individual i think he serves the president well i think there are a number of people who could be highly qualified to be our next fed chairman i don't see any reason why gary cohn might not be one of them. he's a very, very impressive individual i've had a number of meetings with him but you know, there's another -- a lot of other impressive individuals, john taylor from stanford is an individual who is very impressive, as well, who could serve. ultimately that's the president's call it's not my call and again i think there's a number of candidates who could serve our nation well in that role and i look forward to it because the president needs to fill these positions on the fed. but again, i hope that we get a fed that will give us a more predictable strategy based policy, where frankly, you may not want to have me on future programs, because hopefully monetary policy will be operating moresilently in the background >> i'm sure we'll always be having you on, chairman, either

way. and what was your reaction yesterday to the president's son's release of those infamous e-mails? >> well, i don't know the details of this. listen, we have got at least a half a dozen different investigations that are going on this is worthy of the investigation. i don't know what went on. but we need to get to the bottom of it. on the one hand. i know that opposition research is something all campaigns do. why you're necessarily talking to a foreign state, obviously that's disturbing. but i don't completely know. i haven't read all the e-mails but i have no doubt that the investigations that are ongoing will get to the bottom of it >> did it worry you when you saw the market react to it did you think it was something that could derail momentum in the economy? >> well, no. i mean, i've been around long enough to see momentary swings in the market. so no, i'm not -- i'm more concerned, again, about ultimately getting tax reform done, because nothing says economics quite like tax reform.

i wish the democrats would help us to get that done. >> do you or any of your colleagues have a problem with leaving the obamacare taxes in the -- what if they do that in the senate and goes back tothe house? i mean, is that going to be the final bill >> well, i don't know the answer to that. but yeah, there's certainly a problem by leaving the incredible imposition of taxes on the economy it's one of the things dragging down economic growth today but like every other member of congress i relieve the right to actually read and review the bill so i'm anxious to see if they're going to be able to produce. and i hope we get to see something soon we've gotten our job done in the house and now we're waiting on those behind me on the other side of the capitol to get their job done no it would not be a good sign to see those taxes remain in the bill >> you haven't made any plans for august hopefully, because i mean don't you think you guys, i mean, god if the -- of course 9 senators, how do you tell whether they're on vacation or recess >> i'm not touching that one,

joe. >> they don't even notice. but it might -- are you going to extend the time you work you think the house will end up following -- >>s on a asos they get their bill done, i'm sure we will be in here in washington. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday? yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.

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prevagen. the name to remember. good morning welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq marketsite in times square one of the stories front and center, janitorial services company co-owned by goldman sachs and thomas h. lee has been sold

gca services will be bought by rival abm industries for 1.25 billion in cash and stock. it was just last year that goldman and thomas h. lee bought gca for an undisclosed amount. >> twitter has a new chief financial fficer senior vice president at financial software company intuit he will replace the interim cfo, in addition to duties as chief operating officer. bankrupt retailer gymboree will close about 350 stores as part of restructuring plan that would still leave gymboree with a little over 900 stores. the company was taken private in 2010 but still saddled with much of the debt from that deal >> say it. >> i got through it. >> you're like a man without a country. here we make fun of you -- >> i'm not a man without a country. >> when you go they make fun of you for calling it a rest room and not a loo. >> correct i am always a british -- >> that twitter is beautiful

if i could do that i'm telling you. anyway, new this morning the kremlin says it has never been in touch with the russian lawyer who met with donald trump jr. last year. in an interview with nbc news the lawyer also denied any connection to the russian government so, does that mean absolutely she's not connected to them? >> i don't think so. who knows. >> who knows president's eldest son agreed to meet the lawyer after being told she had damaging information on hillary clinton. there are people that think, if you're a lawyer that is worth anything over there, that you've got some kind of connection just by definition, don't you >> autocratic state, everything just different and interconnected in ways that we just don't have here >> yeah. >> i'm not saying she is or she isn't -- >> i don't know. >> who knows >> but the question -- and the question that was bandied about, wilf in the show yesterday was, it doesn't really matter if that's the way it was presented to you, you thought --

>> right >> that she was. >> right clearly motivated what he thought was a russian government lawyer >> exactly >> we are just four hours past the end of amazon prime day. late yesterday amazon told cnbc it was, quote, on pace to be the biggest global shopping event in amazon history with u.s. prime members ordering more than 6,000 deals every minute amazon says it sold twice as many echo family devices in the u.s. this prime day compared to last year. three times more worldwide other top selling items included 23andme dna test and bluetooth head phones. checking on shares of amazon at this hour, they are higher by a third of a percent, gaining three bucks to $997.50 >> if you are a longtime watcher of "squawk box" we have an association with water.org 600 -- every time we go to davos we have a chance to talk about it it's a good issue to illustrate, because we can help.

right, right now and people need help 663 million people around the globe lack access to safe water for the past decade. water.org has been working to increase access and safe water and sanitation around the world. gary white is the ceo and co-founder of water.org and anne finucane is the bank of america vice chair, corporate partner of water.org in the developing world which makes me think that your management is so -- associating yourself with this makes me think your management must be great all around all the way back to 25 i think moynihan, any critics or skeptics, he's laid a lot of that to rest, as things have come back at bank of america and people were worried for awhile about it so, is it -- it's not a back handed compliment -- >> i'll take it. >> the problem is, we have to explain it every time you come on we have to explain it again but there are, as you literally said, hundreds of millions of people that spend four hours a day trekking across three, four

miles of difficult landscape to bring back fresh water women, many times, in less developed countries that have to do this just to get clean water. if they could just get a tap they could just get hooked into a tap their lives would be changed so much for the better >> yeah, yeah. it's a huge toll on their day in terms of the time that they spend scavenging for water also the time spent looking for a place to defecate because of lack of access to sanitation about 166 million hours every day women spend trying to find a place to defecate. and so, because of the opportunity costs that they're spending walking and scavenging for water and sanitation, they are more than willing to take out a microloan to be able to get that tap >> that's again, where we -- you know, we got to talk about that. how do you address this need and for $100 or $200, which 99% of -- i don't know what the number of people that they pay it back. >> 99% >> 99% repay these loans that they get, it's $100, $200 to get

access to tap. so instead of doing where you're throwing money at the problem, you're actually involving these people in the future >> yes >> and you get your money back if you fund water.org. usually. >> mm-hmm. >> and there's a debt offering and an equity offering >> the root of this is that there's never going to be enough charity in the world to solve the water supply crisis. it would take about $200 billion a year for the next five years >> you get five a year, right? >> yeah, you get five -- $200 billion a year for five years. but what we see is the ability to leverage that new capital and social impact investing to be able to meet the gap microloa on the part of the poor is there. i think that the way they look at this -- the way it works is i was just in lima recently and there was a woman in the slums there who had just takenout a loan for water credit. she has been paying 13 times more per gallon of water when she had to walk down to the valley to the tanker truck to bring it back to her house

she's paying 1/13th now for a water tap that she has in other hen home so you can see the household level finance works to take out one of these loans >> tell me the structure of the loan you give them $100 to $200. they're paying back how much per month or year? what percentage of their income is it >> it's about a two-year loan. the average loan size is around $240 now and what we try to shoot for is no more than 5% of their income for water supply. which is considered affordable by the world bank and the u.n. so it's a loan it's a two-year loan, short-term but then they get freed up from having to scavenge for water -- >> the productivity improvement must be so dramatic. >> it is people can now work at a paying job, because they got all their time back. >> and tell us with bank of america's role in all there. >> well gary's been a client of ours for over 20 years so, it began, really, as a small

business loan that grew in to a larger business loan -- >> i thought he had a savings account. you don't mean that, right >> no. he was there as a business to begin with, and we then built on that first with the loan, and philanthropy, and now we're getting involved in this capital deployment idea of actually trying to be part of water equity this water equity fund >> which we haven't talked about yet. >> well in essence it's creating a fund that we hope to raise $50 million for, and with a nice coupon with it, which would exceed probably what a municipal bond did >> like 3% >> 3%, 3.5%. and so we're the first funders we're in for $5 million, and we hope to -- >> is that new, gary did you -- bank of america -- >> yeah. >> and this is for us this is sort of what we're trying to do in a larger scale on the environment, in community, and women's empowerment, to try to

create social impact bonds and funds so that we can scale it well beyond as gary said philanthropy just doesn't do it. >> i know i tried with gary. >> you're not bank of america. >> i'm not bank of america i tried to help. thank you. we appreciate it >> gary when you talk about the other corporate partners you have, you've got from a bank to stella artois brewery. do you need more corporate partners >> we do need more corporate partners water.org is able to take philanthropy and put it toward creating these bankable enterprises so we can work with microfinance institutions to get them ready for this $5 million fund that anne and bank of america are providing as part of that $50 million so what we do with that philanthropic capital is get those enterprises ready for that type of investment >> and clearly, you and bank of america are very committed to environmental causes what did you make of bank of

america, the president's decision to pull out of the paris accord >> i think you see it as a long-term commitment so as you know, we were one of many companies that have stayed the course this is a commitment to try to not rise beyond 2% celsius over the next century or by the end of the century, so i think we will all be long gone, and we will be many administrations beyond this -- >> we're talking water, wilf we're not talking about 2100 >> it's all linked this is something -- >> -- something you can really get behind it's solvable right now. there's 663 million people that don't have water let's -- can we just focus on this >> we are. >> okay, good. >> i'm asking a question different from making a statement. >> all right i hear you i hear you how about what you want to say today, as a bank do you like rates? would you like a yield curve would that help? >> let's stay with the water

i'm happy to talk about bank of america, obviously we've had a very good year and you know last quarter we were almost $5 billion in last year almost 18 billion dollars in net income, so i think that i'm not sure what we know to expect from her in the months to come there's been a little bit of nice productivity, obviously, with the consumer. but, gdp is still probably only going to be at about 2%, 2.1%. >> what would you think of gary cohn >> interesting >> and joe earlier commended the leadership, and certainly brian's had a fantastic period in charge. how long would you like to see him remain in that post? >> a long time not forever but we'd like to see him there for a long time. we set in motion the idea of responsible growth they've been able to be very profitable but it also allows us

to invest in these kinds of efforts, capital deployment that is beyond the norm that we have traditionally done >> when it gets up to a decade or so we've seen with jamie deie dimon at jp morgan, it does move from executives deciding to move on, is that something that you plan for and how do you placate that as brian's very impressive tenure expends past that decade mark >> well, first of all, he has to do succession planning for the board all the time that's just part of rigor of a large company. the other thing is, so many of those years, the first part of those years was pulling us out of a very difficult time so he's only had the last few years to really demonstrate what he can do on a go forward basis. so i think that he has some good years ahead. >> if interest rates started to raise a lot would it hurt what you could do >> i don't think so.

what we're doing with -- with water equity is leveraging traditional capital like bank of america -- >> yeah but 3.5% starts to look pretty meager, you're going to have to do more, and then -- >> what social impact, we're really impact first. so we're trying to always provide at least -- >> -- financial return i mean if you could return the principal and do good you wouldn't even care -- >> i get that. right now you're making the change -- >> but it's not about -- >> the equity, the whole idea -- >> no but money costs something, right? and they're spending money so if they have to charge more money to the people who are paying for the money, it hurts >> i think there may be a marginal increase -- >> i think rates go up from 3.5% would be more corporations that might be willing to give more, too. >> gary, how many at this point per year, how many new water taps are you setting up? >> so, just the first quarter of

this year alone we reached 2 million people >> 2 million people. >> with access to water. >> a long way to go but that's a great -- >> it's a huge amount. considering the first 20 years of water.org it took us that long to reach that many people this concept of impact investing is really exploding. and when you can have a financial return on your investment and still help people who make a dollar or quarter a day get access to water and sanitation, that's a huge deal and for the kind of retail level investor we've now launched the platform on water equity where you can make a loan as little as $100 and get people -- >> i'll get you -- with discovery and you get damon to go do an hour long doc on the life that -- what this takes away from people that have to get clean water every day. go to the place, show what the person has to do >> right >> kids can't even learn -- they can't even go to school because they're going and get i mean it solves so many things.

get him to do that and get the public more aware, and then instead of asking about global warming, we can actually let's do something about this. >> for sure. >> and right now, we're -- >> you know matt's been on matt does a lot with this to raise the awareness level of that and we're -- >> get him -- >> we also need i mean we also need the giving pledge folks we need ultrahigh net worth individuals who can come in and pour the capital into this >> you're looking at me. look at wilf or paulsen. >> but you know we are doing a lot more with that we've got to raise this $50 million fund we want to do it by the end of the year people can recognize that they're going to -- >> leuthold -- >> tap in to one thing -- >> it is for families. it's that individual responsibility to people rising to, if they can get a loan at that household level, and 90%, 92% of those loans go to women because they're the once who bear the --

>> get that and resell it. >> some of them do that, actually >> because we're also investing not just those household level loans that we recognize there's enterprises there serving microutility markets so that we're going to be investing in them with the next fund -- >> "squawk box" and water.org -- >> and bank of america >> i think we and other financial institutions become more creative and innovative in terms of financing these projects where youcombine philanthropy, commercial banks, private equity, development banks -- >> and the marketplace >> and it works. >> there's a capital cushion for this $50 million philanthropic capital so we build -- >> bank -- >> and thank you so much for coming on. really appreciate it coming up the government cutting its crude production outlook for next year. this is fuel inventory show you what's going on with oil prices this morning as a result maybe not. att an update on the move and wh icould mean for broader markets.

next, "squawk box" will be right back alysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there. we would not miss it. watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. i love to learn. watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. the power of a low volatility investing approach. the power of smart beta. power your client's portfolio with powershares. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. call 800-983-0903 for the prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. distributed by invesco distributors inc.

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let's break it down for you. the opec monthly report out this morning saying production in saudi arabia is up, almost 10 million barrels a day. this is important. because the saudis are the lynchpin of the opec production cuts if they're pumping more the market gets concerned, that's bearish. the api report last night a drawdown in crude stocks a little more than 8 million barrels. if the doe matches that number this morning on its face it would be bullish but remember inside that d.o.e. report, figures on u.s. production, petroleum inventories and import export data could shift the read on that yesterday the eia out with numbers, they shifted expectations for next year but said production would still be at record levels they're also reducing the demand forecast for this year but bumping it up for next year. that's a little bit mixed. finally, goldman calling for oil under $40 a barrel in the short-term, but citi saying $60 by year end. so it's hard to know what to do right now. but the consensus i'm hearing is

still sell on straight the tea leaves are saying not enough has changed to support a leg up yet so guys basically everyone's going like this when itcomes t oil prices >> at the moment it's the inventory data >> the last few weeks it's really been moving things around because people don't have anything concrete to go on >> jackie, great stuff thanks very much >> nice to see you >> jackie deangelis. >> that's like some cartoons >> yeah. >> which way to do it. >> exactly >> still to come, could be the most expensive shop in history by watchmaker philippe is renting one of new york's most polar party venues for a month. robert frank will join us for thatstory after the break. and bill daley will be our guest. "squawk box" will be right back. [woman] we did it. [man] we're campers. look at us. look at us. it's so nice to get out of the city. it's so... quiet.

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may be the most expensive pop-up shop ever swiss watch game patek philippe is renting 42nd street for a whole month to build a two-story museum and showcase its most famous pieces. our robert frank is there for a first look i don't even think i can step into that store, robert. >> you can, joe.

they have a starter watch that i'm going to tell you about in a minute, which is very affordable by patek standards the luxury watch wars taking on a whole new level, renting out cipriani's on 42nd street. they built a two story swiss palace for watches the watches they have, some of them 400 years old joining us is the president of patek philippe u.s thanks for joining us. so this really expensive what's the business objective of this >> well what we're trying to do is expose people to swiss watch making and also the brand but we want to capture that elusive 20 to 30-year-old next generation client, and teach them a little bit about buying swiss watches. >> so swiss watches have had a very tough couple of years and part of the issue is asia but part of it is millennials don't wear watches they've got their phones they've got smart watches. how are you going to reach them? >> well, our goal is to try to encourage them, and educate them

about the wearable art that is watches. they can certainly find time keeping all over >> right >> but these are something that they can take with them and really appreciate and hand down to the next generation >> all right, so let's talk about some of the wearable art here this is jfk's desk clock the clock that he actually had on his desk. and patek made this. this is valued, it's in a museum, you can't buy it, valued over half a million dollars. how did this come about? >> well the jfk library and museum was nice enough to allow us to show it. it would have been jfk's 100th birthday this year >> wow >> so i think they were excited for us to show it. >> we've got joe dimaggio's watch. this is a $1.5 million timekeeper this $7.5 million, what makes that worth $7.5 million? >> it took nine years to produce and it has 1728 parts and it has some amazing, amazing complications to it. effectively, there's one wheel in there that turns one

revolution every 400 years >> every 400 years so it's leap century in that watch. now this is a new watch that people are seeing for the first time right now, it's a half million dollar watch this, you have a starter watch that is aimed at millennials, starter watch for $20,000. that's still a lot for some people as a starter watch. >> it is still very aspirational i think what we want to do is get people engaged, create a contemporary timepiece that everybody can wear, and it is still timeless and still has, the learns do a wonderful job of continuing the thread. every watch you see has a look of patek philippe. >> and it's still a family owned business so there you go, joe this is your starter watch $20,000. stainless steel. and by the way, these are going to sell out very fast. >> can you still get the italian food if you go into the cipriani store? >> no, no. >> you've got to eat a watch >> great stuff, robert >> thanks, robert.

ony thming up politician and the ecomwi former white house steve of staff bill daley. the donald trump jr. e-mails and much more.

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controversy. we'll tell you what he tweeted janet yellen heads to the hill the fed chair set to testify before congress today amid reports that president trump has a top pick to replace her. plus, it's summer camp for billionaires and media moguls. >> let's race! am i going to miss my camp reunion? >> live report from the summit where mega deals are made. as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box. >> good morning and welcome back we are live from the nasdaq marketsite in times square i'm joe kernen, along with michelle caruso-cabrera and wilfred frost. andrew and becky are off today our guest host is jim paulsen. yep, jim paulsen, chief investment strategist at the leuthold group you're back, bigger than ever.

bigger than ever did they pull you back in? >> just like -- >> you retired -- >> couldn't stay out >> they pulled you back in let's get a check -- >> godfather 3 >> g-3 >> i was thinking planes i was thinking investment groups >> yeah, yeah, yeah. let's get a check on the markets. futures right now indicated i don't know if identify call it sharply higher but solidly higher 21 on the dow, 23 on the nasdaq, 2.35 on the 10-year last we looked yeah, exactly. 2.35 and oil prices back above 45 for now up 65 cents. wti crude up 1.47% right now >> among today's top stories, janet yellen is heading for the hill today the fed chair will testify before the house financial services committee this morning with another appearance tomorrow before the senate. imf managing director christine

lagarde told cnbc she would not rule out another financial crisis >> i wouldn't exclude that there may one day be another crisis where it will come from, what form it takes, how international and broad-based it will be, is to be seen and typically, the crisis never comes from where we expect it. so certainly the message that we give to the finance ministers, to the policymakers, is be prepared make sure that your financial sector is under good supervision, that it's well regulated. that the institutions are rock solid. and anticipate at home so that you can resist the financial crisis >> and i believe that question came in response to a question about janet yellen saying that she didn't think there would be a crisis in her lifetime uber said that its scandals have not been weighing on its business on a conference call with investors, the ride sharing company reportedly said it

expected improved bookings, narrower losses and a possible settlement with alphabet's self-driving car unit waymo. this according to bloomberg. >> some stocks to watch. twitter is hiring former goldman matches managing director ned sagow as next ceo. he'll take over. twitter stocks up. apple engineers are reportedly putting in overtime to fix software bugs affecting the next generation iphone. problems include wireless charging and a 3-d sensor for facial recognition separately apple is setting up its first data center in china as part of an effort to comply with new tougher cybersecurity laws put in place by the chinese government in political news this morning the kremlin says it has never been in touch with the russian lawyer who met with donald trump jr. last year and was the subject of the e-mails that were released yesterday eamon javers joins us now with more good morning >> good morning, michelle. here's the e-mail exchange with

donald trump jr. that is at the sent of today's controversy. this is an e-mail that trump jr. received last year early in the summer, as the campaign was heating up for the presidency. he received an e-mail from a publicist who was working on behalf of russian interests. the publicist writing to donald trump jr., this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump, helped along by aras and emin what the publicist was offering was information about the hillary clinton campaign that he said was being proffered by the russian government and through intermediaries, aras and emina russian ol gork and his son who is a russian pop star. donald trump jr. receives that e-mail, he has a chance to think about it and here's how he responds he says it seems we have some time and if it's what you say, i love it, especially later in the summer last night donald trump jr. went on fox news channel to discuss

this, and admitted he might have made a mistake by following up on that e-mail by setting up a meeting with paul man afort and also jared kushner the president's son-in-law with the russian lawyer here's what he said. >> in retrospect, i probably would have done things a little differently. again this is before the russia mania. this is before they were building it up in the press. for me this was opposition research, they had something, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories i've been hearing about that were probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign, so i think i wanted to hear it out. >> the donald trump jr. there saying he wanted to hear it out. that's why he took that meeting. he said that nothing of substance happened in the meeting, that it was nonsenseicle ultimately from the russian lawyers point of view and ended up centering on the question of russian adoption by american citizens so it didn't really go anywhere according to trump jr the president, though, watched that interview last night. he was pleased with it he tweeted out this morning, here's what he said. he said my son donald did a good job last night he was open, transparent, and

innocent this is the greatest witch-hunt in political history sad. president also saying, remember, when you hear the word sources say from the fake media, oftentimes, those sources are made up, and do not exist. michelle, as you know, that coming from the president who runs an administration where senior administration officials often have to go on background or be named anonymously in stories as senior white house officials, white house officials or simply sources familiar with the matter so, that's where it is today we'll see how all of this unspools later on throughout the afternoon in washington where republican support for this administration goes through the rest of the day today. >> you got any insight, eamon into the, i've heard it's a circular firing squad. that the first case of this wasn't that bad, the last piece but the middle piece where there were three senior advisers that were quoted and supposedly they're looking for those three, and no one trusts anyone have you heard any of that >> yeah, we do know, i do know

that a lot of people inside this white house have mistrust for each other part of it is ideological because you have, as you've been describing, sort of the globalist wing of the republican party, and also the nationals wing of the republican party those people don't necessarily get along. but it's also personality driven there's been a lot of leaking, a lot of mistrust within the trump staff. the question is, you know, did somebody put this out from within the white house, or within the white house circle of both allies or did it come from the hill or did it come from somewhere else we don't know -- >> not from donald trump jr. but maybe jared kushner as well, right? >> and then there's the family dynamics this is sort of, you know, oedipal. you've got the son who was displaced sort of by his sister, donald trump jr. doesn't have an office in the west wing, he's running the trump organization, instead. so, what are the relationships like within this family?

>> right >> that's op rhettic, as well. >> not completely unlike a "squawk box. we've got the globalist wing >> sure. >> the elitist wing over here. more nationalist wing camera right. >> exactly camera right >> but we speak up >> thank you, eamon. >> from time to time -- >> by the way, cnbc viewers have already met the russian pop star mentioned in donald trump jr.'s e-mail, because that's amin appeared on the closing bell two years ago. he was described as the donald trump of russia and asked about his relationship with putin. what about people who say much of your success has been through access because of your father and he's been a successful businessman, you know, relations with vladimir putin and so on? >> i get that a lot. but people who come to my shows, they draw their own clon collusions >> eamon >> eamon >> just talked to eamon. emin spelled differently javers changed it now

he was on closing bell >> yeah. >> i thought it might be did when i -- in davos a couple years ago -- >> when i was in davos a couple of years ago -- >> the russian federation, caviar, and all the vodka and everything >> oh, yeah. >> so there was like the tom jones pop star of russia was performing and it was like, really kind of -- >> you know who tom jones is >> i do. i don't know who the russian equivalent is. >> i thought i wonder if -- that was not him. i was watching him, and it was almost sort of -- >> did you eat the caviar? >> it's very salty >> oh, i love it >> anyway, it was not that guy but they in their own -- >> should always take free caviar >> guys that aren't as big as -- >> of course they do i mean -- that's not groundbreaking revolution, joe >> well, no, but i think if katy perry goes to russia, they'll

show up for that but if this guy comes here we're not going to show up for him emin -- you don't even know the alphabet >> you don't need to understand the words to like a song >> no, but the pop music -- >> -- maybe we'll listen to him over here. >> like we did when korea took us by storm with gangnam style >> yeah, that was -- >> we didn't really understand that song. >> nope. >> as you know, that has now been knocked off top spot as being the most watched music video ever as of this morning >> no way! >> yes, correct. >> what's now the most popular -- >> the song from i've now forgotten it, someone is hopefully going to tell me in my ear in a moment. the song -- >> i bet bill daley knows. >> yeah. >> wiz khalifa >> okay, all right >> just knocked off as of the last day >> joining us now, former white house chief of staff bill daley. and bill, i read your notes, i always like talking to you, because you're kind of old

school, but democrat from one of the most famous democratic families on the planet and then i was thinking, i want to hear you talk about how politics has really become rough and tumble now, and then i want to think about your grandfather and your father and everything i want to see you say it with a straight face that it's really gotten down and dirty lately, and it hasn't been that way before >> well, joe, my grandfather was a sheet meltal worker so he didn't really -- >> sorry, the other one. that's right >> my dad -- >> and then richard j. before him, right >> right no doubt about it. politics is a rough business news media isn't exactly a walk in the park either but politics has changed and if you think it hasn't, those who have been around washington or politics in general you're kidding yourself. it is very different social media has changed that. quite frankly the cable 24 hour politics news -- >> but hasn't it always been dirty? >> it's been tough rumble, dirty

is, you know, you could define dirty in lots of different ways. politics is -- politics is also a good -- you know, it's rather basic to our system of governance >> who knows what happened in some previous elections, presidential and otherwise but opposition research and doing what it takes to win, that's not new and i agree -- >> joe, from a foreign government, which is historically been an enemy of ours, that you cannot conflate those two -- >> but, but some of your colleagues are using the word treason, bill. so it could be hieber pollic, or you could be -- >> oh, absolutely. >> or you could say, absolutely indefensible, obviously. and should have gone to the fbi immediately. but then you can also say, you know, you don't want to be like the guy on cass to blanca, i'm shocked here that someone was listening to some opposition research >> no, but joe you can't just separate opposition research from a foreign government. >> what about the -- how is that

different? >> well, manafort's ukrainian deal >> -- opposition research that would have benefited them. >> okay, you want to play this game of, you did it, too, therefore they did it. it's okay. let's move on. there's nothing to it. now i don't know if there's anything to it beyond what we've already seen but the one factor that's come out in the last 24 hours, or 48 hours, from president trump's son is the fact that he knew, or was told, that the russian government was trying to help his father in the campaign, and he brought the chairman of the campaign and the senior adviser of the campaign, to a meeting where allegedly nobody knew who it was or anything about it. that's crazy -- al gore's campaign in 2000 and i wouldn't go to a meeting and not know what the hell it was about. >> bill, do you smell any white house dissension in the dissemination of this information? is this a reflection of

infighting that's happening there? >> well i don't think anyone's ever seen a white house with so many circular firing squads or direct firing squads at each other like we've seen in the last six months. but quite frankly, and i've said this on your show before, joe, as we've engaged, this white house is a reflection of the person at the top. and the way they like to govern or run their business. and president trump has historically liked engagement, liked sort of pitting one against the other and that works neighbor in his business that's difficult in a white house. but i don't think anyone, republican or democrat, has ever seen a white house with so much seemingly infighting, challenging each other, dumping stories on each other, it's pretty amazing and i think it hurt the president, obviously >> okay go ahead >> bill i was just wondering, how much of a lot of what we see going on, including the way this thing with russia just has to do with the fact of where the world's moved here to globalization, to high tech, to

instant and constant connection, communications, all across the globe, and we're seeing a president that is using social media in a way that we never did before and now we're seeing communication that might have been done just within our borders, and it has been, since third on the opposition. now it's done globally >> i think that's a really good point. and i think it also makes these sort of stories, or investigations, or whatever you want to call it, more seemingly more dramatic, because you get an e-mail. it may have been in watergate or other scandals, it was a phone call it was a meeting now you have evidence. much more than you had before. where you got an e-mail, you got a tweet, or you've got other means that everybody can obviously use an iphone and record a meeting so i think that's a very good point. it's roolly added to the sort of -- >> one more question

how much longer before the american public is just not going to care about ongoing impeachment investigations it seems like my entire life since nixon we've had impeachment investigation after impeachment investigation, and at some point you just kind of get, you know, you kind of lose interest in it >> well, i don't think the american people lost interest in -- there's only been two impeachments in your lifetime and mine, bill clinton and richard nixon -- >> there's been investigations -- >> oh, yeah, investigations of politicians all over the country, investigations, take the one year i was chief of staff for president obama, the congress had more investigations of the house, of the president and everything he did, the house was investigating like crazy, democrats did the same thing to president bush, obviously, and if they ever get control of the house back, you can get your -- that they will investigate donald trump morning, noon and night. so there is -- but that's also fuelled, quite frankly, by you all in the media, who, whether it's investigative reporting,

people have a suspicion about their government, you know, 58, 60 years ago, people didn't have the cynicism about their system of governing that they have today. which has caused all of this sort of investigations on both sides of everybody that's just for real and it ain't going to change. >> bill, one thing that everyone kept saying yesterday was it's a horrible political story terrible for the white house and for president trump. but they don't know legally whether it's -- whether it's -- whether you can connect the dots to something that's illegal, and collusion or not if nothing -- that's saying a lot because things seem to, you know, they're like roaching you see one and you keep seeing all the other ones if this were the last thing that came out this is not an existential threat at this point, do you think? >> no, no. but i think it's pretty hard to imagine that this is the end >> that's right. >> and every time you pull the string you're absolutely right and i think it's -- you know, i think this has gone to a

different level quite frankly, and i would have a major concern about where this leads, because you now have, you know, as close as you can get to a president, and a campaign, with the chairman of the campaign, the senior adviser, and the president -- >> i was only kidding earlier, bill, when i said manafort was supposedly looking at his phone not even paying attention in a meeting. and i was kidding. and i said, because he had just talked to putin who said this woman doesn't work for us. i was kidding. i was only kidding he knew the real deal about what was going on >> you should not spread fake news like that that's not true. >> i was kidding but he wasn't even looking at, like -- >> anyway. >> thanks, bill. >> bill daley, thanks. sorry about mixing up you guys not related to john daly either? >> i've got a brother name john. >> thank you amazon's prime day is officially over it may have been one of the biggest glal sppobhoing events ever a rundown of the numbers next.

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welcome back to "squawk box. amazon wrapping up its day of deals. prime day, courtney regan is here with a prime day score

card >> i'm done shopping i hope everyone else is. 30 hours is definitely enough. it did run for 30 hours this year but the deals ended early this morning. but by late tuesday amazon was already telling cnbc that it was on pace to be the biggest global shopping event in amazon history. with u.s. prime members ordering more than 6,000 deals every minute and its small business sellers saw their global unit orders increase 50-plus percent this prime day over last year's prime day. the most popular categories, according to amazon, are what they classify as home chef, for the home, and techies. we know amazon sold two times more echo family devices in the u.s. this prime day than last, and three times more than worldwide. now, other top selling items include 23 and me dna tests, and senseo bluetooth head phones there were lots of head phones for sale

there was some early prime day deals available. an some done prime now, one and two hour delivery service, and through electric voice commands this past weekend. so slice intelligence tells cnbc that those early deals this weekend did push prime now sales up 14% compared to the weekend prior. it also sparked interest in nonprime deals pushing amazon.com sales of 6% again compared to the prior weekend. and 15% of those amazon prime now buyers were first-time prime now shoppers so it did work to grab their attention. boomerang commerce which is run by a former amazon employee says that amazon's prime day discounts ranged from about 31% to 45% on average. deals offered by amazon third party sellers, however, did have on average a greater discount level than the discount rate for items that were shipped and sold by amazon directly beauty products as a category

overall did have the greatest discount levels. but some shoppers may have been disappointed by the prices on products that are most popular every other day of the year. boomerang commerce again said that amazon's normal best sellers in appliances, home and kitchen, electronics, toys and games, weren't discounted. in fact they actually were slightly more expensive on prime day than on a non-prime day. michelle maybe they're saving it for a black friday, a cyber monday but it was an interesting observation nonetheless. popular products weren't included >> got it. >> let's discuss with paul meeks now some of his top picks in the tech sector. chief investment officer, paul good morning to you. let's hit amazon first of all. is it a stock you like, and does prime day make a difference in your judgment of the stock price? >> first of all, it is a stock i like the prime day itself, i think is nice, it's cool, but i don't think that's a driver for the

stock. i'm laser beam focused on amazon web services and the continued dominance that they have in the public cloud the stock has come off about 5% from the top so i think it's probably a decent buy here >> i also want to ask about this debate we've seen spark up in the last couple of days because morgan stanley the lead underwriter in the poi has marked down their price target for snap where do you stand in the debate between snap and facebook and which if either do you like? >> i think facebook is the one to buy and if you ever think about buying snap, slap yourself, and just buy some more facebook the problem with snap is it probably shouldn't have rushed to ipo, because the business model was so immature. and it looks like the -- what facebook has done with instagram stories to capture some of the snapchat functionality shows that they're going to keep their lead, and maybe even extend it >> and china's version, sort of version of facebook in terms of

ten cent is a stock you like, but in particular, the discounted way to get access to that stock that you like >> yeah, it's very interested. ten cent i like very much but that trades in hong kong, and just to make things even weirder, i'm interested in nsaperse which is a south african company which has three stakes in pretty big public companies including ten cent and the publicly traded value per nasperse is $113 with in value and the market cap itself is only $84 billion so if the stock rises just to reflect its held portfolio that's a 35% increase. >> there we go and a way to get exposure to chinese social media paul thanks very much. we'll have to leave it there >> yes, sir. still to come, plus billionaires and media moguls descending on sun valley we'll talk to sir martin sorr l sorrell.

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we're counting down to the big reveal of cnbc's top states for business >> north carolina repealed its controversial bathroom bill so businesses that boycotted the state have begun to return >> texas is still adding jobs at among the fastest rates in the mission. minnesota's best category education. georgia finishes near the top for workforce, and infrastructure >> and the winner is washington state. >> thanks for this honor >> washington, america's top state for business 2017. good morning, and welcome back to "squawk box" here on

cnbc live from the nasdaq marketsite in times square. futures right now indicated higher up 41 on the dow, 43 now, 25 on the nasdaq, s&p indicated up almost 6. and news just breaking on janet yellen let's get to ylan mui and what is it? >> janet yellen saying in her appearance for congressional testimony that the balance sheet is likely to start shrinking this year, however she gave no clear indication of whether the fed would hike rates as well now that testimony is slated to begin in just about an hour and a half according to the remarks she says that the balance sheet will eventually be quote appreciably smaller than the current level of more than $4 trillion but it will still likely be larger than it was before the financial crisis she also emphasized that the balance sheet is not an active tool of monetary policy. in other words, adjustments in

the balance sheet do not substitute for a hike in interest rates now when it comes to the great debate over inflation, this is something that officials have been questioning what the root causes of inflation are. janet yellen said that the downdraft is due to, quote, a few unusual reductions in certain categories of prices and that's just sort of come out in the wash over the next year or so. she also said twice that the fed is carefully monitoring or monitoring inflation data going forward, so this is something that is certainly going to be remaining top of minds as for her broader assessment of the economy, it didn't change much she said that the labor market continues to improve, growth is continuing at a moderate pace, and also that consumer spending and business investment are both up so with several pockets of uncertainty that she did mention, inflation was one, but also fiscal policy is another one. she also mentioned that there could be weak spots in the global economy that could have an impact on u.s. growth, as

well of course, any monetary policy decisions will depend on whether or not the fed's forecast actually come rue. guys monetary policy is not on a preset course. guys, back over to you >> thank you appreciate steve liesman is here. you got any inside enfoe on this gary cohn thing? >> no. only that we've talked about this for a very long time -- >> sorkin has been -- >> -- also by the way -- >> and the idea that the guy who is in charge of the search committee, ends up being the guy who the search committee finds >> i thought about that. >> we've seen before >> funny how that works. >> very, very high levels. i want to talk real quickly about what, you know, ylan was talking about. what we're wondering, one of the big questions is when will the fed begin this balance sheet

reduction. and i didn't hear anything ylan said that gave us that insight she said it's going to happen this year. i don't know that the matters a whole lot. jim let's come back and talk to you about whether july, september matters a whole lot. whether they end up -- you on your way out right now >> i don't think it matters that much i really don't i think did she say any words like appreciably, and if they weren't going to commence this, you know, it's kind of like saying i'm going to be aggressive but oh, we're not going to do it until next year i think they're going to get it done this year, steve. i don't think it roo ellie matters when they start the process. >> and we do have a little tickdown in the 10-year note and in the 2-year note i want to put that up in the back there and i think part of it is this notion, set yesterday, repeated today by janet yellen, that we don't have that much further to go which is a really interesting concept. i don't know if they're saying are 3% long run rate is too high, we're going to bring it down or they're saying that 3% is not

that far from where they are right now. but we need a little bit of meat on the bones those are the two significant things i think are out there janet yellen repeated today that there's not that much further to go and there's this overriding question about inflation kissing it off essentially saying it's a temporary factor >> i think it's interesting, they're doing that with the cpi reports and some of the -- but it doesn't explain away why wages aren't going up. there's no technical -- >> steve has an answer for that. >> do you? >> i think i have a partial answer, at least i appreciate michelle -- >> he did the story -- >> giving me credit on -- i think it's a compositional thing we've brought in younger workers, minority workers, we've brought in less educated workers and typically those people make less money and compositionally, remember we're measuring overall wages, and then we're measuring the change between the two

so if you bring in lower wage workers, then it's going to be one way or -- and over time we may get to the place where -- but i think it's one piece of it plus by the way you're rolling off with the baby boomer retirement higher wage workers >> so this, you pick off the yield did >> did i say that? >> you see the stock futures >> did they surge? >> yeah, they did. >> they love it. i think the key thing -- >> take a look we're going to take a quick look we were up 40 on the dow >> and now >> 75. >> market likes it >> and that just happened. >> what does it all mean about the dollar because you kind of would expect dollar to be a bit stronger than it's been but it continues to say soft >> i think that's a really key thing in the second half of this year, wilfred. i think the dollar is real close to the low of the 30 month trading range and everyone's expecting it to go up. i think it's going to break lower. and that's going to set off a lot of different things. one of them is push commodity prices higher.

it will also escalate inflation anxieties. it will make the fed look a little behind the curve. it will agitate bond vigilantes. i think that's a key thing if it breaks south i think that wage number, if it breaks three, i think that's a game changer for wall street i think the mind-set of wall street starts to focus on -- >> and you should explain, because i don't know that everybody -- >> we keep saying we got to go >> i didn't hear -- are they telling me -- >> he's the guy who has to tell -- >> i'm going to say this anyway. i think this is important. because when you talk about higher wages, the other side of that which is so important to wall street is the profit margin the profit margin has been at historical high for corporations, and if wages are going to go up, and you're not going to get inflation, that means it's going to stress profit margins i know guys who are very bearish about wall street right now, about stocks, because of this rising wages and shrinking profit margin story. >> i think we will get price inflation with that.

>> you were surprised to see him, too >> i love jim. i've known jim forever and he's -- >> he left wells fargo was it the fake accounts that investors set up you finally said i'm out of here you just couldn't take it. >> they charge you $2 for a credit card. >> when you say he doesn't look a day over 70. i'm coming in listening on the radio -- >> i let him have that scruffy beard -- >> like he retired and all of a sudden he became an old man, which can happen -- >> the -- >> you just keep working jimmy boy. >> up next, president trump's pick to replace former fbi chief jim comey is heading to the hill today. former assistant fbi director n sko llrohowi join us right after the break. we'll be right back.

the annual allen and company conference is under way in sun valley, idaho, drawing media moog yules, tech titans and big name investors, and also julia boorstin who is there. julia? >> hey, joe. well mergers and acquisitions and questions about business in the era of trump were top in line among the ceos we talked to last night with m&a speculation about their companies, verizon ceo lowell mcadams says verizon

is not merging with disney and cbs but lest moonves said cbs is not buying lions gate. also warren buffett, sherry redstone, jeffrey katzenberg and reed hoffman among others. sources tell us that jared kushner and ivanka trump are on the latest attendee list but they haven't been spotted here just yet discovery ceo told me he thinks president trump's lighter regulatory approach will enable more deals >> overall there's less regulation, it's more positive so from that perspective i think that it's likely to be favorable environment for business here. >> but others were critical, including sam altman, who expressed concerns about trump's negative impact on immigration, the environment, as well as tech ability to innovate. and billionaire ken langone who's been a big trump supporter said the political environment was wacky. politics is sure to be top in mind throughout this conference. tom brokaw is hosting a panel

called the country divided, and political leaders from the king of jordan, the president of colombia will also be slated to speak over the course of the next two days. and next several days. but the first panel this morning is on the state of the american economy. so joining me now is a frequent -- >> mini mogul. >> a mogul of the advertising industry, sir martin sorrell, who's been a visitor here -- >> for a few years >> so with politics being such a big topic this year, with jared kushner and ivanka trump expected, what are the topics you and other ceos are watching in terms of the impact on your business of president trump's policy >> obviously the u.s. is the biggest economy in the world 19 trillion out of 72 so what happens in the u.s. really is a key indicator. it's about a third of our business so, i think most business leaders would probably take david's view, or the view of the pro view that if president trump can implement his agenda of

infrastructure spending, of less regulation, and lower tax, if he can, that's a boost for the u.s. economy, at a time probably that it needs it. because what we see is pretty anemic topline growth. we see companies, clients, getting to where they had to get to by focusing on cost, very little price impact because there's very little inflation and therefore focus on cost. so it's more about the bottom line through cost containment or reduction than it is by topline expansion. >> and perspective on so many different industries that are all advertising -- >> yeah. >> through wpt, are you seeing all this political volatility both in u.s., and in the uk, impact spending decisions or people -- >> we're seeing continuous caution for the reason that i said we're seeing very much a focus on the short-term. there are three major influences the first is obviously technological disruption the second is the rise of zedbb, zero base, nothing new in that but it's the new wave of it.

and the last is activist investors in two or three of our five largest clients you have either activist investors, or zed bb activity strongly at work focus on the bottom line through cost i think is the key issue. in the uk, the uncertainty over brexit over the next two years will probably damper top line growth continental europe probably a little bit better. macron in france, germany, italy, spain we've got elections in italy which bring s electoral uncertainty. but that's an issue in in europe at a time when the uk may be leaving europe is probably getting stronger asia big question is what happens in china after the people's party congress. india strong but it's slowed because of gst that's caused a little bit of short-term concern, but longer-term india i think remains very, very strong. brazil big question mark what happens politically in brazil mexico, stronger colombia will have president

santos here. so, a bit of strength there. but generally, the world is one of slow growth, and as i say, little inflation little pricing power >> wilf you want to jump in here >> martin, good to see you as always i wanted to ask if snap is struggling to generate the ad dollars as much as the recent decline in the share price could suggest? >> well, wilfred, snap, for us, last year was about $100 million out of $400 million we invested with our clients about $100 million. this year, we're forecasting about $200 million so if you -- if you project that for snap as a whole, their total advertising revenue should be around about a billion i think there's been some controversy as to whether that will -- it will reach a billion or not but when you compare that to google and facebook, facebook at around $40 billion, google at around $90 billion, our spending with facebook last year was about $1.7 billion this year probably well over $2

billion. google, under $5 billion last year, a little bit over say $5.5 billion, $6 billion this year. so what we will see is still significantly greater spending at google and acebook. facebook, it's almost 20 times what we've seen or google is 20 times what we've seen. >> with facebook and instagram successfully copying some of snap's most popular features do you think that snap has a chance to be a significant -- >> that's where the battleground is snap obviously has been copied, plagiarized you could say, by facebook but very successfully so in the last couple of weeks, last couple of months, analysts, at morgan stanley, they also revised the estimates on snap, they were the broker that ipo'd them so that was pretty much a seminal moment so there has been a concentration on whether facebook can successfully repulse snap, and to date it seems that they have

at the developers conference on the west coast of facebook, the people i spoke to came away from that said that facebook was very successfully -- >> and just a quick final question on google and facebook, you've been critical of that duopoly, have they done enough to reassure you about brand safety and also about transparency in terms of accountability >> google has made very strong efforts on what i call consumer brand safety, political brand safety the terrorist part of it, as well and theresa may coming out of downing street, after the tragedy of the day before and saying four points, second point was we have to do something about the internet, so this political brand safety is also critical, as well as the consumer brand safety. google have stepped up to the mark the question is, whether it's enough facebook also has maybe less pressurized but it's going to become equally important, particularly on the political dimension. that's a dimension when governments get involved, when presidents and prime ministers get involved, it's a very serious situation. so i would say, you know, report card is a good one but there's still more to do >> well, i certainly would love

to be a fly on the wall on those conversations you're going to be having down here >> julia, you're not going to be a fly on the wall. >> thank you so much guys back over to you. >> julia, thank you a lot. sir martin, thank you for that some news in from royal bank of scotland, it will pay $5.5 billion to sketle a lawsuit with the u.s. the federal housing finance agency had accused it of misselling $32 billion worth of mortgage backed securities before the global financial crisis this is a little bit bigger than analysts forecast, the $3.5 to $5 billion range the stock gaining 1.6% president trump's pick to lead the fbi, christopher wray will appear before the senate. joining us is ron hosko former assistant fbi director, good to have you here, sir >> good morning. >> i was going to ask you first a lot of questions about christopher wray but now i'm going to ask you about what happened with donald trump's e-mails yesterday. donald trump jr.'s e-mails yesterday. and whether or not you think that's going to be part of the conversation at the hearing today.

>> you know, i suspect it will be brought up. i think mr. wray will be reserved in his commentary about the ongoing investigation, recognizing that it's being led by bob mueller now and i think he'll be overall guarded in his commentary, and would be overall suggestion that the facts will lead the way for the fbi. and when they are all in place, that's the point that the fbi will make its conclusions, or determination. >> federal election law says a foreign national shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or implied with promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with any federal, state or local election based on the e-mails that you saw yesterday, was there any risk of any risk of violation there in federal election law >> sounds like the risk is on the foreign national although certainly one can i think find their way to a conclusion that

donald trump jr. and others in the room were complicit in the conversation, whether that rises to criminality i think we are a long way from that. how far this conversation went after the conversation it sounds as though it might have gone nowhere. >> they are arguing that that was actually a value to that info had there been any info. it's much better to set up a foundation if you want to take contributions. that's the way to do it. set up a foundation. that's the way to do it, ron. >> any number of ways to do it. >> that's the best way. >> if you are looking to conspire and do it under the radar. >> this is chump change. you need the foundation. >> what you need is bob mueller digging into these details finding out the entire scope of this transaction, other transactions, trying to find what has not been reported in

the public domain and chasing the facts. >> you said the foreign national would be onus on her to register as foreign agent or not to have tried to influence the election. what about donald trump jr.? anybody else in that room? >> i think there are serious questions that have to be asked. i'm certain that bob mueller and his team will ask those questions and see where it leads. i think today it's premature to jump to conclusions that i heard over the last day or so. subversion i heard, treason was one of the comments. i think that is way over the top. we will hear it today in the chris wray hearing is going to be political speak. it is going to be republicans or democrats bouncing their own political views off of a candidate, a nominee who is not going to really respond to that in a substantive way. >> they are not looking for a

response. they love that. >> saying it out loud. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> jim cramer joins us from the new york stock exchange.

get down to the new york stock exchange. the futures are now triple digits since 8:30 when the yellen stuff came up. they went from 40 to 120. we can go conspiracy theory

which is maybe janet will keep rates low for real estate president. is it the new normal globally is lower interest rates than terminal rate can be only a couple more hikes. >> some people must have thought she would say something negative for the market. i know interest rates going down hurts the bank stocks. the bank stocks are leaders that they report on friday. i think that you are getting ahead of yourself to buy all other common stocks. these stocks need to be in charge. you cannot run this whole rally on boeing and nvidean. >> we were kidding around that maybe she keeps her job if she says a couple more hikes. maybe it is not gary cohen. >> i thought the more gary cohen talk comes to fruition the more people are excited. the idea that he is not an economist.

the idea that he wouldn't be sophisticated enough, he understands why we have very little inflation. he has given the best talk i heard on the notion of the apple world, the iphone world which loses a lot of jobs. gary cohen would be unbelievable as fed chair. st. uld just quit my job is go lien >> thanks, jim. squawk box will be right back.

our guest host this morning, final thought. economists were invented to make astrologists look good. would it be good to not have not an economist running the federal reserve? >> i can handle that. someone with more of a business background. i could go with that. >> how much of a fall can the market stomach >> on the dollar i think it would be a biggest risk initially for bonds and ultimately at some rate level for the ten year i think it would take stocks. i think that is higher. maybe as much as a percent higher. >> you have been talking about commodity inflation for years. this is finally happening for you. >> maybe the dollar will finally break. >> that would be good i think for exports. >> it's been a bad thing for earnings in this country. it's held down commodities and oil. it would be a good change. >> i'm glad you are back. >> back and better than ever. you don't look a day over 40.

"squawk on the street" is next. ♪ good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street". futures are up and yields are down as yellen's testimony says interest rates may not have to get much high toor get to neutral. the fed chair sits before house financial services committee in about an hour. plenty to watch. europe is green. ten year yield