"squawk box" starts right now. live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin, yo is out today. joining us is the business editor of axiot, dan primack a lot of things to talk about a lot related to politics and washington let's look at u.s. equity futures. yesterday all three of the major averages were higher once again. it was a trifecta of record closes the dow, s&p and the nasdaq all ending the day in record territory. you can see this morning there are green arrows once again. it looks like the dow futures are indicated up by over 14 points

s&p indicated up fractionally. the nasdaq up fractionally as well overnight in asia, the nikkei ended higher it was up by 11 points that's still a win hang seng was up by a quarter percent. so was the shanghai composite. this morning and in some of the early trading we've seen take place in europe, modest advances actually things are relatively flat the cac is up by 0.1%. the ftse is flat the dax is flat. we'll see how things react as we get deeper into the trading day. let's look at crude oil prices crude was down yesterday this morning it's back above $50. $50.7 $5 $50.70 >> hurricane maria is lashing the islands, and puerto rico is preparing for a strike steve mclaughlin joins us now.

>> from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., this storm had winds of 175, we're down to 155 this is a strong category 4. the eyewall a bit bigger, now on land, mainland puerto rico we don't get an official landfall until the center of that eye crosses land. here are the implications. 150-mile-per-hour sustained winds, gusts to 180. four to 9-foot storm surge at the coast. 12 to 18 inches of rain, especially in the mountains where you could have rudd and mud slides real quickly let's check out the track. it looks like once the storm gets past puerto rico, it will go just north of the dominican republic, not a direct hit, still could be bad then right around or east of the tishg turks and caicos, east of the

bahamas, from there, we think the east coast of the united states could be in play for a hurricane at this time maybe not a direct landfall but close enough for high surf up and down the east coast from georgia, south carolina to boston we'll have more on that in the coming days. >> thank you very much for that. now it's coming for us >> the number of storms, the number of hurricanes, ferocity has been stunning. it's not the only natural disaster we've been watching we have an update on that devastating earthquake that struck mexico city here's what we know. the magnitude 7.1 quake struck 76 miles southeast of mexico city more than 40 buildings and structures collapsed the mexico stock exchange and the mexico city airport suspended operations officials say that at least 226 people are dead. 22 children were killed and 38 are stillmissing after an elementary school collapsed. the quake hit just two hours after buildings across the city

conducted earthquake drills to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly quake that struck back in 1985 the scenes have been horrific. the video that's been coming out, very hard to watch. we will get an update from a reporter who is in mexico city that's coming up in less than a half hour. let's get you caught up on some of the top corporate stories. fedex earnings missing the mark. a cyberattack on its tnt express unit earlier this year cutting profit base third. hurricane harvey also impacted operations fedex is lowering its full-year profit forecast. bed bath & beyond is down 14% in

the premarket. the latest results missing forecasts as online sales were not enough to yoffset sliding sales. the company also cutting its full-year outlook. is bed bath & beyond being amazoned >> yeah. >> yeah? >> as simple as yeah. the federal reserve taking central stage today. joining sus charlie d ishus is and jim o'sullivan our guest host is dan primack, the business editor of axios. jim, what do you expect to hear from the fed. >> the first part of qt is well indicated. they gave us the plan three

months ago they will activate the plan today. 10 billion a month of shrink cage increasing the balance sheet by 3.6 trillion it's slow and steady it builds up to 50 billion a month after a year >> you don't expect surprises. >> there will be no surprise in that the focus of markets is on the signal of rates, dot plot what they show for the new inflation project slunio projections, growth in unemployment the first thing people will zorsoazero in on is the median dot in december >> meaning >> so the-called dot plot where the fed projections, do they show another tightening before the end of the year? 12 of the 16 do. so the median shows one more rate hike before the end of the year i expect that will be the case still, even if one or two officials take it out of their

forecast there's a set of projections inflation numbers probably will come down a bit. >> charles, sounds like this has been telegraphed probably no surprises, which means what when it comes to the market >> well, i mean, i think it's interesting this sort of focus on the dot plots, as was just being described. i think the market, particularly after its recent moves, where we moved back to the middle of the range we've been holding in this year, it leaves the market vulnerable to a dovish surprise. i think if we do see the forward looking dot plots being moved slightly lower, the market will take that as a bit of a dovish signal because we moved back to the middle of the range so quickly after the pressing towards 2% a couple weeks ago. >> forgive me for pushing on this, it's been so long that bad news has been considered good news by the market the market looks for any goldilocks thinking the economy is okay, the fed will never do

anything if the fed sounds more dovish, stocks trade up as a result? charles? >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear you. would you repeat that. >> i guess my question is, if the fed sounds more dovish than expected, you think the market would trade higher stocks would trade higher as a result >> yeah. i think so broadly speaking, everything to do with the rate profile has been the primary dictator for the sort of risk-on risk-off appetite for the market. in the current market mindset, if we continue to see a potential sign from the fed to continue hiking that will be taken constructively for equity markets and credit markets that's been the primary determinate. i don't think that will change >> it's been amazing, axios can cover all the didn't political headlines coming out, there's a lot of news to get your head

around, the market seems to pay attention to none of it. >> i'll get messages saying trump said so and so, you would say this is a problem. yesterday he basically threatened nuclear war on stage at the u.n., markets don't care. nuclear war doesn't happen does tax reform happen or not happen the markets go up no matter what comes out of washington, d.c >> charles, back to that point, is there anything that could move the needle higher when it comes to the market? it seems nothing takes the market down. if tax reform looks more likely, does that add additional fuel to the rally or not >> i think the devil lies in the detail for that one. certainly tax cut also help support consumption. if we get meaningful reform that does start to repatriate things, potentially open up the possibility of more infrastructure spending, i think that that would provide additional fuel to the fire and

could accelerate as i say credit markets and equity markets by a significant margin >> jim, i think all eyes again, we use that phrase and hate that phrase, all eyes, but the fed matters. that's the one central theme to what's happening to stock markets, not just the federal reserve but the central banks around the globe >> absolutely. in the long run for sure it's not in the fed's interest to shake things up too much today with the start of qt ultimately, the markets right now are pricing in 40 basis points of tightening the fed's own median projections suggest 100 basis points to the extent there's a tax cut and now it's coming back on board, there's agreement apparently about a budget resolution in the senate, that starts the process, to the extent that comes through, that's only going to encourage the fed to tighten more in 2018 f that comes through that's still an if i think there's a risk the bond

market in particular is complacent about the fed >> right sure dan, the one thing everybody is watching now is which direction washington will go will we see more across the aisle, more bipartisanship issues, or if healthcare passes, is that the end of bipartisanship and what does that mean for tax reform >> if this healthcare plan goes, the whole democrat, white house dance, i think they go back to their separate corners tax reform is still the big one, not bigger than healthcare the idea that you will have a big kumbaya on tax reform is wishful thinking there's big differences there. >> we talked about bipartisanship, it's just spr d sprouts? >> we've seen it on the debt ceiling for a couple months this wasn't a long-term fix, it was a couple months. we'll deal with that again in december >> dan will be with us for the rest of the hour jim and charlie, thank you

don't miss complete coverage of today's fed decision, that's coming up on "power lunch" starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern time coming up, fallout from the brexit we will talk to a member of the european parliament who sees big opportunities in the uk's tech sector don't miss a live and exclusive interview with bill ackman he will be talking about the battle with adp for the very first time that's at noon eastern today

welcome back to "squawk box. in political news, senate t republicans reaching a budget deal that would allow tax cuts over the next decade sources say the senate budget committee could hold a vote on the measure as early as next week separately the white house says it will continue to pay obamacare subsidies for the month of september, this as senators failed to reach a bipartisan deal to repair obamaca obamacare. this is something you have to be watching closely >> the bipartisan agreement doesn't come together, but there's a republican plan that the white house supports

the bipartisan plan seems to have died because paul ryan and the house said don't do this. >> the other thing is if there's a deal on healthcare t has to happen by september 30 sntth >> yeah. after that, you will need the support of a lot of democrats, and it doesn't look like they'll get that. brexit will leakly p likely lot of opportunities for the uk tech sector. an advisory panel has been set up to see potential brexit benefits we are joined from d. c. this morning by the co-chair of the european conservatives and reformists group you made the case for why the uk brexit has -- will or could become ultimately a good thing for tech companies what you are hearing from them

now? >> good morning. yes. what i'm hearing from the tech sector is a variety of responses. some assume we will go back to a 1970s model of doing things, such as immigration and trade. i'm saying whenever there's disruption, you have three ways to respond you are either be fragile and roll over, you can be robust and seek to survive, or be a anti-fragile and try to thrive we can move into more online immigration systems, we can be moving into smart immigration systems. we could be moving to smarter border controls rather than assuming going back to paper systems. >> in terms of attracting technology companies in the uk, making it an attractive place for business what kind of feedback are you feeling and hearing now? >> clearly there are some concerns some people assume leaving the

eu means an insulate britain and closing our doors. the immigration policy would be that we would treat everyone out of the uk equally. we will be able to attract some of the best global talent for tech and other sectors in the uk, but it will be a more controlled system. >> i'm hearing the opposite. i don't know where dan is landing on this. dan is here from axios you spend a lot of time with technology companies >> i'm hearing fear. part of it is the uncertainty of it if you're starting a new business and say somebody is in britain and wants to start a busine business, and you're from france, start the business in france >> in some parts, some say the

other advantages in the uk outweigh everything in france. you're right, there is uncertainty. the uk made an offer on immigration and the status of eu citizens that's the back and forth in the messa negotiations the eu is saying your offer is not good enough. the uk is saying hold on, we want to treat everyone equally we don't want to give people preference just from the eu, we want to attract global talent. this is a huge issue >> is there any example yet of success? is there a company or a group of people that you feel like you have found and either they stayed or you're keeping them in a way you weren't before >> i think people are waiting to see what sort of deal we'll get. we are seeing companies -- investments by some companies. apple announced a bigger investment google announce the bigger

investment in the uk that's where the more uncertainty is but at the moment the advantages are still in the uk. >> is that a talent pool story a tax story? >> you have to look at these things as not just one factor. clearly migration is an issue. if you look at the friendliness, our infrastructure, we can't be complacent about this, it's important that we continue to offer those advantages so, people feel comfortable starting up their companies and growing their companies in the uk >> dan, i don't know if you recall eric schmit from google said the uk would be the next capital -- venture capital and the hot spot did that change in your mind and all the folks you spend time with from silicon valley >> it's not a britain thing, it's a europe thing. if you look at global venture capital, the u.s., california is number one china number two where britain stands with the rest of the eu, it's usually

above, but not that high above >> we appreciate your time and perspective. just give us -- before you go, what's the timeline in terms of what comes next in this grand dance? >> it's a grand negotiation. i have likened it to a ten-round boxing match, at the end it will be a split point decision. people will be arguing about the result for years to come there will be almost monthly rounds between now and the end of 2018, hoping there's a deal in time for march 2019 what you won't see from the early wounds is a victory or the eu or uk emerging victorious there are so many issues to discuss. from one other piece on that, given the timeline is as long as it is, does that mean companies have to make hard decisions and make some bets now do you think there's a real wait and see attitude >> i think companies don't like

uncertainty. some say they have to make decisions, 12, 18 months in advance and they're starting to make some decisions now. if you look at the negotiations, both sides have weaknesses the eu's biggest weakness is the money. they'll be poorer without the eu, and the oceeu, thelonger thy hold out on the deal the more unteu uncertainty they cause for the uk >> good to see you >> thank you when we return, hurricane maria is lashing puerto rico right now. just a day and a half after it began to sweep through the caribbean address the category 5 hurricane. we'll speak with the prime minister of the island of st. lucia about the hurricane's destruction and what it has meant for islands around the area and what the recovery will take right now as we head to break a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winnerswin

ers and losers

welcome back you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc look at u.s. equity futures at this hour. you are look at the dow. looking like it will open higher, s&p 500 up by a half point. the nasdaq up about a point. hurricane maria is bringing a powerful punch to the islands

in the caribbean islands that can ill-afford more damage after the recent storms that have been hit so hard not all islands have been hit equally, many will need massive levels of rebuilding joining us now to talk about all of this is the prime minister of st. lucia, allen chastanet thank you for being here >> great to be here. >> i understand it's still early, you have storms still swirling and inflikcting damage st. lucia has been spared some of the damage, but what have you seen >> i'm chairman from st. kitts down to grenada. i've had the opportunity to physically fly into the british virgin islands, st. kitts, ann teague g ann teag antigua and turks and caicos >> and what have you sign? >> you seen. >> a lot of damage

in 2004 we had hurricane ivan. st. tomas in 2010 was damaging to st. lucia the resilience of the caribbean is strong. we are brothers and sisters so whereas there may be other events taking place around the world and priority may not be on us, we have always bound together to make this thing happen what's interesting about what's taking place is the number of destinations that have been impacted so you have the british with the british vir ygin islavirgin isl martin, guadalupe, puerto rico, houston was out. you had florida and miami that were potentially going to be in the path then you had an earthquake in mexico, another earthquake last night, my heart and prayers go out to the citizens of mexico and the mexican government

it's been a bit of a perfect storm taking place >> with all of that, here in the united states the focus was very much first on houston and the surrounding areas, then on florida. what kind of efforts and attention have you received in the caribbean? >> because of the dependence being impacted so severely, the u.s. were very quick to respond in st. thomas and st. john's the british were down in anguila and the british virgin islands, most people would say that recovery has been slow and then you have the french and the dutch being preoccupied in st. martin so people like the florida caribbean cruise association, carnival and royal caribbean have been responsive the venezuelan government have been extremely responsive because the support has had to come from the south, because, you know, while we were going through this, you had two hurricanes heading up north. literally miami was shutdown

unfortunately the american hub got shut down for ten days out of miami it's shown us we need to diversify ourselves a bit and maybe look a bit more to panama in terms of supplies of food the caribbean is one of the few regions in the world in which the u.s. has a trade surplus we were talking about almost 6 $5.6 billion trade surplus the caribbean is an important part of america's security so if you look from trinidad all the way to the bahamas, each one of us has a 500-mile economic zone we have to take care of, if you connect all that blue economy, the caribbean is larger than mexico. so that's the kind of space that we're left with to help secure >> we've had a somewhat provocative debate on this set about insurance. insuring people who live in the caribbean, on islands like yours in the florida keys, whether

there should ab private market solution to this whether it should be priced properly and perhaps it isn't. what do you think about that >> i think it's a great idea in order for thatto take place building up brazilians, so in the world today, there's two terms people are using, one is mitigation, the reduction of carbon emissions, the other is adaptation, physically building the infrastructure to cope with the storms basically accepting this is a new reality. i think the insurance mechanism will work very, very well. but it's going to require some changes in order to ensure that the infrastructure is built back up nobody wants to know every time there is a storm we're starting back at zero >> you made the point there are some rules that make it much tougher for middle income or high income hilds to get share of rebuilding money when storms like this come through what are those rules what would like to see happen? >> basically the imf and the world bank have decided that

they'll classify specifically everybody based on per capita gdp. we've been arguing there are 53 countries that we call sids, small developing states. st. lucia has a population of 170,000. tonga, all of us are small we're saying you cannot classify us just by per capita gdp. that vuleribili enerabilities ha more broadly accepted term if it remains the way it is now, when we're rebuilding we can only get access to commercial rates we're considered middle income antiga is on the verge of becoming a high income country, so they'll get pure commercial rates. when it comes to infrastructure development, that the world bank agree to reclassify us as lesser developed countries so we get

access to concessional funds, low interest rate funds. >> because you're dealing with these issue nas are coming fast and furiously. >> absolutely. the second thing we're trying td surpl surplus, our economies have not begun to mature yet. the opportunity for u.s. companies to benefit are greater. if we can get a private sector-led initiative it will be longer lasting we have the initiative when reagan was in one component was twin planting. puerto rico was a huge beneficiary under the 936 regime can we not get an incentive, that's was we are in discussions with the u.s. about, if the u.s. companies invest into the caribbean, that those investments in our books are always tax-free. that the u.s. allow those funds to be repatriated back into the

u.s. tax free only on those investments. one t accomplishes the funds getting back into the united states, it creates an avenue for the private sector to participate in this growth, and brings a lot of money to the table. if there's a tax reform, some of this would be a moot point, correct? this is assuming u.s. tax law remains unchanged? >> no, it's regardless united states has nafta with mexico and canada. this would be our own trade agreement. fofrnlgts the cr fofrnlg . >> for the caribbean the caribbean, after 9/11, americans needed passports to travel prior to that, americans did not need passports to mexico, the caribbean and canada i understand why we lost that, it's putting something in place to replace it. the principle of maintaining a secure caribbean still remains >> cafta, our own version of it.

prime minister chastanet, thank you very much. >> my heart goes out to those in dominica we are getting reportses that are not pretty we're all in this together we will make sure dominica comes back stronger and better than before. we should say right now we'll get an update on the earthquake in mexico city. norma garcia joins us now. what are you seeing? >> somber numbers this morning from mexico city 217 people dead. 700 injured in five states and mexico city. rescue efforts continued well into the night they are still being carried out this morning the community came together very

quickly yesterday. this happened about 1:14 p.m. yesterday. just a few minutes after that we went out to the street, we saw how people came together to help those still trapped in the rubble fwrord authorities is that thy s word from authorities is that there are still people trapped in the rubble. so people are asked to provide electric devices to authorities so they can cut the concrete we were half a block away from a school where about 5 students are still trapped. elementary and middle school students people were carrying out large pieces of debris with their bare hands. this morning, it seems to be a much more organized effort being led by the mexican navy. but still nevertheless, this is

an effort that is still being led very much by local communities who have not slept they are willing to go and help. in this particular school, students that are still trapped, we do not know the condition we do know there are about 20 still missing, 15 to 20 still missing. but, yes, i would not say that there is generalized ta yos edn mexico city, but definitely a somber mood this morning in this otherwise vibrant town >> such a terrible situation in terms of digging out and getting back to normal what is your sense of how long it will take >> it will take some time. the one thing i can tell you, authorities went back and forth last night with several

messages they weredebating on whether o not to cancel classes today. in the end, all classes in elementary and middle and high school levels have been canceled unfell ftil further notice that gives you an idea of the recovery efforts, when they say until further notice t means several structures are yet to be determined, whether they are safe or unsafe it's something to give you an idea of the damage >> an economic perspective, people are not back to work yet. is the airport open there? >> you know what i'm not quite sure if the airport is open. last night they were still rerouting some flights the metro is operational today, however they are asking people

to be patient because it will take longer to get to and back from work. in those places that are open for business today >> okay. >> but then again open for business, the majority of the city is open for business. >> okay. we will check in with you again in the 8:00 hour always appreciate you getting on the line with us i will have more concrete answer for you on the airport in the next take. >> okay. coming up, more on the rescue efforts from the earthquake in mexico city. we will talk to the former ambassador to mexico at the top of the 7:00 a.m. hour. and hurricane maria battering puerto rico. later ohio senator rob portman joining us to weigh in on everything from foreign policy to tax reform. it seems like the 15% is now 20% on theorra cpote rate. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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president trump had strong words for north korea and iran yesterday as he addressed the u.n. here's what he to say.

>> no one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well being of their own people than the depraved regime in north korea the united states has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. joining us is the former deputy assistant defense secretary. what do you make of that last sentence he said there >> i mean, andrew -- >> say it on the floor that way. >> the whole speech was full of doom and gloom, as if the world is going to come to an end this is not a new crisis this is not a new situation that we're dealing with, north korea. granted their program is accelerated. we'll have to figure out a way to get them back into the box. his rhetoric, he didn't sound like the leader of thefree

world from my perspective. i don't think the people, the leaders, the audience he should have been addressing, because you can debate who he was trying to address, i don't think they came away feeling full of respect and the desire to follow the leader of the free word. >> was this an audience of one >> i think his audience was probably his base. he sounded like he was still almost on the campaign trail i think that's disturbing. we are the preeminent military, economic apower today. we should be leading the international community in addressing north korea and iran and russia he talked about sovereignty. one of the biggest challenges to sovereignty today is russi he didn't mention thechallenge posed by russia. there was aveiled reference to ukraine. >> to the degree you're right,

what's the risk? >> i think the risk is first of all loss of credibility. that matters because you need other countries go along with us if you want to renegotiate the deal with iran, the nuclear deal with iran, you need all the countries that were with us in the negotiations, it wasn't a bilateral negotiation, you need them to agree to open it up again. so i think you're creating problems for yourself that you don't need if you come with an approach that's bilateral. that's my biggest beef looking at how the president's approaching all of these situations that i will not deny are problems for the united states and the international community, but he's not addressing them in a concerted fashion with our friends and allies >> is there an argument to be made that there really is no great answer here? >> you said try to put them back in a box steve bannon said effectively

the box is oechpen, the toothpa it out of the tube >> on north korea, you're right. for north korea, we want them to cease being a threat to the united states and the international order. this nuclear program, the ability to mate an intercontinental miss chl cile a nuclear weapon to reach the united states is a problem today we have deterrence with north korea, we can reestablish deterrence and then put in a freeze to their program or some kind of deal for telling the north koreans we won't change your regime, they agree not to attack us. there's ground force that no country now is advocating for regime change in north korea even the president is not advocating directly for that >> given the diplomats here in new york, is there anything to be done?

>> yes, i would like to see our secretary of state and the president put together a coalition, think back to 1991, james baker. you know, a republican administration that was really expert at working the multilateral angle on every problem. they were very publicly working constantly but certainly in the case of iraq to put together a global coalition, so that when we used force, we already demonstrated to the international community that we tried negotiation, and that the use of force even in the case of the gulf war was limited and aimed at getting iraq back to the negotiating table. >> evelyn farkas, thank you. when we come back, we'll be talking to a tech start up that's looking to disrupt the secondhand market. the co-founder of let go will join us next. as we head to break a quick check of what's happening in the european markets things are really flat

ftse and the cac both slightly positive thdax ige slhtly negative. "squawk box" will be right back.

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new york-based unicorn disrupting the second hand economy with a.i. technology joining us right now is alec, the co-founder of let go, and we welcome him to the show this morning. good morning >> good morning. thanks for having me here. quick explanation of what let go

is for those uninitiated >> let go is the largest and fastest mobile app, and we want to think that letgo does for your stuff what air bnb -- >> would you hate me if i called it craig's list 2.0. >> maybe 4.0 >> maybe 4.0 in terms of what it does, this really is a mobile version of selling -- if i wanted to get rid of this apple phone before i buy the new one, that's what i'm doing here >> or your clothes or -- >> or your car or your clothes, yeah or just anything >> the big advantage over a craig's list is a little bit not in the anonymity, but in terms of how everybody communicates, right? >> yeah. there's lots of things first of all, it's mobile. >> right >> whereas craig's list tends to be more web. it's next generation second, we include some features that basically nobody else does include. for example, our chats

we have very, very fast, very cool integrated chats that allow buyers and sellers to interact smoothly that's, by the way, what millennials do they chat. they don't use e-mail very much. they don't use phone very much it's millennial-oriented as well it's ready to post you can't post on any platform of any kind faster than you can on let go. take a picture, and it's posted. >> what are the economics of this business? >> right now it's free free for the buyer and free for the seller we're testing initial monotization we expect to be profitable two to three years down the line >> by doing what meaning it's -- >> you're going to monotise which portion of this business how do you compete against free? i could rg use craig's list may be web-based and may not be as good in that regard, but the second you start charging, does

that make it more complicated? >> it will always be free -- craig's list is phenomenally profitable it's a great business. >> do you feel it's a winner take all market? not just craig's list, but offer up is obviously a competitor to you guys is this a winner take all market, kind of like craig's list has been for the last decade >> it depends. no, i don't, but i would even dispute that i think there's aron overlap you've got ebay and craig's list and amazon, and all kinds of vehicles they've all been around and alive and kicking for a very long time. the u.s. is a very big market, very complex it's much bigger than other continents it is i think very possible that many companies will excite at least for a very long time >> do you think does craig's list look at you and they've obviously not wanted to really improve technology it looks like it's always

looked they haven't come out with an app. does the existence of let go finally force them to take that step, and if so, what the impact is on you. >> i don't know. we've been around for two years, and nothing has changed much we respect them very much. i think craig's list kind of pioneered a very relevant space for all of us, and in some dimensions we see them as inspiration. i hope that they continue succeeding and just like us they'll be around for a very long time. >> as a marketplace, craig's list has remained an independent marketplace. do you think of yourself lock-term in terms of the valuation that's been described to your company as a long-term independent company or do you say ultimately maybe i'll become one of many other marketplaces maybe amazon is going to want to turn me into a secondary marketplace of theirs. maybe ebay will want to turn me into their marketplace maybe facebook given the piece of this is going to try to

create messaging component >> yeah. i mean, the future is hard to predict. i like what i do, and i like being independent, and actually love competing particularly against big guys now, you know, the future will tell we don't have any plans. i mean, nothing in the short-term >> we got to go. what's the hottest item on let go right now secondary market? >> hundreds and millions 200 million right now. hard to tell i particularly like watches. >> watches >> yes some very, very cool watches >> fancy watches >> old watches not fancy necessarily. >> alec, thank you >> thank you very much >> we've got t hanging out to us. you've got to write an e-mail. >> i do. >> the axius e-mail comes out at 10:00 this morning >> that's the goal >> thanks very much dan. rescue efforts from an earthquake is unrwdeay

former ambassador to mexico are there, and he will join us next.

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good morning breaking news. hurricane maria makes landfall in puerto rico we have the details on the storm's path and the potential for catastrophe straight ahead plus, the death toll continues to rise after an earthquake rocks mexico city. more than 200 people are dead and the rescue efforts are underway at this hour. on wall street investors are awaiting the fed what will janet yellen say about unwinding the balance sheet? we will talk marktsz, interest rates, and tax reform with lazard's peter, and former house majority leader eric cantor who is our guest host for the hour second hour of "squawk box" begins right now

live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." good morning welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square an andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick. rupert frost is hanging out with us joe has the day off. our guest host for the hour, eric cantor, former house majority leader and now vice chairman of molis and company. had a big op ed in the paper over the weekend, which we're going it talk about. you were in japan when the missiles -- when the test missile went off we have a lot to talk to this gentleman about, and, of course, including tax reform and where that's all headed. in the meantime, take a quick look at futures ahead of today's fed decision we'll be getting that a little later today at 2:00 p.m. dow looks like it would open up higher right about now about 11 points higher nasdaq as well a little over a point. we'll call the sn 5 almost done, but let's call it half a point the ten-year t-note right now we're going to flip the board around and show you what's going on there

you're looking at 2.225. becky. >> let's tell you about that deadly earthquake in mexico. here's what we know at this hour the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck 76 miles southeast of mexico city. more than 40 buildings and structures collapsed there the next can stock exchange in mexico city's airports suspending operations. more than 200 people are confirmed dead 22 children were killed, and 38 are still missing after an elementary school collapsed. the quake hit just two hours after buildings across the city conducted earthquake drills to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly earthquake back in 1985 on this very day joining us right now on the squawk newsline is antonio garza, the former u.s. ambassador to mexico and, sir, thank you for your time today. please, tell us a little bit about what has happened there and what you know. >> well, good morning, becky well, i think you laid it out pretty well. yesterday around 11:00 we had a simulation

a simulated evacuation in our building in recognition or commemoration of the big quake in 1985, and we had returned to our offices. they are on the 24th floor a little after 1:00 you felt a jolt i stepped out of my office into the hall and turned to a fellow who is nearly 80 years old and has seen a number of these things, and he looked and he said this one felt different we went to the window, and probably should not have gone, but looked out, and within a few minutes you started to see a building collapse. you could see that from the dust flying up and this sort of thing. i saw a lot of fourth story plume of smoke, and we evacuated our building shortly thereafter. there were thousands of people on the floor

very quickly you could see civil society start to respond after the initial shock. the army was out the navy was out the damage is quite widespread across many parts of the city. a hospital in roma you mentioned the children at the palecio that were being rescued. a church in puebla in the middle of a baptism collapsed it is quite widespread in terms of the damage. >> i know it's still too early to really understand entirely how much damage has been done and how long it will take to recover. there has to be a huge amount of unease just around the idea of waiting for a potential aftershock too >> well, certainly i believe there were a number of them registered yesterday up to about a 4 -- a little over a

4-point aftershock as i'm sure you know on september 7th, just a couple of weeks ago registered an 8.2. now, the epicenter of that one was a fair distance from mexico city, but they were over 100 fatalities, and the country was still responding to that when this one hit this is, you know, one right after the other. i will say that you are seeing the real heart and soul of the mexican people in terms of respond approximating, working hand in hand with the army and with the navy. for example, last night i was watching a scene where literally thousands of people were quieted as they went into the school and listening closely for the sounds of children. you are seeing this very unified responses, but, yes, it will be days, perhaps longer, weeks,

before you get a sense of the fatalities, and in the hard work of really rebuilding and recuperating we'll start >> mr. ambassador, you have our hopes and our prayers with you, and we know how americans have turned out and given so much money for the natural events that have struck here recently too. we know that they will be equally generous, we hope, with mexico city, but, sir, we thank you for your time today. joining us on the newsline carlos mckater, the federal affairs executive director he speaks on behalf of puerto rico's governor. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> if you could just give us an

update on -- you're in d.c., but to the extent that you're in communication with the folks in puerto rico, what you are seeing and what you are hearing >> as the governor said yesterday in an address to the nation, basically we are facing total deaf station this is a natural phenomenon that has not happened in the history of puerto rico in the last 100 years no one knows what it is we're going to be finding out when the hurricane leaves the island. we are expecting for the hurricane to be out of the island by 8:00 p.m. today. by now i know that almost 80% of the people in puerto rico are without electric energy right now, and we know that we have about 14,000 evacuees at the 500 shelters that the government made available for the people, and we've been listening to a lot of stories people that were even in safe places or we thought of and the

winds that they've been feeling ever since early morning today, and they have been just something that no one had lid before, so people are taking extreme measures just to keep -- to be -- to keep safe. right now we're working with fema, with the federal government everyone obviously waiting for the storm to pass. it's danger zone no matter where you are right now in the island. mostly in the northeastern part. no matter where you are in the island, danger zone, and emergency responders are ready to go out there and tackle the different emergencies that are going to arise from the storm -- before that governor and the government made all of the different warnings that this was going to be something historic magnitude, and right now we're

going through it we're living it. it's something -- it's scary, but i would like this opportunity to call all the american people to really after the storm puerto rico is going to need to rebuild, and we're going to need to rebuild with the support of america congress, i want to say thank you to the administration, to president donald trump all of the federal agencies, they've been responding to -- they've been in constant communication with the government and with the governor directly, and they are -- they've shown their support, and in the recovery process we're going to need it >> you used the phrase on ttota devastation a day or two ago what exactly do you mean by that phrase are you hopeful that it's just relating to buildings but not to loss of life, or could there be significant loss of life

>> it's in terms of infrastructure, and obviously, nature, and buildings and neighborhoods. we're talking about a hurricane that has right now as we speak in san juan, the eye is in the southern part of the island, and in san juan i'm receiving texts that they're feeling winds of about 120, 130 miles per hour, and we're still -- it's 6:37 in the morning, and the hurricane is going to leave the island at 8:00 p.m. today. sustained winds are going to be embattling the island and we're going to see total devastation we're going to see infrastructure, how we know it in puerto rico it will be totally different after the hurricane.

>> okay. carlos, we appreciate your time and your perspective, and, of course, we are all wishing and hoping for the best. >> thank you >> thank you >> still to come, this morning's top washington news including the latest push for a obama care repeal former obama white house omb director peter joins eric cantor on set to debate the issue straight ahead stay tuned u' wchg quk x" on cnbc

welcome back health care repeal and replace is back on the table with competing health care plans coming from each party for more on this let's bring in peter orzack, former omb director under president obama he is now investment banking vice chair and global co-head of health care at lazard. our guest host, of course, eric cantor, former majority leader in the house that knows a thing or two about how these things work and what happens behind the scenes >> good to be here >> we were talking off air this came up pretty stealthily, and if you weren't paying attention, you didn't realize there was going to be another real push for this to go through, and it has to happen quickly. >> there's nothing like deadlines in washington to put -- to put some motivation into members both in the house

and senate to get something done this is it >> why is this it? september 30th, is has to be >> september 30th is the final deadline to do something to repeal and replace obama care. >> this year >> this year frankly, as the years go on, as we get into an election year, it becomes even that much more difficult. the reason why this is it is because the republicans in the senate have chosen a method that would allow a passage of a bill with only 51 votes called reconciliation the parliamentarian has said that the ability to lower the threshold ends september 30th. this is now the final deadline >> the problem really is it's like a student who has the test coming up but hasn't really studied. >> so we're cramming >> we're sort of cramming. we're almost faking it so we're not going to have a full cbo score. we don't have a fully fleshed out. this is sort of a punted to the states and hope that everything turns out fine kind of approach. there's a lot of risk here too >> does that -- are you saying

there that if we don't think this will pass by september 30th >> no. i'm saying it shouldn't pass now, whether it does pass or not, really comes down actually -- we were talking about this before. i think it comes down to senator murkowski. it's very -- it's likely to be a very close vote. >> because rand paul has already said, no, he won't support it. we expect that collins from maine will probably not support it based on some of the things that she's been saying >> i think at the end of the day personal relationships do matter >> lindsey graham. >> he is so close to senator graham >> who is sponsoring this legislation, and it's working its way through. >> the momentum, though, just from a republican standpoint, this and the view is this is an improvement over the status quo. it is not everything that most republicans wanted to see happen, but as peter suggests, what this does is it allows for a chance to give it to the states and actually to see reform take place. >> it also caps things, though the criticism that comes in from this is it will cap spending

it's the state's problem at that point. they either figure it out or not. >> absolutely. on the flip side, we all know that trajectory of health care costs in this country is unsustainable. what this is forcing mechanism to say, look, it is states understand what's going on with their i understand jent population better than washington this gives the states a chance to step up >> look, a couple of things. first, the trajectory has been improving. we just had news out yesterday >> for medical costed writ large. while there is a legislative issue, things are getting better we need to do what we're doing >> you say there's an underlying issue? >> there is. the way to deal with that is not to reduce spending by almost $300 billion to $400 billion into the neck decade and say, governors, good luck that's not going to end well what's likely to happen, this is not getting much attention, is you are likely to see rationing is and price controls in state medicaid programs. >> for things like new medical devices or new health care drugs. >> the ultimate irony here is a

republican piece of legislation could very well lead to european style rationing. >> no, you don't buy that. >> this is -- there's a lot here that we don't know how states are going to react, and what they're going to do. the bottom line is it will provide an incentive for innovation and for reform. we can't have a system as it is continued. we all know the situation with premiums and the exchanges around the country we all know the desperate model of medicaid right now that's not working. what this does is reset the clock. it gives the states an opportunity to step up now, i mean, there's -- it is without controversy that, yes, the money will be in the end less because we can't afford the trajectory we're on. this is the best shot for reform >> very quickly, on the politics side of it, peter mentions that it probably comes down to murkowski. i was hearing speculation that maybe they upped the ante for

murkowski and her district, and it may make it more palettable to hers. could that happen? >> that could very well happen the interesting point is if this bill passes the senate, it has to pass the let's head outside in exactly the same form it cannot be changed the house will not have any say on this. >> is that a tougher lift? >> it's a tough lift there was only one vote to spare in the house last time >> what if it even just passed the senate is that a big step in terms of the broader republican legislative agenda that there's some point of unity coming together again >> i think there's a boost of optimism that, hey, they can get some stuff done given the last eight months it's been very difficult >> union if i from the republican party, but not -- it's going to make the tax issue very harder. >> the reality is on the tax front when you are dealing with the baseline, the obama -- >> it makes it easier on the numbers harder in terms of the degree you thought the democrats and republicans were coming

together >> that's the larger point here. the democrats and republicans were never going to come together on a massive -- the massive tax cut that the republicans want what -- this is a test point for does the trump administration go further down the road of triangulation or are we going to see yet more republican only reconciliation driven partisan -- >> remember, this is -- >> i think this is a big moment because if this fails, then that model of doing things with only republicans is further undermined and the triangulation strategy that we just saw the president sort of seem to like will be further underscored. >> just remember, this is all a follow on to what happened the prior eight years when peter -- some of which peter was in the white house. i was on the hill. this was -- >> where is joe? >> this was the unilateral ability toss past health care reform, obama care, dodd frank, and the rest that's -- again, this is a concept.

>> the country has been operating under this for some time >> when you look at the ability to jockey various members of senate congress into following a party decision, do you think the power of the leadership in the house and in the senate is weaker today than when you were sitting there because of the way elections have changed people can go straight to the voters they don't need that sort of party approval >> i travel a bit abroad now with people in parliamentary systems, and what is so different about our system here at home is that people in congress and the senate are up, and their names are on the ballot with or without the party in some states it doesn't have an r or d by their name in some states. with or without the president. it is every man or woman who has to present their case to the electorate, and so i think that when you look from a -- as a leader standpoint to the members, you have to respect the fact that they work for their constituents they don't worry for the party or for the leadership. >> peter, you mentioned that this is going to determine where

we had politically at least for the foreseeable future there are some big issues coming up at the end of this year we have pushed the debt ceiling down the road. we have the tax issue that's coming how do you kind of play this out? what are the odds you think that this actually gets passed? >> this is going to be a close call i'm not inside senator murkowski's head i can't give you the odds on that two things one is, again, if it passes, i think it makes a republican only large tax cut like we've seen in this budget resolution that is also underway. a trillion and a half dollar deficit increase in tax cut more likely there are, however, a couple of other things that need bipartisan support like the spending bills the republicans want higher defense spending you can't get that in practice without democratic votes >> and the dmsz will only do it if there are not cuts that come to the spending programs >> maybe some other things too this is going to be a complex

environment in which there are going to be some things that are purely partisan likely and some things that are going to require -- >> merry christmas, everybody. >> merry christmas >> you mentioned earlier that if this health care bill doesn't pass, it makes the root of triangulation slightly more likely is that realistic on any serious issues >> i this i it reorders the priorities if you are going down the path with senator schumer and representative pelosi, what you are doing is not a massive corporate tax cut. what you are doing instead is probably something on infrastructure maybe something on drug pricing. the priorities are different >> right peter, thank you very much for joining us it's always great to see you >> thanks so much. >> coming up, watch out, apple and fitbit amazon, if you can believe this now, working on its own first wearable device. 'vgothdeilrit after the break. what powers the digital world. communication.

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people don't invest in stocks and bonds. they don't invest in alternatives or municipal strategies. what people really invest in is what they hope to get out of life. but helping them get there means you can't approach investing from just one point of view. because it's only when you collaborate and cross-pollinate many points of view that something wonderful can happen. those people might just get what they want out of life. or they could get even more. what they want out of life. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence.

and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise amazon snou working on its own wearable device. it would wear people to call on amazon's digital assistant alexa at any time anywhere here's how it works. the glasses need a smartphone nearby for wireless connectivity this was true of the apple watch before it was, well -- the new apple watch coming later this

week you won't have to wear the headphones to hear alexa as the glasses reportedly will transmit sound through your skull to your inner ear. the way it's going to work is -- no, no you'll wear the glasses, and the stems of the glasses will go behind here, and the way they will vibrate against your skull and you'll actually -- that's how it will transmit >> thanks but no thanks. >> the sound >> can you just imagine how people walking down the street speaking to alexa, and you'll be, like, who are they talking to >> they already do that. >> at least you're not using my skull as a transmitter >> when we come ck, he baweav this morning's top stories stick around more right after the break

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>> this was an ofs building, now

reduced to rubble and ruins. you can see crews on top of those ruins. what they're doing is they're looking for people people that may be alive trapped inside there we know there are people trapped inside there, because we've been talking to the friends and family that are below watching on, watching those crews dig through that rubble. one woman in particular said her son is buried inside there he said he is communicating with those rescue crews, but they're having a hard time getting to him. you can see down below people here waiting for any sign, any update of their loved one that may be rescued in the next couple of minutes or hours or however long it takes. it may be days before they get people out of there. this is just one scene among dozens not only in this city, but in areas across this state, across this community, and across the region. there's another harrowing scene to the south here in mexico city, but further south there's a school where at least 21 elementary school students were killed in this earthquake, and at least another 30 more are

missing. rescue crews are there as well, and, again, this work will continue not only throughout the next few hours, but as we imagine, throughout the next few days the death toll around 2:20 expected to rise as rescue crews continue this heartbreaking work that's being done as we speak. we'll send it back to you. >> okay. thanks, steve. steve patterson on the ground. >> now to wall street's agenda the fed will wrap up its two-day meeting today. joining us now cathy jones, chief fixed income strategist at schwab financial research and tom, president and ceo of fl putnam investment management company. thank you both for joining us. cathy, i'll start with you, if i may. we've already seen yields rise quite significantly over the last couple of weeks the ten-year is now 225.

i don't expect any surprises out of the fed today >> cathy, even though that has been telegraphed, what are the key impacts it's going to have when it does reduce its balance sheet and the likely impact it will have in liquidity across the markets? are people underestimating the impact that could have >> we think the biggest impact will be on the mornlt backed security market. the fed has been a much bigger proportion of that market than they have of the treasury market >> treasury yields in theory, it will lift them over the next couple of years. assuming the market doesn't decide to move all at once, i

think it will be a pretty gradual impact i think there's room for spreads to i'd widen where. >> when we think about the impact this could have on the equity market, is there a complace ensy that if yields are going to rise, whatever the stock plots, rate hikes, or balance -- that's going to have an impact with a strong correlation over the last couple of weeks for sure. >> clearly the fed thinks they can unwind the balance sheet and have very little impact on the market and see rates gradually rise it's not solely their game at this point >> sector-wise, are you interested in the banks simple tightening rate hikes if you are getting a steepening yield curve is a positive for the bairngs,

but this balance sheet reduction change the dynamic of how the rate tightening cycle is being imposed? >> it does we're going to have to wait and see how that plays out you know, if you do get the interest rate hike in december, which is what we're predicting at this point in time, and obviously that's consensus, we do think it will be positive for the banks and many of the financials, particularly as you look at some of the brokerage firms, it will be a big boon for them we do think that if they are successful, this could be a fairly nice market through the end of this year >> cathy, just a quick final comment on the dollar, clearly a lot of the dollar weakness this year has been predicated on the fact that, oh, in fact, central banks around the rest of the world are getting closer to balance sheet normalization than people expected. i suppose today could be a reminder that, in fact, still the fed is a long way ahead of the rest of the world. is it now time for the dollar to rebound a little bit

i think the market is going to -- in terms of tightening policy, and i think the dollar has room to balance three 3% or 4% >> thank you >> thank you for joining us. remember, don't miss coverage of today's decision on power lunch. it starts at 2:00 p.m. eastern time >> okay. coming up, former house majority leader eric cantor on what wall street wants to hear from washington right now, and then later today on the hachlt report, you don't want to miss this, a live and exclusive interview with bill akman. he will join scott waup ner at noon to talk about his fight over adp veatin"sawbok x" here on cnbc this is not a cloud. this is a car protected from storms by an insurance company that knows the weather down to the square block. this is a diamond tracked on a blockchain - protected against fraud, theft and trafficking. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a patient's medical history made secure - while still available to their doctor at their fingertips. this is an asteroid live-streamed

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a cyber attack on its tnt express unit cut profits by one-third. hurricane harvey also impacting operations as a result, fedex lowering its full year profit forecast, and the shares are off 1.4%. adobe's earnings and revenue beat forecasts the company added several new subscribers to creative cloud, the package of software tools that includes the likes of photo shop it's down, though, 2. 4%

shares of bed, bath, and beyond tumbling today the retailer's latest results missing forecasts as on-line sales weren't enough to offset sliding sales at its brick and mortar stores. they're also cutting full year outlook. shares down some, wow, 16% >> at this year's delivering alpha conference steve schwartzman explains why he thinks geopolitical events pose the biggest risk to stocks >> whether it's north korea or trade, there are a number of things people don't want to focus on because the outcome would be bad those are the things i think about. >> if you want to hear more of the full interview it was just posted today you can check it out by heading to delivering alpha.mco. eric cantor, former house majority leader, now vice chairman of molis and company. in the last hour approximate when dan was here, he made an interesting comment, which is that wall street doesn't care about what is really happening

in washington and particularly doesn't care about some of the things that the president says when he is here in the u.n. talking about north korea. >> what wall street has to be looking for is a directional shift towards pro-growth policies i do think that throughout the trump administration in the last eight or nine months, what we've seen some optimism due to a much more conducive regulatory environment. >> we have not seen the mega

transactions and mega moves in terms of deal making that that optimism would suggest >> i do think when you are talking about the large caps and $5 billion and up and then some, people are waiting to see what's going to happen on the very strategically important tax reform issue when you have these large caps and multi-nationals based here and they're looking to access the cash and profits abroad, that's a big deal. >> i thu you can look at calls with exactly that. saying we want to bring our cash home we've got some ideas in mind that we're looking at, but hurry up, washington get this thing done. >> then on the regulatory side, we talked to jamie dimon at that same conference, and i asked him have you felt any of the deregulatory pressure ease on you? has that impacted your business

one way or the other he said no flat out, no >> thatsds why you're not really seeing some of the real impacts of it. it's just a more conducive environment right now where you don't have a hostile administration towards business. you have are month of a partner. >> i'm interested that your focus is on the domestic issues when the president makes kind of quite clear threats to north korea, to iran, things like that that's something that you say doesn't really bother the corporate conversation

they were dumbfounded of the fact that yen still was strong it was still a reserve currency. even with these missiles flying over i think there is something going on >> how much of that is because of want only our federal reserve, but the central banks everywhere it's because the bank of japan and the ecb. >> 100% in my view >> this is a drop in the bucket. >> speaking to steve schwartzman's conference at the delivering alpha conference, people had talked about this geopolitical risk. i do think that there are some black swans out there. you know, there's one thing

about trade we're all concerned about sort of direction that that takes >> the trade war with china potentially over all these issues where. >> with china. even with nafta. that's a concern these are kind of issues that we can sort of imagine in our mind of what would happen god forbid something would happen in north korea. i think if there were indications that something were really going to happen there, that's the kind of black swan event that we don't know how to react to >> but until then it's kind of a binary issue >> can i just bring about tax reform, which we were talking about an early link to the health care debate what kind of likelihood do you think that kind of proceeds either way, regardless of what happens to health care if it doesn't proceed, do you think that forces leadership change within the republican leadership in the house also >> i think something will happen on taxes hopefully it will be real reform it's tough you saw yesterday there were some movements in the senate between bob corker and pat toomey coming to an agreement on this some numbers. this is all about trying to get straight on the budget because, as wernl, the bunl is a

requizite path to tax reform the republicans have made clear that they're going to do tax reforms in a partisan manner lowering that voting threshold >> i don't know if you read ben white's "morning money" newsletter, but the parlor game for fed chair given that we're going to be hearing from the fed later today continuer betting le >> i don't have a betting line all i'll say, and i think the comment was made earlier that we don't really know who will be at the fed and the next six months. we don't know if there's going to be a quorum at the fed. >> other black swan we need to be watching. >> that's the other uncertainty that i'm not sure we know how to deal with. >> especially if the central bank is responsible for so much of what's been happening in the markets. maybe we're not giving enough credence to the changes there. >> i do think so again, you can see that president trump is going to have a pretty extraordinary ability to impact the direction of our central bank i'm not sure looking back how many presidents have had this kind of real opportunity

>> okay. eric cantor will be sticking around always appreciate spending time with you >> still to come, philanthropy in america we will talk about the most charitable givers, and what about the wealthy people that don't freely give? a new list puts jeff bazos at the top of that group. the surprising details next. ns peace of mind. we had a power outage for five days total. we lost a lot of food. we actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. and we really appreciated that. we're the webber family and we are usaa members for life. then there are moments it become♪ clear, together always was, and always will be, a better way. ♪ but we should be seeing ymore range of motion., i'm fine. okay, well let's see you get up from the couch. i'm sorry, what? grandpa come. at cognizant, we're uniting doctors, insurers and patients on a collaborative care platform,

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>> saturday night live is staying true to its name for another season nbc announcing all new episodes of snl will be broadcast live in each of the four mainland u.s. time zones the late night comedy show will air at 11:30 issue, 10:30 central, 9:30 mountain, and 8:30 pacific. i didn't even know there was a mountain time zone >> yes, there is >> are you serious >> it's called colorado. >> i thought there were three. >> eastern, central, pacific >> i thought they just skipped a couple of hours. i'm harassing you because i know nothing about england's ieshsz ryan gossling will be the host, and jayzee as the musical guest. four different time zones. you can watch that live. >> we're going to talk about philanthropy this morning. there's a new and fascinating analysis ranking the most and least charity albiable billionan the yates. >> well, among the top ten billionaires in america, warren buffett is the most charitable

and jeff bazos is the least. the chronicle philanthropy did an analysis showing giving as a ratio of total wealth for the ten richest people in america just since 2000. warren buffett ranks the top of that list, pledging or giving away 71% of his wealth or more than $46 billion since the year 2000 he plentied, of course, $36 billion to the bill and melinda gates foundation back in 2006. that's most of that. he and melinda have given away twice that since they you created the foundation it doesn't even count those earlier gifts. michael bloomberg ranked third with 10% of his fortune. that also doesn't include a lot of his giving before 2000. jeff bazos, he is currently the second richest american, but he ranks last among the top ten when it comes to philanthropy. he has given away 68 million with an m since 2000

less than one-tenth of 1% of his fortune. now, also so you say maybe that's a function of age well, the google guys who are quite a bit younger, larry and sergei, they have given away 4%. david coke ranks sixth on the list geg away 3% of his wealth now, neither bezos or amazon have responded, but he tweeted back over the summer that he is asking the public for ideas on a philanthropic strategy i would just say, look, bezos earned his fortune it's entirely up to him what he wants to do with it. he has created over 300,000 jobs, so we should never criticize anyone for what they have or haven't given away >> a step further than that, where it's timing. maybe he is planning to give it all at the end of his life i think we can commendthose that give, but that's where it should stop personally >> yes, but he is the only one of the top five who has not signed a giving pledge, who has not created a foundation, or not said, like mark zuckerberg, look, at some point i plan to give away, but i haven't -- i'm

not going to do it yet >> you don't have to announce it maybe he will do it quietly. philanthropy doesn't need to be made public necessarily. in fact, if you are really giving for the cause, you shouldn't need to tell anybody because he hasn't made an announcement -- >> he is about to become the richest man in the world that's a -- >> he is looking for -- he may not want to sell the stock because he wants to control amazon when he sold up to this point -- >> you don't need to sell it to pledge -- >> the first point is that if you look at warren buffett at this age -- >> he had given away -- >> he would have been at the bottom of this list. he would have been around this table criticizing him for it, and today he is at the top of the list >> i'm not criticizing it's where he ranks. >> context around the situation. >> bill gates too. same thing >> right, before he became the richest. >> his view always their view was they could compound and make more money and have a greater impact later he is in the accumulation stage.

>> i do think there's something to the symbolish issue and also the ability to spotlight and put -- you talked about doing it anonymously. i think there's a lot of people that like to do that, but the other piece of it is when you have such a high profile, even beyond the dollars that you can put and focus on an issue, you can bring a lot of people and money along with you >> doesn't that suggest that he is in the works of coming up with some sort of a plan with everything -- >> here's what's interesting about jeff bezos the most interesting thing to me is that he considers the washington post and blue origin, which are for profit companies to be part of his philanthropy maybe he doesn't plan to write give-away checks at all. maybe he is going to reinvent philanthropy just like he reinvented retailing, and it doesn't include creating foundation and giving away money. maybe it's creating for profit ventures that he invests in like blue origin where he has invested billions to solve a problem. it's not a not for profit. >> if he saves the world by -- >> by making money absolutely >> not by making money >> if he changed the world by

getting us off the island, meaning earth, or he is able to actually put all the resources there so we can actually live in a better place, i'll take that >> i know you're not criticize, but i think there's a lot to be said with great wealth and power comes responsibility, but i think it's different to say that someone who has made that status through public elected office has more of a duty to take that on and create a foundation than someone that's had a privately successful life. >> i don't think you have to, but i think that's a different way -- >> higher standard potentially >> it's based on the nation's votes and you have built your responsibility that way, and then if you make your money in private life, i don't think there's an expectation that you have to go on and say, oh, i should use that status to bring in more money. either way, i think we're all in agreement that -- the main thing -- >> we don't want the take-away to be the jeff bezos is cheap and doesn't give away money. we don't know -- >> it's going to be exciting went do know yet >> robert, thank you

>> thank you, guys >> eric cantor, thank you for spending the morning with us, where it's bin a pleasure. come back soon >> thanks. >> appreciate it when we come back, that powerful earthquake killing more than 200 people in mexico. reducing buildings to rubble the search process is still taking place right now we have a live report from the ground next. plus, washington watch we will watch taxes, health care, and more with senator rod portman. stay tuned you e ayi cc. 'lbe right back. people don't invest in stocks and bonds. they don't invest in alternatives or municipal strategies.

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it's fed day we're counting down to the central banc's rate decision what you can expect straight ahead. >> plus, live longer and pros r prosper. >> risk is our business. william shattner heading back to space. it's not what you think. 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 to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square this morning. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick hanging out with rupert frost. joe is off today >> we're going to get a check on the markets in just a moment first, we are following that developing story in mexico

a 7.1 magnitude earthquake striking mexico city telemundo's norma garcia joins us right now we have heard about the devastation. you have seen so much of it. where do things stand right now in terms of how much you can even tell about how deep this impact has been? >> well, it's still -- good morning from mexico city, becky. it's still morning the damage is being assessed the president has called for calm as engineers do their work today and assess the damage on the buildings. i can tell you that about 40 buildings collapsed in mexico city alone, but this was a disaster that impacted about ten states in the region what i can tell you right now is that 3.4 billion people in mexico city continue without electricity. the good news is that the airport is up and running. the area of the airport that

registered the most damage was one of the parking lots, but flights are arriving as normal the markets are working, financial institutions are for her business unless a particular branch was damaged what you are seeing right now are images of last night's rescue efforts all over town all over mexico city this is a city this morning that is still under rescue mode among the 217 people who have died are 32 children in a school, elementary and middle school that partially collapsed. 700 people are receiving care in local hospitals this morning it's still a dire situation, but mexico city is not foreign to this kind of tragedy just yesterday the city was honoring people who died in that massive 1985 earthquake. 32 years later, yesterday, this

powerful earthquake happened this 7.1 magnitude earthquake, which is the most powerful earthquake in mexico city since 1985 >> norma, thank you very much for the update today we realize that you are still trying to assess what's happened please keep us up to speed on everything that's been happening. again, that is telemundo's norma garcia thank you, normnorma moving on now to an update on hurricane maria.ricco it has maximum sustained winds maria weakened to a category four storm, but it's forecast remains dangerous with more on that

>> amazing, though, we're coming off -- >> all of it with small ains it's interesting we've had eight days of gains in a row >> new records are coming so fast >> yeah. they do when you are up at the top. >> right the ten-year note, we should say, 2.229 we will see where the fed lands later today at 2:00 p.m. that and they move the markets either way then finally a quick check on currency we have to show bitcoin now these days i feel like we're sort of -- >> you think it is a currency. >> i don't know if it's a currency, but given -- no, given the uniqueness that there is when people look at currencies -- >> well, i mean, it's been extraordinary. the last couple of weeks as well after mr. dimon made those comments to you and on that day we did see a bill pullback, and now it's back up again >> jamie dimon called it a -- >> then there were some other reports suggesting there were people at jp morgan who had bought bitcoin or something.

>> well, he made a very clear statement to you >> nevertheless. >> ask you and shall receive bitcoin up with a gain of just over half a percent. 3904.80. >> i still have my $5 of bitcoins somewhere >> now worth $15 >> i'm not sure. >> it's not backed by a government >> what's so interesting just -- >> backed by speculators >> jamie dimon was super supportive of block chain. it suggested that all sorts of other bitcoin type currencies could be created, and that would, therefore, lower the value of this one, and really highlight the fact that it's not backed by a government anyway, great debate >> all right let's tell you about some of the today's top corporate stories. general mills is out with earnings the food products maker missing on both the top and the bottom line the company says that it was hurt by weak demand for its yoplait greek and light yogurts in north america, and the shares

are down by about 5% this morning. also, fedex earnings missing the mark cyber attack on its tnt express unit earlier this year cut into profits by one-third hurricane harvey also having an impact on operations as a result, fedex is lowering its full-year profit forecast. uber has reportedly started a review of its asia business. reuters reports that the start-up has notified u.s. authorities about payments made by staff to police officers in indonesia in exchange to continue operations from a specific area in the country the department of justice is currently investigating whether or not uber violated u.s. laws against bribery of foreign officials. those are laws that are taken very, very seriously >> and in political news, senate republicans reaching a budget deal that would allow tax cuts over the next decade exact details not immediately known, but sources say senate budget committee could hold a vote on the mraz early as next week also, we should tell you the white house says it will continue to pay obama care subsidies for the month of

september. that announcement coming as senators fail to reach a bipartisan deal to repair obama care >> joining us right now to talk about all the issues we've been talking about this morning, all the things that are coming out of washington is ohio senator, rob portman. he serves on the senate finance and foreign relations committee, and senator portman, thank you for being here today >> great to be on with you again. why don't we start with what's been happening withhealth care another bill coming back through, and we're told that this is the absolute last chance at least for this year if not beyond for any sort of repeal and replace. what do you think of the legislation that's making its way through the senate >> well, we'll see this is the sort of second try at this, and what it does is i see it essentially as it takes it $1.2 trillion that is currently being paid under the affordable care act, and sends it back to the states. the question is by getting this back to the states where governors and legislatures would be able to design a program that better meets the needs of the folks of that state, you know,

will that work better? i think it's a good concept. i think it's compelling. it's consistent certainly with what republicans have been talking about. the question is how does the formula work and how do various states fair in that? i'm certainly looking at it. i think probably there has to be something in the shorter term because this would only kick in in 2019. meanwhile, you have 2018 and 2019 to deal with in terms of the cost increases, which are skyrocketing in ohio, and that's why the president's announcement with regard to the cost savering reductions today is important because that will help stabilize the market >> what you said is pretty interesting. i'll break it down into a couple of different things. straul, you like the idea of the states being able to have a little more control. maybe use things a little differently, makes that they are adjusting to their states. it will mean at least as we understand it, that those states are going to have limits on the money that they'll be getting from the federal government. it then becomes their problem to try and figure out let's be very clear about it these are capped limits that are

well below what had been understood under obama care would be spent from a federal perspective. what do you think about that, and how do you deal with that,ing and will ini don't he vegas be enough to get you through that >> well, i think efficiency and innovation help a lot, and i think the ability for states to deal with coverage and costs by giving them much more flexibility and responsibility is a good idea in some of the aspects of the plan and, again, this is just finalized midweek last week, so we're still looking at all the details, but part of it actually does not cap it in the sense that there's a per capita cap, meaning it increases by population, so that there would be an increase in funding. that's as to traditional medicaid with regard to other parts of the affordable care act, the exchanges, my understanding is there would be a block grant, and that block grant would have with it the flexibility for a state to be able to -- as some states have done, to go to health savings accounts. for other states, they may want to focus on issues like the opioid crisis and the need for

more treatment that would be the case in my state. it does give governors and legislatuledg legislators the flexibility to be able to respond to the really big needs in that state. >>. >> the cbo score will fit into the reckonciliation construction how much money does it spend what are the deficit numbers here my understanding is that, again, it's basically taking the funding that's currently being proposed and block granting it back to the states the cost side of this is not as complicated as the previous bills that tried to kind of recreate the affordable care act

and the exchanges in different ways in other words, in this case it goes back to the states and to the governors for them to work on it. a lot of republican governors have supported this, as you can imagine, because this is what they've been asking for. you know, more flexibility give me the money. i can handle my own population better i can provide better coverage. i can focus on the costs of health care. i can focus on wellness or prevention or, again, getting people into hsa's, health savings accounts and everything. i think this is going to be a mixed reaction, but it has the opportunity to give states the kind of flexibility they've been asking for >> let me ask you, it sounded like you were opening a window a moment ago saying that you need to see something that bridges the gap between now and 2019 when this would kick in because health care costs have been spiraling. that sounds like if there is some sort of permanent solution between now and then, a stop gap funding issue to continue to support premiums, that it might sway you to be in favor of it? am i reading that correctly?

>> yeah. i mean, here's the situation we got to back up and realize why we're talking about this at all. in my state of ohio, it's an example that they have just announced the department of insurance, that there will be a 34% increase in premiums in 2018 no one can afford that it's outrageous that there would be increases that high just in the premium. that doesn't account for the fact that the deductibles have also gone up in my state dramatically as have co-pays in the period between now and when the new legislation would go through its transition and kick in, we have to be sure that there is a way to stabilize that market one way to stabilize it is the so-called csr's, that you just talked about a moment ago. the president said he will provide again in september, but that should be -- >> it's been a month by month issue. you are talking about, i would assume, some guarantees between now and when it kicks in >> that's what i would like to see because if you do that, then

there will be the kind of predictability and stability that the companies are looking for to be able to get the costs down now, you got to force those costs down as well >> it also gets you through the 2018 elections before people would be dealing with the new situation and this would kind of be a carry-over for that >> well, yeah. i suppose that's true too. my concern is not that it's the fact that in my state right now, you know, we have skyrocketing costs we have counties that have one insurer. in fact, 42 over 88 counties only have one insurer. that's no competition. we had 21 counties with no insurer and finally we were able to compel enough insurers to get into the market to get ne. that's not competition >> we can sit back and allow this to happen this is the individual market where a lot of people who are small business owners or self-employed, you know, the soybean farmer in ohio or the couple that owns the corner

laundromat, these folks are in the individual market. they need help >> president trump tweeting about this issue. >> he is such a negative force graham cassidy bill is great ends o care. it sounds like you are still on the fence. am i correct in assuming that you need to make sure that some of these other issues happen before you will support this latest legislation >> yeah, again, what i'm doing is looking at the numbers, and so we're getting numbers from the state of ohio. they've been, you know, very cooperative in providing us the actual data and what this would mean for the people i represent. also, going to the cms, the national group here at hhs to say, you know, what's the impact of this? i think a lot of other members are doing the same thing we just need to know what the impact is. >> if it came down to it, would you vote no if the entire bill rested on your shoulders like john mccain's the last go-around? >> it's not likely to rest on my

shoulders. if we find the numbers to meet what the authors say, it will be okay if not -- this is an opportunity to actually do something to resolve a very real issue. i think a lot of people would prefer just to let this go away, but we can't do that dp you look at the numbers, i mentioned the 34% increase the lack of competition, the fact that our health care system is broken. these skyrocketing costs have to be dealt wheith. we have to do something. this is an opportunity to follow through on what a lot of us have been talking about, which is to give more authority and responsibility back to the states >> senator, i wanted to switch focus swult. a question based on your position on the finance committee. your colleagues in the house financial services committee yesterday issued a report tietld did the cfpb let -- beat the rap? they said the maximum fine that could have been issued to wells fargo was up to $10 billion. of course, the actual fine was

closer to $100 million to $200 million. do you think wells fargo should have been fined significantly more also, last night on "mad money" your colleague senator warren saying, again, that the fed should act to remove wells fargo board members. what's your view on those two points >> i'm not on the committee in the senate, and i didn't follow the action yesterday we were a little busy over here in the house with a hearing on one of my bills. i don't have -- i don't have appear answer for you as to wells fargo. i do think that consequences are appropriate, and there were consequences, and people were fired. that was appropriate >> how are the size of the block grants formulated? is that something that can be changed on a state by state basis? just trying to figure out if there are senators that are not thrilled, if there are deals that could be cut to give them a better block grant >> yeah. becky, it's based on per capita formula. it's a leveling in a sense i mentioned the $1.2 trillion in

the affordable care act going back to the states it will go back in a way where states will not be penalized, you know, for making progress in terms of health care costs reductions, but also the states that have excessive costs will have some sort of, as i understand it, some sort of a backstop it won't be too punishing to them the notion is to try to level it out more and in order to get it back to the states what i'm focused on is whether that formula works for my state and how it will impact the people i represent >> senator portman, we want to u that for your time today >> thanks, guys. >> okay. coming up, when we return, the fed is in focus in interest rate decisions due out in a couple of hours. 2:00 p.m investors will also be looking for an update on the central bank's $4 trillion issue we'll talk to john bell lows about what to expect when "squawk box" returns right after this i count on my dell small business advisor

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welcome back to "squawk box. steve liesman is in washington getting ready. we're going to hear from you later today, steve, many atimes. >> you know, it's an historic day, andrew. in the ongoing saga of the financial crisis

will there be a slow motion train wreck for the economy? bridgewater ray dali is watching a dire warning he compared it to 1997 when the fed reversed policy in the middle of the great depression >> they print a lot of money to make up for credit, and we had to rebound from 32 to 37, and the markets go to highs, and everything is good then at that moment in 1937 we're at the point where that ended, and then there was a tightening of monetary policy. >> that didn't end particularly well here are some of the other negatives out there for why this balance sheet reduction may not go as foreseen because there are

unforeseen consequences. particularly emerging market debt could be one victim of this it would be worsened by rising deficit. the fed not buying the treasury issue could be a worse outcome it's the wrong policy when inflation is low and growth is low. there is another sign. here's the boring paint dry argument it will be slow, gradual, and well telegraphed a dollar in, in other words, a dollar that the fed bought in the crisis has a different affect from a dollar out if you bias et cetera when the market is panicking, it has a big effect when it's not panicking and you sell it, not a big effect balance sheet already declining as a percent of gdp and public debt outstanding finally, other central banks at least for now are still buying the runoff will start slowly, but it could eventually ramp up, guys, when the fed is reducing the balance sheet by as much as $50 billion per month. as you know, it's never been done before. back to you. >> hey, steve wrr, just really

quickly. ray dalios sound from yesterday. it stunned me when he said that comparing this to 1937 >> me too where. >> i asked him if he thought the same was going to happen where, you know, we sink back into a recession. it takes a war to get us out of it he said, no, he thinks this time is different, that the fed will be able to pick a more easy way of dealing with all of this. he is -- even though he says it looks the same, he doesn't think the end result will be the same. >> i think that's a good point, and that was why i emphasized this idea that it's slow and gradual and telegraphed. the fed can ease off on this plan if it sees very negative results. like i said yesterday, this idea that we've gone through the taper tantrum, and that really instructs the fed as to how to move forward so far the market has yawned i have been surprised by how much so, but if it seems like -- the market must know the fed's plans now, and it has had ample

opportunity to discount it does it wake up today and panic? i don't know i don't think so >> steve, thank you very much. we're going to keep discussing the fed now with john belos, portfolio manager and research analyst at westernasset. john, good morning to you. >> good morning to you >> do you think the market is underestimating the impact of the balance sheet normalization process? >> well, you know, we take janet yellen at her word that she wants this to be as pour boring agz watching paint dry signals matter when they announce qe, they were sending a very strong signal they were sending a signal that they were all in on supporting the recovery they were taking risks to provide a combination, and they were going to be in the game for a long time. the signal today is much weaker. the signal today is they're gradually slowly moving towards a more normalized policy if you think about the asymmetry of those signals, the start being a very loud surprise and this being a very gradual thing, you can see why the market has asymmetric reactions big response to the start, fairly muted response to the

taper. >> steve said something interesting. by doing this slowly, they can reduce did by doing things poorly is the balance sheet normalization a harder thing to reverse than a rate hike is? >> well, i think the way they've set this up, they want the balance sheet normalization to be in the background that's the word they've used they want this to be ongoing i don't think this is going to be their primary focus i think they are giving more focus to a rate policy they're on a normalization cycle. they want a hike they've been hiking, and so the easiest way to ease policy would be to back off of that rate hike cycle after this point interesting that steve also pointed out one of the risks, of course, of this tightening policy could be stronger dollar and the impact it has. >> as the fed moves a little bit here you can see a little strength in the dollar i think the case for emerging markets are different. the case for emerging markets is when you look around the world

that is very much starved for yield and starved for income, emerging markets stand out as a place where there is still some value, there's still high real interest rates, and a lot of these central banks have been very responsible, have been ort docked and been effective in our view at running monetary policy in emerging markets that stabilizes currencies, that will eventually bring down inflation. an investor looking at this, you get high real interest rates, and with that high real interest rate, you get a responsible orthodoxed credible central bank that stabilizes currencies and brings down inflation. that's a good set of value and fundamentals in our view >> 20 seconds, your top domestic sector pick at the moment? >> we've been in the banking -- the bank trade you know, i think the story is very strong here banks have dramatically increased capital. that's good news for bond holding. we still think there's value there. that's our investor trade. >> thanks for joining us john belos don't miss complete coverage of the fed decision on power lunch starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern

time coming up when we return, a lot to talk about, where the head of boeing defense highlights from that cnbc exclusive interview. we'll bring it to you in just a moment can we at least analyze can we push the offer online? legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. the new app will go live monday? yeah. with hewlett-packard enterprise, we're transforming the way we work. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes.

skblienchts welcome back "squawk box. good morning cnbc live. among the stories front and center, mortgage applications falling 9.7% in just the latest week among the reasons? back to back hurricanes. of course, higher interest rates. also, in corporate news, shares of alnylam pharmaceuticals the drug to treat a life-threatening genetic disease met its goal in a late stage study. that stock up 21 % the latest results missing forecasts in a big way especially as on-line sales weren't enough to offset sliding sales at its brick and mortar stores company also cutting its full year outlook this is one of those companies that is in the category of getting amazoned right now you are looking at that stock down about 15% in the premarket. >> the ceo of boeing defense space and security speaking out about north korea and the threat from that area of the world. also, the wave of consolidation

emerging in the aerospace and defense markets. morgan brennan joins us now from the air force association's annual conference with highlights from that introduce interview. good morning >> hey, good morning leann has been ceo of boeing's defense space and security business for about 18 months focused on, as she puts it, everything from sea bed to space. in her first ever broadcast interview as ceo of this business, we talked about the boeing defense portfolio and whether she is reassessing it in light of that recently announced deal between rival northrup drummond and owner bittal atk. >> we have a very focused strategy on our growth that includes looking organically on where we're going to invest. you've seen some announcements from us in recent months with our boeing avionics and analytics business we are also continuing to look at other ways to increase our top line, and we have a continued pipeline we're

assessing where. >> so you would be a buyer if the right opportunity came along? >> yes >> are you talking to anyone >> we'll stay away from that >> so not a yes, but also not a no either. now, we also talked about the growing geopolitical threat of north korea since boeing is the prime contractor for the ground-based midcore defense that's the anti-missile system that is in place to protect the continental u.s. from an icbm attack >> heaven forbid, north korea were to test the system. would it keep us safe? >> yes >> how do you know >> well, i had.

>> she went on to call this a capability doing exactly what is needed she said boeing and its partners are on track to have 44 interceptors in place for that system by year's end that's per the government's request. perhaps not surprisingly, she believes that ultimately we're going to need more guys, back to you. >> morgan, thank you very much for that morgan brennan >> when we come back, long live the captain. william shattner is heading back to space he will be here to explain "squawk x"ilbeig bk.bo wl rhtac

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it's my job to make sure that they have the training that they need to make the scene safe for themselves and for the public. it's hands-on training actually turning valves, turning systems off, looking at different wire systems all that training is crucial to keeping our community safe and our firefighters safe. together, we're building a better california. we are joined by william shattner, the co-author of the new book called "zero g green space. it's the second installment of his space adventure series thank you for joining us today

>> thank you for calling me captain. i was listening to your previous guest of boeing and talking about hitting a bullet with a bullet, and it's so science fiction already. the premise of my book "zero g," which is premiering yesterday. it hit the book stands today there are enough people out in space 350 years from now that we'll need law and order the fbi goes out in space. g men and zero g is the premise of the novel it's reading it's reading science fiction it's gotten great reviews. roaring read, as some of them say, and to take you away from all the news that is coming our way, reading a wonderful, exciting novel, "zero g" is what i recommend. >> that is an excellent advice

i hope lots of people take you up on this we could all use a get-away from time to time, and here's a quick and easy solution for it you talk about what you just heard from boeing, and, you know, you've been watching this. i think it's been 51 years since the original star trek premiered. you've been watching this for a long time, and what sticks with me is the staying power of the show and how many things you all sort of predicted along the way. all kinds of technologies and things that we've seen that are real now, that you guys were talking about decades ago. >> absolutely. the thrust of the science fiction writers to influence scientists and what to look for. scientists, astrophysicists themselves are imaging science fiction. they imagine a theory. they try and develop a theory to substantiate their thoughts and bring mathematics in to prove it

science fiction is a leader in that way what we can imagine. what science fiction writers can imagine can eventually be done sometimes sooner than later as was the case in star trek. in "zero g" there are many imaginative premises that are astoundi astounding, like could this really happen? yes, it could really happen. science fiction, for me is an exciting form of literature in that although we won't live to see the futures, we can imagine what the future might be >> sure. i wanted to ask you whether you are an. >> almost on a rescue mission because we might have a problem here on earth. jeff bezos i think thinks about it the opposite way. this is the best place in the world, but wants to actually try to be able to move up all of the resources and other things that could otherwise take up space

here so we can continue to grow and live which is the better way? >> well, the better way -- the better way is to become absolutely aware that we're at the tipping point of total destruction and if we don't do something about climate and change our way of living, the future is very bleak for our children, our children's children we must do something now the whole idea of science fiction is the concept that we will live beyond the next 100 years. there's a reasonable thinking that reasonable people can think that after 100 years our fate is very much in jeopardy. >> william, a lot of focus at the moment on places like north korea and the threat of nuclear weapons for missiles do you think sooner than later we'll have weaponized space weapons? >> the premise of zero g is that

there are weaponized vehicles that can destroy a great deal and how to stop that or trying to stop that is part of the premise of the plot. yes, weaponized the moon and orbiting vehicles will definitely be weaponized in the years to come. >> a more light-hearted question, what do you think of the remakes of all the star trek movies does it make you cringe, or do you like to be taken back to your times there, and what do you think of chris pine as captain kirk >> i went to see the new edition of star trek last night, as a matter of fact, and it's terrific the premises are going to startle people, but star trek is alive and well >> you have seen star wars too i've seen some swipes you that at this time twitter feed tweaking them a little bit are they just frauds capping

after you guys >> are they frauds no, no everyone is trying to entertain you. just how do you want to be entertained. i think that star trek tells a great story, and although it's fun to watch the special effects, it's -- it's star wars that has the better special effects, but maybe their stories aren't quite as good as star trek >> well, captain, thank you very much for joining us today, and, again, everybody, the book is called "zero g, green space. william shatner is the author, and we appreciate your time today. >> thank you for having me >> ever gone on a zero g plane >> where you bounce around >> you have done that? >> i haven't because everybody says you also when you bounce around, you may bounce -- your insides may bounce around too. >> that would happen to me >> bounce around and out coming up next, the new normal for companies staying private longer we're going to get a check on the ipmaeto rk right after the break.

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prevagen. the name to remember. zploos last year fewer companies went private

let's bring in jeffrey, the president of -- >> everybody thought maybe this was the beginning of something, and it feels like the beginning of, well, nothing yet. >> i think we look at these big high profile ipo's, and we look at that as a bell weather for opening things up. i think there are a lot of companies that have come public, just not in the tech space if you are looking at other sectors that need capital in order to grow their businesses, like biotech, for example, it's actually been quite robust, and we've raised a ton of money for companies who have gone to do great things and hired lots of people you know, i think we look at the high profile names like snap and the ones who stayed private longer, that's one story, but the rest of the story is that there's actually a lot of smaller companies that are benefitting from a robust capital market >> you don't think the markets are broken that the whole approach is a mess >> i think they're different i think that, you know, they're different than what we saw in the 1990s, and we saw from the last century that is that the market structure is very different that we have today in ermz it of trading equities i think that it's much more

expensive to be public the regulations, particularly sarbanes oxley, and a bunch of other things, make it harder for companies to contemplate going public when they're smaller. i think at the end of the day when you look at the investors in ipo's, the retail investors today is predominantly in passive, and the product is doing less in temz of individual stocks and the big institutions have gotten enormous their ability so actually spend time on small companies is somewhat limited >> is that a good thing, though, that retail investors are investing in less risk where i type ek posures, auto is it something you would like to see reversed >> i think there's a perception that passive product is less risky. you know, so far, yeah, but re really haven't had a marnl market meltdown since really the advent of passive product coming into the mainstream. >> no, no, no. you can look at the passive product that would be the index over, you know, the past 100 years or 50 years or whatever number you want to look at >> right >> right >> there's a record. >> not since investors have

really -- not since the financial crisis when investors have plowed in head first into passive product. here's the challenge with passive product. a high degree of correlation on assets actually way higher than if people were making individual decisions on single stocks if we do have a pull pac and a bunch of individual decisions are made to sell the s&p 500, i think you'll see gap type moves you haven't seen we'll see. the flip side is the low volatility environment, and that's a lot of volatility if you believe in symmetry in markets, i do think there's some liablehood we're going to get a market pullback here when a bunch of individual investors decide that they don't want to own the market >> and, therefore, you think, you know, warren buffett is just officially -- did he just win his big hedge fund bet a decade in >> he is going to win. >> he is about to win. by the end of the year he is going to win you any in a pullback the hedge funds will come out and win like bandi bandits? >> i don't know that they'll win like bandits there is a role for active management i'm not saying that it's the end all and be all, but i think

there's a real important part that active managers play in establishing the value and the price. to get back to ipo's, one of the challenges we're seeing is that active managers in the public markets haven't yet been able to weigh in on a lot of tech companies. when snap comes public, the market hasn't really said -- the public market hasn't said where that should be valued. i think active management is super important in terms of individual investors, even those that invest in passive product have to understand how financial assets are valued. >> i call them quasi-public companies because they're not really -- they're -- snap is public, but it's fully controlled by the founder. >> yeah. i'm not a huge fan of dual class shares >> that's the move >> well, it's a move for them. it's not the move for most companies. that is absolutely not the move, and it's not tolerated >> you said there's much less research out there from the sell side on smaller listed companies than there used to be. does that mean that's a real opportunity to createbe. does that mean that is a real opportunity to create. >> it could be for some. some smaller funds believe that.

small companies that don't get access have a difficult time raising capital. and that's part of the problem in the eco system is that there is really no effective way to -- without doing an ipo without doing some kind of financing to garner attention >> thanks for coming in. >> happy to be here. when we return, jim kramer joins us live from the new york stock exchange

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welcome back to "squawk box. jim cramer joins us now good morning, gym. you had senator warren on last night. wanting changes to the board my question to you is, what about the share price? is everything priced in for wells fargo? >> you had a great report with gerled cassidy on exchange doing it solo today and a terrific show and i have to tell you, i think cassidy's right to the idea it might be priced in i think this is the worst of the big four it is the one that has the most headline risk and the one where you really just kind of wake up every day and say this isn't over i think, you know, the

autoloans. i think that the accounts that have been open and i think it's still open ended and how many more and elizabeth warren is not going to let up. she's minority, but she's not letting up >> what about the banks more generally as we look at the fed. balance sheet, normalization from the fed is that a benefit from the banks or a bigger benefit if we get them >> need rate hikes, but i just don't think that the fed is going to have anything that will hurt this group now because the multiples are still low. there's a catch up i have been saying jpmorgan goes to 100 i echo what a lot of people said and what guys said on your show and what cassidy said on your show it's by far the cheapest because of tangible book value which is starting to come through pnc did have the best quarter, but also the most highly valued. >> all right, jim, thanks very much we'll see you at the top of the hour don't miss a live exclusive interview with bill ackman talking about the battle with adp for the first time noon

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shopping season is on. a new report from deloit said holiday retail sales are expected to grow by 4.5% among the drivers, they're talking about rising disposable personal income and elevated consumer confidence. potential headwinds include an increase in consumers deciding to save money this year and the potential fallout from hurricane activity across the south. the report says that ecommerce sales are expected to do really well they're expected to rise by 18% to 21% and walmart isn't planning any large-scale hiring for the holiday shopping season. instead, the retailer will offer extra hours to its current workers, just like it did last year it will also be adding more temporary workers at its distribution centers buthaven' given a specific number just yet. we talked about this earlier, amazon working on smart glasses with alexa voice system built in the glasses will use bone

conduction technology. >> bone meaning your skull >> your skull. so the user can hear alexa without the need for earphones or conventional speakers amazon has been working on a home security camera, as well. separate from its lineup of echo devices. but the stems will go around your ears and you'll hear without -- and you don't have to have anything in -- >> i feel like that will be more painful. if the sound suddenly goes loud and it will be more painful than just -- >> do you ever use the old jawbone ear things for phone, bluetooth. that also used your cheek bone -- >> does your cheek bone vibrate? >> it was using your cheekbone to pick up your voice, oddly enough >> wow >> anyway, quick look at futures as we go but pretty much flat they've been all morning off the trifecta of regular closes yesterday. >> thanks for being here today >> thanks for hanging.

happy new year, everybody. >> "squawk on the street." good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street. we're tracking hurricane maria as it hits puerto rico and watching the devastating earthquake in mexico with the death toll over 200. markets, of course, will focus on the fed decision in just a few hours. futures are pretty steady and yields up for seven straight sessions now at