designed specifically for the magnificent meal and worth about 500 bucks. and they're yours to keep, along with the calories. ♪ ♪ welcome to "street signs." i'm willem marx. these are your headlines european stocks open in the green. president trump heralds a massive step closer to tax reform after the senate passes the bill. no text yet. ireland's foreign minister says progress is being made. cvs buys insurer aetna for $69 billion. shaping the insurance industry in the largest deal of the year.

and dialup shares slide after the german chip maker says apple could design the car chips in the next few years. takinga look at the european market this morning you can see there is a lot of green on the board there across the europe 600 you can see a rise of almost 3/4 of 1% if you look at the specific sectors driving that upwards movement we can have a look right across some of those sectors in particular industrials doing very well this morning. up almost 1 1/4% and take a look at the european markets across the wide sector. ftse 100 there up 4/5 of 1%. the cac karant up 1% let's talk about trump and tax

in the united states he says confidently they'll reach a deal after the senate approved its version of the legislation over the weekend the plan includes cuts to individual taxes and the corporate rate by nearly $1.5 trillion over the next decade but it eliminates some popular tax breaks a nonpartisan group says it could add $1 trillion to the deficit. they're reconciling their respective tax reform plans before any bill can be signed into law by president drumpd > -- donald trump. >> a lawyer for president donald trump is taking responsibility on why the u.s. leader fired general flynn. general flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi nbc's kristen welker has more on that. >> reporter: damage control. the president's outside counsel john dowd saying he dictated this tweet to an aide sent from the president's twitter account

saturday, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi the tweet sparked an uproar. it implied the president knew his national security adviser michael flynn lied to the fbi and asked fbi director james comey to go easy on flynn. dowd saying he's responsible and he did not know flynn had lied to the fbi when he fired him dowd added, i'm out of the tweeting business, i did not mean to break news news some say is true raises questions of a possible obstruction of justice charge. lindsey graham warning. >> the tweeting comment regarding ongoing criminal investigations at your own pe l peril, i'd be careful. >> i never asked comey to stop investigating flynn, just more fake news covering another comey lie. but former fbi director comey testified to congress this summer -- >> i understood him to be saying that what he wanted me to do is

drop any investigation connected to flynn's account of his conversations with the russians. >> reporter: tonight the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee. >> i believe fbi director comey. i think he was very credible in his testimony in his private meetings with us. >> reporter: on friday flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi about the meetings with russian ambassador he's now cooperating with special counsel robert mueller. >> what has been shown is no collusion. there's been absolutely no collusion so we're very happy. >> [ inaudible ] >> we'll see what happens. >> reporter: at least three other campaign associates have been indicted or pled guilty dianne feinstein on "meet the press" says the congressional investigations are also ramping up. >> i think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice. >> reporter: some critics

suggest as the the investigations wind on they may be taking a toll. >> as this investigation has moved closer to the oval office it has driven increasingly erratic behavior by the president of the united states. >> let's talk about this and the impact it might be having on the u.s. dollar. he's the managing director of g 10 fx. we saw the dip in equities what impact could all of this political risk have on the u.s. dollar >> the risk is there and keeps coming back. it highlights the risk of paralysis in washington and the whole dysfunctional presidency those risks are much more contained. if you want to compare them to the progress on the tax reform, you would argue it's much closer to delivering a fiscal stimulus. net net it's a down side risk. from that point we will be paying close attention to it but

not necessarily reacting to it. >> let's talk about the senate tax band over the week end from what you understand of the bill, will it be this magic bullet, the economy that republicans have hoped it would be >> not really. if you look at the range of estimates on the positive growth impact from any fiscal stimulus that would come up with the whole proposal it's being hashed out in the senate and the house especially before year end we think the positive year end impact could be 1/4 of a percent point, 2018, 2019 on the horizon. it's not a game changer. it's been positive for a while now. it is really the case that we think it's going to continue to support the dollar but we're up against selected currencies. >> you mentioned that we have the reconciliation process to go

between the senate and the house. you talk about the impact and the growth what about the impact on fed policy >> ultimately we're dealing with a u.s. economy with full employment i think fiscal stimulus could boost inflation. there are those calling for more than three rate hikes next year. we are more on the conservative spikes from that point of view we expect if anything the fed could deliver on it but not necessarily exceed i think the december meeting will be a confirmation of that given that the december rate hike is in the price, given that the markets are already moving up to catch up with the feds, you could argue there is some pickup in the dollar rate advantage but more a game changer for the dollar the dollar could do well against currencies that are particularly insensitive. we have treasury yields and we identify the japanese yen, the swiss frank as the most vulnerable plus obviously some other currencies in the space like the australian dollar that

have historically proven to be quite sensitive. so growing rate advantage will translate into more against those currencies at the same time we think the euro, the pound remain and good volume and think those can actually even out perform the dollar heading into the new year. >> not necessarily global strength, very specific currencies. >> selective being regional, if you wish, is smart. i think asia in particular could be the one region that could do particularly badly against the dollar in the case of the swiss frank we're dealing with a fairly over valued currency but an attractive funding currency. if you want to benefit from a pickup in treasury yields as could be the case going forward, you could fund that trade by selling really swiss or in dpn. >> i have to ask you, theresa may traveling to brussels. we've heard from the foreign minister of ireland that they're not looking at an agreement.

what's your impact, even what's your assessment what's going to happen with the sterling >> we are cautiously optimistic in the medium to long term going into the meeting at lunchtime, clearly some positives are already in price the bar for the positive outcome may be a bit too high for the pound. on the whole i think that coming out of the meeting if, indeed, there's some negative headlines especially on the irish border issue, that won't help in the big scheme of things, however, we still have the december 14th e.u. summit. i think ultimately the pound remains buying dips. cable, the pound does remain on a gentle up trend against the dollar and we kind of stick with that forecast for the time being. we think the brexit risk or the worst of the brexit risk will abate and continue to abate after the e.u. summit next week. >> is there a lot of risk there?

>> indeed. the the uncertainty is helping the currency what's quite important, coming back from a trip in the middle east what surprised me was the extent of bearishness there the fact being that if you look at a more traditional positioning data, they will tell you that the short term, all the short term put in place after the e.u. referendum have been taken off the table. that doesn't seem to be the case when you talk to investors anecdotal evidence is late in the market if, indeed, the brexit uncertainty starts abating after the youth summit on december 14th, you argue that those investors make more to the pound. so all of that is building a fairly constructive outlook for the currency from here any political risk notwithstanding in the process it could be a volatile path to those highest we expect indicators in cable. still we think that's the trend. that's why it's going to go over longer term. >> thank you very much

now looking at the global body for central banks, it's sounding the alarm on frothy financial markets. they look easterly similar to the pre-2007 financial era the bank of international settlements points out that markets continue to heat up even as the central banks wind back stimulus and the rising rates of the fed and bank of england have done nothing to cool the asset bubbles. can a tightening be considered effective if financial conditions unambiguously ease? and if the answer is no, what should central banks do? tell us what you think e-mail the show. the address is streetsignseurope @cnbc.com. follow us on twitt twitter @streetsignscnbc coming up, is the movie business in line for some m&a magic as disney combats talks

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we that's why at xfinityic. we've been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. now with instant text and email updates you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for. because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. disney is back in talks with

21st century fox about buying some of the company's entertainment assets that's according to a number of media reports which says the news corporation is looking to offload divisions including its movie studio, cable channels as well as its international business sky cnbc's parent company comcast has also initiated discussions with fox u.s. drugs still staying in the u.s. chain cvs is buying health insurer aetna for $69 billion in cash and stock that is the largest deal of this year and including debt it amounts to $77 billion in total. the tieup is into integrating the two firms into a more fully grounded company it could stabve off of threats f the like of amazon. talking with generic drug makers about possible partnerships. >> the possibility of amazon

entering the pharmacy space has weighed on the sector. amazon's plans are still not clear. the tech giant is having exploratory conversations with makers of generic drugs. the nature of those conversations implies that amazon is still considering what role it may play some expect could seek to disrupt the drug distribution area it's also possible that amazon won't pursue the space at all, but drug makers on the whole are enthusiastic about the prospect. >> we're quite interested in this i mean, obviously it could be a very disruptive change in the overall distribution model to have a company like 578 amazon this space we'd welcome a conversation with amazon and what they're thinking and how we can work with amazon just like other parts of the system. >> some say the pharmacy space is too heavily regulated for amazon that's the view of stefan

amacina. walgreens and cvs have been pressured as investors weigh the potential entry. fueling speculation was a report in october that amazon had acquired medical licenses in the u.s. it became clear after that that those licenses didn't give amazon the ability to distribute pharmaceuticals. the question is still a question mark meg terrell, cnbc business news. the ceos of cbs will be speaking to us on "squawk box" at 7:10 eastern, that is 13:10 central european time. here are some stocks to watch in europe. fiat stocks are on the rise. sergio marcioni says no merger talks are ongoing. the ceo of airbus says he expects to deliver over 700 aircrafts to customers in 2017 that is despite a delay due to

technical problems with the engines. dialogue shares are at the bottom of the market after one of the biggest customers said it would stop buying its chips. dialog said it saw no reason to alter the 2018 expectations. finally, rio tinto is going to have the leader step down. it sees 2017 cap ex at less than $4.5 billion down from a $5 billion forecast the company said it would work on focusing free cash flow and shareholder returns. now swiss banks have reportedly started reporting suspicious

activity no criminal proceedings have yet been opened. the move, of course, coming amid a corruption crackdown and credit swuisse says it has no information. irish foreign minister says an agreement over the border hasn't been reached ahead of brexit talks but the progress is being made he said that talks are in a, quote, sensitive place the irish governments formed a cabinet meeting around 10:00 a.m. the irish prime minister is expected to seek a mandate over a potential decision on whether the u.k. has made, quote, sufficient progress on resolving the issue of the border with northern ireland sterling down slightly lower as theresa may is going to meet mr. junker the talks on trade and a transitional deal can now begin. e.u. leaders will need to be

convinced that significant moves have been made that will be made at a summit in brussels in a few days on december 14th. we're joined by henry newman the irish proposal was that northern ireland and the entire u.k. stay within the union do you think the irish could have done more in terms of bringing their own proposals to the table as to how that border could be workable? >> i think the irish obtained that that's completely understandable they've got a lot to lose from a bad brexit if they end up being very cut off i'm slightly confused by their position they're saying we need the brex brexiteers to be here. we're not allowed to start talking about those because the

e.u. has said we haven't made sufficient progress to talk trade. >> i know that you argue, many argue that the phrase sufficient progress is inherent why do you think the british government signed up the way the talks were phased? >> that's a reasonable question. it probably was a mistake by the british government to agree to this phase talk. as you said, this is a political test, not a technical test indeed, that phrase sufficient progress was chosen in the guidelines by e.u. member states precisely because it allowed flexibility. the e.u. reached sufficient progress it's got that pretty much on the question of the money and ireland is emerging as the key sticking point as you said again, the irish government is saying they want no regulatory divergence between the republic and the province. that's a difficult demand to make northern ireland is an area of legitimate interest for the republic but i don't think it can goso far as to say they have the right to veto any future change in regulation.

>> we were in ireland including up in the border area where you're looking at -- for instance, we spent time with dairy farmers, dairy industry. that regulatory divergence they're concerned about. we saw them on friday saying shoulder to shoulder they've been standing with the irish government are you surprised how unified the e.u. government has been >> you've seen a lot of e.u. unity. that might get harder later in talks but at the moment, no. i think they should be listening to the former irish tea shop we need a combination of technical solutions on the border, he said, and the e.u. to agree to turn a blind eye and accept, for example, some dairy cows may be crossing over the border and that will be something you need to ignore the u.k. has also said that in terms of agriculture energy, they're broadly happy to look at a lined regulatory future. i don't think that means all financial services or other

areas of regulation that we need to be permanently aligned. there are some areas of regulation that more precisely affect the border than others. >> what's the position of ter rece theresa may if there's no progress made? >> i think it's quite hard to tell if there was no sufficient progress i think it would be -- on one level it could be a massive set back for her on another level it might mean that the pressure becomes overwhelming for the u.k. to walk away from the talks and pursue a non-negotiated exit from the e.u. >> the businesses and also -- although it's probably true that the u.k. will be damaged more by such an exit, it's certainly the case that ireland will be damaged more than any other e.u. 2700 country >> you think they would fire them essentially >> i think it's a high stakes game he's entitled to defend his domestic interests he's got a domestic political landscape. he's a minority leader, newly selected tea shop and there's a

european picture he knows this is his moment of maximum leverage if he signs up for significant progress, it will be much harder to say, no, no, no, we need further concessions. >> myanmar speaking last week said they were fully unified and behind on this issue in terms of the fiscal landscape, he has support for this hard line approach. in terms of theresa may and her leverage, does she have any? >> she does. she needs to say that her room for maneuvering domestically is relatively limited we saw a new demarche from euro skeptics in the sunday papers who are setting out more clearly their red lines for the negotiations she needs to say, there's only so far you can push me >> in terms of e.u. balance and budgets, that is one thing that we seem to have had a lot of

movement over the last couple of months or so where the british government seemingly has agreed at a cabinet level will offer the money that the european union are looking for. is that some kind of strength where she can say, look, you guys want to not pay more on an individual country basis and not receive less and we can promise that if you will pay for it. nothing is free. >> absolutely. she can turn back that e.u. line nothing is agreed until everything is agreed i signed up for this chunk of money. not quite as much as the e.u. wanted it will ensure that nobody's paying more or less in the current budget period which is a crucial demand and also that the debts that the u.k. has gotten, she can say i've gotten this on my cabinet if we are not allowed to talk about trade or the future she'll say, look, that cabinet unity will dissolve around this issue and i'll have to go back and

essentially you'll be losing out on that money which is for the e.u. a huge problem. >> the irish government could face a lot of blame from both british commentators and british politicians. is this a way for the e.u. to lay the blame on talks not progressing on the irish >> i don't think we're seeing that we're seeing the e.u. earlier very united behind ireland there's a determination to find a group. i'm worried that ireland is setting itself up. hopefully there will be a recognition. she has no intention of jeopardizing the peace process nobody on the u.k. side wants that process they should stand together and say to brussels, we don't want a border we need to think of creative solutions. >> thank you very much, henry newman director at open europe. ahead of prime minister may's meeting, we'll see how the u.k. pmi is doing the latest on the u.k. construction pmi coming up next. zar: one of our investors was in his late 50s

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welcome back to "street signs. i'm willem marx. these are your headlines european stocks open in the green and the dow is over 200 points higher. the senate passes the tax bill. no text yet. ireland's foreign minister says an agreement over the border hasn't been reached over brexit talks but says progress is being made. u.s. drugstore chain cvs buys insurer aetna for $69 billion. reshaping the industry in the largest deal of the year cnbc speaks with leaders of both companies later today. dialog chip maker says apple could design its own chips in the next few years and we're going to bring you some numbers pmi construction numbers here for the u.k. have come out just

a moment ago it looks like they are much, much higher than expected at 53.1 that's a five-month high 50.8 last month and they were expecting 51 that apparently is largely due to increase government housing plans in last month's budget let's take a look at foreign currency exchange rates right knew the euro is down against the dollar about a quarter percent the dollar is strengthening against the yen quite significantly and the pound as we mentioned earlier also weakening against the dollar thanks to all of that news against e.u. negotiations against brittain and the swiss frank is up. let's take a look at european markets now more broadly we can see the ftse 100 up 3/4 of 1%. xetra dax up 1/4 of a percent. the ftse may be up more than 1% as well. take a look at u.s. futures as well a few hours ahead of the open,

s&p 500 looks to be opening 15 points up. the dow jones up and the nasdaq also looking like it's going to open strongly. the latest twist into the russian investigation involving the trump campaign have been dominating the news. a lawyer has taken responsibility for a weekend tweet why president trump fired michael flynn. he pled guilty of lying to the fbi. tracie potts joins us from washington, d.c. what's been the reaction inside the white house? >> reporter: well, we saw the president on twitter all weekend long, defending, deflecting to other topics when it comes to the russia investigation the reason that that particular tweet is important is because it essentially said that the president knew that flynn lied to the fbi before he fired him, which also would mean that the

president knew that flynn lied to the fbi before he told james comey, the fbi director, to back off the flynn investigation. the president came back and said he had not told comey or did not tell comey to back off that investigation even though that's what comey testified under oath. new twist and turns in this investigation that has now produced four charges, four different people connected to the trump campaign charged and now we're hearing here on capitol hill the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee, they're also investigating saying they may be looking at an obstruction of justice charge for the president. that would be huge, but they're building the case at this point. it doesn't appear that we're quite close to that, but this is the first time we've heard them coming out saying, yeah, it looks like everything is lining up for a possible obstruction of justice charge in this case. >> tracie, that's the democrats talking on capitol hill. what have we heard in response

to the latest from the republicans? >> reporter: they want to hear more about what's happening at the fbi. you bring up a good point. we have not heard the republican leadership say anything close to they're looking at obstruction of justice keep in mind, we have at least three different investigations going on the house intelligence committee, the senate intelligence committee, judiciary committees are looking into this. the biggest investigation that all eyes are on here in washington is that investigation by the fbi and special counsel robert mueller. >> tracie potts, thank you so much nbc news there in washington. u.s. senate leaders have passed a version of sweeping tax reform the plan would lower taxes to individuals and businesses but estimates indicate it could add $1 trillion to the deficit house and senate lawmakers must reconcile their tax reforms before any bill can be signed into law hallie jackson has the details >> so last night at about 3:00 in the morning i got a call --

>> reporter: president trump today describing the moment overnight he found out his first big legislative win looks locked in >> for years not since ronald regan having come close to passing. they couldn't pass them. they couldn't get the votes. >> reporter: republicans got the votes to pass the massive tax plan that would cut individual taxes, cut the corporate rate and do away with some popular tax rates and adding a new child tax credit it will add $1 trillion to the deficit. billed as a middle class cut, there's still no guarantee all-americans will see their taxes go down in what's now the biggest overhaul in decades. approved in minutes. >> the tax cut and jobs bill as amended has passed. >> reporter: that left democrats furious with a process they slammed as rushed and opaque. >> this is the tax bill. see how thick it is?

i want youto take a look at this, folks. this is your government at work. >> reporter: back in 2000 fine republicans leveled the same criticisms at democrats during debate on the affordable care act. >> this massive piece of legislation is being written behind closed doors. >> reporter: that was then but now? >> but the argument that this was not an open process is ridiculous sure there were changes as we moved along, but the core of the bill everybody was familiar with. >> reporter: it's not a done deal just yet. the senate still has to square its bill with the house version to figure out, for example, the number of tax brackets, whether individual tax cuts are temporary or permanent, how generous the child tax credit should be and whether corporate cuts should start immediately or later. that will take time with democrats promising to use that window to fight. senator bernie sanders. >> they have significant differences that they have to reconcile which gives us three, four weeks to rally the american

people >> that was nbc's hallie jackson reporting. to talk about this we're joined by lindsay newman. i want to ask you about the impact of this political turbulence i want to ask you about what you see of the positives and the negatives of this proposed plan. >> sure. president donald trump stated domestic policy was to drive economic growth and to bring jobs back. we've seen two bills make it through the senate and the house. the big winners here are domestic corporations. they're going to see cuts in their taxes from 35 to 20% pass through entities like llcs and partnerships see some benefits. >> this is about helping u.s. versus non-u.s. business. >> domestic businesses will be helped most. the question is a bit open ended still. >> then what about the idea of there being draw backs

we've heard from a number of economists have said this plan is not going to be the magic bullet that the republicans have proven it might be what are the potential down sides of this bill >> sure. we saw last week the joint committee said this will raise the deficit up to $1 trillion. this is not great news they tried to make some work arounds last week in the late hours including maintaining the alternative minimum tax. the bigger issue i think we're looking at is how this will filter through all income brackets they suggest that some will see cuts in their taxes. the senate plan sun sets that in 2025 at which point an increasing number of individuals will see their taxes actually increase. >> it sounds like the joint committee on taxation worked incredibly hard to get this analysis out in time but we've not seen the same rigorous

analysis out of this bill that you would expect, do you >> they did know the deadline. what the other big take away we're seeing here is how much political will republicans had to get this on donald trump's desk before the year end that filtered back to nonpartisan agency to develop this analysis. >> i guess the question there is in your assessment is this all about getting a win in terms of legislation or is this really about trying to boost the economy at this stage? >> i think it's both the republicans believe this will drive economic growth the hope is that cutting corporate taxes companies will reinvest, perhaps they will build new jobs and that will drive economic growth. at the same time they were looking for a legislative victory here after the obamacare efforts. >> president trump is happy about this going into next year is it important for members of congress to have a legislative win to take back to their con

still the two wechb -- constituents to say look what we've done. >> absolutely. they need a spending package before it expires on friday. they want to take the momentum in 2018 and identify a key legislative victory that they can point to and say when we go home, we should be re-elected and continue. >> do you think this is likely to hurt or to harm congressional republicans' chances on these mid terms? >> well, i think one of the key issues we need to remember is we don't actually know where the bill is going to land. as they said, congress -- the two have very different bills at this moment that they're going to need to reconcile before they can get it to the president's desk we have to see where the bill lands before we can have a closer idea of how this is going to impact the mid term. >> stay there. i want to bring news on north korea. the white house and national security adviser colonel mcmaster has given a stark warning. >> the greatest immediate threat

to the united states and to the world is the threat posed by the rogue regime in north korea and his continued efforts to develop a long range nuclear capability. and so it's immensely important that we work together with all of our allies, partners, everyone internationally to convince kim jong-un that the continued pursuit of these capabilities is a dead end for him and his regime. >> the u.s. and south korean militaries have performed ariel drills lindsay, what i want to ask you about is the u.s. state department we've heard a lot of noises about secretary rex tillerson leaving his job. there's a lot of complaints about the way the department is being run and the future of diplomacy in the u.s i want to ask, when we hear that from the national security adviser, does it feel like the u.s. state department is able to fulfill its mandate? >> this is a fast-moving story

obviously. what we've seen recently is allegations -- is suggestions that rex tillerson is on his way out and the cia director i going to step in trump has since said that is not the case so we're still watching to see where this is going to land over the years we've seen the mandate has sort of been si sidelined to the defense department we were expecting north korea to carry out some sort of missile test before the end of the year so this was not a surprise this is something that we were watching and certainly the u.s. responds with joint activity with north korea is not a surprise. >> you're hearing these voices saying again and again we are getting closer and closer to conflict and then you're hearing our diplomats don't have all the tools they need. >> they're going to switch towards a militarized approach

versus diplomatic approach. >> do you think that's a good one? >> lindsay, thank you so much for joining us from ihs market. don't forget to e-mail the show your views on all of this. you can also tweet us, follow us on twitter @"street signs" cnbc or tweet me directly a at @willemmarx how gold has been introduced as a digital currency next. my friend susie cracks me up. but one laugh, and hello sensitive bladder. ring a bell? then you have to try always discreet. i didn't think protection this thin could work. but the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. for incredible protection... ...that's surprisingly thin. so it's out of sight... ...and out of mind. always discreet. for bladder leaks. also in liners.

signs. dialog shares have dropped warning that one of its biggest customers, apple, could be working on its own power chip. it saw no reason to alter its 2018 expectations. meanwhile, same with apple tim cook says developers in china have earned nearly $17 billion

that's roughly 1/4 of all global app store earnings tim cook shared the information. apple faced criticism from a rights group including vpn services apple is hoping to gain back market share in china after losing shares to local hand set makers in recent years now it's been a volatile weekend for trading for bitcoin. the crypto currency is back up over $11,000 trading just below its all-time high. it rallied last week before a sharp, sharp, sharp drop took it back below 10,000. on friday the commodities future trading commission green lighted a plan to introduce bitcoin, futures, claiming it has stormed wall street. meanwhile, in venezuela a number of countries including venezuela

have band crypto currencies. a number of countries are band from currencies. one nation has launched its own which is venezuela president nicolas maine ndur row just unveiled one. he offered few technical details but he said the crypto currency would be backed by oil and diamond reserve. some turn to the crypto currency off of this. it's nearly 60%. to talk about this, i'm joined by natasha thanks very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> i want to ask you about government action and bitcoin. is that an existential threat? >> i think it very much is i think governments need to control the amount of money in circulation and if they can't control that, if it's a crypto currency whose supply is actually insured by another body

not known by the government, then that's a problem. one of the reasons the governments want to control their currency is they want to conduct monetary policy. they want to print money in case they run out of cash to pay sovereign debt. >> you obviously have a better understanding than i do of the bubble market. every time i hear about bitcoin it's wildly swinging in one direction or another, most of the time up. people are excited about the opportunity they see what's your vice based on the hierarchy markets? >> so on the one hand we might want to say that bitcoin is very unique in a sense that it hasn't been seen in the past at all so in the past there has been bubbles, for example, the dotcom bubble or the 1920s bubble, but when we have seen these bubbles usually the main increase was in the past year or so or the past

few months, whereas, with bitcoin what we've seen here and it's very unusual, really long-term increase increase by about 30,000 times the past 11 -- sorry, six years, which is completely unusual and unheard of to some extent some say it's not bubble like. but on the other hand, the problem is that it might not be sustainable. one of the reasons it's not sustainable is besides the more useful it becomes, the more widely spread, the more the governments want to rein this in and make it much more difficult for you to use bitcoin because they want to control the currency. >> it gets to the philosophical question of what is the value of any currency if you hold the u.s. dollar in your hand or british pound in your hand or piece of gold in your hand, what does it buy you in terms of your value in terms of intrinsic value is there intrinsic value of bitcoin? >> i think there is some

intrinsic value to bitcoin it's not the same as the euro and the dollars. they're very important as a means of exchange. backed up by the government which means people trust it. with bitcoin slightly different. its intrinsic value has to do with the fact that it can be traded anonymously very useful in the fact that drug dealers can use it. so that's an intrinsic value there's always going to be that intrinsic value. however, i don't think that has more intrinsic value than that it will never become a widespread exchange. >> at the core of that is it makes a lot of opaque market action difficult with the value. final question, is there a long-term problem for bitcoin do you think? >> i think there is a long-term problem for bitcoin despite that a government will not back this up, they will, however, find the technology behind bitcoin

interesting. it's interesting to help trade even though government could actually make it nonanonymous. i don't think they they will make it their own currency. >> you think the technology is here to stay but bitcoin is not? >> that's right. thank you very much from the lfe. let's stick with bit cocoin here people hearing about warnings of bitcoin bubble that's not stopping business school students from getting in on the action. my colleague seema modi has the story. >> reporter: a growing number of students are saying no to traditional finance rules and are increasingly looking to block chain and crypto currency for opportunities. >> quite a large number of students in the class who i've seen come from private equity heck fun hedge funds, have foregone the chance to go back that traditional path and looking at how that simmers themselves.

>> reporter: earlier robby mitchnick and other classmates wrote a letter requesting block chain class be taught. stanford responded the first class will be taught in the spring of 2018. a similar story is playing out across the country at harvard business school. >> colleagues in finance, entrepreneurship, strategy, technology and operations all thinking about, you know, how do we think about the blockchain and the set of questions it raises in our disciplines and a demand from students. as students prepare to enter the corporate world, data shows that employers' interest in blockchain experience is rising. upward said blockchain was the second largest skill in the quarter over 5,000 classes

as demand grows, business school students across the nation are launching blockchain clubs to learn, collaborate and connect with like-minded individuals students are now approaching the critical recruiting season which kicks off in early january it will serve as a real world indicator as to whether students can land a job that utilizes blockchain technologies. some say this field offers more promise long term than a traditional role in finance. >> my immediate goal is to be a blockchain integrator or venture fund investing in blockchain companies. >> i'm looking at the technology space. blockchain is something i'm looking at keenly mostly because i think as the next wave of disruption. >> in the next 20 years there's going to be a whole host of applications that we can't even think of today. >> reporter: still some business school students are first playing it safe saying they're skeptical about the rice and the

hype the lack of regulations. everyone is looking for the popular trends they want to go to more blockchain, bitcoin type because it's a sort of -- it's a different risk return profile. higher up side i'm still a stocks guy but i think i look more at the fundamentals. >> but wharton business school professor kevin buck says this will prove to be indispensable. >> i think of blockchain as the internet 20 years ago. we'll look back and it will be hard to talk about any company of any size, really any company at all that doesn't have some application of blockchain technology. >> reporter: for cnbc business news, i'm seema modi in philadelphia. >> internet seems like blockchain is the part of the future that will remain according to our guest and seema modi's reporting there let's take a quick look at u.s. futures before we go over to the

other side of the atlantic implied open is up 14 points s&p 500 just under 200 at the dow jones and 24.184 the nasdaq pulling back very slightly over the past couple of hours. still looks like a very, very strong open base on that senate tax reform plan that seems to be passed over the weekend. obviously reconciliation that is it for today's show. i am willem marx "worldwide exchange" is up next. ♪ (news anchor) downtown traffic is still bad. expect massive delays. (radio channel changing) (news anchor 2) all lanes on highway 50 remain closed at this hour.

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market alert u.s. secretary futures soaring as they cheer tax reform. breaking deal news cvs health is buying aetna for $69 billion. plus, wild swings in bitcoin. the digital currency rebounding from a 20% plunge to hit another record high this morning it's monday, december 4th, 2017, and "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ ♪ good morning very warm welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost. >> and i'm seema