print of lyft down at 59 and change 59 we'll tell you which numbers investors are going to be scrutinizing it's thursday, april 11th, it 2019 "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ we are live from the nasdaq market site. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross sorkin. you're going to see that this morning the dow is indicated up by about 20 points s&p indicated up by almost four points, and then the nasdaq up by seven probably worth pointing out that the nasdaq yesterday closed at a six-month high the s&p 500 was up for the ninth out of ten sessions, and the dow was finally up out of -- after about three days in a row of being down again, we'll see where things go as we get a little closer to the opening bell again, that's where we stand just now

also, let's take a look at what happened overnight in asia you'll see that the nikkei ended up by about .1%. hang seng was down by almost 1%. then the shanghai compost office was down by 1.6% then in europe where we've seen some early trading already this morning, a bit of a mixed picture. the cac is up by over half a percent. the dax is relatively flat, and so is the ftse stocks are weaker in both italy and spain. also, take a look at what's been happening with treasury market yesterday the ten-year ended below 2.5% at 2.479% yield is even lower this morning. a tick lower at 2.476% we have news literally just breaking moments ago out of london this morning. wiki-leaks founder julian assange has been removed from the ecuadorian embassy he has been living there for years. the arrest comes after ecuador revoked asylum for assange earlier today. the president of ecuador says that he did so because of assange's repeated violations of international conventions in

daily life protocols where. >> do you remember last year they were talking about kicking him out if he didn't start washing himself and cleaning up and that he was stinky is that what daily life protocols mean >> it may very well be the question that i have, though, is exactly what he is being arrested for in britain. of course, he had been alleged to have been involved in sexual misconduct at one point those charges were dropped, but those were in switzerland, i believe now we're back to larnler questions perhaps about what's going to happen in the united states is it -- does it involve -- >> extra, yeah >> will he be extradited what's happening we will keep our eyes on all of this separately today's yaend, it's a big day for disney shareholders. the company holding an investor day where it's expected to unveil details of its new streaming service. it will i take on netflix. several upgrades this week suggesting wall street is happy about disney's strategy. i won't call it the happiest place in the world, joe, but at

least so far you can look at that chart right there, and a programming note because tomorrow on squawk on the street, david faber will have an interview with disney ceo bob iger you can watch that tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern time separately, we are also filing or watching and waiting for the filing of uber's ipo filing expected today uber has released partial financial results this year for part of the year, but the -- this will really be the first complete look at the company's numbers and operational metrics. one of the key metrics to watch, of course, in this case is going to be revenue. potential investors will be comparing uber to lyft's poor stock performance since its ipo, but uber is, of course, a much larger company with operations that span the globe. uber eats and the like has a really broader array of businesses, which draw high revenue numbers than lyft, but don't look for a profit number because you won't see one. >> they have more businesses, but the valuation is five times what lyft's is >> right

>> it's not apples to apples i mean -- >> well, you are looking at a company -- lyft is a u.s. -- north america. >> what was -- when it was all said and done, lift -- right now what's lyft's valuation right now? >> lyft at the ipo was about $30 billion. >> now it's -- >> stave off >> this would be obviously about three times that >> lyft is not 30 anymore. what was the last round of financing for uber did it get to 120, or just the ipo pricing was -- >> the ipo price was going to be 120, and now it's -- >> i believe investors are in -- >> let's say lyft continues to not trade well >> yeah. >> does uber go under 100? does it go to 90 >> at the moment they're not planning on the ipo being at $120 billion >> it's at $100 billion. does it go below $100 billion. >> it very well may. i believe that the range we're expecting is going to be $90 million to $100 million. >> what was it -- okay

it's not a down whatever it's called >> it's not a down round >> down round. >> yes at least that's not the expectation. >> a ground round. >> the fundamental distinction between the businesses are you have a huge business in south america. the brazilian business is a huge business >> i think it's because they deliver taco bell with uber eats >> the uber eats business is a separate business. they have a huge business in europe they now own -- they effectively have a monopoly in the middle east look, i'm not -- >> do you know what their revenue comparisons are? like how much bigger >> we need to see the numbers later today. i don't know where they're going to stand, but i think you'll see them be -- >> significantly >> by many multiples >> well, will there losses be many multiples >> i imagine they were they lost almost $1 billion. >> i think if you are investing in these companies, this is -- this is on the up side it's an amazon style bet if you believe that one day they will show profits, but i don't think there's a -- there's no -- nothing you're going to see, i believe, in either of the uber filing nor in the lyft filing that said that in the

foreseeable future there were profits ahead. >> in fact, you saw just the opposite you saw in the prospectus that they don't see profits >> correct that's why it is -- >> they got get rid of the drivers and -- >> no by the way, for them to be profitable, you either need to get rid of the drivers or you need to fundamentally change the culture such that so many people using these -- what's called uber pool or any of these kind of pool services where multiple people are in the car, those -- no, but if you can get three or four people in the car, if you get in some of the bus programs that they're doing in india and elsewhere, those style vehicles and that kind of transport, that works. >> here's the other thing -- >> bicycles work for them. >> you better keep your driver >> i'm just telling you that you have -- >> you see, i don't see you carpooling >> if you get rid of your drivers for uber, then you have to pay for all the equipment because right now the drivers bring their cars with them that means that uber would have to actually invest in paying for all of these autonomous vehicles

themselves it's actually -- >> the expectation long-term for autonomous vehicles is actually that the ubers of the world and the lyfts of the world probably won't own the vehicles themselves they'll be separate companies almost like reets and hotels such that there will be -- no, no, no they'll be companies -- >> you'll get somebody else to do all of your capital expenditure spending for you good luck with that. >> there will be low growth dividend-oriented companies that own the real estate, take the cash, and that will be that business >> is that who the ubers and the lyfts -- is that what the ubers and lyfts are saying we're not going to have to put the cap-ex in? >> you have to pay those people. >> nothing comes for free. >> i'm just telling you if you talk to the people that are around these companies, that is the expectation in terms of long-term if and when we get to that moment that you always get capital-light business >> that's an even bigger joke. wow. it may happen, but if that's the case, its going to be less profitable because you're going to have to pay those people for it, too.

i mean, nothing comes for free >> that's true >> all right i haven't seen any of this, but i was there. herman cain and his path to the federal reserve could be blocked before the president even nominates him. at least three gop senators reportedly plan to vote against cain if the president formally does choose him. staffers for senator mitt romney, lisa murkowski have made their opposition to cain clear i spoke to mike spence about herman cain in an exclusive cnbc interview. >> we're very early in the nomination process, and the president said today he likes herman cain. herman has a background in business and was a governor in the federal reserve and has that background he and steven moore both are people that really understand what the president's fiphilosopy

is in this economy, but we'll see how it plays out >> we'll show you the full interview with vice president pence at 6:30 a.m., including his comments on the u.s. economy and the trade talks with china i'm just enjoying my twitter feed since all you got to do is just say you're interviewing mike pence, and there are some wackos out there >> you're hearing full force >> i like reading it they say why would you want to interview a guy who works for mango mussolini. have you heard that one? an orange blob they send me pictures of things in a toilet. they send -- it's really -- andrew, what is with the political discourse nowadays >> no comment. >> i had one guy tell me that i have always been just a horrible right-wing maniac. he sent me -- >> the e-mail from 2007. >> from 2007 >> i saw that.

>> a guy sent me an e-mail from 2007 just filled with curse words about what i was, and i go and can you believe how much you hated it w back then to this guy? i go -- i would give anything for w now. yeah, you did you not know how good you had it. did you? back then. it was the same rhetoric with w, and now they just ramped it up because this guy takes -- it's like w times -- like to the third power or something >> my bigs take-away was mike pence is a great vice president. i tried to get him a lot of different ways, and he is on message, and if you were the president, you would want to send mike pence out to talk about your policies because there's -- as far as i can tell, he has no.

>> he support on board with herman cain? earlier in the day zroo trump earlier in the day. that's why i asked him trump earlier in the day had tweeted that -- someone -- no, someone asked him what about herman cain, and he goes, well, you know, if herman is going to have to decide what he wants to do with that i like him a lot, and i think he would do great, but is he going to have to make that determination. >> did you see the interview with steven mnuchin. not on our air, but i this i in front of congress where he is asked do you have confidence in if herman cain and steven moore, and he said, well, the president has confidence it was clear as day that, i mean, it's the same issue. i'm not sure -- well, i don't know about steven moore, but herman cain sounds like he may not be the man >> i think the other take-away, and i think michelle has it right, that -- >> the economy is important. >> and they're going to run on

that >> that's why he wants to talk to you, too. >> the one thng i asked, after he went in this just a long list of everything that's great about the economy. then i said why do need qe he gave the right answer because if he didn't have the dual mandate and all you had was inflation, why not pedal to the metal, baby let's go if we're going to be 2.2 or 2.3 this year, and you if you really don't -- if you're not thinking about getting dry powder for the next downturn, that's the reason you go back and try to normalize things if you're not thinking about that, it could make sense to just, you know -- to just let it go if you really are having trouble engendering inflation around the globe, then maybe keep it going. >> the full interview coming up in just about 15 minutes >> it's only 12 minutes. it's not going to be that bad for you guys, andrew you can get a muffin or something. >> we will watch it. it's coming up in 15 minutes

time we have a during the zlus interview with treasury staekt steven mnuchin he said that the sides have tackled one of the key sticking points that had been holding that deal up where. >> >> we've pretty much agreed on the enforcement technical nichl. we've agreed that both sides will establish enforcement offices that will deal with the ongoing matter this is something that both sides are taking very seriously. >> secretary mnuchin said the slowdown in growth in china will have some impact on the u.s. economy but that the u.s. would continue to be a bright spot of economic growth. also, some more optimism this morning surrounding the u.s.-china trade talks according to the "wall street journal" china has improved its offer to open its cloud computing sector to foreign companies. this comes after u.s. negotiators rejected an earlier proposal as inadequate, ka organized to people who were breached about those talks president trump broadcasting the e.u. in a tweet late last night

just hours after the european union approved another big brexit delay he said too bad that the european union is being so tough on the united kingdom and brexit the e.u. is likewise a brutal trading partner with the united states that will change sometimes in life you have to let people breathe before it all comes back to bite you >> the national enquirer is up for sale the tabloid led by david pecker could have a buyer within days this comes amid a battled course of jeff bezos who has been accused the publisher of extortion. in a statement to the "new york times" he said the company is shifting away from tabloid and focussing on its magazine business, including "us weekly" and "men's journal." really what we should explain is that this sale is inspired by one of the hedge funds that owns ami, and ultimately, my understanding from the sources i talked to about this last night is that ami will continue to perhaps pre-distribute and

effectively market the magazine, but effect tifrly won't have an kbhek interest and control over the magazine the relationship will change a little bit >> who is potentially going to buy it who wants it >> i am doing some reporting on that, and i am very close. give me a little bit of time. >> bed, bath, and beyond bed, bath, and beyond shares plummeting in today's early trading. let's show you what the company reported that's driving down the stock next stay tuned our full interview are groundbreaking interview with vice president mike pence is coming up in just a few minutes. as we head to break, here's a look at the biggest premarket winners and losers in the dow.

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snoo sales decline in nearly three decades as a public company.

same-store sales fell more than expected as the retailer faces increasing competition on-line. snoo mark zuckerberg apologized to. >> there's an idea of know your customer you know, where this is coming

from no off the record there you might remember >> it could actually oddly enough fix or could fix facebook and could fix twitter. interestingly, and i didn't know this before, if you look at this facebook had at one point closed down 1.5 billion with a b billion accounts in the course of three months last year. if you did that, you get rid of the box and rid of some of the hate speech. you get rid of a lot of the spreading of some of the misinformation from some people. you would be able to really sort of change the game i think in a

very sort of simple way. by the way, there is a precedent for this >> but what proof do you have to have how do you know that >> there's a company called next door i think you may know some of the executives you cannot sign up for next door service without either a credit card or some other proof of where you live, and if you don't have those things electronica y electronically, you know what they'll do, they'll send a postcard to your home with a code on it. zploor you would argue, you could do it in europe. >> imauto not against it >> i'm just saying what they -- autooh, look if you are in an eyeball

business and you are going to lose your eyeballs, it's a problem. if you think about all of the problems and challenges that these companies face -- >> they're all fixable brsh just every one of them hurts their business model, which is why they're going to absolutely gsh e -- >> i think this may oddly enough if you did it over a two-year period, if not -- if you put it down a wall tomorrow, it's going to be tough. if you did it over time and you started in north america, i think you would actually -- >> put down a wall for new members, and eventually you would have to get everybody else who is already there >> you could do that >> started immediately for -- >> it's not -- they know the verification matters you know why they know because they're willing to put a blue check next to your name and a blue check next to your name, and they know that that is actually a benefit to their system.

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>> mike pence on the record. we'll show you what he said about the fed, the economy trying on a lot more the full interview right after the break. as we head to break, here's a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers i'm working to keep the fire going

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sfo good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box." we've been watching u.s. equity futures at this hour, and i think if you take a look right

now, you'll see that the dow is indicated up by about 28 points above fair value s&p futures are up by over 4.5 points, and then the nasdaq is up by 11.5 probably worth pointing out that the s&p has now been up for nine out of the last ten sessions, and if you are taking a look at what the s&p did, says or the nasdaq yesterday closed at a six-month high energy news. the iea out with its monthly report this morning. it says that global supplies dropped in march as both u.s. sanctions and power outages pushed venezuela why's crude output to a long-term low of 870,000 barrels a day. take a look at crude oil prices this morning down by about 1% for wti down 64 cents to $63.97 a barrel >> this body should revoke to the united nations recognize interim president juan guiado, and seat the

representative the free venezuelan government in this body without delay with all due respect, you should return to venezuela and say that nicolas maduro's time is up and it's time to go. >> great reaction. >> what? >> i'm glad the camera got a reaction shot. that was pretty harsh, though. anyway, i had the opportunity to sit down that was like the mnuchin maxine waters -- >> that was something.

>> yesterday i went to the united nations we delivered a message that now that the organization of american states has recognized juan guiado as the lenl i want government of venezuela now that the g-7 has spoken out 54 nations have followed president trump's lead to recognize president juan guiado and his administration now it's time for the united nations to act it will denounce the dictatorship of michael maduro, and we called on the u.n. to revoke the credentials of venezuela's representative to the united nations and recognize the dually appointed representative of the democratically elected

government of venezuela. >> the american economy is soaring thanks to the leadership of president donald trump. from the first days of this administration, this president has been working to get this economy moving again cutting taxes, rolling back federal red tape, unleashing american energy, and here we are 5.5 million jobs later, record unemployment for african-americans, hispanic americans, unemployment for women is at a 60-year low, and, of course, the stock market has been soaring i think it's all because this is a president who has kept his promises to the american people.

first quarter lower than 2.2, 2.4, whatever it was and this year we don't know, obviously, but we're hearing 2.2 to 2.3 that's deceleration. people will point to the promise of what tax reform was going to do, and say that it's not measuring up >> well, i beg to differ obviously, the february jobs report we thought was an anomaly, and it was. last friday's report told the tale of a growing economy, robust energy. i mean, look what's happening in manufacturing alone, joe i mean, i remember in the summer of 2016 when i was just joining this ticket, the last president was saying what are we going to do wave a magic wand to bring back manufacturing jobs and president trump said, no, we can bring jobs back? we can cut taxes for businesses, roll back federal red tape,

unleash american energy, fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first. here we are 500,000 good paying manufacturing jobs have come back to the united states. we really think we just have begun to scratch the surface of economic growth. last year 3%, 5.5 million jobs since election day, but you think about the last eight years of less than 2% economic growth in the most powerful economy in the history of the world president trump said we can do better president trump said we could be growing again. we are >> so no recession fears, which. >> the jobs number was one good data point on friday, and also china looked like it recovered, and china stock market is doing pretty well. though recession fears that's off the table in your view at this point >> we don't have any concern i think the treasury secretary said that on your air as well.

no concerns about a recession. the president was talking about quantity takive easing things are so great, then i don't understand going back to these emergency procedures and things that we did during the financial crisis at this point people said we don't have dry powder for the next slowdown. why would we cut rates again why would we stop letting the balance sheet roll off >> you saw the consumer numbers that came out yesterday, though, joe. i mean, there's no evidence of inflation in this economy. >> so it's inflation >> and so it's -- we really do believe that, you know, what the president was saying is the quantity takive tightening has not been the right approach. he has spoken out against the policies of the fed over the last two years like many presidents have before him. >> right >> this is a president that really does believe that this

economy is only starting to grow i mean, you look at nations around the world, nation that is we compete with every day, and the president really does believe that 3% is a starting point in this economy. i remember during the campaign he was talking about -- he was talking about 3%, 3.5%, 4% economic growth and going, but what we have got to have is monetary policy and we've also got to have leadership in washington d.c. in the congress of the united states.

>> if we'll have sound monetary policy, if we will continue -- if we'll re-elect a republican majority in the congress this fall in the house of representatives, if we continue to build in the momentum that we have, we've only just begun to see this economy growing >> how about herman cain is that nomination -- i know the president responded to a question today and said the determination of whether his nomination is safe is up to herman cain. he is a great guy, and i hope things work out for him. doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. do you know anything we don't know about that nomination >> we're very early in the process, joe the nomination process.

>> the capital spending, would you say it's been satisfactory in terms of what we were hoping for with tax reform. a lot of people said that it's ramping up but slowly. others say that there's -- they don't like buy-backs i'm not necessarily in that camp, and maybe we should induce it, tax them like dividends so that companies aren't more prone to use the cash for buybacks they use it for capital spending.

>> wages have started to move up across the spectrum, but most -- the most rapid increase in wages has been among blue collar working americans. i mean, the president used to use that phrase. the forgotten men and women. when you look at the fact that wages are finally rising again, particularly among working men and women across this country, that tells you the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more. we'll continue to push those policies, make it possible for businesses to invest in ways that will create jobs and we'll continue to see the kind of results that we've sbeeng. >> where are we at the snap shot of negotiations with china.

kblo if we engaged in broader trade and we see china embrace the type of policies it would respect private property rights and open up their markets to the west and candidly that hasn't happened, and that's why president trump imposed $250 billion in tariffs on china he has made it clear we're in a position we could more than double that. we hope for better, and i do know negotiations are underway not just to address a trade deficit with china, but half of our international trade deficit is with china. also, to address things like intellectual property rights and the structural reforms, forced technology transfers that's all on the table, and i do know from being briefed myself by the usdr this week

that the negotiations are ongoing, underway, and as the president often says, we'll see. >> the wealth of nations was written in 1776, i think a great year for the world for a lot of reasons we're arguing about socialism again and we're arguing about free markets again >> there's been the emergence of the chinese work force think of the way inequality around the world has gone down, but in certain developed countries inequality is going up there's the feeling that 50%, 60% of people in this country don't have access to the american dream like they used to that's what's spurring some of this talk from jaime dimon i mean, he defended capitalism, but he slooat least brought up t it's frayed. the american dream is frayed what do you make of that >> i think the american dream was dying until president donald trump was inaugurated.

literally look at him. i mean, i saw it in the industrial midwest where i was a governor, where we had trade deals that resulted in particularly automotive manufacturing factories. even after we were elected in the days after we were elected there was word of a company leaving and going south of the border to mexico, and the american people know that. >> we're going to fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first, and then you look at those numbers. 5.5 million jobs again, i go back to the wages are rising at last wages are rising for working americans at the fastest pace of

all. that gives evidence to the fact that american dream is coming back people areseeing opportunity open up. small business confidence had record highs according to the nfib was the american dream in trouble going into the 2016 election you bet. i really do believe that's why the american people chose a president whose family lived the american dream and he was willing to go if in and fight and keep the american dream available for all americans. >>. >> i guess highlight a conservative pushback to certain lbgt ideas or marriage equality and the like is that fair to use you as the boogie man in terms of the point, and would you like to respond? i don't know if you have responded yet. >> well, i work very closely with mayor pete when i was

governor have the state of i understand we had a great working relationship he said some things that are critical of my christian faith and about me personally, and he knows better he knows me. i get it you know, it's like -- you have 19 people running for president on that side >> have you evolved at all, though >> in a party that's sliding off to the left. >> i agree >> they're all competing with one another for how liberal they can be i get that >> the country has evolved to some extent on marriage equality, on gay rights. would you say your views have evolved at all since then? >> look, the supreme court has made their decision. >> you accepted it >> when i was governor of indiana, we fully implemented that decision in the law, but, joe, i have my christian values. my family and i have a view of marriage that's informed by our faith, and we stand by that. that doesn't mean that we're -- that we're critical of anyone else who has a different point of view. one of the great things about

this country is our freedom of religion and the freedom of conscience, and we'll continue to cherish our values, cherish our views, but, look, one of the great things about this administration is from election night, president trump made it clear that wemtd to be -- when you look at job creation and growth, when you look at how we've regrounded our courts with strong principled conservatives in our federal courts at every level, the way we've rebuilt our military restored, the way america is standing tall and respected once again my hope is that every american will understand that under president donald trump and in our vice president that we're fighting every day for a more secure future for them >> appreciate it very much thank you. >> thank you good to see you. >> good to see you

>> can sigh the whole thing right now. i hope you are feeling better, andrew, about the american dream. now got it taken care of as tv 2016 coming back full force, doing the things necessary to -- i know you have been worried it's been frayed, that there was an opportunity, and you just heard. >> have you watched the futures? now they're up -- >> they were just slowly -- >> we're 2019. >> yeah, 2019. >> just to be 100% clear. >> i wish and hope it is

>> you didn't listen -- >> i agree with everything he said >> in developed countries when you are exporting labor -- the global inequality went down, andrew in developed countries, it went up that's the natural progression it's not good, and we shouldn't sit idoly by, and it's going to come back as the wage gap differential narrows and things will come back here. we've done things with corporate taxation give it a chance maybe we'll work we're working on it. you don't throw out the capitalistic system because one globalization happens. >> i'm not throwing it out >> we did prevent nuclear armageddon at least for a while with china and soviet union 30 years ago when we came into the -- >> as you know, i'm not throwing out capitalism at all. >> no. i don't really think i do know that >> if you tell me that, then that alays my fears. thank you. >> i think it was very clear, though, that the vice president -- well, and the vice president is definitely -- he knows what's happening with the economy.

>> no notes. no notes >>. >> a new report says that amazon employees are listening to clips from users alexa requests, and we'll tell you why next. then, later, grading the performance of the bank ceos on capitol hill we'll tell you how they did. stay tuned you're watching squawk on cnbc

next campaign. >> well, if you missed it, it's going to run again, andrew >> we can have this conversation all over again. >> where did you get a cross word puzzle from the weekend you brought that along today. >> he's not doing a cross word puzzle he was watching. >> i was watching. i read the transcript. >> i can't believe you're nitpicking look at this look at this >> preparing for the program nice to see you had notes during that interview coming up when we return -- >> i had notes. >> no notes. i noticed. >> a new report says that amazon employees are listening to clips from user's alexa requests, and we'll tell you why next. then later grading the performance of the bank ceo's on capitol hill we'll tell you how they did. stay tuned you're watching "squawk" on

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welcome back to "squawk box. amazon founder jeff bezos out with his annual letter to shareholders this morning and he's throwing down a challenge to his competitors they should reach amazon's benefits in $15 might be mum wage better yet, they should raise it to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us the bezos letter also focuses on the surge in third party sales through amazon noting that they've grown to 58% of sales now from just 3%, 20 years ago he credits that to amazon's sales platform and adds that third party sellers have not done nearly as well as on competitor sites like ebay investment decisions.d that's why i go beyond the numbers.

coming up on "squawk box," on today's agenda disney unveils bob ieker's biggest priority everything you need to know about disney's streaming plans ahead of the company's investor day. plus, much more of joe's exclusive interview with vice president mike pence "squawk box" will be right back. s enduring relationships are built on. as investment management professionals, let's measure up. cfa institute.

[kno♪king] ♪ memories. what we deliver by delivering. oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. thanks to you, we will. this is why voya helps reach today's goals... ...all while helping you to and through retirement. can you help with these? we're more of the plan, invest and protect kind of help... voya. helping you to and through retirement.

let's always put investors' needs above our own. as investment management professionals, let's measure up. cfa institute.

"squawk box" exclusive with vice president mike pence. >> we really think we just begun to scratch the surface of economic growth. >> his thoughts on the fed, the state of the economy, trade talks with china and much more the full interview and reaction is straight ahead. from "star wars". >> don't make me destroy you. >> to streaming wars ♪ a big day for disney as it gets ready to unveil its streaming service. new york times columnist jim stewart is here to talk about it. investors are waiting for uber [ horn honking ] >> the company expected to unveil its public offering today. we'll tell you what to expect the second our "squawk box" begins right now >> announcer: live from the beating heart of business, new

york, this is "squawk box. good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorken. >> i'm a little contagious i'm fine. >> i'm not scared. >> i'm not scared of that actually. >> i'm not contagious anymore. i'm fine. >> you have dogs they do stuff you can't believe. >> i'm telling you, your dogs did not do what i was doing two days ago. >> they've done much worse i'm on the floors with them. tongues touch, everything happens. andrew is still here right? you can't help it. they lick you. any way, u.s. equities -- >> this was not licking. >> the futures >> it's the morning. it's breakfast >> u.s. -- it was projectile, you said, right? >> u.s. equity futures -- like both that's scary >> project the numbers, joe.

markets going to open at. >> up 48 on the dow jones, up 6 1/2. you know the first day you were out they didn't replace anymore. >> they couldn't i got sick after midnight. >> you didn't sit next to each other? that's weird. >> there was a huge gap. we were separated. we had to pretend that we got along and -- didn't we >> i'm sure you pulled that off well >> we had some rapport, didn't we playing music like "i'm happy to be stuck with you". >> that's good that's clever. >> headlines >> here is what's in the headlines at this hour another dose of optimism this morning surrounding the china trade talks. according to the wleets journal, china made a new offer to open its cloud computing market to foreign companies coming after a prior proposal was rejected by the united states. and this morning, china officials are saying substantial progress in their words is being

made in the trade talks. european union leaders have agreed to postpone the uk's exit from the european union until october 31st to give theresa may more time to secure approval from parliament for her proposed deal and avoid that hard brexit option and president trump has signed two executive orders designed to speed up energy projects the orders direct the epa to change part of a clean water act that has aloud states to delay projects on environmental grounds. yesterday joe was able to sit down with vice president mike pence and talk about the president's approach to growing the economy. >> the american economy is soaring thanks to the leadership of president donald trump. from the first days of this administration, this president has been working to get this economy moving again cutting taxes, rolling back federal red tape, unleashing american energy and here we are, 5.5 million jobs later, record unemployment for african-americans, hispanic

americans, unemployment for women is at a 60-year low and of course the stock market has been soaring. and i think it's all because this is a president who has kept his promises to the american people >> we'll have the full interview with vice president mike pence coming up a little later this hour. tesla shares are falling after a nikkei report that the company and partner panasonic freezing spending on tesla's $4.5 billion factory panasonic has been a long time partner with tesla on battery development. two companies planned to raise capacity at the factory by 50% next year, but the report says from nikkei says that financial problems are forcing panasonic to reconsider. that stock down a little over 3.5% on that news. disney expected to release details of highly anticipated streaming service. one of the big things to watch during the company's investor day which kicks off this afternoon, joining us right now to discuss it all is jim stewart, new york times columnist and friend of the show and cnbc contributor

>> nice to be here. >> what are you really expecting and let me just contextualize this which is to say a couple weeks ago we had a big announcement from apple about the future of their ott service. they showed you all sorts of hollywood stars and yet a lot of people walked away from that without any meaningful detail. do you expect to see details from disney? >> yeah. i think disney will put on a good show. that's what they know how to do. and i think we probably will see quite a bit of content material, like series they have in development, their kind of strategy what they're going to positioning director to consumer as opposed to what they're going to hold back for the movie studio we'll see stars and be some razzle-dazzle and "star wars" stuff and good music i think it will be short on hard financial details. >> and meaning how much they'll charge >> how much they're going to charge >> yeah. well, maybe they will disclose something about that, but i would be surprised if they are

ready to unveil that right now i mean, gain, one of the fascinating things, too, is i don't know whether they'll address this, but bob iger is earning that huge pay. he has such a challenge on his plait to integrate all the fox stuff. i think they'll hear how they'll use the fox assets and deploy those. he's in the process of integrating that, he's launching the streaming service, developing the band tech, trying to deal with the technological problems and shift the culture of disney from a perfectionist, take as long as you want to get it up, get it out, get it on the internet and then do another one. and he's trying to squeeze all of this out of the existing work force. i mean, that's an enormous management challenge he pulls all that out without a hiccup, that's incredible. >> that's interesting going from a climate of perfection, where nothing they ever put out is until they checked everything three times over. >> yeah. that's working my disney book, i was out there, that was one of

the hallmarks. it was unbelievable the effort and the details that they attended to. especially the pixar the animation, everything had to be perfect, the rods, the imagine nears. it's very expensive and it's slow they have to move fast. >> do you think that will work culturally here. >> you mean the shift? >> meaning the shift >> it's a tough challenge. i think anybody who has been through trying to move an aircraft carrier like that when it's so deeply embedded in the culture is very, very challenging. i think, though, they are bringing in new people they have to bring in a lot of new people. >> how much do you think we'll hear about whether there's a bundle that's part of this we're talking with an analyst earlier this week talking about potentially bundling with hulu given the ownership stake. it's complicated because come cast has a piece of it, but the idea that given the quality issues that disney is going to focus on, meaning because they want to keep a massive quality control on things, they may not, you know, be making a ba jillion

shows a la netflix, whether they'll do better to have disney matched with hulu, for example. >> that's a good question. i don't know if anyone has heard a clear explanation of how they intend to deal with both the hulu stake that they now control and the own streaming service. it's frankly me it's been kind of an accident of history that if you were inventing this all over again, you wouldn't have them owning both hulu and this are they going to compete against each other that's hard to imagine have they found a way that they can sort of work together? it's a great question. i don't think they've really addressed it i don't know if they've really come up with an answer, as far as -- i've never heard one that they're kind of playing it by ear. but, i think hulu has a lot of challenges to make that a major force, it's -- >> the reason i ask is if you look at what warner media has done, right, they said we have hbo, and then effective -- we're not going to use hbo as the

umbrella to create so much more programming. what we're going to do is we're going to match pair hbo with some kind of plus service and that's going to be this other thing. the question is if disney wants to keep the quality and pureness of what it historically is, is there a disney plus service but to create -- the volume of programming, do you match it with a hulu or something else? >> well, you know, i think hbo is a very specific -- i don't want to call it a niche exactly. it is mass market. but it's a premium, you know, add on to one of these other things. >> that's an easy stream if you make the stuff there, you put it in that pipeline versus hulu. >> disney is going for the full blown competitor to amazon and netflix. >> and hulu. >> and hulu. they're starting with a family focussed franchise and i think smart to do that, but that is

pretty broad. >> that's interesting. you think that the disney brand can go beyond family >> yeah, i think so. i think it -- you know, family -- well first of all you can define family very broadly but apart from the kind of core children, young adults, sort of market, i mean, there are a lot of adults going to these big block buster action films that they're putting out. and they're talking about high school musical, they got those core series that aim at, you know, at the young segment, but you're going -- i think they're going to get a lot of adults in there. >> adult drama, for example? >> they're talking about it. from what i've heard, they're talking about kind of going back to the old jeffrey catsonburg singles and doubles, "pretty woman" that kind of thing. >> the question is what that looks like and whether that's a separate component of the disney franchise. >> oh, i think you almost have to ask do they have to how much programming in their

core market can they do? i mean, look how much programming netflix is putting out. you have to generate a lot of content. again, i think that will be interesting to hear them address because they have to be ramping up spending a lot. >> right how do you hold on to subscribers once their kids age out. >> right you don't want to lose -- you don't want them signing up for a few years and then canceling you want to get lifelong commitments out of them. that's a big challenge that's the 20th century fox thing. >> thank you, jim stewart. >> sure. when we come back, new york lawmakers are pushing a new way to tax the wealthy and it's through golf courses robert frank has that story coming up in just a few minutes. also in the next half hour, vice president mike pence on the record his thoughts on the president's handling of trade negotiation, the fed and the nation's economy. stay tuned you are watching "squawk b" ghhe ocnbcox an index, but which ones target your goals? it's not about quantity. it's about quality.

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turns out amazon is listening. bloomburg report says that amazon has thousands of workers around the world who listen to and review private alexa conversations. the goal is to try to improve the speech assistance technology amazon had never publicly disclosed part of its voice assistant program, but the report says that workers have a chat room where they can help when they can't understand a word or phrase or where they can even share amusing recordings. amazon said employees don't have

direct am says to information that can actually identify the people who are speaking or the account linked to the echo device that they've been listening in on. the company says they have strict safeguards and encryption for the program and zero tolerance abuse. coming up this morning's market movers, plus, vice president mike pence on the record my exclusive interview straight ahead. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: time now for today's aflac trivia question. when did disney world open the answer when cnbc "squawk x"onnubo cties c! ...but not what they do. so we're answering their questions. aflac is auto insurance, right? no. uh uh. is it homeowner's insurance? no... uhuhuhuh! is it duck insurance? nope. ahhh! do they pay me money directly when i get sick or injured? yeah. aflac! you got it. you know aflac!

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>> announcer: now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. when did disney world open the answer, october 1st, 1971, with a single theme park, the magic kingdom, and three resorts. okay here we go new york lawmakers now taking aim at golfers when it comes to taxing, well, of course, the wealthy. robert frank joins us with more.

what >> you sometimes golf in new york, right? >> yeah. but i don't belong to any clubs in new york. but this would make a difference. >> so this is a bill making its way through albany that could more than quadruple the property taxes paid by golf clubs, the bill in both the assembly and senate would allow towns to tax golf courses at their highest and best use that means that rather than taxing them as golf courses, they could be taxed as developable land increasing property taxes by four to ten times the current levels the hikes would be especially steep for clubs in west chester and long island where property development is especially scarce only the nicest courses. >> great idea. >> here is the amazing thing, the new york golf association estimates that a third of the clubs in new york state would close if this is passed. now, that would cost jobs and economic activity. the state has about 250 private golf clubs and about 500 public

courses. now, the bill grew out of a dispute with the trump national golf club in west chester county in his financial disclosure forms during his presidential campaign, donald trump valued that club and briar cliff manner at more than $50 million, but his lawyers filed papers with the state declaring the value for tax purposes at 1.4 million. >> oops. >> now assemblywoman sandy guylive includes that course, too many clubs have used illegal wrinkle to get artificially low assessments. when you have some of these clubs paying their unfair share, everyone else in the town picks up the cost. >> two favorite words, fair share. do you believe what's happening? i can't believe this i'm not going to do it >> the most interesting thing is if it came because president trump claimed one valuation, his lawyers claimed another. >> are you okay with this? you play golf.

you think they should do this? >> no. >> okay. you're not okay with it? >> and the reason this is a state law even though it's the towns that tax these entities is that there is a state law that prevents towns from using best use in their assessment. so they would kind of remove that barrier, allow towns to tax in this way. but this is not a state revenue issue. this is money that goes to the towns and school districts. >> this is a very interesting point and joe hit the bigger issue that states and localities are going to be looking for anywhere they can to come up with tax preparations. buffett talked with us about this he wouldn't as a business move to one of these states like new york, l.a. or california they have to come up with tax money somewhere. if you're a resident or business there, you're going to pay it. >> a lot of people in these towns are saying our taxes just went up because we can't detect these from the new federal law, therefore these golf clubs shouldn't be getting these huge reductions a lot of these clubs are getting big reductions and that's angered a lot of the town.

>> maybe some middle ground. >> if i see the quality of the greens go down, i'm telling you -- >> that's when revolutions start right there. >> could they just exclude long island and west chester and maybe -- then i thought, no, sleepy hallow, some nice courses up in manhattan. there's great courses everywhere. >> there's a course in long island friar's head. >> i hear it's just -- >> the town has to refund them $3 million because of a lower assessment >> that's crazy. >> that's what's angered a lot of these towns. >> you'll run into issues like that where it has to come to some middle ground. >> wealthy >> robert, thank you. >> thank you, guys >> crazy. when we come back, stocks to watch ahead of the opening bell on wall street then joe's exclusive interview with vice president mike pence as we head to a break, take a look at the u.s. equity futures this morning dow futures moved up after word of china trade talks progressing well right now they're indicated up by 44 points s&p future up by 6 and the

nasdaq up by 15. oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. thanks to you, we will. this is why voya helps reach today's goals... ...all while helping you to and through retirement. can you help with these? we're more of the plan, invest and protect kind of help... voya. helping you to and through retirement.

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♪ he's hanging outside.

>> same day we got a picture of a black hole it all seems to, right we're all very universe oriented today. ufo. >> we are the center of the universe in times square >> what's the deal. >> he's just been wondering around outside >> what happened to your man on the street stuff you used to go out there >> we have to bring that back. >> why not go ask them -- >> right now >> yeah. >> can we get a mic? you got a portable you can go do this. >> why not >> go see what he's doing out there. i think we should. >> i do, too. >> you have questions. we're going to find answers. >> we're going to find out. >> that's what we do. >> where is he from? interests? >> what's his reason for being here today >> you watch and i'll figure this out we'll see what's possible. in the meantime, take a look at some of the stocks to watch this morning

drugstore chain riteaid lost 1% compared to the 2 cent lost. revenue came in below estimates separately rite aid maintained a stock split. it's going to begin trading on a split adjusted basis on april 22nd stock is down by over 5% this morning, decline of just 3 cents to 54 cents. keurig dr. pepper was downgraded to under weight from equal weight at morgan stanley that firm expressed concerns about slowing growth in the single serve coffee market and that stock is off by 2.7%. still to come, joe speaking to vice president mike pence yesterday about the economy, china, the fed and much more that full interview is just minutes away plus, reaction from two former senators heidi hide camp and joe greg join us to discuss the issues that joe covered with the president. "squawk box" returns in just a moment

♪ let's check on shares of marriott and expedia this morning. the two have signed a new multi-year deal for marriott hotel listings to appear on the expedia website. people familiar with the matter tell cnbc that the commissioner

rate is 10% compared to prior 12%. marriott shares unchanged this morning so fair, expedia shares up by 84 cents bank ceos faced a grilling on capitol hill yesterday ranging in topics from ceo pay to the lessons learned from the financial crisis here is what some of the business leaders said about the biggest threats today. >> what you think the biggest risk to our financial system is today. >> our ability to talk ourselves into the next recession. >> i think probably -- the side we already mentioned is the biggest. i think the growing non-bank segment i don't think is systemic yet and is growing very rapidly and should be closely monitored. >> global growth is slowing. u.s. growth is slowing a little bit. global growth is slowing and ultimately that will have impact on ability to serve as credit around the world and that impacts the financial system. >> cyber certainly first

i would also say slowing growth around the world but in particular the difficulties that lie ahead in the relationship between the u.s. and china >> and check this out, the lawmakers repeatedly return to one interesting form of questioning. >> i would like you to raise your hand if you don't impose forced arbitration provisions. please raise your hand if i can count on your lobbyists here in washington, and you all have them. >> could you raise your hand if you do not get any feedback from the government when you fill those out. >> raise your hand the three of you, if you would object to that. >> if one among you happens to be something other than a white male, would you kindly extend a hand into the air. if you believe that your likely successor will be a woman or a person of color, would you kindly extend a hand into the air. or if you currently pay more than 20 an hour, raise a hand, please. >> those who are not practicing the crony rule as it relates to

hiring, would you just show your hands. >> i will say, by the way, on the question about will your successor be a woman or a minority, is actually a very interesting question because no hands were raised in terms of what their expectations were a lot of people, by the way, inside jp morgan i will tell you looked at that because, you know, marion lake, for example, at jp morgan is considered heir apparent >> if you raise your hand, you're basically tipping your hat as to who the successor could potentially be yes, i'm going to confirm that or not. >> i think the question was asked several times. >> i don't think -- >> in different ways. >> they weren't expecting it grand standing to make a point >> i would say succession is up to my board. >> highlight the student loan stuff? >> well, right, there was -- maxine waters didn't know -- >> she had no idea she's chairwoman. >> and then the other -- >> she asked them one at a time and they were like, well, started out by saying not since 2008, they didn't tell her

the next guy, not since 2009 then jamie diamond finally went, well, not since the government took over. he kind of said it just not -- i mean, that was -- >> nobody wanted to be the one to say. >> no one wanted to say, sorry, madame chairwoman, but the government -- >> president obama did that with great fanfare in 2011, wasn't it 2010 and i thought it was a stupid move to do it back then. it hasn't paid off, has it get the government involved. >> the question is if they hadn't, where would we be? that's a separate question we should also say because we highlighted yesterday the questions -- >> i can't find that anywhere. >> of course because you know -- you were probably talking to the people you have self-fulfilling prophesies you're in touch with the people that were going to ask those questions. >> no, i was in touch with the people who were preparing for the answers. >> to push back on them. >> how they were going to answer the questions because they knew they were going to be --

>> side show you know that. >> vice president. >> coming up vice president mike pence sat down with me to discuss the 2020 presidential race they never answer who would you like, who would you fear any way, but talk about that, the fed, china and the economy a lot of other things. >> president really does believe that this economy is only starting to grow you look at nations around the world, nations that we compete with everyday and president really does believe the 3% is a starting point in this economy >> anandrew, did you think the lulu lemon pants were a stretch for me to wear those yesterday >> did you >> no. he's the vice president. thought about it. the full ierew antvind reaction is right after the break. "squawk box" will be right back. . is the fund built to sell or built to last? etfs are only part of a portfolio. so make it easy to explain. give me a quality fund that helps me get clients closer to their goals.

flexshares etfs are designed and managed around investor objectives. so you can advise with confidence. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

♪ i spoke to senator hide camp is here. how are you enjoying your cnbc contributor role >> well, when it's not with you it's really exciting, joe. it was just becky and andrew >> good. >> love you being here. >> where did you come in from the great midwest? >> no, i came in from boston i'm doing this thing with gary cohen, the real state of the union. we're doing a fellowship there it's been really interesting and exciting we're going to do a hack-a-thon this weekend on saving social security we have over 120 kids signed up

and they're going to form teams. we're going to have a discussion. >> you serve with jud, too >> i did not. >> he was really good friend of kent conrad's who was my predecessor. >> good. any way, have you seen this yet? you're going to love this. probably not i spoke to president mike pence in a "squawk" exclusive about trade, the fed, and the presidential campaign in 2020. we started with the thoughts in the crisis in venezuela and spoke at the u.n. >> well, over the past six years the people of venezuela have been suffering through deprivation and the dictatorship of nicolas maduro from the early days of this administration, president trump made it clear, nicolas maduro has no legitimate claim to power and nicolas maduro must go yesterday i went to the united nations. we delivered a message that now the organization of american states has recognized juan guaido as legitimate government of venezuela, now that the g-7

has spoken out, 54 nations has followed president trump's lead to recognize president juan guaido and his administration, now it's time for the united nations to act and the united states will be introducing a resolution to the u.n. in the days ahead that will recognize juan guaido's government, that will denounce the dictatorship of nicolas maduro and we called on the u.n. to revoke the credentials of venezuela's representative to the united nations and recognize the duly appointed representative of the democratically elected government of venezuela. >> bring it back home, the president gives the state of the union every year if you were tasked to give an economic state of the union right now, what would you say? how would you characterize it? >> well, the american economy is soaring. thanks to the leadership of president donald trump from the first days of this administration, this president has been working to get this economy moving again, cutting

taxes, rolling back federal red tape, unleashing american energy here we are, 5.5 million jobs later record unemployment for african-americans, hispanic americans, unemployment for women is at a 60-year low and of course the stock market has been soaring. i think it's all because this is a president who has kept his promises to the american people, kept his promises to put into practice what we know has always made this country strong and prosperous and the results really speak for themselves. >> well, 3% last year. but decelerating in the fourth quarter, first quarter obviously we don't know yet, but it's going to be lower than probably where the fourth quarter was at 2.2, 2.4, whatever it was. and this year, we don't know obviously, but we're hearing 2.2, to 2.3. that's deceleration. people would point to the promise of what tax reform was going to do and say that it's

not measuring up. >> well, i beg to differ obviously the february jobs report we thought was an anomaly and it was last friday's report told the tale of a growing economy, robust energy. look what's happening in manufacturing alone, joe i mean, i remember in the summer of 2016 when i was just joining this ticket, the last president was saying what are we going to do wave a magic wand to bring back manufacturing jobs and president trump said, no, we can bring jobs back. we can cut taxes for businesses, roll back federal red tape, unleash american energy, fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first and here we are 500,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs have come back to the united states. so we really think we've just begun to scratch the surface of economic growth. last year 3%, 5.5 million jobs since election day, but you think about the last eight years

of less than 2% economic growth in the most powerful economy in the history of the world, president trump said we could do better, president trump said we could be growing again and we are. >> so no recession fears we had china, the trade war, we had europe slowing down, the jobs number was one good data point on friday and also china looked like it recovered and china stock market is doing pretty well, so no recession fears. that's off the table in your view at this point >> we don't have any concern i think the treasury secretary said that on your air as well. no concerns about a recession. >> then i got to ask you, larry kidlow, a colleague of mine, great friend, great american obviously as he likes to -- we like to call him, it says we need two rate cuts the president was talking about quantitative easing, if things are so great, i don't understand going back to these emergency procedures and things that we did during the financial crisis.

at this point people say we don't have dry powderfor the next slow-down why would we cut rates again why would we stop letting the balance sheet roll off >> you saw the consumer numbers that came out yesterday, joe there's no evidence of inflation in this economy. >> so it's inflation >> and so, we really do believe that, you know, what the president was saying quantitative tightening was not the right approach he has spoken out about the policies of the fed over the last two years. >> i missed that, yeah. >> like many presidents have before him this president really does believe that this economy is only starting to grow. you look at nations around the world, nations that we compete with everyday and president really does believe that 3% is a starting point in this economy i remember during the campaign he was talking about -- he was talking about 3% 3 1/2, 4% economic growth and going. what we have to have is monetary

policy and leadership in washington, d.c. in the congress of the united states that will support job growth and job creation. >> different leadership at the fed? the president said is rumored to have said or reported to have said that i'm stuck with you j. powell. is he still dissatisfied with pow snel. >> look, the president never made a secret about his concerns about some of the decisions that the fed has made, but president trump respects the independence of the federal reserve but i really do believe that what you have in this president is someone who's got boundless confidence in the american people, if we'll have sound monetary policy, if we'll continue, if we'll re-elect a republican majority in the congress this fall and the house of representatives, if we'll continue to build in the momentum that we have, we've only just begun to see this economy growing. >> what about herman cain. the determination of whether his

nomination is safe is up to herman cain. he's a great guy, and i hope things work out for him. doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. do you know anything we don't know about that nomination >> we're very early in the nomination process and the president said today he likes herman cain. he's got a background in business and was a governor in the federal reserve and has that background and he and stephen moore both are people that really understand what the president's philosophy is in this economy, but we'll see how it plays out. >> so many things that i want to try to get through so buy backs and capitol spending i'll combine the two capital spending, would you say it's been satisfactory in terms of what we were hoping for with tax reform a lot of people say it's ramping up slowly. others say that there's -- they don't like buybacks. i'm not necessarily in that camp and maybe we should induce maybe

tax and dividends so that companies aren't more prone to use the cash for buybacks, they use it for capital spending. >> i got to be honest with you, what the american people have identified in this president is somebody that understands how you create jobs in this country. i mean, we had one of the highest tax rates for businesses in the industrialized world, and now thanks to the president's effort, we have a lower business tax rate than most industrialized countries, below the average. in the midst of that as you look at all these different statistics, the one i think the president and i find most moving is how wages that have been so stubborn over the last decade, wages have started to move up across the speck strum but most -- the most rapid increase in wages has been among blue collar working americans the president used to use that phrase, the forgotten men and women. when you look at the fact that wages are finally rising again, particularly among working men and women across this country, that tells you the forgotten men

and women of america are forgotten no more. so we'll continue to push those policies, make it possible for businesses to invest in ways that will create jobs and will continue to see the kind of results that we've been seeing. >> where are we at, the snapshot of negotiations with china right now and the summit with president xi is there anything you can tell us, update us on where we stand, on progress that's being made? >> the president has been continuously updated and engaged in that process. and as he said many times, we remain hopeful but we'll see. president trump different from prior administrations, literally going back decades since we admitted china into the world trade organization we made a bet if we opened up access to china world markets engaged in broader trade we would see china embrace the kind of policies that would respect private property rights and open up their markets to the west and

candidly that hasn't happened and that's why president trump imposed $250 billion in tariffs on china he made it clear we're in a position we could more than double that but we hope for better and i do know negotiations are under way, not just to address the trade deficit with china but half of our international trade deficit is with china, but also to address things like intellectual property rights and the structural reforms, forced technology transfers that's all on the table. and i do know from being briefed myself by the ustr this week that those negotiations are on going, under way and as the president often says we'll see >> the wealth of nations was written in 1776, i think, a great year for the world for a lot of reasons, but we're arguing about socialism again and arguing about free markets again. >> incredible. >> but, there are statistics that you can point to and i mean, there's been

globalization, there's been the emergence of the chinese work force. think of the way inequality around the world has gone down, but in certain developed countries inequality has gone up there's the feeling that 50, 60% of people in this country don't have access to the american dream like they used to. and that's what's spurring some of this talk from jamie diamond. he defended capitalism but he at least brought up that it's frayed, the american dream is frayed what do you make of that >> i think the american dream was dying until president donald trump was inaugurated. i mean, literally look at it i mean, i saw it in the industrial midwest where i was a governor, where we had trade deals that resulted in particularly automotive manufacturing factories literally leaving our state and going south of the border. i mean, even after we were elected in the days after we were elected there was word of a company leaving and going south of the border to mexico. and the american people know

that they felt that i mean, their kids graduating from college and not being able to find a job in the area that they were educated but this president came in and said, look, we're going to cut taxes for individuals and businesses we're going to roll back federal red tape at a record level, any administration in history to date we're going to unleash american energy, tremendous natural resources and we're going to fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first. then you look at those numbers, 5.5 million jobs but again i go back to the wages are rising at last wages are rising for working americans at the fastest pace of all. and i think that gives evidence of the fact that american dream is coming back people are seeing opportunity open up. small business confidence at record highs according to the nfib but what was the american dream in trouble going into the 2016 election you bet. i really do believe that's why the american people chose a president whose family lived the

american dream and was willing to go in and fight to make the american dream available for every american >> in the news the last couple of days, you've got mayor pete buttigieg is invoking your name to, i guess, highlight a conservative pushback to certain lbgt ideas or marriage equality and the like is that fair to use you as the boogie mans in terms to point at you and would you like to respond? i don't know if you've responded yet. >> well, i worked very closely with mayor pete when i was governor of the state of indiana. we had a great working relationship and he said some things that are critical of my christian faith and about me personally. he knows better. he knows me. but i get it >> let me -- >> 19 people running for president on that side >> have you evolved at all, though >> a party sliding off to the left. >> i agree. >> they're all competing with one another for how much --

>> since the year 2000, have you -- >> i get that. >> the country has evolved i think to some extent on marriage equality, on gay rights. have you -- would you say your views have evolved at since then >> look, the supreme court made their decision. >> so you accept it as law. >> when i was governor of indiana, we fully implemented that decision in the law but, joe, i have -- my christian values my family and i have a view of marriage that's informed by our faith. we stand by that but that doesn't mean that we're critical of anyone else who has a different point of view. one of the great things about this country is our freedom of religion and the free some of conscientious. we'll continue to cherish our values, cherish our views, but look, one of the great things about this administration is from election night president trump made it clear that we wanted to be an administration for every american i think when you look at the results of this administration, when you look at job creation

and growth, when you look at how we regrounded our courts with strong principle conservatives at our federal courts at every level and rebuilt our military, restored the arsenal of democracy and the way america is standing tall in the world once again and respected once again, my hope is that every american will understand that in president donald trump and in our vice president that we're fighting everyday for more prosperous and more secure future for them. >> mr. vice president, appreciate it very much. thank you. >> thank you good to see you. >> good to see you >> i know. all right. for reaction, let's bring in our panel, joining us now former u.s. senators heidi hide camp and judd greg. i have to warn you up front, this is not bob carey we got today. carey is like you. >> he's a good guy. >> he was always reasonable, nebraska midwestern. i used to think the same of our other senator here, the

midwestern sensibility, but she's off the rails today, just off camera you have your work cut off for you here. >> i have great respect for her actually. you guys didn't serve together, i did hear that. >> no, we didn't. >> she was close to ken conrad you said senator. >> kent was chairman of budget when i was ranking and he was ranking when i was chairman, became good friends, although ideologically we had some differences kent made the one point that i think was critical the debt is the threat he was always on the issue of getting the federal debt under control. >> yeah. i was headed to that as well and, you know, i needed to ask about mayor pete at some point but i would have gotten to the deficit, which is 15% higher, i guess. that's still your biggest concern. let's keep it to where we were what about you watched the entire interview, senator. what did you think should we be cutting rates and doing qe at this point if there's no inflation, pedal to the metal does that make sense for an economy? >> no, i actually think we should probably stay where we

are for a little while because the economy is growing where we are and it gives the fed the capacity to move if we move -- if the economy starts to slow significantly. that's when you consider cutting the rates. i thought the interview was excellent. i thought your questions were excellent. and you got to admire the vice president. he is a professional he stayed on point, on talking points right through the whole interview and made a very strong case for the administration on the issue of economics, specifically in fact, if the president were half as on point and consistent as the vice president, i think his poll numbers would be much higher. >> you had a different take, i think, senator, right? you were like he's like trump on steroids to you, right >> no, no. this is a guy who has -- this is a guy who has a list of talking points he's very good at delivering them it's never put in historic context in terms of what's happening with the economy and what's the reality today is not going to be what the reality is in 20 -- this point in 2020 and so, i think, right now

they're doing their best in making the case for a second term you know, it's persuasive when you hear it out of context of what the history is. >> judd, you see it that way >> no. i mean, very honestly the context is that this economy was doing virtually nothing when the president came into office, that the economy is weighed down by a really prepressive tax system, especially on corporations regulations were out of control. and the small business was being stymied by regulation and the administration has changed that around and it has been very good for the economy that they've done that i don't know what's going to happen in 2020 if i could predict that, i would probably be making a lot of money, but i think we're at least on the right course philosophically and keeping the tax burden down on the producers in our economy who create the jobs and the object is to create jobs and i think this administration can take great credit for doing that. >> yeah. i think if you were arguing the

other side of this, what you would be talking about is that you had a massive spending bill and a massive tax cut juice the economy to get it up to 3% we don't have that level of stimulus coming into the 2020 year, and we're going to see how the economy performs when we aren't driving up debt and deficit. and so, let's all take a deep breath it's pretty early into the analysis of economic strength here and let's find out what we can do working together to improve infrastructure, to improve the quality of our economy and make sure that we are lowering the rates of income disparity in this country, which is what people that i talk to are talking about. i can't afford my prescription drugs. i can't afford my housing. he's going to have to confront these issues and when you only look at macro numbers, you have a pretty good story. let's drill down and find out what's really happening for the american people. >> well, actually if you want to get back to historical context, and i agree with much of what

the senator just said, if you want to get back to historical context, let's talk about socialism. basically the democratic party is nominating or moving towards nominating somebody they call a progressive or democratic socialist. and if that happens, you've just have to look at history to see how that destroys an economy you don't have to look very far, just down our southern border, venezuela or cuba, the simple fact is you do not grow economies by redistributing wealth and overtaxing the productive side of the economy so, i think if we're going to look ahead and put things in context, this will be a race between a market-oriented president and a democratic party that jumped the rails on the market and says they would rather move down a socialist pa path. >> i think it will be a race that is not framed that way. i think that's what the republicans really hope. this will be a race who is getting left behind and how do we realize the american dream for everyone in this country >> all right well, we're going to leave it there. you know, heidi gets to stay,

judd i don't know i'm nervous. but we're going to say good-bye to you, but -- >> defend the free market for us, joe. >> far be it from me to take a tans. >> i love free markets. >> they all say that, but let's have discussion about socialism. have the discussion. relax. we're not going there. nobody means it. vote present when we actually have to decide whether we have to do it, judd thank you. would you voted present? >> no, i would not have. i would have voted no. >> really? >> eah >> you're a keystone. >> i don't know what this deal is why would you vote for something when there's no meat on the bone do you think, joe, let's go foundational do you think that climate is a problem that we need to address? >> i don't think that -- >> no, no no, this is a yes or no question. >> i don't agree with catastrophic, an throw pa generalic global warming from

co2. >> you don't believe this is a problem we need to address that's not the question i asked. >> i don't think it's addressable. i don't think man can stop the weather. i don't think man can cut down on -- you think man -- you think the one -- >> no, but what i'm saying -- why is bill gates informsing billions of dollars in air capture of co2 why are we seeing incredible record numbers -- >> we're not that's not -- >> amounts of co2 being emitted into the air. >> no, i'll show the chart, joe. >> the industrial age drove co2 emissions up. >> causation is not corallation. >> i'm probably closer to you -- >> i don't want to get into this, number one. >> i'll do the dodge i'm not qualified to answer that question >> .03 up to .04 every adverse weather event is caused by one extra co2 molec e

molecule >> i'll be kind enough to save everybody from themselves right now. let's get to headlines we have a number of big headlines this hour to tell you about. some fresh optimism this morning on u.s. china trade talks that china made a new offer to open its cloud computing market to foreign companies comes after a prior proposal was rejected by the u.s. and this morning china officials are saying substantial progress is being made on those trade talks. they agreed to postpone the exit from the european union to give british prime minister theresa may little more time to secure approval from parliament to avoid a so-called hard brexit wolf is here we'll talk to him in a second. check out shars of tesla this morning this stock down to 4% right now. the electric car company and partner panasonic put their plans to expand their gig factory on hold.

this is a big deal according to japan's nikkei news service. the delay said to be due to concerns about weakened demand for tesla vehicles >> when i read that story, that raised an eyebrow, did it not? >> yeah, it does >> you only make what you need, right? that's expensive to build that out. and i don't know tesla has had -- it's like they're roaches. one after another. recently for the bulls, right? we were all the way down to 265. >> there's one good story that came out recently and that was about the amount of money that fiat is going to be paying it so it can claim a lower fuel economy rate for its fleet by including tesla fleet, which i still don't understand how that happens, why they would be paying money to fiat instead of paying a fine to the government or why the government would allow that, but that's been the one story i still haven't figured out. >> if we all drive teslas, sure there will be no more hurricanes, floods, droughts

>> joe, you take discussion and you drive it to places where -- no >> bring the fos sit fuels out of the ground. >> i do. i do i love redundant, reliable power. i love it. >> you probably still eat cows, too. >> this country is built on reliable power. >> you probably still eat cows. it was not a fun day for the ceos of america's biggest banks yesterday. you can bet they pretty much wanted to be anywhere but on capitol hill where they were getting grilled by the house financial services committee ten years after the financial crisis they were getting grilled for things they don't even do, like student loans, wolf. >> grilled, but they survived it they weathered the storm pretty effectively i would say. the first time since the financial crisis ceos of the biggest bairnks were brought together for a congressional hearing. the defining aspect of this hearing was that it divided along party lines. republicans largely support i have of the banks.

democrats largely critical this probably the most damming moment for the ceos, was pressed for the fact that he was paid 486 times the pay of his median employee >> congresswoman, i don't think that's fair to me to judge i would say that i completely acknowledge that i'm very fortunate. i started at our firm 36 -- >> i'm just asking that if it seems fair to you the ratio of the amount of money that you're making compared to the 49,000 other employees is making? >> my compensation is decided by our board and voted on by our shareholders. >> just unbelievable this is why people that live in a bubble or ivory towers cannot understand why there is so much anger out there. >> but despite the huge hype, there was unlikely any lasting blows landed by lawmakers on these ceos who were well prepared, conciliatory in tone

and prefused to take any bait that was offered after the hearing, mchenry told me, quote, the clear take away is that there was no take away that said, the ceos did say the biggest threat to the financial systems were cyber threats, leverage loans and the global slow-down, while the chair maxine waters summed things up with me in an interview after wards. >> wells fargo, they were off the scale of having, you know, basically created accounts in consumers names that they didn't know about, forced insurance on people that they didn't need, absolutely foreclosed on homes that did not deserve to be foreclosed on, so they were the worst. all of the banks need to make corrections. all of the banks need to stop paying fines as a cost of doing business all of them have areas that they can strengthen and do better in. >> focussed more of course turns to earnings with jp morgan and wells fargo kicking things off

with the reports. >> thank you very much. right now let's bring in yale school of management senior associate dean for leadership studies, also a cnbc contributor, also former u.s. senator hide eidi hide camp is l with us. she is also a cnbc contributor what do you think happened yesterday? >> welcome back. >> thanks, jeff. >> i thought yesterday it was not embarrassing and painful to watch as it was previously even with the absolutely atrocious treatment of tim sloan, a quiet heroic figure at wells fargo, as congress then just a week or so ago seemed to again confuse the good guys and the bad guys, john stump is the guy they did go after before two years ago in their right to pursue him now but not tim sloan. yesterday we had a seemingly sensible exchange, sometimes some of the questions were not perfectly well phrased and it's making a punching bag out of bankers over comp something you wanted we could talk about, but

i thought that the there was no finger pointing, no name calling, no histrionics, just the usual limited amount of grand standing, but it still took place from congress and, i was surprised that that jamie while he dominated, the other bankers had a chance to speak as well. they, of course, defer to him as the great oritar and responsible voice in banking. >> anybody there would probably want to be the one talking the least yesterday. that would be my guess. >> i think so. i like lloyd's tweet saying, boy, i miss my old job >> do you think there's any regulations that come as a result of this >> no. >> i look at these types of things, we often call them theater, but the theater can turn into something if moments therefore turn into sort of public outcries and therefore turn into legislation. >> i think this was a status quo hearing, andrew. i think that what's going to come from this is nothing -- they tried to poke some holes and say we've got a looming or

growing problem in terms of overleverage and we may have another bubble and i think that was done away with pretty handily by the ceos. i think that they were right in identifying those things that are a problem. >> jeff? >> i think the senator is exactly right. and congressmen patrick mchenry captured it very well in his summary that this was a hearing in search of a headline. i wish he felt that way when he led the attacks, even though he's a republican, led the attacks wrongly against tim sloan the prior week, but this time is focussing on china cyber security that could have spent a lot more time on that, but using these bankers as the poster child, poster children, for inequality issues and income disparity is kind of crazy the media industry so much worse. we hadle less moon vez making

$70,000 a year at cbs and nobody is asking those questions. you have people today in other industries that are making four times what yesterday's ceos were making and these aren't people that necessarily have anything at risk. the ceo of broadcom is making more times what the ceo of citigroup is making. the questions of wise public safety workers in new york and schoolteachers are making 65, 70 topping out at $80,000 a year, there's misplaced allocations, but i don't think it's the bankers like willy sutton. we go after those because that's where the money is. >> because these are the questions their constituents are asking why they're not getting ahead. the rich, the income disparity is off the rails and continues to spike in the wrong direction. and so -- >> the senator -- >> i get you don't want to pick on one group or the other, but you have to address this problem as a systemic, economic challenge for this country >> we do, but i wouldn't focus on the bankers other than than

an easy target like the bank robber willy sutton said go after the bank robbers, that's where the money is if you look at china, they have a worst gdx index. look at sweden we should correct it but the things that the quote unquote progressives, by the way, the progressives throughout american history were mainstream republicans. they had nothing to do with democratic socialists. socialists are missing is that american public don't resent great success. who cares how much larry page or even i would allow that elon musk and jeff and mark zuckerberg enjoy money because they've taken risk, but -- >> jeff, they're playing i us out right now. i want to thank you for joining us jeff, good to see you. senator hide camp, thank you too. >> thank you. coming up when we return, a lot more on "squawk. just what will it take to get boeing 737 max back in the air as the plane's worldwide

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welcome back to "squawk box. it's been nearly a month now since boeing's entire fleet of 737 max planes was grounded and what seemed at the time was a potentially short interruption turned into a delay with no end in sight hopefully there's an end in sight. now we're looking at what this crisis means for the future of boeing's business. phil lebeau joins us >> officially the company says, look, we have not changed our plans when it comes to the triple 7 x or the middle of the market plane down the road those plans continue separate of what's going with the 737 max. but when you take a look at boeing's programs right now, the most -- not all of them, but we're going to focus on some of them, first of all, the launch of the 797, the middle market plane, many people thought, hey, we're going to see an announcement sometime in the middle of this summer. now there's the expectation that if we see it at all, it will be late this year then there's the triple 7 x first flight, the next plane that will be coming out from boeing

the expectation is going to be in april the company says, look, we haven't changed our plans. it's coming in the coming months first flight now we're looking midsummer. 737 max production as we documented and told you about time and again, they have cut that production from 50 to a month down to 40 a month and more importantly, guys, it's the expectation that wall street had for the second half of this year that shaded part above 42, most believed and the company said they were going to go up to 57 per month. but that is clearly not going to happen and that's why analysts are focussed on what's happening with boeing's production plans that's the key to their estimates. >> what we watch out for longer term risk is the triple 7 x certification expected sometime in 2020 how that progresses. but for now, we're viewing this as a shifting free cash flow from 19 and doing our best to keep 2020 in tact. >> and boy are the estimates changing check this out, just a month ago the average -- the consensus was

$20.21 is what they'll earn this year, look where it's falling down to down 18% al the way down to 16.74 guys, it has really fallen off within the last couple of days by the way, remember that in a couple of weeks is when boeing reports quarterly earnings and that's when we'll get their guidance and how they change it when it comes to full-year earnings. >> all right, phil thank you. what about tesla, phil >> what do you think of that >> i think it's a big deal obviously it's a big deal especially the china component they have to ramp up production over there, and if panasonic is saying, let's hold off on investing in the gigafactory there, that is an indication that they just do not have the confidence that they can build these batteries at a cost-effective rate to meet the demand that many people expect to be there. >> okay. phil, we will see you later. thanks. coming up, more of my interview with vice president mike pence the vp sat down to discuss the current crisis in venezuela, the

2020 race for the white house and the economy. >> this is a president that really does believe that this economy is only starting to grow i mean, you look at nations around the world, nations that we compete with everyday and president really does believe that 3% is a starting point in this economy >> full interview coming up when "squawk box" returns

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning take a look at the futures ahead of the opening of the market this morning we are now a little over an hour away dow looks like it will open up about 27 points. nasdaq up about 7 points s&p 500 up close to 4 points. still to come this morning, we have more of joe's exclusive interview with vice president mike pence we'll hear what the vp has to say on the crisis in venezuela, growth in the american economy and federal rate cuts versus hikes. stay tuned you are watching "squawk box ghhe ocnbc" e i trade and maportfolio. since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets. and gold markets.

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♪ welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square. vice president mike pence spoke to united nations yesterday and urged the body to revoke the

credentials of the venezuelan representative under nicolas maduro i spoke to pence soon after those remarks in an exclusive interview. from the early days of the administration president trump made it clear, nicolas maduro has no legitimate claim to power and nicolas maduro must go and yesterday i went to the united nations the organization of american states has recognized juan guaido as legitimate government of venezuela, now that the g-7 has spoken out, 54 nations has followed president trump's lead to recognize president juan guaido and his administration, now it's time for the united nations to act and the united states will be introducing a resolution to the u.n. in the days ahead that will recognize

juan guaido's government, that will denounce the dictatorship of nicolas maduro and we called on the u.n. to revoke the credentials of venezuela's representative to the united nations and recognize the duly appointed representative of the democratically elected government of venezuela. >> bring it back home, the president gives the state of the union every year if you were tasked to give an economic state of the union right now, what would you say? how would you characterize it? >> well, the american economy is soaring. thanks to the leadership of president donald trump from the first days of this administration, this president has been working to get this economy moving again, cutting taxes, rolling back federal red tape, unleashing american energy here we are, 5.5 million jobs later record unemployment for african-americans, hispanic americans, unemployment for women is at a 60-year low and of

course the stock market has been soaring. i think it's all because this is a president who has kept his promises to the american people, kept his promises to put into practice what we know has always made this country strong and prosperous and the results really speak for themselves. >> well, 3% last year. but decelerating in the fourth quarter, first quarter obviously we don't know yet, but it's going to be lower than probably where the fourth quarter was at 2.2, 2.4, whatever it was. and this year, we don't know obviously, but we're hearing 2.2, to 2.3. that's deceleration. people would point to the promise of what tax reform was going to do and say that it's not measuring up. >> well, i beg to differ obviously the february jobs report we thought was an anomaly and it was last friday's report told the tale of a growing economy, robust energy. look what's happening in manufacturing alone, joe

i mean, i remember in the summer of 2016 when i was just joining this ticket, the last president was saying what are we going to do wave a magic wand to bring back manufacturing jobs and president trump said, no, we can bring jobs back. we can cut taxes for businesses, roll back federal red tape, unleash american energy, fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first and here we are 500,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs have come back to the united states. so we really think we've just begun to scratch the surface of economic growth. last year 3%, 5.5 million jobs since election day, but you think about the last eight years of less than 2% economic growth in the most powerful economy in the history of the world, president trump said we could do better, president trump said we could be growing again and we are. >> so no recession fears we had an inverted yield curve

we had china, the trade war, we had europe slowing down, the jobs number was one good data point on friday and also china looked like it recovered and china stock market is doing pretty well, so no recession fears. that's off the table in your view at this point >> we don't have any concern i think the treasury secretary said that on your air as well. no concerns about a recession. >> then i got to ask you, larry kidlow, a colleague of mine, great friend, great american obviously as he likes to -- we like to call him, it says we need two rate cuts the president was talking about quantitative easing, if things are so great, i don't understand going back to these emergency procedures and things that we did during the financial crisis. at this point people say we don't have dry powder for the next slow-down why would we cut rates again why would we stop letting the balance sheet roll off >> you saw the consumer numbers that came out yesterday, joe there's no evidence of inflation in this economy. >> so it's inflation

>> and so, we really do believe that, you know, what the president was saying quantitative tightening was not the right approach he has spoken out about the policies of the fed over the last two years. >> i missed that, yeah. >> like many presidents have before him this president really does believe that this economy is only starting to grow. you look at nations around the world, nations that we compete with everyday and president really does believe that 3% is a starting point in this economy i remember during the campaign he was talking about -- he was talking about 3% 3 1/2, 4% economic growth and going. what we have to have is monetary policy and we've also got to have leadership in washington, d.c. in the congress of the united states that will support job growth and job creation. >> different leadership at the fed? the president said is rumored to have said or reported to have said that i'm stuck with you j. powell. is he still dissatisfied with powell?

>> look, the president never made a secret about his concerns about some of the decisions that the fed has made, but president trump respects the independence of the federal reserve but i really do believe that what you have in this president is someone who's got boundless confidence in the american people, if we'll have sound monetary policy, if we'll continue, if we'll re-elect a republican majority in the congress this fall and the house of representatives, if we'll continue to build in the momentum that we have, we've only just begun to see this economy growing. >> what about herman cain. is that nomination in 2020 the determination of whether his nomination is safe is up to herman cain. he's a great guy, and i hope things work out for him. doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. do you know anything we don't know about that nomination >> we're very early in the nomination process and the president said today he likes herman cain.

herman's got a background in business and was a governor in the federal reserve and has that background and he and stephen moore both are people that really understand what the president's philosophy is in this economy, but we'll see how it plays out. >> so many things that i want to try to get through so buybacks and capital spending i'll combine the two capital spending, would you say it's been satisfactory in terms of what we were hoping for with tax reform a lot of people say it's ramping up slowly. others say that there's -- they don't like buybacks. i'm not necessarily in that camp and maybe we should induce maybe tax them like dividends so that companies aren't more prone to use the cash for buybacks, they use it for capital spending. >> i got to be honest with you, what the american people have identified in this president is somebody that understands how you create jobs in this country. i mean, we had one of the highest tax rates for businesses

in the industrialized world, and now thanks to the president's effort, we have a lower business tax rate than most industrialized countries, below the average. in the midst of that as you look at all these different statistics, the one i think the president and i find most moving is how wages that have been so stubborn over the last decade, wages have started to move up across the spectrum, but most -- the most rapid increase in wages has been among blue collar working americans the president used to use that phrase, the forgotten men and women. when you look at the fact that wages are finally rising again, particularly among working men and women across this country, that tells you the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more. so we'll continue to push those policies, make it possible for businesses to invest in ways that will create jobs and will continue to see the kind of results that we've been seeing. >> where are we at, the snapshot of negotiations with china right

now and the summit with president xi is there anything you can tell us, update us on where we stand, on progress that's being made? >> the president has been continuously updated and engaged in that process. and as he said many times, we remain hopeful but we'll see. president trump different from prior administrations, literally going back decades since we admitted china into the world trade organization we made a bet if we opened up access to china world markets engaged in broader trade we would see china embrace the kind of policies that would respect private property rights and open up their markets to the west and candidly that hasn't happened and that's why president trump imposed $250 billion in tariffs on china he made it clear we're in a position we could more than double that but we hope for better and i do know negotiations are under way, not just to address the trade deficit with china but

half of our international trade deficit is with china, but also to address things like intellectual property rights and the structural reforms, forced technology transfers that's all on the table. and i do know from being briefed myself by the ustr this week that those negotiations are on going, under way and as the president often says we'll see >> the wealth of nations was written in 1776, i think, a great year for the world for a lot of reasons, but we're arguing about socialism again and arguing about free markets again. >> incredible. >> but, there are statistics that you can point to and i mean, there's been globalization, there's been the emergence of the chinese work force. think of the way inequality around the world has gone down, but in certain developed countries inequality has gone up there's the feeling that 50, 60% of people in this country don't have access to the american dream like they used to.

and that's what's spurring some of this talk from jamie diamond. he defended capitalism but he at least brought up that it's frayed, the american dream is frayed what do you make of that >> i think the american dream was dying until president donald trump was inaugurated. i mean, literally look at it i mean, i saw it in the industrial midwest where i was a governor, where we had trade deals that resulted in particularly automotive manufacturing factories literally leaving our state and going south of the border. i mean, even after we were elected in the days after we were elected there was word of a company leaving and going south of the border to mexico. and the american people know that they felt that i mean, their kids graduating from college and not being able to find a job in the area that they were educated but this president came in and said, look, we're going to cut taxes for individuals and businesses we're going to roll back federal red tape at a record level, any administration in history to date

we're going to unleash american energy, tremendous natural resources and we're going to fight for trade deals that put american jobs and american workers first. then you look at those numbers, 5.5 million jobs but again i go back to the wages are rising at last wages are rising for working americans at the fastest pace of all. and i think that gives evidence of the fact that american dream is coming back people are seeing opportunity open up. small business confidence at record highs according to the nfib but what was the american dream in trouble going into the 2016 election you bet. i really do believe that's why the american people chose a president whose family lived the american dream and was willing to go in and fight to make the american dream available for every american >> in the news the last couple of days, you've got mayor pete buttigieg is invoking your name to, i guess, highlight a conservative pushback to certain

lbgt ideas or marriage equality and the like is that fair to use you as the boogie man in terms to point a you and would you like to respond? i don't know if you've responded yet. >> well, i worked very closely with mayor pete when i was governor of the state of indiana. we had a great working relationship and he said some things that are critical of my christian faith and about me personally. he knows better. he knows me. but i get it >> let me -- >> 19 people running for president on that side >> have you evolved at all, though >> a party sliding off to the left. >> i agree. >> they're all competing with one another for how much -- >> since the year 2000, have you -- >> i get that. >> the country has evolved i think to some extent on marriage equality, on gay rights. have you -- would you say your views have evolved at all since then >> look, the supreme court made their decision.

>> so you accept it as law. >> when i was governor of indiana, we fully implemented that decision in the law but, joe, i have -- my christian values my family and i have a view of marriage that's informed by our faith. we stand by that but that doesn't mean that we're critical of anyone else who has a different point of view. one of the great things about this country is our freedom of religion and freedom of conscientious. we'll continue to cherish our values, cherish our views, but look, one of the great things about this administration is from election night president trump made it clear that we wanted to be an administration for every american i think when you look at the results of this administration, when you look at job creation and growth, when you look at how we regrounded our courts with strong principle conservatives at our federal courts at every level and rebuilt our military, restored the arsenal of democracy and the way america is standing tall in the world once again and respected once again, my hope is that every american

will understand that in president donald trump and in our vice president that we're fighting everyday for more prosperous and more secure future for them. >> mr. vice president, appreciate it very much. thank you. >> thank you good to see you. >> good to see you that was vice president mike pence. we're going to dig a little deeper into what he said on the economy, trade and much more joining us this morning is fred kemp, atlantic council president and ceo. fred is also a cnbc contributor. and another cnbc contributor michelle cabrera what do you think about he said? >> he's very good at staying on message. you asked him about buybacks, he pivoted right back to president trump's record on jobs, et cetera immediately on china, this is the definitive hawk on china he gave the speech on the hudson speech said was the declaration of a new cold war yet he wasn't

as hawkish here which is a signal the administration is working on a deal, he is working on a deal, he doesn't want to get off message, that's a signal to the market full speed ahead they're trying at least. >> that's a hugely important signal i hadn't thought about that until i read your note os thn. what do you think, fred, about the idea that we are in the midst of maybe coming up on something of a trade deal, the signals have all been positive >> congrats to joe this is a good interview >> thank you. >> what michelle said is absolutely true. this is an office in the white house that works he's willing to staff, his staff is loyal to him. he stays on message. so i thought the message on the fed was an interesting one because he was quoting the president. he was a little cool on cain but he didn't say where he was essentially on the fed if people don't believe in our institutions, we start losing the dollar as reserve currency which keeps our inflation low,

which stops capital flight so he's being careful there. i thought that was interesting i thought on china he was interesting -- there's a difference in the administration between people say donald trump who wants a deal and really cares about the number of jobs and the number of dollars that come in and people like pence and others who want china to structurally change. they want china -- >> him not being -- pushing his point more, showing that president trump is going to be deciding this and he is going to be standing back and following what president trump says on this. >> yeah. he's following his notes, but you had some interesting movement with the chinese and the eu in brussels which shows that the chinese are starting to see that they have to move a little bit or they're not going to be able to play the role they want to play in the global economy. so, you're right he was careful he didn't go after the chinese in as tough of way as he's done in the past, but to me, this is the biggest geopolitical, gio economic change of our life times which is the rise of china and how the u.s. manages this

relationship beyond just dollars of sales and jobs in the united states is going to be crucial. that's how we should measure the success of this in the end is whether it has moved china and how it actually runs its system. i think that's a real tall -- >> how do we measure that? how are you going to look back and say we know these changes have made -- when you're going against counterfactuals, it's hard to say, but you think they'll actually be measurable changes that we can say we know this wouldn't have happened otherwise? >> it's opening -- first of all, you could have some deals between china and the u.s. that go against wto rules and then you could have some of the deals challenged what you want instead is you want them to move in how they make their acquisitions. you want them to open up their cloud computing, for example, to u.s. companies and there's some talk about that happening. so even if you start moving it in the right direction that you have a longer conversation and it's not just a transactional

deal and so i think we'll see the evidence of that i they they'll give enough so it looks like they're moving, but they are feeling pretty confident about their system right now vis-a-vis our's. >> i was just going to talk about the other thing that's very clear from the interview is the democrats are going to run on identity politics they're making that very, very clear. so if they're going to do that, the administration has a message, look at the unemployment rate among african-americans, look at the unemployment rate among hispanics and look at what's happening with wages, they're rising trying to drive a wedge into that messaging that's coming from the other side as they approach 2020. >> i think, by the way, i disagree. >> what? >> no, no. the identity piece is going to be a component of it i actually think they'll run on the economy in a completely different way than you're reflecting -- >> the republicans >> no, the democrats she just said that they're going to run on identity politic i would contend you they're going to run on issues around inequality, run on the runup in the debt in deficit in this country and what that ultimately

means -- >> how everything -- switch from the obama years. >> no, but these are the issues. >> i don't put that in the context of identity politics >> but do you think identity politics will be part of their messaging? if you think the answer is no, i think you're crazy it's clear everyday it's there. >> sure. but you tell me what's going on with the way the president and the administration talk about immigration in this country and talk about all sorts of people in this country and i think the other side would tell you that's identity politics in the extreme. >> of a different kind, yeah. >> so the forgotten people are not forgotten anymore, that's a campaign quote and it is true that wages are rising among workers you have a tight labor market. you have low energy prices you have low inflation this is actually good for the trump voters i think that will be where they go the most important geopolitical question on this aside from the china piece which we talked about svisven sway la this is the first battle of the

new era of competition he didn't talk about china and russia and venezuela two plane loads of russians came into venezuela last couple weeks. what's important is in his messaging is he was not making it america first or america alone. he was making it 54 countries the oas, the g-7 sending a message to the u.n. >> and going to the u.n. michelle, what happens to that vote in the snun. >> i don't think it will come to anything they've already done this. pompeo went in january and tried to get something done and this is more about shining a light on what will inevitably be chinese and russian pushback to say to the world, look at what the chinese and russians are doing in venezuela both physically on the ground and also preventing change that would lower, decrease the level of humanitarian crisis there, right? the possibility of getting change there is extremely difficult. they've got vetoes on the security council. >> but make also no mistake that vladimir putin and the russians are making this a test case for the trump administration

the trump administration made this a red line made maduro must go >> this is a test that's really important for the trump administration. >> and there's divisions within the conservative community itself about what should happen there. fred is right, they've gone the oas, the organization of american states is the lead organization on this, all these other countries are going along, the u.s. is not in theory in front here, but there's conservatives that say, look, the united states is going to get blamed or punished or whatever just own it. this is what we want this is what we should do. just be much more aggressive about the change we want rather than putting it behind the oas, et cetera, because inevitably people are going to say, look, this was about the united states >> and we at the moment have friendly governments in argentina and colombia, in brazil of all places who are on our side on this one but the longer this goes on, i

would argue the more this is in favor of maduro because the chinese are coming in in a subtle way, the russians are backing him up, so this could be trump's syria where obama says, you know, i have a red line on assad. the russians come in to a weak country and they bolster it up if that happens in our own hemisphere, that's very bad news. >> that sounds awful that you also just said the russians are testing trump on this, so he has to respond. >> but they're testing him, they're betting that he doesn't have a strategy and they're also betting that he won't take military action. and the strategy i think he has, which is toughening sanctions and cutting off money even more in the hopes that the military will turn against him. so far that hasn't worked. so far the military has stayed true to maduro, but that's going to be the real test and the cubans in the background. >> there are a lot more sanctions -- there's a lot more that can be done before you have to get to military intervention. >> for your viewers, don't forget, this may be the biggest oil reserves in the world. so for your viewers, this is not

just any latin american country. >> how much more pain do you impose it's already a disaster. i'm not sure that another level of sanctions that hurts the upper echelon, that have put their money overseas is necessarily -- >> michelle, fred, thank you both for coming in. >> just didn't implement it right down there we have to try one more time >> government control of resources incredibly effective, joe. >> this is not working they have a really nice submarine, but it's not working. notable economic data hitting the tape this morning. initial jobless claims fell this week that's the lowest level in nearly 50 years, since october of 1969. and producer prices rose .6% last month, doubling consensus estimates. largely driven by an increase in energy prices. without the food and energy components producer prices were up .3% checking the futures right now, moderate, up about 28 points on the dow. the s&p is closing in on close

to 2,900, are we not i think we are who thought? who thought? who would have thunk there's the ten year which 2,900 on the s&p and under 2.5 on the ten-year crazy. okay. ten year crazy. >> when we return, cramer's first steak, loetdown on the headlines and what mr. cramer thinks about them. later today, interview with federal reserve vice chair richard clarida. oh, don't worry. voya helps them to and through retirement... ...dealing with today's expenses... ...like college... ...while helping plan, invest and protect for the future. so they'll be okay... without me? um... and when we knock out this wall imagine the closet space? yes! oh hey, son. yeah, i think they'll be fine. voya. helping you to

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breaking news this morning, wikileaks founder julian assange is under arrest and was carried out of the ecuadorian embassy in london this morning. he had been living at the ecuadorian embassy about seven years. it comes after ecuador revoked his asylum today because of assange's violations of and daily protocol he had been told to clean up because of his poor personal hygiene. >> gross yeah, gross. let's get down to the new york stock exchange jim cramer joins us now.

did you shower today, jimmy? >> yeah. it's a habit since i was like 2. >> it's just one of those -- you never know. >> the juxtaposition between the vice president's interview and the -- i don't know, what do you call it the shower thing i don't know. >> we have talked about that a few times today. so the veep is on message, no doubt, jim this is what i'll say. becky pointed out, he is not a neophyte in terms of how to answer economic questions. that was the answer to how are you thinking about cutting rates, going back to quantitative easing with an economy you say is going so well you could make the case, if there's no inflation, you just get rid of that one mandate and go pedal to the medal with trying to grow the economy above 3%, right? until you see inflation, maybe it makes sense to keep rates

low. >> i've never understood why we, as a country, gave up on growth. we did we just gave up on growth, said we're not a growth country anymore. we're a senior country and the junior countries are going to grow i never saw that mandate it's interesting we're looking at numbers that has been since 1969 that was a bad year, a year we had guns and butter. we had inflation we have no inflation with this job growth 1969 you needed to raise rate sps do anything you could to break that economy because the money was being spent so fast. here i know we have a big budget deficit but larry kudlow would say the dproeth can really help. i've always been with larry on this stuff and there's no assistance between me and larry since. i think the vice president understands foreign people better than most when it comes to china. >> do you think he was moderating his china comments, jim? >> from his october 4th speech, yes. >> the one you talked about so

many times. >> definitely. no more talking about the idea that this is a regime that maybe shouldn't exist or should be changed. he walked that back. i'm glad you pointed that out. the october 4th speech was really about containment, as if it were the soviet union this was about winning -- they didn't do what they should have when they joined the wto it was a message that could have been given by a democrat or republican president obama was taken advantage of by president xi president xi said he wouldn't move in south china. he did it as soon as he left the white house. the president speaking for both parties when he talks about where china has to be contained. >> tesla, 20 seconds they're literally running me out of town. what do you think? >> people love tesla. >> irrespective of the panasonic news >> the bulls will come and tell you that's because they found a cheaper, better battery. andrew, it never stops. >> okay. all right, jim, thanks we'll see you very hortly, in

couple of minutes. don't miss an interview with david malpass. his first as the new president of the world bank, cing omup on "squawk on the street" in 30 minutes. ♪ each day, brings new possibilities. that's why you need a partner dedicated to helping your company reach its goals. u.s. bank -- the power of possible. dear tech, you've been making headlines. smart tech is everywhere. and you've done a lot of good for the world. but is that enough. dear tech, we've got some work to do. we need tech that helps people understand each other. tech that understands my business. tech that works at scale. that works with my existing tools. that helps us help more people. let's see some more headlines about that. dear tech,

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final check on the markets right now. there are green arrows we're off the highest levels we've seen earlier in the session. still up about 27 points. >> did we not mention the masters a single time? >> no. >> we haven't. >> the masters. >> three seconds. >> the masters. >> join us tomorrow. right now it's time for "squawk on the street. see you later. ♪ girls what you trying to do ♪ 24 karat magic in the air >> good thursday morning welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber. plenty to watch as we await jobless claims 196 k, fourth straight decline si six-month deadline delay for brexit disney's day of reckoning, details abou