going to be consumed over there but it's the labor. would you think about it? >> access to the renewable natural resource is really the driver. so that's really how we make our decisions. where we put our factories tends to be where you have the advantage on the raw materials. >> we're looking for ceos that in the last week have not holy moly with some of the tweets and things that happened.

did you see a couple of them and go, wow, this might be a different world that ceos are living in from here on out? >> i think it could be depending on your business. >> good thing or bad thing? could this be something that -- should the bully pulpit be used for shaming businesses with cost overruns or moving -- >> i don't think anybody wants to be shamed. but as leader of a public company, what you want to do is what's right for the long-term benefit of your stake holders. your employees, shareholders, community ifs you're in a business like ours with a big footprint. >> now pr is part of the calculation. that never was. >> i think it always was. it's always part of what you think about. other guests said it's never just a math decision. i think it really does depend on what your business model is. look, if it created a dialogue, if taxes were your problem and that's why you made some decisions and that created dialogue, then i think maybe it could be for the good. >> maybe we'll use the carrot and it won't be the stick, andrew. maybe when it comes down to it -- >> carrot or the tweet.

it's a stick. >> maybe there won't be 35% tariffs. maybe there will be a reason to stay. >> you can't let him off -- >> help me. >> we were talking about product. >> yeah. >> he's doing a water proof box. >> i don't believe it. >> we are. and it does work in certain applications. for some customers -- >> what's it made out of? >> it's made out of wood fiber with some special coatings. it's recyclable. we do a lot of -- >> who are you selling the box to right now? >> it's certain customers. i don't want to name the customers. but we did some proprietary development with some customers. it gives them an edge in their supply chain. but the corrugated box is an interesting product. it gets commerce moving whether it's your online shipment that shows up. >> they're like origami. you get them, they're flat. i never get it together. >> think how many times the boxes get soaked outside. >> i know. and then it's wet and heavy.

>> you have a doorman. you don't know about those. >> right. >> we've got a lot more -- thank you for coming in this morning. we've got more from the round table when "squawk box" returns in a moment. plus jack dorsey on donald trump's tweeting. "squawk box" returns in just a moment. hey steve check out this guys leg. yeah looks like a real nasty moving back in with his parents. what? no. i just broke my leg. no, this is a full blown move in to the basement, you're gonna be out of work without that money from... aflac! you might miss your rent. aww i just moved out. bummer man. hey i used to have my own place. yeah? no, no i live with my mom, but it's cool. health can change but the life you love doesn't have to, keep your lifestyle healthy with... aflac!

okay, so you launched your bank's app. now what? how will you keep up with the new demands of today's digital economy? the fact is: some believe they won't need a traditional bank down the road, so at cognizant, we're helping banking and financial services companies think digital, be untraditional, and reimagine what the bank of the future can be. our clients can now leverage customer intelligence to predict their financial needs and provide more contextualized products and services. we're creating new platforms across channels so customers can effortlessly invest, borrow, lend, transact-wherever-whenever they choose. and we're digitizing the way banks run, driving efficiencies and delivering new value for their customers in return. digital works for banking and financial services. lets talk about how digital works for your business. ♪

♪ well, if you want to sing out, sing out ♪ ♪ and if you want to be free, be free ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to be ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ and if you want to be me, be me ♪ ♪ and if you want to be you, be you ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to do ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪

welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. among the stories that are front and center at this hour, mortgage applications falling 0.7% last week. that's according to new figures from the mortgage bankers association. the drop coming as the average 30-year mortgage rate rises to 2.47%. that's the highest since october of 2014. also a group of high-profile ceos are filing a pledge today to speed the rise of women up the corporate ladder. includes ceos of linkedin among others. also a read on the labor department later this morning. the jolts report.

measure of jobs opportunity and labor turnover that comes out at 10:00 eastern time. look at this. jack dorsey saying president-elect trump is adept to using the social media platform to communicate to his audience when speaking at the code commerce conference last night. dorsey said twit ser not responsible for trump's election. >> having the president-elect on our service using it as a direct line of communication allows everyone to see what's on his mind in the moment. and i think that's interesting. i think it's fascinating. i haven't seen that before. >> yeah. >> so we're definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in realtime and we can have conversations about it. so where does that go? i'm not really sure. but it's definitely been fascinating to learn from. >> when asked directly about how he feels about the whole situation, dorsey said, quote, it's complicated. they got to figure out a way to

monetize president-elect trump's -- >> it's annoying to me that you wouldn't probably say, yeah, twitter is now a big part of democratizing information in this country and getting around. you know, you can go around what may be perceived as an unfair press and embrace it. i guarantee if hillary clinton had become president and twitter was partly responsible for her being elected, he would have been saying it loud and proud. which is part of the annoying -- >> you think it's been politicized. >> yes. and they may eventually -- they've said we're ready to block people that has language that we feel is offensive. i wouldn't put it past them to see something that trump -- for something for him to say in the future they find so offensive that they block him. i don't know if they can block the president-elect's account. they could. >> for democratizing certain things in the middle east and elsewhere over the years -- >> i know. but here, you know, honestly

he's probably getting flack from the same guys talking about out in the valley, probably getting flack for electing a dictator. really. i have seen that bandied about now. i think that brian stelter whatever his name is from tv. saying he's a dictator. he needs to be called what he is. >> cnn guy. > joining us right now ceo and chairman of the dow chemical company. great to have you with us. great parade of ceos coming in. biggest single issue for dow chemical with this new administration would be what? >> positive sense, regulatory activity in the country of the last seven years has been burdensome and onerous. i cheered the smart regulatory

committee for the last seven years or so. it was a goal of our company. i think getting early consultation with who you're regulating and doing it in a business sense, what makes sense in the affordability model what makes sense, that is the number one issue for not just the brt but the dow. frankly it's the cost of doing business in this country and we need to get competitive across the world. >> what has been difficult for dow in particular? >> you can't go far going to epa and greenhouse gas, the ozone rules, the utility restrictions we have on renushl standards. this is all increasing the cost of production. look, these things over time have to be addressed, but rather than using clean air act to regulate us, let's get a better act, get a better regulation in place. i don't think any of us are against regulations. we're for smart regulations. i think that is the number one issue. if you want to tumble through them, tax reform is the other.

and of course in our case, trade as well. >> well, that's -- >> co2 is a pollutant according to the epa. you're blowing out 40 parts per million talking. it's essential for our planet. that's an absurdity that it has been classified as a pollutant. and that was all done in the last -- that may be -- that may not be here for long. >> just wedging in something into a current regulation makes no sense because the regulation was for some other. >> we had had the soda stream ceo on, i said you're putting pollution into your drinks. he almost fainted on set. no, no, no. that's how ludicrous it is. >> we will save the climate conversation for another day. but let's have a conversation just about tax reform. which is to suggest what do you think the rate can be? i know that trump has suggested

the corporate rate could come down to 15%. others here in washington have talked about it being 25%. we're going to have paul ryan on in a little bit. others say it could land at 22%. >> look, 25% is where you can find the pay force. revenue neutral, closing the loopholes. if you could have the pattern as well and do it one time and pay for some infrastructure, that was a intensable plan. other countries have may be a stretch. let's go for it. i think competitiveness is what this administration is all about. i'm obviously for american competitiveness. and having international tax reform to compete nationally. these are the things we've been talking about for seven years. can address the deficit as well. >> before we had you on, we were

tauk jack dorsey and twitter. i'm curious. in terms of your daily reading now, are you on twitter looking to see what the president's saying -- president-elect is saying? >> i'm not on twitter, but i would tell you i see what's on twitter. i'm very plugged in. i get the google alerts, i get everything. i'm as plugged in as anyone today. i think we're all addicted to modern ways to communicate. how to use it versus abuse it is a whole new art form, right? i think that's what jack dorsey was saying. >> so you've been asking for all these things for years and years. are you optimistic and excited about the business -- the possible business environment? >> i am excited. i really do think, you know, if you're in business as i am obviously, this is all about leverage. if you have the largest market in the world, you have a lot of leverage. so market access whether it's trade, tax reform, we could get this gdp up to 4% which is what

the president-elect is talking about, that's going to do a lot. you're talking about job creation of the right kind, for the modern economy, growth forgives a lot. growth forgives a lot. i know you don't like the climate change discussion. >> i like clean air. i do. >> but staying with the point, yes. this is a business engagement that's a fresh and renewed and reset. i was equally positive about the previous administration. why? i'm going to global. i'm pro-usa. i created a lot of jobs in this country and around the world. >> equally excited about the previous administration? >> i was excited about the previous administration. i wouldn't say equally. i would say i'm a business person and i'm positive about what's going on right now. >> thank you, andrew. >> not at all. >> great to see you. >> he's got a great name too. >> i'll take that. another check on the markets. hopefully they're going to move at some point.

but there they are. taking another check at the markets, they're unchanged. we'll have more "squawk box" live when the -- from the nation's capital when we return. still to come on this special edition of "squawk box," the ceos of american airlines, u.p.s., and easton chemical. the biggest leaders in business talk the trump transition and beyond. and then a very special interview with house speaker paul ryan. it's all coming up as "squawk box" live from the nation's capital continues right here on cnbc.

♪ it's been over 100 years since the first stock index was created, as a benchmark for average. yet a lot of people still build portfolios with strategies that just track the benchmarks. but investing isn't about achieving average. it's about achieving goals. and invesco believes doing that today requires the art and expertise of high-conviction investing. translation? why invest in average? why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis

and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

all morning long we've been talking to ceos about issues that matter most in washington and how the incoming trump administration could impact business. and joining us now doug parker ceo of american airlines. a lot has been hang. i mean, the buffett thing. have you been on since then? for him to come around and realize business might be good. can we call it in? >> and the airline business might be good in particular. >> that's what i'm -- >> you said business might be good.

>> he's with american airlines. he knew what i meant. >> i would have gotten it. >> buffett bought airlines after saying things about them for years and years that he would never do it again after u.s. air. so that 20-year period where no one made any money, that's gone. that's done. it's never going to happen again. >> we've been saying this for awhile. i think the investment is good for that. the reality is we didn't deserve shareholders like that in the business we had before. you know, you couldn't get long-term investors in the long-term business when we weren't sure we were going to be around for the long-term. as we been saying for some time now, this is a whole new business. we certainly are thinking long-term. we're thinking about our people and customers in the long-term. and where we're going to be. and seeing shareholders such as that. but others coming in that are

really looking at the business as a long-term investment. >> it's amazing. >> yeah. >> but not going to channel you, but this is the million-dollar question is if it's good for shareholders, is it a zero sum game and it's necessarily bad for consumers? at this point do you have too much clout to where you're able to have certain routes where there's not enough competition and you're able to make more money than you're supposed to, if you will? >> of course not. the old business wasn't good for consumers. it may have felt good at times because fares were so low that none could make profits. that's not good. you couldn't count on your airline being there. you didn't have one airline that could take you around the world like american and a couple of others now can. this was all about getting the industry from going from dysfunctional to functional. that doesn't mean it's bad for consumers. indeed, i think it's much, much better. consumers have tremendous choice in the airline business. intensely competitive.

but you also know your airline is going to be there. our employees know that they have continued employment and they're part of growing companies that could pay them what they should have been paid all along. since the merger we've raised by 30% on average. >> that's good. >> it is good. >> where do you think donald trump stands -- >> i have a better way of asking him some of this stuff too. >> okay. >> go ahead. >> what was the first question? >> where do you think donald trump stands on the airline business and airline competition given some of the type of comments he's made on the campaign trail? >> i'm not certain. i don't know. what i know is we've got a business that's incredibly important to the american economy. and i think anyone that cares about the american economy should be supportive of the u.s. airline business. we drive commerce. we get people around the country, around the world to drive commerce and to see the world. >> next time drive to disney world. >> what would you pay for air

force one? really. seriously. >> see, i've -- this is the way i wanted to ask the question. >> go for it. >> are there times when you'd like to call boeing and say are you kidding me? $90 million for this thing and it's over -- do you wish you could do that? do you wish you could cancel an order or threaten to cancel an order? >> we have a great relationship with boeing, but donald trump's not the first person that complained about their prices. i can tell you that. >> it's different for the government too because no one cares. $4 billion, used to be $3 billion, now it's $4 billion who cares we'll raise taxes. >> i just see that as someone trying to save money for the u.s. government and negotiate a price. just like we do all the time. >> but you might do something that he decides he doesn't like in terms of what you think is the normal course of doing business. is there something to worry about for ceos? >> i don't know.

we do what's right. we will continue to do what's right for the people and our customers and not what others think about it. we know how to run our business. we have a fantastic team of people. >> you know how much a plane should cost. really -- i want to know how much the plane should cost. >> i have no idea how much air force one should cost because we don't spect our airplanes to those standards. i honestly don't know. all the security on the plane, what it should cost. >> do we need -- you want to take the air traffic controllers out of the government, right? and privatize them. you want to do that. why does delta not want to do that? >> first of all, we don't want to privatize. i think making it for profit could be bad for the industry. what we are looking to do is change the governance. the problem with today's system with the air traffic control system is the governance process that they have to live by which

is going back to congress every year. when you're trying to build long-term capital plans. it doesn't work well. >> if things have been going so well in terms of safety for the most part with u.s. -- but i figure you can do something with delays or on time arrivals. because this is an antiquated -- this is the same system we've been using for years and years and years. >> i don't know. they're the only airline. >> guys seem to collude on everything else. >> we're competitive. and, look. i think there's a competitive reason. i think they have one large hub in atlanta, georgia, that works really well. and it's to their benefit to keep the rest of us with some delays. >> doug, we love spending time with you. >> you don't know who he is? >> i love american airlines. you know that. >> i know that. >> and delta too. i'm equal opportunist.

>> tweet me any time. coming up, senior adviser to the trump transition team, kellyanne conway is going to be our special guest. she's going to join us in a moment. then the next hour, you don't want to miss this. house speaker paul ryan for extended interview. "squawk box" will return. is happening before our eyes. sixty to seventy million people are moving to cities every year. at pgim we help investors see the implications of long term megatrends like the prime time of urban expansion, pinpointing opportunities to capture alpha in real estate, infrastructure and emerging markets. partner with pgim the global investment management businesses of prudential. can r

. all right. "time" announcing its person of the year. donald trump. he appeared moments after the announcement. joining us now kellyanne conway senior adviser to the trump transition. we had a discussion. i'm trying to figure out -- you can't even find a close second, i don't think. >> no. >> a global second and it's not always they made the point that there's no saying that it's good or bad or otherwise. it's just, i guess influential or whatever it is. >> this year it's phenomenal. because what donald trump was able to do is remarkable and historic. >> who would be number two? we don't want to talk about number two, but i can't think of a close second. andrew suggested elizabeth warren. >> i did not. >> for not running? for not having the guts to run against hillary? no, the second one would have been -- >> where's matt -- >> the second one would have been kellyanne conway. come on, people. >> he was on the "today" show. i think we just heard -- got back, mitt romney is still in

the running. >> it's been an expanded field. i think at one point he was probably the prohibitive favorite. but the list has expanded. we got about eight people under consideration. it's an important job. you can't rush it. at this point in president-elect obama's term, he wasn't even close to coming to big decisions like that. i think his first appointment was four weeks in. it was tim geithner. >> it was quite a while. we go onto twitter. got to get to twitter. are you -- i mean, we saw twitter during the campaign. some of the tweets. there's not -- i don't think anyone's taking the eighty to tweet pay way from the president-elect. >> well -- >> it's gotten even more interesting. >> that's one word. so president-elect trump sees that he has this massive online platform. about 35 million. we talked about this frequently. talked about it yesterday morning, in fact. he sees an opportunity to communicate right to people by cutting through the noise, the

silence whatever the case may be through the social media platforms. but you see through tweets now he can affect industry. he affected the stock market yesterday, frankly. and he did it twice. he did it in two different ways. first by telling boeing to cancel the project or maybe put it on hold. he thinks it's too expensive, it goes against his platform of cutting waste and abuse. and their stocks went down 1.5% yesterday. secondly went down to the trump tower lobby and announced the $50 billion investment by softbank. >> shouldn't he have just called boeing himself? >> maybe he did. >> did he separately? >> they've talked previously. but this is just a news report you saw or a briefing he received. >> okay. initially with the $4 billion people say that's not the price. let's say he doesn't check with

you and the people and doesn't have the right number and the stock goes down 5% or 10%. is that something that -- i mean, there would have to be damage control done if that happened. markets moved. will you be sure everything he tweets is absolutely accurate? if he's doing it all on his own, people think, wow, something crazy could happen in the stock market. >> but let's be fair to the president-elect and let's be very clear here. that he's the president of the united states. he'll be making many decisions that have nothing to do with online social media platforms, period. this is the man who's promised to create and has a full plan to explain how 25 million jobs over ten years really makes campaign about how nothing happens with coal and shale, et cetera. this is the guy who's going to get rid of the obamacare penalty and in fact replace obamacare with something much more freque free

market and patient centric. these companies and certainly businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs across this country will benefit from his plan. >> critics on the left, many of whom want to manage the economy, are now criticizing him for managing the economy. in terms of whether companies are allowed to leave and relocate their factories, on whether there's going to be on-time deliveries. or overcharging. so is he going to manage the economy? >> he's going to do what presidents should do as the domestic policy and i should say commander in chief of the domestic policy. they're so afraid he can actually succeed, and if donald trump succeeds in the first 100 days, you have a roaring economy again and the answers were there at all times. it takes will and leadership. now that he has the congress across the hill here, guys. there's no excuse to not get it done.

>> real quick just on the tweet. you said he was reacting to the report. >> no. he gets briefings and he sees reports. i think he had information that this was costing him 4 million. >> we had steve mnuchin on earlier. he said the upper end, their tax is not changing at all. is that accurate? there's been a lot of questions since that statement. >> i would tell everyone that watches to look at the full plan. it's on our website. mr. trump has talked about it many times on the campaign trail. and in many interviews. so people should look at that and figure out what the tax liability will be. the good news about his tax plan is it benefits everyone. and i think when the left just attacks it without really examining it -- >> when when he said if you're at the top in absolute terms, you're going to pay the same? >> i'm not prepared to say that today, but he's going to be secretary of the treasury. so i think he's a much more important voice in this debate.

>> and just last on secretary of state and i know he mentioned it. are you still supporting rudy giuliani? >> i don't support anyone. that's where everybody got it wrong. i never said publicly or privately to the president-elect and was asked many times who i thought would do a good job. >> i like that question though. are you still supporting rudy giuliani. >> people looked at it as some sort of argument that it was rudy or romney. why are those the only two positions? now we have eight different nominees, perhaps, eight different considerations. it's an important job. i think there are people like general petraeus, senator corker have actual experience in this regard. very fascinating to have interviewed rex tillerson ceo of exxonmobil yesterday. that's a different kind of pick all together. but i'm glad he's broadened the search. everyone knows the decision rests with him. >> if we hadn't seen "the apprentice" we would think this is a great process. but since we have, we're seeing

this. and what if you are going to get the best person? this might be a good way -- >> this is how it works. >> switch a whole new concept. >> thanks for having me. fancy. coming up when we return, the ceo of u.p.s. and senator mike lee. we're going to hear from him in just a moment when we return.

♪ today, we're seeing new technologies make healthcare more personal with patient-centric, digital innovations; from self-monitoring devices that can interpret personal data and enable targeted care, to cloud platforms that invite providers

to collaborate with the patients they serve. that's why over 90% of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies are turning to cognizant. our domain experts, technologists, digital and data specialists, clinicians and scientists are transforming the way clinical research sites collaborate with pharmaceutical companies, and enhancing patient engagement with innovative platforms and solutions. our population's growing healthcare needs present growing opportunities for our clients: to advance the future of medicine with digital, and improve the quality of lives. ♪

this is a special presentation of "squawk box" live from the business round table in our nation's capital. this hour the ceos of u.p.s. and eastman chemical. plus senator mike lee and house speaker paul ryan. news makers and news breakers as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc this morning. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. we are live from the business round table in washington, d.c.

we are in the middle of an historic transition of political power. all morning long we've been talking about business leaders about what they expect from the trump administration, what changes they've made to their businesses since the election, and how they'd react if president-elect trump called them out about a business decision. this is my drop the mike moment. >> i want to see it. that's fun to do if you haven't done it. mine was better. we'll get back to the ceos in a minute. first the markets this morning. here we go again. take another look at the futures. we do have to check them whether anything's happening or not. now they're down eight, actually. they're actually red. and that has been a rare thing to see for the last four, five weeks. obviously a lot can change between now and 4:00 p.m., but the dow is indicated down eight.

the 10-year now 2.36%. we thought we were off to the races. nothing goes in a straight line obviously. after italy the euro was to be about 1.04 by now. but it's not. all these things don't necessarily cooperate with what the pundits think are going to happen. among today's top stories, ceos of at&t and time warner will defend their $65 billion merger. according to prepared text stevenson randall will talk about the longest established cable tv model and how it will benefit consumers. saying it's pro competitive. senator mike lee is going to join us and we're going to talk about this at 8:15 eastern this morning. and economic news today, mortgage applications falling 0.7% last week according to new figures from the mortgage bankers association.

the drop comes as the average 30-year mortgage rate rises to 4.27%. and believe it or not, that's the highest rate that we've seen since all the way back in october of 2016. okay. now "time" magazine announcing the person of the year. drum roll, please, i think you know who it's going to be. donald trump the president-elect appeared on the "today" show moments after the announcement. here's what he had to say about the recent news that trump sold his stock holdings back in june. >> i bought them when they were low. i saw what was going on with interest rates were so low, it almost seemed that it was very easy to predict what was going to happen. >> why'd you sell all your holdings in june? >> because i felt very much that i was going to be winning and i think i would have a tremendous, a really conflict of interest owning all of these -- >> why not announce it back in june when you were under fire for a lack of financial transparency. >> i let everybody know.

i was never a big stockholder. what i did is i sold them. i don't think it's appropriate for me to be owning stocks when i'm making deals for this country that maybe will affect one company positively and one negatively. so i just felt it was a conflict. >> trump said that he's likely going to be announcing his secretary of state choice next week and there are big announcements coming today and tomorrow as well. by the way, i was thinking if he was going to sell his stock, once becoming president he could have rolled it with no tax. >> right. >> that's one of the great benefits of going into public service. >> and treasury secretary too. >> hank paulsen was -- you have to roll it into another asset. but if you have a big capital gain, it could be a huge tax benefit. >> doesn't sound like president-elect trump had $400 million worth of stock

necessarily. nobody knows, but i think that was close to what -- >> oh, no. paulsen -- >> even many for? >> i don't know what the total number was. but i think the trump number was near $22 million in individual equities and another $25 million in he owned a blackrock -- some kind of etf. >> who's allowed to do a phoner to the "today" show? >> president-elect. >> president-elect. that might be it, right? phoners aren't big there. most people will make an appearance. anyway, president-elect donald trump's tough trade talk may soon become policies that change the way companies conduct business across the globe. and joining us now, david abney, ceo of u.p.s. in addition to when we were talking to i.p., david, that's just a proxy for commerce. and for how the economy's doing. so is u.p.s., but there's so many other things that we think about now with u.p.s. with amazon and online ordering and

everything else. we have to add that available. but do you expect business to improve -- i mean, is there reasons for optimism right now that we've seen? >> you know, we are optimistic. and we believe that there is an opportunity. for the last couple of years we've seen a 2% economic growth which has been mixed. but there are things we all know we can do to improve american competitiveness. tax reform, you hear about it over and over but it's very important to us. obviously investing in infrastructure. when you have 100,000 drivers on the road, that's important to us. regulations and being able to eliminate some of the unnecessary regulations. again, we think trade is an important part of this growth strategy too. >> well, that's what we asked every single -- does the positives from the tax reform and territorial system and things like that, is that going

to add up to more net benefits than the negatives you see from a more -- i hesitate to say a more protectionist policy. >> we're not sure there's going to be negatives when it comes to trade. the president-elect has said that he's for trade, he's for free trade, fair trade. he thinks there should be tougher terms. he's going to negotiate much tougher. there may be some delays. but we agreed that the strongest terms possible to help american customers -- companies and help american workers, we agree with that. so we look to find ways to help advance the trade agenda through this administration. >> what would amazon -- what would it do to u.p.s. if they decide to do with themselves? >> you know, amazon is a big customer of ours. we don't believe that amazon

strives to do it themselves. the reason we believe that is we have this huge infrastructure. we're investing in technology. we have a great mutual relationship with them. their density which is what determines cost with our other packages is always going to be greater than their density alone. there will be times we will go in different directions. but there will be a lot of times we will continue to work together. and we see them as a mutually beneficial partner. >> what's the policy for e-commerce companies? >> you know, i'm not going to determine what those appropriate tax policies are. we have government officials, congress and the house, that will have to figure that. >> what would you like to see? this has always been a big question. you've talked about it. you thought they've gotten a free ride over the years. >> u.p.s. probably wants amazon to do really well. >> right. trying to figure out what's the right way for a company like

u.p.s. to think about this in this frienemy type way. >> i'm not going to pick and choose between e-commerce and other customers. from our standpoint we want a competitive rate. we want it permanently so we can depend on it. then of course we want this competitive territorial tax thatly allow us to bring earnings back to the u.s. for domestic uses nap is our focus on tax policy. >> how's your drone research coming? >> you know, there's some very interesting applications that we've seen. in rwanda which is where we're doing the test where we're using drones to deliver emergency vaccines and blood, it has worked very well in a country that's got a lot of roads this time of year get flooded out and you can't reach. we believe drones will be an important part of the future

much more along the lines of highly urgent biogenetics that may have a few hours' life. don't know we necessarily see there's going to be 10,000 drones flying over washington, d.c. >> see. everything's nuanced. it's not just for -- i was thinking pizza. when you put it that way, it's really -- >> i was going to ask about regulation. you talked about some onerous regulations. i want to know specifically for u.p.s., what are the one, two, three regulations you don't think make sense that would be helpful? >> i'm glad you asked that. and i have conversations -- when you talk about u.p.s., you're talking about our customers really. because they're the ones that give us their business and they affect our business. the small and mid-size companies in this country just feel overburdened. and it's not one particular thing. it can be the cost of health care. it can be tax. it can be the environmental issues. it can be labor requirements. you take all of those issues and

you add them together, it can just be overburdening for a smaller company. a company like u.p.s., we're going to have the experts that can focus on these regulations and they can focus on the expectations. but it's much harder for our customers of the smaller companies. >> we love our u.p.s. guy, but i see him like four times a day. my dogs bark at the mailman. they see the u.p.s. guy, they just go, oh him. they think he's part of the family at this point. which is -- with you too? >> u.p.s., we get fedex. we get the whole -- >> you need more than just u.p.s. >> wait a minute. i was feeling much better with what joe was saying. >> fed what? >> yes. i don't know what that purple thing -- yeah. brown. brown is it. >> brown. brown. >> thank you, david. >> thank you. when we come back, we're going to talk because the ceos of at&t and time warner are talking to the senate panel

today. the chairman of that committee is going to be with us to talk about it. back in a moment. for decades, investors have used a 60/40 stock and bond model, with little in alternatives. yet alternatives can tap opportunities that traditional assets can't. and even though they're called alternatives, they're actually designed to help meet very traditional goals. that's why invesco believes people should look past conventional models and make alternatives a core part of their portfolios. translation? goodbye 60/40, hello 50/30/20.

♪

welcome back to "squawk box." we're live in washington, d.c. this morning. the senate's going to be holding

a hearing to investigate the planned $85 billion marriage between at&t and time warner today. the ceos of both companies are going to be testifying. time warner ceo jeff bewkes will argue it will allow his company to innovate content by adding more interactive features to products. joining us no talk about this, utah senator mike lee. he's the chair of the subcommittee on antitrust policy. he's going to be presiding over that hearing later this morning. good morning. >> good morning. >> so what are you looking to hear specifically? >> as with any antitrust issue, any proposed merger, my hearing is going to be focusing on what this will do to competition. we want to look at how a particular transaction will affect competition. not necessarily how it will affect a particular competitor. related to consumer welfare. what effect, if any, is this going to have on pricing and how that's going to affect the consumer. >> people talk about zero rating.

the idea if you put both of these things together, that at&t might be able to offer a product that allows consumer of that product to stream hbo without it counting against your equivalent of minutes or the amount of data going over your -- over the pipe. is that something you think is fair, unfair? >> well, yeah. any time you can have two companies coming together to offer a new service, possibly untethering people from traditional connections, that's something to be taken into account. if they're going to be able to offer something that hasn't previously been offered or to offer it at a lower price, that could tend to suggest this could be good for consumer welfare. there are other risks as well. there are riks that we have to take into account. >> philosophically, where are you on net neutrality? that's an issue that sort of underlines this to some degree. >> i think these should be determined by the market and not

by government regulators. i don't think we ought to have federal agencies stepping in and saying we the almighty regulator is going to decide this. >> netflix has said, look, if you have zero rating for hbo then you have to give us a zero rating. it should be the same across all content providers. are you the same? >> i understand that. it ought to be the free market that zbieds that. >> you don't have oversight, per se, of this particular transaction. >> correct. >> and the other question then is who do you think will and should -- there's a question of whether the fcc will be able to touch this depending on how this deal is considered because of some of the assets time warner owns. >> that's right. and the regulatory bodies at issue are going to have to decide that between themselves. we don't get to decide that. i'm interested to see where it goes. i'm most interested for today's

purposes, though, to see what this does for competition. and to see what they can answer in terms of the questions we have about what this will do. >> what do you think of donald trump's comments on the campaign trail with regard to this transaction where he said he wouldn't allow it to go through. that since he's been elected, at least privately, there may have been indications that they might have more of an open mind about this deal. >> i think that's possible. i think he also raised some concerns that are legitimate that are held by a number of people suggesting a lot of people worry that you give too much power to any one media entity, what's that going to do? are they going to lock certain people out of access to time warner content? are they going to raise prices for access to time warner content. to the point that they would drive out competition in that space. those are legitimate questions. i think they need answers. >> senator, there were other things i guess that mr. trump said during the campaign that

you disagreed with enough to the point where you wouldn't back president-elect trump at the time. in fact, i think you voted it was a protest vote for evan mcmullen or something. have you spoke to either since the election? i just wonder how that went. i mean, mitt romney might be secretary of state and no one said more about, you know, president-elect trump than he did. so i figure it's bygones be bygones. people vote their conscience sometimes. what was it specifically the most -- the things that you were most -- disturbed you the most? >> look, i expressed concerns at the time. i registered those concerns. i have spoken to a lot of people in the trump world since then. i had a good conversation with mike pence. i had a good conversation with kellyanne conway a few moments ago and weeks ago. i look forward to this administration and seeing what

they will do. and this administration will fight for a constitutionally limited government, they'll have no greater ally, no more vociferous advocate than me. >> in other words, you didn't think he was a true republican. >> always limited government. i'm behind something willing to fight for the constitution. >> but a vote not for trump may have helped hillary clinton which would have been maybe a lot worse for constitutional government. >> i understand that. and utah was never in play as far as hillary clinton was concerned. >> if you had known that he was going to win -- if hillary had won and you said i didn't vote for trump anyway, i might feel good. but after he got in, then it's like, ooh, why did i -- any regret that you didn't just vote for him after all. >> hindsight is always 20/20. we look forward to seeing what the new administration is going to do. >> okay. good. >> fair enough.

senator, thank you. appreciate it. still to come on "squawk box," house speaker paul ryan will join us live. we'll get his take on next year's washington agenda with republicans in control of congress and the white house. stay tuned. you are watching "squawk box" live from our nation's capital. we'll be right back. manage my portfolio.ere id since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets. okay. i'm plugged into equities- trade confirmed- and i have global access 24/7. meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. visit learnfuturestoday.com to see what adding futures can do for you.

and when we return, our big morning of news makers

continues. next we're going to talk to the ceo of eastman chemical about the future of infrastructure in a trump administration. and later, don't miss our interview with house speaker paul ryan. >> you like the music? >> i got to turn up so i can hear better. "squawk box" will return live from washington in just a moment.

what's happening here? this is my new alert system for whenever anything happens in the market. but thinkorswim already lets you create custom alerts for all the things that are important to you. i guess we don't need the kid anymore. custom alerts on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade.

♪ welcome back to "squawk box." we are coming to you live from the business round table in washington, d.c. this morning. among today's top stories, "time" magazine naming donald trump its person of the year. the president-elect appeared on the "today" show just moments after that announcement and he defended his use of twitter as a communication tool. >> well, i think i am very restrained and i talk about important things. i talk about, you know, as you know recently china and the fact we talked about the devaluation. we talked about they're building this massive military fortress in the middle of the south china sea which they're not supposed

to be doing and other things. and frankly it's a modern-day form of communication. >> even when you're picking fights with it? >> but that's between facebook and twitter, i have more than 40 million people. and that's a modern day form of communication. i get it out much faster than a press release. >> trump also weighing in on his tweets about boeing and the cost of air force one. >> well, i think the planes are too expensive. i spoke to a very good man yesterday, the head of boeing. terrific guy. we're going to work it out. but, you know, that's what i'm here for. i'm going to negotiate prices. and it's -- planes are too expensive and we're going to get the prices down. and if we don't get the prices down, we're not going to order them. we're going to stay with what we have. >> trump also said expect big announcements considering his transition today and tomorrow. we will be hearing about the secretary of state choice next week. >> that was a pretty good

picture of him on time. that was hard for "time" to do. you've seen the couple of recent ones they've had. >> you're talking about the one -- >> the melting imploding campaign of donald trump. there were two of them that he -- the other one was all scars and -- at least -- i mean, that took a lot for them to do. did they have madam president? that issue is worth like $900 now. was that news week or "time"? i don't think they made another one. >> the promise of -- the promise of rollback and regulation under president-elect donald trump is high on the wish list for many business leaders. some are hoping that faster approvals for things like new plants will lead to more jobs. specifically more high quality jobs. joining us now is mark costa chairman and ceo of eastman

chemic chemical. so smart regulation. if you can visit with the president this afternoon, you'd tell him what have going to be the smart regulation you want? >> what made us great in this country is investing. but making the best products in this world and exporting them and selling them domestically. plays a big role in how we invest, grow, innovate. and we're just being drowned in regulation today. it's amazing when you think about it. since 2009 we've introduced new regulations. we've removed 179. the clean water act and things taking place since 1972 to improve our waterways yet we're still complying to the rivers and harbors act of 1979. we've got to remove regulation that's not effective or efficient. and to make sure whatever regulation we have in place is, you know, creating more benefit than cost. >> everybody wants a better regulatory system so that you can spend more money on innovation and more money on jobs and job creation.

same thing with tax policy. we talked about repatriating money abroad. but one of the issues when we talked to chuck robbins earlier this morning from cisco. he's got $60 billion abroad. we said, hey, if you can bring that money back, what are you going to do with it? i thought he might say we're going to create more jobs. you know, we're going to do innovation and this and this. he said probably about half of it will come in the form of buybacks, potentially dividends, things like that. and half in m&a. now, the m&a may trickle down and create more jobs. but there is this sort of other issue out there which is if we do all of these things, does it ultimately land in the pockets of the middle class which is what donald trump has talked so much about. >> the number one priority we have to have at the business round table or eastman is creating higher quality jobs in this country. that's the issue. right? the low unemployment rate is not remotely compelling right now. because people have much higher quality jobs nine years ago than they do today.

participation in the workforce isn't good. we have to figure out how to bring innovation back to this country. and we're not going to compete against $5 labor in mexico with the same product. right? we have to have better products, superior products that people want to pay a premium for it. eastman, we're one of the largest special chemical companies in the world. 75% of my workforce is here in the u.s. so we're all about jobs. you know, we create jobs in rural northeast tennessee where this core issue trump is focused on. when we bring cash back, we're going to invest in more r&d. >> no one would bring the money back and just immediately just hire people if the demand wasn't there. >> of course. >> so i don't think anyone would ever imply that that was a reasonable way to do it. the overall environment has to improve. the business tone has to improve. suddenly consumer confidence goes up, animal spirits, people

buying more things. and it all -- you know, it's organic. but there are people who say we're going to earmark this for hiring. that's like putting the car before -- you can't really think that way. >> you can't do it that way. >> you can't. it'd be counterproductive. the people would lose jobs. the company wouldn't be profitable hiring people they didn't need. >> and i don't think anyone's going to do that. we have a responsibility to shareholders to create a return on investment. so we have to focus on how we create more innovation. right? but that will lead to more plants and more jobs. >> it's tough. because that's what you hear. it's not used for hiring. right? but if it's used for anything, it's better than sitting over there, right? even if it is, what's so bad? a lot of pensioners have dividend income. a lot of normal people would benefit from higher profit. >> i'm just suggesting that is one of the worries in this country. people are saying where will the money go. >> it won't just go to ceo

compensation. >> look. you look at the boeing situation, for example, by volume i think they're the largest exporter in america. they're probably more responsible for middle class jobs in america than just about any company in the world. and so then to have the president saying -- you know, that's why i'm saying it's on all these different sides. it is. >> look, you have to focus on making our country more competitive. you have -- whether it's regulatory reform, tax reform, free trade. that's going to lead us to making more investments here. but the heart of it that's being missed is higher quality jobs. that's what we have to focus on. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> there's speaker ryan. we knew him when, didn't we? it's not all because of "squawk box" he's speaker. he's here. looking good. white shirt. crisp. our news maker of the morning, paul ryan is here. right over there. talking about president-elect trump's first hundred days in office and the agenda.

stay tuned. you're live from washington. ♪ okay, so you launched your bank's app. now what? how will you keep up with the new demands of today's digital economy? the fact is: some believe they won't need a traditional bank down the road, so at cognizant, we're helping banking and financial services companies think digital, be untraditional, and reimagine what the bank of the future can be. our clients can now leverage customer intelligence

to predict their financial needs and provide more contextualized products and services. we're creating new platforms across channels so customers can effortlessly invest, borrow, lend, transact-wherever-whenever they choose. and we're digitizing the way banks run, driving efficiencies and delivering new value for their customers in return. digital works for banking and financial services. lets talk about how digital works for your business. ♪ my name is danita seaton. i'm a gas service representative for pg&e here in oakland. when i work in oakland, i feel like i'm home, because i grew up here in oakland, my family still lives here. every time i go to the customer's house, i treat them like they're my family.

if they smell gas, or they don't have hot water, i'm there to ensure that by the time that i leave, they feel safe and they can go back to their day to day life. to learn more about gas safety in your home, visit pge.com/safety together, we're building a better california. president-elect trump will be sworn in next month and he'll have a republican controlled congress to help push forward

his agenda. joining us now to talk about what should be on the top of the list during the first 100 days, house speaker paul ryan. it's great to have you on set with us. we go way back. >> we do. i came to see becky, actually. stuck with you guys. what the heck? >> you were -- we've been -- we've known each other a long time. i remember you used to kind of yank carl's chain. carl quintanilla. that's at least six years. >> oh, yeah. >> i was kidding. i'm sure it wasn't just "squawk box" that got you to be speaker. >> maybe a couple other factors. but we co-hosted for years. >> yeah. >> yeah, i was the budget guy for eight years in the house. >> look at you now. aren't you like third in line now? something like that? >> something like that, yeah. god forbid. >> that is unbelievable. the way i would start this is, it's a great expression and that is the dog chasing the bus. and it's like, i want to get there. i can't wait to get there. i can't wait to get there. finally catches the bus and it's

like why was i chasing this bus. do you know what the hell to do with this bus? >> oh, yeah. we spent all of 2016 getting ready for the possible opportunity of having unified government in 2017. the house went through the entire exercise. every committee working, every member of the house republican conference. >> what were you smoking? no one thought that. >> i know no one thought that, but we wanted to be ready. so we were -- we've been working on our tax reform legislation for over a year. we've been working on welfare legislation, health care legislation, regulatory agenda, energy policy. so it's not just talking points. what i told our members, assume we get the white house and congress. then come 2018 what do you want to have accomplished for the country to get this country back on the right track? what does that look like? plan now. this is your plan. so for the next year -- this is 2016 back at the end of 2015 -- do everything you need to do to

get ready to do that. so this is exactly what congress and the house has been working on for the last year. getting everything ready to basically rock and roll in 2017 to get working. so we've got -- we are now working with our friends in the senate and the incoming trump administration just on timeline, on an execution strategy of this agenda which we're really excited about. yeah, you're right. a lot of people didn't think this was going to happen, but we needed to be prepared in the event that it did. and it did. >> you tweet too. and some of the darkest days for republicans of the -- whenever that was happening, you'd be tweeting out here's our plan for -- it's called -- >> i didn't use that pitch of voice when i did that. >> but the plan for america. is that what it was called? i love that paul's doing this stuff. doesn't have an ice cube's chance in hell of ever happening -- >> that's what most people said. >> and here we are where it's actually happening. let me ask you. is there a way to do -- i don't know if you saw there was a -- you know, i don't finish a lot of sentences. when reagan came in, the first

thing, you got to get rid of some of these regulations immediately before you can get anything done. >> that's right. >> do you have someone like a czar to immediately do things that open up doors to do all the other things to get it done? >> that is the analysis we're going through right now with the trump transition team. what can they do on their own by just when his hand comes off the bible he goes down to pennsylvania avenue, signs executive orders. so what can he do administratively? what do we need to do legislately? we have the congressional act to reach back and get rid of regulations and that cannot be filibustered in the senate. that's only a 51 vote. we've done this before. we put a bunch of these on obama's desk which he of course vetoed but we're now looking in the queue for which ones he cannot do administratively that we have to be involved in. that's the analysis going through right now.

in addition, we have a very, very bold regulatory reform platform we're moving on in the very near part of the year. we're going to be doing our obamacare legislation. you have to remember this law is getting much worse. it's what actuaries say entering a death spiral. so we have to fix this problem. >> but people don't understand that a repeal doesn't mean that you pull the rug out -- >> that's the point i was trying to make on "60 minutes" which is we will have a transition period that will be reasonable so we're not pulling the rug out under people. >> it's going to be years. >> i think people believe with all the rhetoric, my gosh. in february i'm going to lose what i've got right now and i'm going to be -- i'll have nothing to go to. the point we're trying to make is this law is just failing very, very quickly. we've got to replace this law. and we will have a transition period so that we don't pull the rug out from under people. >> but you don't want people

going back to emergency rooms because they've got nothing else. >> that's right. we'll have a transition to another. the point i'm trying to make is we're going to move on many simultaneous fronts. we're going to move on regulatory reform. we're going to move on obamacare relief. we're going to move on things like securing the borders. and then our next round of budgeting which comes in the spring, we're going to work on the other issues like, say, tax reform and things like this. so we've got a big bold agenda we're working on. by the way, when we worked on this all last year, we campaigned on this. we wanted to tell the country very clearly, here is what we hope to do under a unified republican government so if we win the election, which we just did, we feel we have the obligation to follow up on that and make good on those promises. >> so let's talk about the tax reform piece of it and the unified party, if you will, to the extent you believe it's completely unified. >> it's a whole lot more unified than the democrats.

>> but you've talked about 25% rate on the corporate side. >> yeah. 20% on corporate. >> trump has talked about 15%. >> right. right. >> where do you think this really lands? >> it's going to come down to number crunching. it will come down to if we choose to put it through a budget and how the numbers add up. so it really is basically -- >> you care about pay force though? >> that's what i mean when i say if we're going to put it in a budget, we will shoot for revenue neutral tax reform. the plan we wrote is revenue neutral. we now take into account economic effects of tax changes. they call it dynamic scoring. i call it reality based scoring. we will use that so we make sure to maximize the economic growth potential. the last thing we want to do is not think about how to maximize growth. so our tax reform is going to be focused on maximizing growth and competitiveness of american businesses. and we will do that in a way to make it revenue neutral. that means you have to plug

loopholes so you can lower rates. so it's going to come down to how the numbers add up as to how low we can get that rate. we believe we can do it at 20% right now. if we can squeeze the numbers and get to 20%. great. the lower the better. england's going to 18%. >> where do you land on the individual rate? >> if you look at our plan, we consolidate to three brackets. 33% bracket for higher earnings. so we actually severed -- for the first time in any basic tax reform plan we put out there and i'm used to chairs and means. the wage and salary income rates which are going to be more progressive from the business income rates. what people forget is 80% -- eight out of ten businesses file as individuals. llcs, proprietors. >> so how do we deal with the pass throughs?

>> pass throughs. it's a 25% for pass throughs. 20% corporate rate. and the capital gains rate goes under our plan a 50% exclusion of your rate. the top rate would be 16%. normally i don't throw these kinds of numbers around, but you guys in "squawk box" do this. if you want to look at what i'm saying, go to better.gop. >> those are the guys we want to help. >> it's the guy who owns the industrial -- he owns the business, the tool shop and park that's got 50 employees who's competing against canada who has a 15% tax rate. >> we've got to keep emphasizing that. >> i thank you both for the education. thank you for the education. >> if becky were here we wouldn't have to emphasize this. this would be taken care of. >> she's got important things to do right now. >> i know she does. >> those are the things you don't want -- you can't do them again.

you think mattis won't be a problem? >> he's got -- a lot of us know jim mattis quite well. he is so revered. he is exception worthy to the waiver rule. he's within the seven-year window. we're moving the continuing resolution tomorrow. we just posted this bill last night. that will help make sure that they can move on that nomination fairly quickly in the senate. so they can't gum it up with a filibuster. >> i have no idea how they're going to do it, but, you know, racist, racist, racist. ben carson. got to come up with something else for him. >> this is political white noise, this stuff. >> really? and you think everybody that's already been suggested is going to end up -- i mean, a president's supposed to get his pick. >> sure. but obama's people got attacked. presidents pick new cabinets. the other party typically attacks those picks. it just happens. so that to us is just white

noise. i'm impressed with how fast president-elect trump has gotten his cabinet going. he's moving really quickly. he's making a lot of executive decisions. >> you know romney very well. >> yeah. good friend of mine. >> would you like to see him as secretary of state? >> i'd love to see him asstate. i don't know what donald's going to do. i think he's going to make his choice pretty soon. i think mitt would be fantastic. he's one of the most competent people i've ever known. >> you've had your own things to deal with obviously through that campaign which we talked about already. what was mitt -- what was that? >> have him come on and ask him yourself. >> you just copped to being a really good friend. >> he is. he is. >> tell me what he told you. did he think he would be waiting in the wings -- >> no, no, no. i don't know. we were surprised -- >> are you surprised he forgives him to the extent -- >> actually, now that i've gotten to know donald trump, which i didn't before, i'm not surprised. he's extremely magnanimous in this. and i see the kind of guy he is,

which is the more -- i talk to him almost every day. very forgiving, very magnanimous kind of guy. i'm actually very impressed with how he's handled this. i'm very impressed with how he's handled just former critics from his own party, like say mitt romney, to everybody else. that he's basically saying let's unify this party, unify this country, get things done. that's exactly what i think people want to see. >> from negotiators and business leaders and showmen. people know what's show and what's real. >> what we're seeing is what everybody was hoping to see. >> right. >> which is this is going to be a business guy who becomes president who's just going to focus on getting the job done and fixing this country's big problems. >> you're a surprise -- >> i'm excited. >> how do you want him to address his business conflicts? >> however he wants to. you know, this is not what i'm concerned about in congress. >> he's announced on december 15th he's going to talk about splitting the family business from himself. >> right. >> but what do you think is the appropriate way to do that?

in such a way that your colleagues and peers are not going to be holding constant hearings about those conflicts. >> i have every confidence he's going to get himself right with moving from being the business guy he is to the president he's going to become. i'm focused on getting this agenda passed so we can turn around and taek l this country's big problems before they tackle us. that is what i'm focused on. and not the legal details of how he divorces himself from his business, which i know he will. >> excellent. i found this -- can you get this? can you look at this? >> is it "time"? >> yeah. here was the first "time" piece. that's the meltdown. that was followed by for "time," total meltdown. and, i mean, then they come out with -- >> we can't see. >> i'll show you. then we come out with, i mean, that's hard for "time" to do

too, isn't it? meltdown, total meltdown and followed up by that. that's got to be hard for "time," right? as irrelevant for "time" is, but still that's got to be a little painful. >> it'd be surprising if he didn't get it. who else would get person of the year? >> said bernie sanders. >> i said joe kernan. >> that makes two -- that makes one of you. >> okay. i got a little bit more time. >> big announcement is -- >> ha ha ha. you're not going to have that opportunity. given what happened. we've heard about giving the keys back to a party that drove the car into the ditch the first time around. i know that sounds familiar. i can do it in the way he does it, but i'm not going to. but why should we believe you guys aren't going to drive the car back into the ditch? >> i think that's a fair question. this is again why we spent so much time in 2016 putting a very specific agenda out there. showing the country, what we think are the right reforms to

tackle the country's big problems. i was involved -- i came into congress in 1998 -- or 1999 i was sworn in. there for 9/11, there for bush administration, there for the obama administration, i think the domestic agenda atrophied because we got so focused on terrorism and focused on wars. and as a result the domestic agenda, debt, health care, deficits, growth, it didn't get the kind of billing it needed to on the agenda. that is not the case now. and we're all now kind of accustom to having foreign policy challenges continuously. but we now are so focused on getting this domestic agenda up and running, getting people out of poverty back into work, getting this economy growing faster, making american businesses more competitive so we're not pushing businesses overseas. >> what if president -- >> and the regulatory -- the regulations are really a big deal. >> true. >> this administration, the obama administration, has just put such a chilling effect on just decision making because of

the regulatory onslaught. >> what about 35% tariff on some of these goods coming back -- >> what will you tell him? >> i'll tell him what i've been telling him all along, we can get at what he wants to better through a better tax reform. through a carrot and better tax reform. why do we make america the most attractive place where it makes sense to keep your headquarters here, keep your manufacturing here, because we fixed our tax laws. we have the worst tax system in the industrialized world. >> i think you've already told him this and he still tweeted that. >> i think what he's trying to get at is there's a new sheriff in town and we're going to really go work on keeping businesses here, keeping jobs here, getting growth. and that to me -- our plan says immediate expansion plan equipment, a 20% tax rate for

corporations, you do that and you will see growth in this country. >> you've long talked about free market and the market system working. and so i'm curious what your thoughts are when you hear donald trump now talk about a company like boeing should only be able to make a certain amount of profit. >> he's a business guy. he's a transactional, negotiating, bully pulpit using business guy who's becoming president. i don't think we should be surprised anymore that he's going to say surprising things for an incoming president. he's an unconventional person -- he's an unconventional candidate becoming an unconventional president. but what i like is he's ready to shake things up. he's not saying slow back and wait, which we get around here a lot. he's saying let's go, go, go, that to us is music to our ears. we have been waiting for this opportunity to get very good free market pro-growth economic policy moving. now we're doing it. and so that's -- i see this as exciting. he's going to do these things that i think are interesting, exciting and surprising, but

it's going to shake the system up. there's nothing wrong with that. >> you don't look at those things as being at odds -- >> i think -- we know exactly -- we talk almost daily about the agenda, about where we're going, about the kind of legislation we want to pass. so we are in sync on that front. >> you're convinced now? people like you weren't always convinced. is he a bona fide republican? is he republican? >> yeah. >> you're not going to ask what person republican, democrat, both, depends on the day, so he does have -- >> he's a conservative. very much so. look at his cabinet picks. look who he's surrounding himself with. reince priebus i've known extremely well for a long time. >> that guy, talk about navigating through some difficult waters. >> reince was the chairman of the kenosha county republican party, and then became chairman of the first -- then became chairman of the wisconsin republican party, the national party.

he's a brilliant guy. he's a very successful lawyer. >> he walked a line at certain times where -- the point is skillfully -- >> reince is a true believing conservative. he's an effective conservative. so he is surrounding himself with, yes, real republicans, real conservatives who believe in the principles of conservati conservatism, who believe in liberty and freedom and economic growth and constitution and upper mobility, the things hsur >> he maneuvered through some tough waters. was he ready to go down -- >> this was his job. he was rnc chair. and, yeah. >> some people came close. >> i'm just trying to understand back to the conservative free market kind of piece to this. >> right. >> just the whole idea of demagoguing a particular company or try to make a deal with the particular -- that to me seems so out of line with the way you have historically thought about

business. >> he's not going to be a traditional president. it just is what it is. in many ways it's refreshing because it shakes the system up a little bit. i think that's pretty good. >> there are a lot of people on the left that hope he's unconventional enough to get himself into trouble in some type of ethical or -- they already use the i word. >> the other party pins for this stuff. i mean, look -- >> they're ready -- >> they lost and don't like losing. we didn't like losing. >> they want to start impeachments now. they're going to be hanging on every -- right? any worry at all that he's so unconventional that some line could be crossed somewhere that could be problematic. >> i think people should stop underestimating this man. you underestimated him. joe, i guess, didn't. i think we should stop underestimating him because he always surpasses these expectations. >> pretty amazing 17 candidates including jeb bush and all these guys, never a 3% or 4%. it's unbelievable. thank you for being here.

>> thanks him for being here. >> thank you for being here. >> we spend every morning together. paul ryan, really a pleasure. >> thanks for letting me back on the show. >> yeah, you're welcome when you're in new york come back, any time. we go way back. >> oh, yeah. >> thank you. >> been a great show. i hope it was productive for everyone involved. make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is coming up next. ♪ great show in washington, guys. welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber. live this morning on "today" show talking boeing, the stock market, twitter and more, futures are steady. europe's in the green for much of the morning. not much macro today but we are getting jolts in about an hour. road map