agency and one of the world's largest companies. details demonstrator ahead it is friday, december 18, 2020, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'll tell you why i'm laughing in a second. i'm joe kernen becky is off today andrew is joining us on the phone because his power just went out now, i thought -- >> joe, only in 2020 it is 2020 i'm sitting here in the pitch black. i have a computer that i figured out how to work, i'm running off of lte and i actually have return from you. so i can see you, if you believe that >> oh, no.

because i was just saying to mac, i'll make faces at you through the entire -- i mean, obviously there are times that you say things where i want to make faces so i can't do that all right. so we'll keep us honest. andrew, when did it go out because yesterday was the snow >> 25 minutes ago, running aroe trying to fix the situation. >> okay. mac, it is possible -- it is possible that branch this morning or something this is not your house, so you don't have a gerarac, right? >> i'm hoping that it will come back soon. i'm showing that we'll make it -- very soon, i don't know, we can only pray, but we've made

a lot of phone calls in the last 25 minutes >> we have brought in reinforcements and it was a special request because i saw charlie woods' swing and i know dom was talking about it, i didn't have any audio, dom chu will hang out with us. i loved seeing that. the mini tiger, that was the coolest thing. and back in biology class we talked about nature versus nurture. that kid has both. he has the genes and he has tiger as a teacher did you see that finish the kid had on the follow-through? >> it is funny, i tend to commiserate a lot with the golf media community and what not and the one thing i saw you that people were talking about the most was the follow-through on both of their swings and the left and right arm hang. they look almost identical and you know a lot of that is because tiger is coaching charlie that way

but you have to figure there is a dna element in that whole process as well. >> dom, if i finish like that, you could just cart me off because i'd be stuck my spine would be frozen and then here is where i need the help and he has the nerves of a young man too. i mean, that is just so cool to watch. we haven't seen this yet we should probably look at the future, i know andrew is -- but they are down nine points, okay? so relax we're allowed to talk about this a little bit anyway, all highs yesterday. dom, we'll make time for this later if you will be around. >> it depends on andrew's feed, right? we'll see what happens >> fingers crossed that it is down go - for -- no, we want to back andrew, do i have to do your interviews >> assuming that the battery on this iphone that i'm calling in on doesn't go out over the next three hour, you are stuck with

me >> all right good this will be fine. no big deal. but there is a good reason to come into the nasdaq, now you know >> true. >> anyway, dom, hang out i'm kind of looking to all this. anyway, new highs across the board yesterday. giving back a little bit this morning. we have the moderna news take a quick look at treasuries. anyway, ten year is at 0.941 today mike pence is expected to receive the covid vaccine this morning. we'll bring you that live i guess at about 8:00 a.m. if you've never seen anyone actually get a shot. but we'll bring you that on the earnings front, we'll matter from darden and winnebago. nike reports after the close and a programming note, federal

reserve vice chairman rich clarida will be on "closing bell" at 3:00 p.m. eastern two developing stories this morning, use ylan mui has the ls out of washington, but we begin with meg tirrell who has ready-made stories almost every day. we knew the advisory panel was meeting yesterday. i guess because there was no 16, 17-year-old issues, they got almost unanimous except for an abstention >> yes, that one person who abstained essentially thought that instead of emergency use authorization, the vaccine should be given expanded access, which really is just more limited way of making it available in his opinion to more

high risk groups but really endorsement across the board from this anel no debates about the efficacy. and comments from the chair of this committee that this vote shouldn't be compared with pfizer's in any way because of course pfizer's vote included the 16 and 17-year-olds. and that was really the issue. so the fda putting out a statement last night saying that it has informed moderna that it will rapidly work toward finalization and it also notified "operation warp speed" so they can execute their plans. and this is the same time we got friday morning on pfizer's, and even sooner on moderna so they will be waiting to see the emergency use authorization potentially as soon as today now, after that comes, the cdc meets this weekend to talk about recommendations for this vaccine. and then next week, 5.9 million doses of moderna's vaccine will go out across the u.s. joining 2 million more doses of pfizer's

vaccine on top of the 2.9 million doses of pfizer's vaccine that went out this week. so joe, the supply is getting out there, health care workers, people in nursing homes starting to get vaccinated. and on sunday the secdc meets to vote on the next priority group, essential worker, people over 65, so that will be an interesting one to watch as well >> so i know how kill against you are. what about this "washington post" piece, any idea what is going on with pfizer and the supplies and whether there is -- i'm so confused after reading it about what is actually going on. we'll have scott gottlieb on later. do you have any insight? >> yeah, i spent all day yesterday trying to figure this out. it is a confusing story. essentially we've been hearing from governors across the country, from california to read island, michigan, missouri, iowa, florida, that their ale

low indications of the pfizer vaccine week were cut by 30%, 40% and many said there was no reason given governor ron desantis said it was because of pfizer production problems but pfizer told us they are not having any production problems i've heard it could be just a mixup to the states, that there were some preliminary numbers giv given, and that those weren't official allocation numbers. so nothing was cut, but there is confusion and even as that is playing out, there is major tension happening between pfizer and hhs and we know that they are in this negotiation for 100 million more doses secretary alex azar has said a number of times that they are being secretive about their manufacturing needs. and pfizer yesterday putting out a statement saying that not only have they not had any production delays or shipment delays, but they have got millions of doses sitting in their warehouse that

the government hasn't directed them to ship and they say that they have been very transparent and even walked through with "operation warp speed" their manufacturing facilities so there is tension simgerriis g >> unbelievable. yeah, azar was iy -- most of thw was about there issue. so i mean, we can't hook up polygraphs to guests, but someone somewhere is -- am i right or am i right? is it confusion or someone misleading people intentionally in your view that is hard for you to say. but these two things don't jive, the statements we're getting from pfizer versus azar.

>> there is certainly tension between them and i do think there is confusion with what happened with the states ordering what would be helpful is instead of -- i'm seeing three different accounts in the "new york times," "washington post," sacramento bee, i have my own sourcing explaining that it is a mixup, but if it was a mixup in the software system, if that is what it was, why isn't that being put out there clearly to explain. instead, what we're getting from hhs are these statements with the little jabs toward pfizer saying that they cut their supply forecasts and they assure us that they will have 50 million globally by the end of the year, but we haven't had a confirmation yet where as pfizer saying we have no delays, we're ready to ship it is drama and this is not a process that needs dradrama. >> meg, if to it is to be belied

and there are genuine doses in a warehouse somewhere, that is sort of uncontrovertible, right? >> it is and the question is of course, hhs, "operation warp speed," they are withholding the second dose for all the first doses to that go out for everybody to make their full vaccination. a lot of people think that send out everything and count on the manufacturing supply coming through. they decided not to do that. and it seems like the situation is that pfizer has even more than that, so why not ship all of what you can even withholding that second dose if there is some concern that the cadence want work with the states, those are some questions. but they are talking about immunizing 20 million people by the end of december. and so we'll have to see if the number of doses going out will make that responsible. >> yeah, it is not like we're not in a hurry here.

and i hope this isn't one of the things that we worry about with the actual rollout seems to be a tension between the public and private sector. meg, thanks. let's get to ylan mui now with the latest departments out of washington on a covid relief bill your power is okay where you are? you got your lights and everything, you look fine. >> my power is okay and hopefully this power lasts all the way throughmidnight becaus that is when the government runs out of money but congress has yet to reach a deal on another covid relief package. there is still no agreement on a comprehensive spending bill. and republicans and democrats don't even see eye to eye on whether to pass a stopgap understand funding measure or how long it should last. mitch mcconnell publicly predicted yesterday that congress would be in session this weekend and he even started setting up confirmation votes for judges to help fill the time until they reach a deal

>> we must not slide into treating these talks like routine negotiations to be conducted at congress routine pace so we need to complete this work and we need to completeit righ away >> but the process for passing that stopgap funding measure would start in the house where democrats hold the majority. and one source told me they are not even discussing that yet now, two of the outstanding issues include fema disaster fund that republicans say is just a backdoor bailout to the states and fight over the emergency lending facilities but today congress will have to make a decision. they either will wrap this up, punt the ball for a few days, or let the government shut down and just hope it won't be for that long >> it is still 2020, so i guess murphy's law is still in effect, is it not? so does that mean a shutdown that is all we need at this

point, right >> i don't know, joe i mean, this is not the situation that lawmakers want to be in. they do not want to shut down the government but the fact that there has been no progress and it is friday morning, that is certainly very concerning and as we have been talking about, so many things could go sideways when they have such little time to get the job done. so there is no real discussion yet of if and when they would vote on that continuing resolution that would keep the government open. and that would have to get done sometime today before midnight if they don't want the government to shut down. >> andrew, are you with us oh, he's gone. andrew's gone. i thought andrew might want to -- you know, ylan, i've dreamed about having more air time and not having to smsharefy of it. and this is like my dream is coming true today. >> you're sharing it with me. >> that's right. but all my questions -- it is only my questions. god, it is so so far

i'll ask an draw when he does come back, who is his utility. i mean, don't you think that he could call up whoever it is and say do you know who i am and don't you think that they would make a special -- probably just plugging something in somewhere, right i'm not sure who it is, do you know >> i don't know. i live in the dmv area but you mentioned rgenerac, and they advertise a lot on cnbc >> i have one and it is unbelievable people around the neighborhood are like can we come in in no, you can't. anyway, thank you, ylan. fingers crossed. coming up, we're learning more about the massive cyberattack believed to be backed by russia two new companies coming forward, a private company and government agency.

this was huge, this attack and check out the shares of steelcase, orders decline 39% year over year as people largely stayed away from offices earnings beat expectations, but revenue fell short part of the hit came from a two week shutdown in october caused by a ransomware attack i'll be right back every year, we set out to do one thing

help the world believe in holiday magic. and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

z. microsoft was hacked at part of a large scale cyberattack believed to be backed by russia. company executive said that microsoft had been looking for indicators of the hacker in the software from solar wriinds and removed malicious code and the u.s. energy department and commerce kept confidepartmet confirmed that it was hacked and there are others all right, dom, andrew is gone i think that he is on his way hopefully. he was apparently misinformed, he may be able to make it to the nasdaq

>> this might be just the catalyst needed to get more people into our studio operations >> well, let's not push that too hard but we do have a place for him i think -- it won't be here, we won't do -- we'll still practice the -- nobody will be on set with me, but other places i think we can get fired up upstairs with cameras. >> we have a lot room here in englewood cliffs you could pit like ten other people and be socially distanced. >> even with 20 foot distances >> seriously so i'll do this one here because andrew is not here, i'll tell you about unilever because it said that it would resume advertising on facebook in america, it withdrew remember over the summer amid calls for brands to protest the soescial network's handling of hate speech and misinformation. more than 1100 advertisers joined that campaign back in july unilever did not formally join,

but it did with a draw its spending until end of the year verizon has not yet returned in a statement in leaunilever s that they committed to better management of harmful ke content remember the stories about how the big he companies aren't the biggest advertisers on facebook anyway it is all the local small businesses that spend way more than companies like coca-cola do >> interesting piece yesterday on -- actually today just on all the states signing on to some of these suits about the way that the advertising is done dom, you don't think that your phone listens to you, do you have you ever been talking about something and two seconds later what you were talking about an

ad comes up? because it happens >> it does and you know what is even stranger what freaks us out even more tough that i talk about or look at, shows up on my wife's phone. and by the way, i have amazon alexa devices in our house i know that i'm not the conspiracy type, but i tend to watch what i say when there is an echo device ash >> i heard samsung tvs have the ability to hear things you know what, i'm totally screwed if any of this is true i'm toast in this latest world >> it is all in the cloud somewhere. all your transcripts are in the cloud somewhere. >> i still make jokes that i couldn't share on air, i can tell you that. anyway, it was really weird yesterday. talking about an espresso machine and next thing you know, here is where you buy one. >> where it is scary is facebook and instagram. that is where it shows up the

most >> i'm not with those two entities either one >> all right well, let's move on here coming up, joe, will employers require workers to be vaccinated about of returning to work? can your boss say you can't come in unless you get vaccinated those sir say resu those survey results coming up and check out shares of tesla, they are up about half a percent. the stock likely to see some volume today it is set to join the s&p 500 on monday already up nearly 700% in 2020 this holiday, get iphone 12 on the 5g america's been waiting for. this new iphone plus verizon 5g is incredible. switch now and get iphone 12 pro max on us. unlimited plans start at just $35. this is 5g from america's most reliable network.

hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like... like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most plus $0 commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

don't get mad. get e*trade ♪ ♪ digital transformation has failed to take off. because it hasn't removed the endless mundane work we all hate. ♪ ♪ automation can solve that by taking on repetitive tasks for us. unleash your potential. uipath. reboot work.

time now for the executive edge google is now facing its third government antitrust lawsuit in less than two months, this coming from a bipartisan group of state attorneys general they claim that google illegally maintained a monopoly in search and advertising. it is similar to the suit filed by the justice department back in october on wednesday, a group of ten republican attorneys general sued google over its ad technology business. dom. i like saying dom. >> this is fun for me as well. being here with you and waiting for andrew to get back in the mix. it would have been nice if becky was here so i could get the full experience >> anytime, you're welcome >> thanks very much. and let's talk about fedex because earnings and revenues there did beat estimates for the most recent quarter as the pandemic continued to boost the

volume of u.s. and international package deliveries because of the pandemic, right? but fedex did not provide guidance for the full year citing the uncertainty around it although the fedex chief financial officer said fedex expects earnings growth in the next two quarters. fedex is set to play a very key role, remember, in developing -- or rather delivering a covid vaccine. it has partnered with "operation warp speed" and also u.p.s. as well and we already know that they are shipping all the stuff around the country fedex and u.p.s., one has the west coast, the other one has the eastern u.s. and the postal service is probably in the mix in some way trying to clear up some capacity or whatever it is. but there has to be a huge move here for these transportation companies. they are front and center now. >> yeah. somebody visits my place every day. every day we get some type of visitor comes up because i hear them because german shepherds

don't like anyone coming on the property they don't and it is like two or three times a day. sometimes i see rented vans coming that look like they are contracted out by some of these companies, whether it is u.p.s. or fedex or amazon or -- >> and it is not just german shepherds. i have a terrier and that goes bonkers. so much so that i want to see what is happening, so i put one of those doorbells, i don't know if you have one of those things, but it rings on my phony time there is any movement on my front porch, whether it is a delivery person or not so i keep getting the notifications that shows me the people there i'm watching for porch pirates too. >> it is hard to break the dogs of that habit. because the people come up, they are intruders, they bark and then they leave. >> do you want them to be broken of it? i actually don't my wife wants them to stop

barking. i want them to keep barking because that is what they are there for. >> but every time they bark and the people leave, they go, see see? my barking and i got rid of them i think that they think that, i do maybe not. >> i got one of those ultrasonic bark boxes that give out that big whistle that you can't hear, and it did work for a while, but i turned it off. >> they look at me like yeah, that's going to help coming up, can employers require their workers to get a vaccine before returning to the office >> plus check out the shares of scholastic corporation plunging after adjusted earnings fell 44% year over year and it wouldn't provide a full year outlook because of uncertainty surrounding the school year. as we head to a break, take a look at yesterday's s&p 500's winners and losers

i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't. let's take care of business. at&t.

equity futures giving back a little ground. nasdaq just turned slightly positive and the covid vaccine rollout is raising questions about returning to the workplace and whether companies can require or will require workers to get vaccinated that was one of the questions asked in cnbc's workforce happiness survey are a held sole monday -- rahel joining us with the results. good question. >> yeah, we took a look at the attitudes that working americans have towards the vaccine and overall, 57% of working americans support their employers requiring a vaccine for workers before a full

reopening. but there is however a divide between those who are working from home and those in the office 68% of people working at home support a vaccine requirement, compare that to 54% of those working from their usual workplace. also americans of different races have different takes on requiring a vaccine. 87% of asian workers support a vaccine requirement, compared to 63% of hispanic, 56% of black workers and 55% of white workers. and overall nearly 80% of workers are confident that their organization's leadership is making the right business decision to manage through the current environment. that is however down slightly from 83% in may. but those not happy at work feel differently, 57% of those who, quote, wish they had a different job do not have the confidence that their organizations are making the right decisions to manage in this current environment. but this question about whether employers can and perhaps will require employees to take a vaccine is likely to be quite

the debate in the months to come >> if i was on a debate team and they assigned a pro or con, i think that i could do either kind of. you know what i mean >> you can make the case for either i think but it looks like for employers who want to require employees to take the vaccine, they are having some big wins and some support to suggest that they can in fact do that for the health and saefrity of t it safety of the overall workforce f >> and then you take it the next step of whether the government can mandate and it becomes stickier and the personal liberty types would say -- >> it is a tricky issue. >> in the past, whether there is data to back it up or not, vaccines have been controversial. the polio vaccine, there was initially something in there that if it had been -- if it could have infected human cells, it would have been a really bad

thing. sv-40. which luckily it couldn't. and then there was the swine flu, remember? long term side effects from a vaccine from that. >> vaccines have long been controversial yes and perhaps even more so with the expedited process with the covid vaccines. >> i'm coming down on, you know, it is -- you can smoke as much as you want and give yourself cancer, but you can't smoke on a bus. you know where i got that? george clooney of all people but if it is affecting other people, then it matters. so you are talking about the safety of others, so we need to get everyone vaccinated to get to that herd level let's continue on this topic with rich lesser, ceo of boston consulting group were you champing at the bit, like i have things to say, what do we do companies can do it, right >> joe, first of all, you are

totally right, this is a tough issue with views on both sides but i think on balance, we need to get workplaces safe workplaces safe so that companies can resume normal operations and companies particularly for their customers. and if you think about frontline service industries, this have been the hardest hit since the lockdown period in the summer, for them to really come back up into normal operations, it will be easier if they can assure their customers that the people that they are interacting with have been vaccinated but you're right, there will be a strong personal liberty argument on the other side for whatever reasons right or wrong, and i think that that will make this controversial i'm sure in some places. >> but think about it, once again we're back to talking about both sides, no company wants to watch any of its employees get sick from one of its other employees with covid but this vaccine is less than a year old, it looks very safe,

side fepgeffect profile is very positive, but every once in a while you read something about this or that or this reaction or that reaction. a company would be liable for forcing someone to get the vaccine if that turned out to be harmful a year from now, two years from now so it seems like a difficult line to walk >> i couldn't agree more i was just in a conversation with ceos and some argued that we'll do everything we can to encourage it but we don't want to mandate it, and others saying it gives ours customer assurance to make our workplace safe, so we hope that we can get to the stage where it is a mandates and right now some guidance i think in the months ahead will be helpful we're obviously months away from this stage right now we have to focus on health care workers, people in assisted living facilities, we need to get that part done but in a few months this will be the major topic the companies

are wrestling with and they want to plan early if they can. >> what about customers, you can imagine that could be the next step >> well, that will have to be a government choice. i think that it will be very hard for a business to tell its customers they can't come in if the government isn't saying that everybody needs to get vaccinated >> an airline? i don't know i can think of a lot of examples where you would like to have that ability >> absolutely. you're 100% right. and i personally have a lot of empathy for businesses that just want to assure their passengers, their customers that their operations are safe. i mean, we can all understand that and frankly, as someone who flies all the time, i'd feel a lot better, i think this personal liberty argument will be a tough one we've seen it in the past. >> and so whatever you say about companies and how difficult that would be, if you take it to the next level of either federal or local governments, it is even

more impossible i guess at that point to get beyond the personal liberty question >> i think that it will be hard at least until we have a lot more data. as understand, we were a few months in, we're not yet at the millions of people vaccinated, we don't have safety data over a more prolonged time period i'm personally very optimistic on those fronts. but i think in these early stages, that will be harder. later perhaps that will be something that would be more possible but i did think that is a big stretch for governments. >> so some of the points you make are about virus monitoring too. for the next three months, that could be as important as trying to get this rollout. >> absolutely. we were talking that this has to occur in three acts. we need personal safety measures more in place, indoor congregating, masks immediately. we have thousands of americans dying every single day we need to be as aggressive as

we can to stop the spread. we need virus monitoring to keep it under control and then we need to run a flawless vaccine rollout logistics we've never encountered before across a country this big and across the world. and those three acts are august essenti all essential to getting beyond this while not shutting the whole economy again. >> all right, rich, thank you. we're all working on this. light at the end of the tunnel, we're feeling it, aren't you >> yes, i think second half of next year has a chance if we did do this well to feel really different. but i agree, everybody is working hard on it >> all right thanks, dom -- well, dom is coming up. thank you, rich. i was going to say, dom, i got a this screen and it just has andrew, and it is like one of

those pictures like wherever you are, his eyes are looking right at me. and we don't have him on anymore. he is just like staring at me. it is very disconcerting i was trying to do that interview and i could feel him, though eyes. and that was his interview i hope it was okay >> we got to talk to the photog who took that head shot because i agree, it does feel like his eyes move with you. >> and they are leaving it there. he is on his way here, but they could put something else up, a landscape or something because it is creeping m ining a little bit and coming up, bitcoin surging past the 23,000 mark this week. it is up more than 19% and that is just this month. we'll have much more on the crypto craze coming up next. and as a reminder, you can watch or listen to us live anytime on the cn abcpp ♪

♪ when disaster strikes to one, we all get together and support each other. that's the nature of humanity. ♪ ♪ no one thought that they were going to do this before it happened, and everyone just did it. i think that's the way that human nature should be looked at. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

who invented we're car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana.

welcome back coca-cola is cutting 2200 jobs including 1200 right here in america. that is about 12% roughly of its u.s. workforce the company is trying to trim costs as it deals with the impact of the various covid-related shutdowns on its business and coming up, coinbase filing

confidentially for an ipo overnight. check out a one week chart of b bitcoin, up over 30% in that sp sophisticated but simple. cutting edge made user friendly. in other words, we want a hybrid. and so do retailers. which is why they're going hybrid, with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps manage supply chains while predicting demands with ease. from retail to healthcare, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm.

welcour new virtual classes were designed for you andving? millions of seniors like you. you can now choose from thousands of live virtual classes every week. get moving wherever you have an internet connection. and when you're ready, enjoy access to thousands of locations nationwide. with silversneakers, you're free to move. enroll today at no additional cost by visiting the website on your screen.

the largest cryptocurrency exchange is going public coinbase confidently filing for a public offering last night marking an industry milestone. the company did not say how it will structure its offering in particular coinbase has more than 35 million verified users in more than 100 countries and more than $25 billion in assets on its cryptocurrency platform. it's raised more than

$500 million from backers including horowitz, raylock partners and others. the coin base ipocomes amid a record breaking run for bitcoin prices which broke through the 23,000 mark a day after hitting the 20,000 mark. skroi joining us is brian brooks, acting comptroller brian, thanks for being with us. what exactly in particular has got you the most interested about the recent price action in bitcoin? >> let me tell you something, dom, i can't speak to the specific price movement but what i'm worried about is all of this is happening in an environment where we're about to have a change in presidential administration, and there are calls for regulatory protections we put in place for this stuff my agency is trying to make it safer for people to custody in national banks we have talked about banks

supporting stable coin projects. if those protections aren't in place, i worry about the environment for these kinds of things that's what i'm most focused on, how do we preserve the safety for the people who participate in the market. >> the perspective is interesting. you have been on the side of coin base. you are now working for the government what exactly is the future for cryptocurrencys given the construct we're seeing with government entities and the need to regulate this kind of environment. >> we're at a really critical inflection point it's kind of a fork in the road. one path forward is we find ways of addressing money laundering risks and find ways of addressing terrorism financing which i think can be done. but we make this safe for the consumers and investors who participate. that's why the banking system has such an important role to play but the other path, which is a very real potential here is we politicize some of these tech issues, whether it's crypto more broadly. we criticize undoing all the

work this administration has done, to make it safer, more real we do these things as maxine waters suggested, i'm not sure we have enough of a foundation to move forward here it's all about consolidating regulatory gains and consumer protections we have to put in place here that's got to stick around. >> how exactly do you make it safer for not just the investors but the people who are trying to task or use bitcoin to make transactions i wonder whether or not the stuff you're seeing right now with price action makes it that you have to put more of the kind of compliance impetus on the companies or more of the regulatory policing on the government. >> well, there's a role for both, i think. right, so there are bad actors in the space as there are in other spaces and the role of the government is to make sure that markets are well regulated and well organized so that people transact know they're transacting with good people, not bad people as in any financial market, there has to be tracing and no anonymity. part of it is if you hold crypto

or if you're in any space like this, you have to know you're not going to lose it it's important to custody assets in a bank the same as you might custody assets people may not realize this but there's leadership in congress who's urging the incoming biden administration to roll back protections i think in the name of politics, not in the name of protecting investors. >> if that's the case, then, and we're watching what's happening right now with coinbase, you know, trying to come up with an ipo and it's being scrutinized by all different regulators, you're in the office of the comptroller of the currency. that actually kind of implies that there's a banking angle to this whole thing is it fair to say that cryptocurrency is going to be considered like a banking type product in the coming years? >> i think the way to think about it is cryptocurrencys are tokens that power networks that's what block chains are is

they're networks in the future the role that banks have is managing payment networks as they have always done crypto is a different kind of payment network. it's faster and it's cheaper bitcoin and other tokens, they're assets that resign on those networks at the end of the day, all of us make payments on payment networks when you swipe your credit card at the coffee bar, you're using a payment network. when we're clamping down on things that aren't safe, those networks can't go forward. we need to preserve the safety of the network while preserving the value of the asset those things have to happen. >> brian brooks, the acting comptroller of the currency. thank you very much, and the big ipo coming up and the massive run in bitcoin prices. you have to wonder whether people are saying bubble these days a little bit. >> as an example across the board of what's happening, maybe. can you say jay powell, look at the ipos, dom. >> spacs.

>> bitcoin, it's not uncorrelated if people are hoping for that, i don't think we have seen that. you saw what happened at the beginning of the pandemic. you know what the low for the year is. >> i know it's just a hair below 5,000. >> exactly >> i know. >> thanks. coming up, a big day on the vaccine front, moderna's shot is expected to be approved for emergency use today. we're going to tell you what happens after the approval that's next. >> and two chip names getting analyst calls this morning, wells fargo naming micron, a top pick they left out an n thank you for that micron a top pick, and jp morgan names broadcon, a sector on under appreciated diversification. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc * #1 for psoriasis symptom relief*

and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin gold bond g...i can file and manage myss claim, all on the geico app. it's not just easy. it's giving-your-dog -your-fitness-tracker easy. oh, good boy. yes, you got it! woo! already got my 40,000 steps today... can i get a what what! no pain, no gain! haha... it's geico easy. with fast and convenient claims service. look how fast i'm running! good boy, chester. to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected. it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

>>it's shiori. what? >>shi - or - i adam, emily and then... s-uh um... >>it's shiori. sh-ori. thank you, that's great. shiori (in japanese) there you go. >>yeah. (in japanese) wow, it looks beautiful! >>(in japanese) really?! i really like it.

♪ ♪ ♪ awaiting emergency use authorization for moderna's vaccine. the latest on the battle against covid is straight ahead. the count down to shut down, lawmakers scrambling to try to get a stimulus deal done before the government shut down takes hold an update from washington is coming up.

plus, new york's wealthiest could see another tax hike, thanks to an $8 billion budget deficit. we'll debate that move as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen becky is off with us this morning, dom chu joins us from cnbc headquarters. and andrew will be joining us shortly. i can see him in my monitor, and i can read his lips because he's saying i'm here. i'm here >> his eyes are legitimately following you now. >> they are. did you see that earlier, andrew you were like big brother. >> i have been here the whole time. >> what about the jacket you figure all bets are off, you

can do whatever you want because you're upstairs. get the jacket off it looks nice, though, you do look good in a jacket. u.s. equity futures at this hour are indicated -- you know what, if we were worried about not covering the futures enough because of the situation, you know, our talent situation, it has not been a problem we're down 7 points. you haven't missed much. nasdaq down about 6. s&p indicated up less than a point but it is up the other two being down we're going to have some audio issues, i think, because i'm getting some feedback on you, andrew, too, a little bit of an echo we'll take care of all of these things it's working well. it's fine, it's a friday, and it's 2020, we're used to this. an fda panel voting to recommend the approval of the coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, and meg tirrell joined us in the last hour. good to see you again, meg update us on the latest developments. well, joe, we are waiting to hear from the fda as soon as

today on this emergency use authorization. after that nearly unanimous vote last night, 20 yeses, 0 no, one , and it's also notified cdc and operation warp speed so they can execute their plans for timely vaccine distribution, the same statement we got ahead of pfizer and biontech's emergency use authorization so it appears it would be perhaps just a matter of hours until we see this for moderna. if that's cleared, next week, that would trigger 5.9 million doses of moderna's vaccine going out across the united states joining 2 million doses from pfizer and biontech, on top of 2.9 from the companies that went out this week. joe, we were talking last hour about states saying that their allocations consider put for next week. we heard those reports from washington state, california, across the midwest, maryland, rhode island, and down in

florida as well, and florida cited production issues for pfizer you know, pfizer putting out a pretty substantial statement yesterday saying that no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delay it's not having any production issues and also said we have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse, but as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses. now, i got a statement from hhs last night, essentially detailing what they say that pfizer has on hand it says 7 million doses from pfizer 2.9 milli 2.9 milli 2.9 million will be shipped in two weeks. 500,000 doses as safety stock, and more than 4 million for next week, half of which will be held back for the second dose now, you know, pfizer's statement essentially said they have these doses that are sitting there that they haven't received instructions for. there's clearly some back and forth happening between pfizer and hhs right now. pfizer says it has more that can be shipped that hasn't been allocated yet. there's some tension happening,

joe. >> certainly is. we talked to gottlieb about this as we said, we just want, you know, if it's around, the supply constraint is the big issue, and when you hear that there's, you know, added supply that's collecting dust. well, not collecting dust, but if it's not going out, that's a problem, meg, right? >> maybe collecting ice particles in the ultra cold freezers you know, joe, i'm hoping we get a briefing from operation warp speed today and there can be some clarity put on this you know, we have heard from sources that the state issue is really just sort of a mix up, kind of old numbers that, you know, were never official that states had been given at one point sort of as place holders that they now believe have been cut by as much as half that should be cleared up. but then there is also this simmering tension between pfizer and hhs in front of the backdrop that they are working on a supply deal for the second

quarter of next year, and so all of that kind of affecting, it seems like, the communications around pfizer's manufacturing right now. >> earlier i was looking for you, sorkin, because i know you read that "washington post" piece, i'm sure, and are pulling your hair out. can you believe this that all of this, i mean, we don't know what the real story is, but it is urgent to get these vaccines out one way or another. >> one way or the other we got to figure out. what i don't understand is, as you said, and we talked about in the 6:00 hour, when you couldn't see me, i was in the dark, is who do we believe? do we believe alex azar who was with us yesterday. do we believe pfizer if they really do have these vaccines sitting in a warehouse, that's remarkable. >> it's a really good shot of you. so theoretically you could be here every day if you chose to, i guess, because this seems like it's working very well, but not

really understanding that, right? >> we could all -- i think we could all figure out a way to do this, if you want. you know i'm game if we can figure out a plan, but the other thing is we're still in boxes. we're still away from each other. >> i know, and i feel that i feel the, you know, i miss you, and i feel it anyway, thank you, meg we have dom chu here that's one of the silver linings of this, andrew, and i'm going to toss it over to dom right now. >> i'm also here, and i can be in boxes as well i would say, andrew, that we have plenty of space here in anglewood cliffs if you feel like going across the river. in washington, d.c., lawmakers are trying to finalize the details of a new round of covid stimulus, but yes, sticking points still remain as you see the capital building there ylan mui joins us with more on that story good morning. >> good morning, dom congress is bracing for a weekend of work on capitol hill as lawmakers struggle to put the final touches on a covid relief deal and a government funding

package. as you know, uncle sam runs out of money at midnight tonight, and it is not clear if lawmakers are going to pass a stopgap funding measure to keep the lights on or how long that would last they could also just decide to run out the clock and let the government shut down, at least for a little while now one of the outstanding issues is a fight over the fed gop senator pat toomey is pushing to prevent the fed from restarting those emergency lending facilities that treasury shut down by the end of the year, including the main street lending program and the municipal liquidity facility toomey says his proposal makes it clear that these proposals were supposed to be temporary but still does preserve the fed's independence and broader section 13-3 lending authorities but democrats are worried that getting rid of these emergency lending facilities would hamstring the incoming biden administration, and they also argue that there's no legal requirement to shut them down, and the nonpartisan congressional research service yesterday did agree with that

position so the democratic congressman, jim clyburn, and congresswoman maxine waters sent out this statement to the treasury secretary, during this time of unprecedented hardship, the federal government should be doing everything in its power to support the economic recovery, not stripping the fed of critical economic tools. so dom, the bipartisan group of lawmakers that tried to get these talks restarted in the first place, they are now urging the leadership of both parties to put aside all of these differences and just finish the job. back over to you. >> so just kind of clear something up for us. let's say hypothetically that the programs get kind of shut down, they kind of go away how hard would it be to just restart them in the new year with congress the way that it's kind of set up right now >> well, that is what is under debate, so the congressional research service found that if the treasury secretary and the fed agreed to restart this

program, it could do so using the money that is already there, from the c.a.r.e.s act however, the current treasury secretary, steven mnuchin said that he is planning to take that money and put it back into the general fund where treasury cannot access it again one could argue this is a bit of a moot point the money is no longer there even if a new treasury secretary came in, they couldn't use it to restart these programs there is some ambiguity in the language republicans are arguing and that is why they want to have this proposal in the covid relief package to make it absolutely clear that these could not be restarted using any existing funds unless there was an approval from congress. that's really what they want to have here is that the fed and the treasury could not just do this on their own. congress would have to weigh in and give them more funding in order to start new programs. >> it's the beltway two step, ambiguity, clarity, clarity, ambiguity, ylan mui in washington, thank you very much for that. some other headlines at this

hour, coca-cola is cutting 2,200 jobs, including 1,200 right here in america coke has been cutting expenses as the pandemic closes bars, restaurants, movie theaters, sports stadiums, all of those places that sell its products. so watch that. twitter also plans to create a new label for so-called bot accounting accounts it wants to make it clear that users that use the accounts are automated in nature. coinbase's, the largest cryptocurrency exchange has vowed to go public, the first bitcoin focused company to go public that's a big deal. they filed confidently last night. we're watching those bitcoin prices they're striking while the iron is hot, andrew, joe, you can say that when it goes to 20,000 and a day later goes to 23,000 per token, guys. >> we'll see where it ends today. dom, thank you, we've got a lot more coming up on "squawk box" this morning on demand delivery platform dark

store growing by leaps and bounds during this pandemic. the company exploiting empty storage facilities, offices and malls to be fulfillment centers. we're going to speak to the ceo after the break. and speaking of delivery, fedex reporting an adjusted quarterly profit of 4.86, $0.82 above consensus. fedex continues to benefit from a surge in ecommerce the company didn't give an earnings forecast for fiscal 2021, citing continuing uncertainty and higher costs from the covid-19 pandemic we've got so much here on quk x"s e ogm "sawbo athprra rolls on back in a moment service at the ready. at mercedes-benz, it's not just a job, it's our mission. from our expert technicians armed with state of the art tools and technology, to genuine parts made for the perfect fit.

whether it's our place... ...or yours. we're there. rain or shine, day or night. no one knows your vehicle better. to learn all the ways we can be at your service, call, click or visit a dealership near you.

welcome back to "squawk box," the pandemic has super charged the delivery business. dark stores, trying to disrupt delivery to get consumers to get what they want fast. lee, the founder of dark star, good morning help us understand what you're doing, and what this last mile challenge has become during this pandemic >> good morning, andrew. the last mile challenge really is getting people things, you know, really quickly, and so with darkstore, we deliver things to consumers in new york and los angeles within two hours, and they actually come out of a darkstore, which is a fulfillment center that is in a

neighborhood close to customers and so that's what we have built and launched >> what is the cost, if you will, of that last mile, meaning for me to get a product delivered in an hour or two, whether i'm in new york city or l.a., i assume that that costs you, and i assume it also costs quote unquote the retailer or manufacturer on the other end. >> it did. before dark store, you had retailers like amazon, target and walmart, and their fulfillment centers are in rural areas leveraging ups and fedex of the world with darkstore, ours are within cities we have a darkstore on 25th and 5th in manhattan, and that allows us to leverage guys like door dash and last mile folks, keeping that last mile delivery cost, you know, super low and economical for us to make those deliveries. >> so do the math for us, because i think about this all

the time i think about this in the context of door dash or any of these guys, which is to say, even in a big city that's dense, how many deliveries can genuinely be made in a given hour >> you know, i can't comment on that i leave that to the great folks at doordash, they're our partners specifically for last mile but for them it's all about creating demand, and so with darkstore we're a really good partner to them because they come and they pick up hundreds of orders, you know, out of our single location versus having to go around to retailers and do a milk run >> but the reason i ask is i say to myself, okay, if the delivery person is getting paid call it 15, $20 an hour maybe, i don't know, hopefully they get some tips along the way, right, you know, can they do four deliveries in an hour? is it three deliveries in an hour, is it seven deliveries an hour, and that matters those distinctions

>> it does i think it depends on the city, a city like manhattan, it's more dense. they can do more deliveries per hour in a city like los angeles, it's less dense, so they're getting paid more for the distance they're going. for us, we're focused on the customer experience and enabling that two-hour, and we have been able to do that, you know, really well with the darkstores that we have launched. >> can you make this economical in places that aren't as dense and l.a. is not even that dense, and has traffic, but if you think about where this goes over the next, in a post-pandemic world, this idea of quick delivery, you know, how many cities in america are really going to have this kind of service and can do it in an economical way >> yeah, you know, we think about that often but it's not going to be done how it is today. one of our first customers with darkstore was nike, and we have this vision of delivering warren buffet a pair of nikes and when

we do, it will be done by a drone, and it will get there in sub 30 minutes, and it will be really economical, so darkstores today are done with humans and tomorrow are done, you know, with robots. >> when you think about robots and drones, i'll never forget seeing jeff bezos on 60 minutes several years ago, and people thought that was an insane crazy idea i know now people, i think, don't think it's as crazy but we still are not seeing it in truth right now. when do you think that is going to become a reality? >> you know, i think that, without trying to predict the future ecommerce has fast forwarded at least five years, you're seeing folks like instacart who had projections of $35 billion in 2025, surpassing those projections in 2020 and so we have accelerated significantly where ecommerce has been and where it will be and i think that, you know, given that pandemic and given,

you know, what has happened, i think that, you know, the fda and the ftc will accelerate the things that need to be done in order to deliver to customers faster >> go back to the drone issue, the idea that there are going to be drones in the sky, you're going to look up, they're going to be holding boxes that might have some weight to them there's always going to be, you know, challenges risks involved in all of that do you think that's a five-year out, ten-year out, i mean, i imagine are trying to build a business model right now around that potential, and people even investing in your company along with that potential. >> i think five years we'll start to see the adoption of it. i think within ten years, you know, it will be prevalent across, you know, the country. >> and then what about cities, the interesting part is, yes, if you can deliver it in omaha to warren buffet's backyard, he's

going to want a pair of brooks by the way, if you are going to be delivering, i get the backyard thing or front yard, in any area that's more dense, aren't you always going to be dealing with human beings? >> you know, it depends. but, you know, we think a lot about autonomous vehicles and what tesla is doing, and the vision for not just being humans and having it be a ride share service. what you are looking at is excess capacity in trunks, and in terms of real estate. i don't think it will always be humans i think there's going to be an aspect of autonomous, whether it be a vehicle or a drone or some other type of sidewalk robot that are really going to make the economics for these last mile deliveries accessible. >> lee, it's great to talk to you. appreciate it. happy holidays and good luck with what i imagine is going to be a shopping rush over the next week or so thanks >> yeah, thank you >> you bet >> dom. andrew, i thought the same thing, it's definitely brooks, not nike, right?

>> brooks. >> coming up on the show, new york is facing a budget shortfall which could mean, yes, more taxes for the state's wealthiest, robert franks joings joins us with that story next. futures, stable after hitting records highs for the major indeseize. the s&p up by 1. the nasdaq by 7. we'll be right back on "squawk" after this time now for today's aflac trivia question. what credit card was originally named bank americard, the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues. now tell me, what does aflac do? aflac pays you money directly to help with unexpected medical bills. and is aflac health insurance? no, but it can help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover! that's right. are there any questions? -coach! -yes? can i get one of those cool blue blazers? you know i can't play favorites. alright let's talk coverage. it's go time!

get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. mmm hmm! get to know us at aflac.com

♪ monday you can fall apart tuesday, wednesday, break my heart ♪ ♪ or thursday doesn't even star it's friday i'm in love ♪ now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what credit card was originally named bank americard, the answer, visa the card was introduced in 1958

with a $500 limit. ♪ it's friday i'm in love ♪ >> we want to thank dom chu for sticking around with us this morning. you get time and a half, i think. wow, you worked close to, i mean, you're going to go on two hours pretty soon for the day, dom. that's crazy you're a wild man. anyway, you're leaving now to start your weekend, am i right, no golf, though. >> no golf. >> you get a lot more roll if it ices over, but if it doesn't ice over, very difficult tough conditions . >> i think that my wife has got me doing a lot of stuff around the house for the rest of the day. >> honey do. >> i've got a very large honey do list, resalting the driveway, so i've got that coming up. >> is she happy you're home or ugh it snowed. >> you'd have to ask megan.

il thank you for stepping in whe casa sorkin went dark. appreciate it. >> okay. "squawk box" will be right back.

. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning new york state facing a deep budget crisis, and lawmakers considering raising taxes on the wealthy to help fill the hole. robert frankjoins us now with more, robert >> good morning, andrew. new york state lawmakers pushing for a special emergency session to raise taxes before january 1st. so they want to do this in the next two weeks now, the state is looking at an $8 billion budget deficit for this fiscal year, and a lot of job cuts without federal aid a coalition of ten labor unions writing to albany. the impact of the pandemic has fallen most heavily on the poor, so our leaders must ask the richest new yorkers to step up to the plate there are three tax hikes being considered one would be a straight increase right now, the top rate is 8.8%

in new york, for those making more than a million dollars. the second one is a financial transactions tax now, this would be a tax of up to $0.05 a share on stock transfers which would heavily impact financial exchanges you have a tax on those who own more than one home in new york city that of course would affect an already struggling real estate market governor cuomo has been opposed to tax hikes in the past saying too many new yorkers would leave, but just this month, he's changed his tune saying it's a question of when and how much and not if andrew, back to you. >> robert, i read a story i think in the past 24 hours that suggested given the amount of capital gains that have been made especially among the wealthy during this period that actually some of the budgets aren't going to be as hard hit as perhaps expected. is that right? >> that's absolutely right new york city tax collections through october were a billion

dollars more than projected. now, they're still 6% lower year to year. california has collected 11 billion more than they projected through october, and a lot of that, you're right, comes from this huge stock market run that we have seen all these ipos, capital gains that they're seeing. again, that is relative to expectations, not relative to real revenue year over year. >> right >> which is still declining, coupled with the added cost, new york looking at an $8 billion deficit this fiscal year 16 billion next year without any federal aid. >> one other question on this idea of a transaction tax. that would just impact obviously new yorkers, and i assume it would obviously impact places like this. i'm here at the nasdaq, you know, there's even conversations with the fnasdaq, you know, creating effectively a second headquarters in texas. other places what kind of back and forth do we know is happening between the nyse, nasdaq and the state right

now. >> a lot of back and forth, and where you are is ground zero for that financial transactions cost they thought about it in new jersey, and while there are no central exchanges in new jersey, there are a lot of processing areas there that said look, we would move new york "the exchange," nasdaq, all the other stock trading operations in new york saying look, do you know how many jobs we create, do you know how many people we support, and this up to $0.05 per trade, per stock would just be massive. it would raise a lot of revenue, 13 billion a year, but the exchanges, as hard as it would be for them to move have said we will move if you impose this because it's way too heavy a hit on the revenue side. >> okay. robert, thank you for that report we're going to continue this conversation joe is going to lead it now on a little bit more on this topic. >> a couple guests on this issue. for more on this and the potential impact on other high tax states in the u.s., let's well genevieve wood, senior adviser, spokesperson at the

heritage foundation, and carl davis, with the institute on taxation and policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit tax policy organization. genevieve, i think about this, i would like to be analytical, logical about what needs to be done, but can you imagine not only can people work from home that used to work in new york with this new zoom world and stay-at-home, but, you know, you add in the pandemic and what it's costing to just for essential services and it's just ballooning and they're between a rock and a hard place. the more they raise taxes, the more people are able to leave or work from home and go to a low tax state. you got to feel for new york >> you do. but let's be clear new york was in trouble before the pandemic hit the reality is they have been spending more than they have been taking in for some time, that's true of california, and illinois and a lot of different states all the states, by the way, their answer is always to raise

more taxes and the problem is not that you just run out of other people's money, you're increasingly running out of people people are leaving these states, companies are leaving these states, and they all say it's because of higher regulations, whether it's on individuals or businesses and i think it would be a little bit of both to some extent earlier this woke it was rumored that chase is maybe going to be moving its headquarters or its senior staff to dallas those are a lot of the folks that new york lawmakers are talking about wanting to tax, and you're absolutely right, coming out of this pandemic, people are probably going to have more choices about where they work, and where they actually have their residents, and if your decision is partially impacted by how much state taxes you're going to pay, a lot of people are going to make different choices. >> carl, i feel for policy makers, and i understand wealthy

people have done pretty well, and that makes them ripe for shouldering a lot of this, but if you're cutting off your nose to spite your face, if those people leave and you lose those people, it didn't help it was part of the problem, not part of the solution what do you do >> well, revenues are down they're down big compared to where new yorkthought they wer going to be before this crisis started, so what do you do in that situation, are you going to worsen the hardship? people are really struggling there's a lot of pain, a lot of suffering right now. are you going to start laying off state employees, cutting contracts, cancelling programs that are helping keep people in their homes, and keep food on the table or are you going to ask a little more of people who are actually doing well even in the middle of all of this chaos. like a new top rate that's not going to impact middle class families, that's not going to impact the entrepreneur that saw their business collapse this year it's going to impact people

pulling down million dollar incomes, and multimillion dollar incomes right now in 2020 to 2021 in terms of is there going to be a mass migration in response to this, frankly, i don't really buy it one of the absolute best pieces of tax policy scholarship for the last decade looked at this question in huge detail, and found that millionaires aren't moving in significant numbers in search of a lower tax rate you can always find an anecdote that went the other way, and ends up moving back after a little while and deciding it was a mistake. maybe pick between the data and an anecdote, i'm going with the data every time. we know millionaires can afford to live in new york. they're not going to pull their kids away from all their friends. they're not going to permanently leave their business partners and their colleagues behind. that's not how rational people respond to a 2 or 3%, you know, cut in their pay from a slightly higher tax rate. >> genevieve, did you hear that,

anecdotes versus data, is that the same data you have >> that's not the same data i have, and let's keep in mind, this is not the first tax put on these folks. it's been years of it, and we do see the data of people moving and businesses moving, which is jobs moving, and look, it's a terrible thing this happened across the country, and certainly in new york in terms of people losing their jobs but lawmakers then need to be looking at policies that actually create new jobs, not take jobs away from the economy. so i would encourage governor cuomo and the state legislature there to think a little bit more about how they can start opening up their state more safely, which is the complete opposite of what they're doing. they continue to close it down it's killing jobs, and jobs that are not going to come back again, this is another band-aid approach, give us more money now. what is the plan a year from now after we've got the vaccine, but all of these small businesses and restaurants that have closed aren't able to open again.

those jobs are just gone, and we'll have new ones. it will take a longer recovery i would love to see them do the really hard work of how do we open up our economy, and keep the jobs we have and create from there which would help the people that are suffering the most because you're right, rich people have done okay through this whole thing, and yeah, they can pay another 2% here and there but that doesn't fix the problem, and that's always the answer in places like new york, from liberal politicians is let's just raise taxes on rich people it's more of a slogan than a tax policy or a budget policy, and it doesn't eventually help the economy as a whole. >> if you had to -- and carl, i'm not ignoring you, we had some audio issues. we're working on that because it's going to seem like i keep asking genevieve more questions. they'll let me know when you're good on that, carl, but genevieve, if you went in and looked at the new york budget or some of the states that we're talking about can you identify

fat or are we already at the bone in terms of services for people that need it. that's why sometimes you have no choice but to try to raise more revenue? >> right well, i mean, i don't know that there's any state budget in the country, joe, that we probably couldn't find some dollars being spent that are wasted. is it enough for new york. probably not they're not going to be on the black side of the ledger in the next year or two, but they can start making changes now that would suggest to businesses, for example, hey, we're going to be a friendly place to live and to work and to do business, and those places come in, you have to start making those changes now. look, i mean, all of those states i mentioned, illinois, new york, california, they've got huge problems with your public pension, your show has talked about that numerous times. they've got to make real reforms that show they're serious about getting their budgets under control, and not always having the answer of more money is

needed from washington or more money is needed from the state, from the people of new york. >> carl, i hear we're doing a little bit better. do you think that the salt issue is pertinent here, carl? what do you want to do that overwhelmingly benefits wealthy people if you reinstate that deduction? >> i don't think that should be a top priority for congress at all. we saw it was fascinating, we finally got the most recent year of data, 2018, where that salt cap took effect and look which two states added more millionaires, california and new york, so it sure doesn't seem to be slowing down the creation of huge amounts of wealth in the states, prior to the pandemic the states were performing well economically compared to the rest of the company. i don't see the salt cap, there was strong political motivation in how it was designed the way it was i think it needs to be reformed.

i wouldn't throw it out the door >> it's weird, genevieve, we have a lot of new york democrats come on, you know, that politicians that want to repeal the salt provision from the last tax act, and i always tell them, you keep saying that rich people need to pay more, the amount of money that would accrue back to wealthy people is mind boggling if you did that. i think they realize -- that's when they like the rich people they don't want the rich people to leave in that case. stay. >> you're right. joe, look, the article in the "wall street journal" about this talked about the fact that over i think it's about 188,000 new yorkers currently pay over 50% of the money that comes into new york 188,000. that's not a lot of folks in the big scheme of things so you don't need that many of them to start leaving or make other housing decisions as somebody said, we've got people. these people have multiple houses they do and many times it's like

one in new york, one in florida, where there's no state income tax. people make decisions of what's going to be my primary residency. you don't need many of the 188,000 to make different decisions about where they live to truly affect the budget i think it's a serious issue i love new york, i used to live there. they're making it very hard for anybody but nonwealthy people. >> we lost genevieve doesn't live here anymore, lives in new york. that's just an anecdote. anyway, we fixed your audio, it's much better, but now we have to go good to have you on genevieve, thank you. andrew, over to you. coming up, lot more on "squawk" ahead, moderna's vaccine likely to get approval, delivery and logistics are front and center next week a preview of how it's going to hat happen next. >> and pfizer applied for approval in japan for its

covid-19 vaccine "squawk box" is back right after this flexshares may look simple on the outside. but inside every etf... there are untold hours of careful construction...

infinite "what ifs?" and contingency plans. creating funds that help target gaps in client portfolios. tap untapped potential. and strengthen confidence in you. flexshares. powered by over a century of investment expertise 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.

♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" this morning, if the moderna is granted full approval, the logistics will be dramatically different from pfizers, and we want to get to frank holland who's got that story this

morning. frank. >> with the shipping of 6 million doses it ramps up about 24 hours after fda approval. the biggest difference between the moderna and pfizer vaccines is no need for dry ice it's viable at room temperature for as long as 12 hours. different sensitivity to temperature. different containers and different logistics. production is split between moderna in suburban boston, and partner lanza in new hampshire large quantities are taken to indiana, where catalent fills viles, and prepares for shipping by mckesson. fedex and ups fly from hubs in memphis, and louisville around the u.s. ups told us earlier this week, the moderna vaccine requires much more planning. >> it has its own unique challenges and because that vaccine is in smaller order quantities, there will be more packages than we have for this

one. so the volume differences are quite dramatic, and we'll have to be working through that with operation warp speed on how to prioritize deliveries. >> for the first round, syringes and other materials will be sent ahead of the vaccine in the future it will all be sent together and it will be profitable for the companies involved mckesson added $0.15 to $0.20, catalent raises guidance, citing vaccine as a profit. and vaccine would generate 300 million for ups and fedex. >> one question for you, frank, in terms of the different terms. you still have to keep it somewhat cold. what do they do to ensure that the moderna vaccine? >> well, i'm sorry, andrew, yeah, they have to keep the vaccine cold but negative 4 is more achievable than negative 94 refrigerated trucks and other things, but the fact that there's no need for dry ice

makes it easier to fly and generally easier to transport because dry ice is hazardous, releases co 2 and difficult to handle unless you're trained. >> thank you so much for explaining and breaking it down for us. joe. coming up, spacs all the rage, not all are created equal. we're going to talk about what's driving demand and how to tell the good, the bad and the ugly 'lbeig bk.t. wel rhtac every year, we set out to do one thing

help the world believe in holiday magic. and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

welcome back to "squawk box," 237 listings this year, raising $80 billion. not all spacs are created equal, and there are a few things that investors should look out for when the offerings hit the market tyler tickinson, head of banking capital marketing and advising at citi. one of the top underwriters of spacs. good morning to you. help us through this there are so many investors, retail investors jumping in at the sponsor level or when there's the quote unquote despaccing happening there are various incentives for the different players at the different stages along the way, tyler. >> great to see you, we're excited to give an update on the spac market. we are excited about the growth we saw in the market this year we have seen the quality of

sponsors increase, we have seen the quality of mergers improve, we've seen the depth of public market appetite, constitutional and retail investors as you suggested, are really coming to this marketplace, and that's created better after market performance. >> tyler, though, let's just talk about these different stages, full, because i'm not sure everybody really understands. a successful aspect out of tspa gate, the investors aren't always the same investors for whatever comes next. there may be a component of that because of the way a spac works, you could argue sometimes it's just a leveraged option for a lot of investors, and that's a different incentive structure, right, because they can actually get their money back if they were to vote against the deal. and there's an option on the other end if the deal goes through. so you have that incentive structure on one side. you have the incentive structure for the sponsor to do a deal, in part because they get a piece of

the action, and then you have the public investor on the other side when the deal gets quote unquote, despacced when the spac buys something, and the reason i wanted to lay that out for the viewers is so that they understand in certain cases that everybody is not fully aligned. it's actually different than an ipo. >> that's correct. i think you're right first when we look at the ipo of a spac, we're building a book based on a future opportunity, and so the complexion of that buyer base, in some cases driven by that sponsor and in other cases, the technical elements of the structure and that's what makes it attractive to investors at that stage. then as the company migrates from that cash box towards looking at various target opportunities, the investment opportunity and profile changes. when a merger is announced, the company that will ultimately close and merge with the spac becomes the equity opportunity, and at that stage, it is a

permanent company in the public capital markets with features like an ipo, already publicly traded equity security it at that point, depends on what is the company, its financial characteristics, how does it compare to comparables in the marketplace. >> one of the big distinctions between an ipo and spac deal, this is at the merger component side of it, is there's a lot of disclosure required on the ipo side up front. it can often be a very challenging process as you know, and everything that a company says in the ipo process has to be backward looking. forward projections, three, four, five years out, you're not allowed to do. that's to protect the retail investor uniquely in a spac because it's a merger, when you do that deal, and we have lots of ceos come on our air, they can all of a sudden tell you about their projections, three, four, five years out, to try to create some excitement about those deals

oftentimes these are companies, by the way, that don't have profits, and that's not to say there's not companies at ipo that don't have profits. do you think about these things differently as a result? >> well, look, there's definitely a difference in going public through a merger than the traditional ipo process. you mentioned one of the distinctions we would say from citi's perspective, we think there's a landscape of direct ipos listings and spacs, allowing them to present through a merger document with projections. we think that has made this product more interesting, particularly thin this covid er where the complexities have made it hard for investors in the short-term to have confidence but have more confidence in the long-term. and the spac investor education process gives us more of an opportunity to explain that long-term story. >> fair enough tyler dickinson, thank you for helping us through this. it's going to continue to be the

story, i imagine, of 2021 as well we have a lot more on "squawk box" ahead, when we return, much more on the vaccine rollout. we're going to talk to dr. scott gottlieb on the latest and, later congressman kevin brady for the latest out of washington on the stimulus talks. two conversations you do not want to ssmi a big hour ahead on "squawk" on this friday morning. this holiday at t-mobile, it's not about how far apart we are, it's about how close we can be. so we're bringing out our best deal on the new iphone 12 with 5g, on every plan. right now, get the iphone 12 on us on every single plan. switch now and save 20% on your bill versus the other guys. that's the best value in wireless. that's right. the iphone 12 on us. on america's largest 5g network. and save 20% per month. it's time to holiday on.

it's time for t-mobile.

good morning, waiting on washington, investors are watching stimulus talks on capitol hill as a government shut down deadline looms congressman kevin brady will join us live moderna's covid vaccine is one step closer to getting emergency use authorization from the fda. former agency commissioner dr. scott gottlieb is here and speaking of the covid vaccine, vice president mike pence preparing to get the immunization live on national television as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here ton cnbc. it's friday, i'm joe kernen

along with andrew ross sorkin, and we are going to witness history being made, andrew >> i would say it is >> there it is you're looking at now live pictures from the white house where vice president pence, his wife, second lady karen pence, and surgeon general jerome adams are all preparing to receive the covid-19 vaccine this as officials, public officials look to show support for the immunization and calm fears from vaccine skeptics. we're here today it would be a good day, andrew, but we can't jump the line we're not vice president of the united states obviously. but looks like it may be starting i'll do it, but all we're missing is the vaccine but i'm ready to roll up the shirt sleeve and do it >> i am too.

what's going on? let's watch this okay, so this is -- there's a mask but that is the vice president. >> we confirm that you are not feeling any signs of covid-19, and have read all educational materials pertaining to the vaccine. i have a couple of questions for you. have you ever had a serious reaction to any previous vaccines. >> no. >> are you take any blood thinners or have any blood disorders? >> no. >> are you pregnant or breast feeding? >> no. >> are any of you immunocompromised or on immuno suppressants good to go >> start with the doctor, the doctor getting the shot first,

and i guess we'll go from right to left. that one particular nurse. going to be responsible. those questions, i guess, you heard that they were to everyone, so initially i thought it was just to the vice president. are you breast feeding, but obviously. it's pretty simple >> quick, quick and painless. >> quick and easy. >> second lady, as it's called karen pence

>> and the vice president. >> they see this repeated, i would think, andrew with the president-elect and others, the vice president-elect >> great job. >> and there it is >> great job >> now, this is obviously the pfizer biontech, since any second we could hear about moderna. >> this vaccine is a two dose series, so that means you'll need to come back in 21 days for the second one again, with any vaccine, you could have a pretty sore arm at the injection site, maybe some redness. if anything else happens, contact a medical provider or go to medical care.

okay >> thank you >> i think we can skip that, andrew, don't you think, the booster. >> i think we need the booster. >> we don't need to cover it. >> right i will say, the vice president, i didn't think about this, he was very smart to wear short sleeves. >> good morning, and thank you all for being here >> let's take the vice president for a second >> and to not have a jacket on just in case. >> we're going to bring in dr. scott gottlieb as the vice president begins speaking and we'll bring you what he says in just a moment. of course dr. gottlieb, cnbc contributor, sits on the board of illumina, and a historic moment to see the vice president get what's called the jab live on the air, and hopefully bring some confidence to the rest of the country, doctor. >> yeah, a great moment. i'm glad he did it on tv, and you think it will have an impact i think the vice president will provide reassurance to a lot of americans to go out and have

confidence in taking this vaccine, both of these vaccines as well. this is a good thing >> at the same time this is happening, we have so many questions to ask you, dr. gottlieb, and we quizzed meg about this before, and she will want to get into this as well. the state of play between what's happening with the statements we're hearing from pfizer on one side over the last 24 hours, and the statements that we're hearing from hhs and alex azar who came on "squawk box" yesterday in terms of what is really happening here? >> right, well, there is no issue with the manufacturing manufacturing is going quite well the issue is what we call lot release. i have said before, and albert bourla said on this show that most of the 25 million doses that have been promised for december in the united states, that's 25 million doses produced outside of the u.s., most doses have been manufactured now it's a question of lot release. over time, that vaccine sits, and then it gets released for

use, and part of what goes on is you keep it for a period of time to make sure it's stable, to do some testing on it this is normal, this goes on with my biologic, certainly any vaccine, so hhs put out a statement yesterday saying there are 7 million doses available. by the end of the day, there will be many more, and by the weekend, many many many more doses available. there's doses coming off lot release all the time so what i have said before is i think they should be leaning forward and trying to get more vaccine into the market right now. we know a shot today is probably more valuable to a patient than a shot three weeks from now because we're at the peak of the ekg right now. we're starting to peak we know these shots are partially protective we don't know how much the moderna and pfizer vaccine are partially protective you want to get as much protection in the community as possible it is the case that they cut the shipments for next week, that they're trying to hold on to a

lot of stock in the warehouse, and also, i suspect that pfizer was cut down to 2 million doses next week. i suspect moderna will get authorized today and ship about 5 million doses of moderna next week, and by the end of next week, 5 million pfizer and 5 million moderna. i don't think that's an accident i think they're trying to line things up. >> the implication of what we heard from pfizer yesterday was no, no, it's not us, the government isn't releasing this, and effectively, i thought the suggestion was that they should be why wouldn't they be >> well, the short answer is i don't know if i was asked to speculate, which is what you're asking me to do is they don't think the channel can distribute let's say more than 7 million doses next week they want to leave room for moderna to deliver their 5 million, so they have tie traded back what pfizer is shipping they're throttling it. that's the only thing i can come up with, that they want to sort of test the system they don't want these doses sitting around so they're trying

to throttle the shipments. i think they should be taking risks and trying to get more doses in arms, moderna and pfizer, and i'm on the board of pfizer, obviously viewers know that getting as much protective immunity into the population is very important right now i will say, there's many more doses available. the statement they put out last night to the press was that there's 7 million doses available. that probably was true as of last night, but as i said, lots are coming off all the time, and there will be many many more doses available, maybe double that by monday as lot releases go on, and more doses get released by the company. >> meg, i know you have been reporting on this the last 24 hours. how does dr. gottlieb's perspective or speculation, if you will, square up with what you're hearing, and how, to some degree, it sounds, scott, like you are, there's an implication that there's a commercial issue here, which is to say we're going to hold back on the pfizer

drug because we know we have moderna coming >> is that to meg or me. >> you go first, dr. gottlieb. >> i'll just say quickly, i don't think they're thinking about commercial issues. i think they're thinking about logistics, and you know, it might be easier for them to have both companies sort of equally distant in their distribution. that's the only thing i can think of they might want to line up the companies, and as of the end of the next week if they go on the current course, they will probably have lined up both companies, assuming moderna will get the authorization today, which i think they will, and they ship 5 million doses which has been speculated about already in the press. >> meg >> and just to add to that what dr. gottlieb is talking about is my understanding. they want to establish sort of a steady cadence, as general perna puts it, in terms of getting these vaccine doses out. yesterday throughout the day, hhs was confirmed they still expect to get to 20 million people immunized with their

first shot in december, if moderna gets emergency use authorization, but then if you just look at the math of what's happened already, so we've got 2.9 million doses of pfizer that went out this week next week there will be 2 million doses of pfizer, almost 6 million doses of moderna that's 11 million doses. you've got one week left of december after that, and you have to get out 9 million more doses. we'll see if that happens. they are saying that they are confident that will, but dr. gottlieb, i wonder, i mean, you said earlier this week that the problem with the antibody drugs, there appears to be issues being able to administer them could bode poorly for the ability to administer the vaccines in the community as well i wonder your thoughts about are we going to run into the backlogs in the last mile as you have been talking about? >> it's a little bit of a different situation. the antibody drugs are sitting on the shelf they have a shelf life they're not being lost i think there's concern they'll ship vaccine and not all the vaccine will get used.

i think that's not going to be an issue here because the vaccines right now for this month at least are being distributed into nursing homes by cvs and walgreens and hospital workers, ipg tho the challenge is in january when you're trying to distribute in the community, and you have to find eligible patients to vaccinate. that's going to be more difficult. i think they could havepushed out a lot more vaccine through the hospital than what they are doing. we could have vaccinated many more people, and i come back to the point, this is the peak of the epidemic, the vaccines are partially protective, though we don't understand how much but the data does suggest that and most people concluded that based on the data. i don't think i'm making a leap there in saying that, and if we can get more protective immunity in people more quickly over the next week, that could have an impact on the epidemic three, four weeks from now if we vaccinate more people it's not going to have the same level of impact. >> who made that decision, the specific decision to hold back

some drug so there could be the second round rather than wait for the manufacturer to keep coming and just expect it? was that by vote how did that happen? >> i'm sure it was the people who are running the logistics, so there's people from the military in charge of this i know the individuals and some people from hhs. i'm sure the secretary signed off on it. i think these are recommendations coming from logistics people there's the logistical problem but then there's the public health imperative, and i think the public health imperative should triumph, lean forward, be aggressive, take a risk, stuff the channel, get more doses in people's arms with having some confidence that the hospitals can absorb more. i have talked to hospitals they're vaccinating far fewer health care providers than what they could because they don't have the doses available, and i don't think they're going to catch up next week, even after the moderna doses ship, and you start having more supply in the channel. >> meg, do we have any idea how

protective just one dose is? >> we did get a sense of that from the documents that came out before both of these fda meetings, that it provides, i believe, i think it was slightly more than 50% protection after the first dose the issue is, and i have talked about this at length with moncef slaoui from operation warp speed on our healthy returns live stream, there are data showing that if you don't get that second dose, how long that protection would last, and he's very concerned that if you start just giving one dose without the absolute certainty you have the second dose, you're kind of going off label, and sort of going in the face of all of these promises to adhere to the r rig ors of the clinical trial process. i want to ask dr. gottlieb, the reason we're talking about the tension with the pfizer and hhs right now i think is because there is a backdrop of the negotiation over trying to get

more doses in the second quarter of next year dr. gottlieb, you have told us that pfizer offered these to the u.s. government as recently as november after the efficacy data we have heard different accounts from hhs and dr. moncef slaoui, that's going on now, are they going to be able to reach a deal why is it taking so long, and bad blood? >> i agree with everything meg said about the dosing schedule people need the second dose. if the first dose is partially protective, we don't know how long that protection lasts we have only studied it with two doses, and we only know the durability of protection after the second dose. you do need to get the second dose but you could take risk that the manufacturing hopefully is going to keep up, which it should we have not seen manufacturing problems once these processes have started as far as negotiations, i stand by everything i have said on the show what's been offered when.

there's discussions going on i hope those are going to be fruitful for the american people i don't want to get in frontof the discussions that are going on between the company and the government right now, and i'm frankly probably not privy to all the details related to that anyway, so i'm not the best spokesperson for that. ill leave that to pfizer to comment on and his secretary and colleagues >> we're going to leave the conversation there dr. scott gottlieb thank you as always meg tirrell thank you as always, and i'm sure we'll be talking to both of you very very soon joe. thanks, andrew coming up, henry blodget on the recent ipos and the red flags. check out this morning's market movers stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

♪ sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt. (chime) choosing sofi was literally one of the best decisions

i could have ever made because it gave me peace of mind. ♪ help the world believe in holiday magic.thing and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing.

it's been for some companies a great time to be a new public company. bitcoin is at one as well, as of yesterday, 23-5, ipo, spacs

booming this year. yesterday, s.e.c. chairman jay clayton waved a warning flag right here on "squawk box." >> there are more retail investors participating in the market than ever before, and we're seeing that, and one thing we don't regulate directly is euphoria, and we're seeing some euphoria here. >> henry blodget, insider inc., ceo, and former top tech analyst. do you have good ears, have you ever heard of bell at the top of something? are you picking up anything like that, any type of tinkling that you're hearing anywhere? >> i think s.e.c. chairman got it right that there's some euphoria, i don't think it's completely widespread. it is not 1999 but boy in certain areas like the ones you just listed, it's extraordinary to watch what's happening.

i'm going to leave the day-to-day calls on the stocks and movements and so forth to so many of the experts you have on. the one thing i would give you from perspective of living through the .com bubble and housing bubble is three things, one, it can last a lot longer than you think two, it can go a lot higher than you think, and then three, the crash can be a lot worse than you think. so as long as everybody keeps that in mind as they're enjoying the euphoria, have at it >> as we have said many times, someone said, history doesn't repeat itself, we see that it rhymes, there are things like 1999, what are the key differences, do you think, and you've highlighted those before, henry, and are those differences becoming less different the higher things go in terms of evaluation >> if you look at big tech, a lot of people are saying, look at big tech, it's obviously crazy. if you look at the faang stocks,

google, microsoft, facebook and so forth, they are trading at 30 to 40 times earnings those are high multiples that could trade lower if interest rates went up or growth rates slowed down. it's not insane. it is based on cash flow, a lot of the profits in the economy are going to these companies, so i think investors are actually correctly realizing that is where a lot of the growth is going to be. that's very different than what's happening with tesla and very different than what's happening with bitcoin, which is the perfect asset for a speculative mania, and we are seeing one. >> what do you mean by that? >> so bitcoin has this unique and wonderful feature which is that it has no intrinsic value, it is only worth what somebody else will pay for it, and you can tell these marvelous stories about how maybe it should be some percentage of the value of

gold or it's going to be the value storage of the future and therefore it should be worth x all of those stories are ridiculous bitcoin was understood by a relatively small group who got in early everybody who has bought it and held it, creates a ton of money, wonderful word of mouth. you have more and nor and more folks chasing an asset that has limited supply, and it literally has no cap bitcoin kocould go to a million, that's not anymore ridiculous trading at 23,000 or a dollar. some other things, like stocks generally are tethered at least to some future idea about the cash flow that's going to be generated from them, including, by the way, tesla. bitcoin isn't. it's just worth what other people are willing to pay for it, and we are seeing that they are willing to pay a lot over time. >> how much have you looked into, have you read an entire

treatise on bitcoin or the bitcoin standard, have you done anything like that have you done any background on distributed ledgers and block chain? >> many. >> you have, okay. >> absolutely. when i first got acquainted with bitcoin, i was sitting around at a stable at a tech conference with super smart people. henry, you have to understand this new thing, bitcoin, it was trading at about $90 a coin by then, and they were passing it around the table in a wallet, and they said this is the future, and explained a lot of virtues. >> the reason i ask is teal or tomath or paul tudor jones, and they would take issue with you saying it's only what someone else is willing to pay for it. and if you do a stock-to-flow analysis on it, you can come up with some ranges that if you

look at a log rhythmic chart, that has been what it's tracked. >> absolutely. but let's say suddenly people change their mind, get scared, value cuts in half, demand ceases what i haven't seen and what i was open to seeing in the beginning is use of it as something other than a speculative asset. so if we're all switching to paying for things be bitcoin or cross border transactions are done in bitcoin, there are a few use cases but not many mostly what people come back to is it's a better store of value. >> digital cold. >> it only goes up. >> digital gold and scarcity the one analogy that made sense to me, 20 people on a desert island, you divvy up duties, you could use shells, to say when you've done an hour, you have cleaned someone's bedpan for them, and they have done something for you, everyone keeps the same distributed ledger and you can quantify an

hour's worth of worker, and it's right there, and it has the inherent value of an hour's worth of work, you owe them. in a distributed ledger, considering you have every transaction ever done in bitcoin, in every bitcoin, i think you can make a case there is inherent value. >> you can, but then you get into the processing issues, this is not actually a very efficient technology for billions of transactions a day, and so forth, the energy generation, so are there going to be cryptocurrencies, certainly a lot of the smart people agree there are. where most of the folks who have been dead right that bitcoin is going to go up, agree is, hey, it's a great storer of value, and it certainly has been, but all i'm saying, and i said this, i wrote this up when i came back from the tech conference at 90, it could go to a million, and that would be terrific for everybody who owns it. >> i always disclose that i own some, and i owned it a year and a half ago, and i have owned it ever since sounds like you don't owe any,

which is fine. it's fine, henry >> i'm enjoying watching you get rich. >> oh. yeah. >> i can see you're really enjoying it. >>st it fun. >> anyway, i'm wondering, it's certainly not noncorrelated. we know that now, henry, right, it goes down during the pandemic when it first started. went to 4,000 or 4 and change. it seems to be correlated with risk assets. and in that regard. >> yes. >> i think that's been disappointing to some of the, what do they call them holders. >> i don't think any of them are disappointed, and more power to them it's great. >> there's some smart people they are some smart people once i took a real close look, and i sort of, i couldn't believe i understood it. marginally anyway >> it's a little bit of understanding is dangerous, as we all know. >> thank you >> andrew. >> thanks, joe, coming up this

morning, stocks to watch and still ahead, tesla joining the s&p 500. we're going to tell you what it means for volume in today's trading and the prospects for quk"etarr.he coming qute "saw rurns right after this of "wheel of fortune" i was blessed to be part of building one of the greatest game shows in history. during that time, we handed out millions of dollars to thousands of contestants. i thought, what if we paid the contestants their winnings in gold instead of cash and prizes. back in 1976, we had a wonderful contestant named lee, whose 3-day winnings were valued at $12,850. and you know what? that was a pretty big haul back in 1976. so i wonder what would have happened, if lee had put $12,850 in cash and then put $12,850 in gold in a safe? just sitting there side-by-side from 1976 until now. well, i went back and ran the numbers and what i found was amazing. we all know that $12,850 in cash

would still be sitting there, but it would be worth a whole lot less than it was in 1976. but that $12,850 in gold, safely stored away, it's worth $135,000 as of the taping of this commercial. now that's more than 10 times the original amount. - [narrator] if you've bought gold in the past, or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio, pick up the phone and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold. which we'll provide you important, never seen before facts and information you should know about making gold, silver, and platinum purchases for faster wealth protection, request a digital version of our complete information kit, which will be emailed for faster delivery. you can also receive a copy of our new "us gold report" for 2020. inside, you'll find the top 25 reasons why you need to start owning gold today. - with nearly two decades in business,

over a billion dollars in transactions, and more than a half a million clients worldwide, us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america.

welcome back to "squawk box" this morning, right here on cnbc we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square if you're just tuning, in vice president mike pence received the covid vaccine early this hour, alongside his wife and u.s. surgeon general this is what the vice president said about getting the jab. >> karen and i wanted to step forward and take the vaccine to assure the american people, while we cut red tape, we cut no corners. >> president-elect biden expected to get the vaccine on camera in the next week. is the phrase jab, is that a medical term i get people who say i don't like that word i don't know. >> it's just like a shot what's a shot? ask me if i want a shot, i think of something totally different it's a uk term, and we had that

conversation i don't know where you were that day, with amonojabbers, i think he was implying. jabbers. which i was not doing. now i use the word jab i don't know, i feel more continental when i say that. but it's the same as a shot, right? a jab. >> yeah, i feel like some people are triggered by the word jab, i don't know >> why >> because you would be jabbed maybe, i don't know. >> i can tell you i saw a headline a couple of times a while back where i didn't know i thought that someone was taking a jab at someone. >> right. >> you know, using it in that type of slang. anyway, i think it is good and i commend the vice president for doing it as we said, we're ready, but we don't have the vaccine that's the only thing keeping us from doing it is we don't have

it maybe someday. maybe we'll finally be at a point, if it would help everyone out there, decide to take it, and then we'll get it. i don't know but we'll probably have to wait. that's fine. just don't get fatigue don't take chances because it's easy to get fatigued covid fatigue. we're going to take you live to washington where lawmakers have less than 16 hours to leech a deal to avoid a government shut down congressman kevin brady is going to give us an update next. so many updates about the stimulus deal. we'll get one more as we head to ahead, take a look at u.s. equity futures we now see the nasdaq has turned green, solidly green now the s&p and dow. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc with a bang,

energy and change came to every part of our universe. seismic or small, it continues. change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business.

less than 16 hours for lawmakers to reach a deal to avoid government shut down talk about that again. ylan mui joins us with an update on the race to pass a funding

bill and the covid relief bill good morning, again ylan. >> good morning, the government does run out of money at midnight they can strike a deal on covid relief and a comprehensive spending bill and sprint to pass it before the deadline they could pass a stopgap spending measure that could keep the lights on while they finish working or simply let the government shut down and hope it doesn't last that long there are some final sticking points in the negotiations, and they include a fema disaster fund that some republicans worry is just a back door bailout for the states and a fight over the fed'semergency lending facilities last night, a group of bipartisan lawmakers called on the leadership of their parties to get this job done they wrote, we know firsthand how hard it can be to find common ground on these issues. by working together, we can and will provide immediate assistance to the workers,

families and businesses that need it most there's also a whole bunch of other policy priorities, that congress had been planning to pass alongside these bills there is an effort to end surprise medical billing that would have major implications for health care providers and insurers there's a tax cut for the beer and alcohol industry that's expiring and a charitable put in place during the pandemic that would go away. there are so many issues that are just getting caught up in the log jam of the broader negotiations back over to you >> let's talk more about it. joining us now congressman kevin brady. a ranking member of the ways and means committee. this is in your view headed into the weekend as we hash out the minutiae of i guess a relief bill, the covid bill, congressman. >> so look, so first, for the record, whenever i come on "squawk box," i do expect to be jabbed, especially by andrew you know, he is a jabber

and so i expect that so look, i think we're making progress here. obviously the recovery from the pandemic has beat expectations we still got a ways to go. i think the focus on reconnecting workers to their jobs, especially with the ppp loans. i think, too, this rapid deployment of the vaccine all incredibly helpful to the economy. so i'm hopefulme you know, they're close, closer than they have been. hopefully stick at the table here, and finish this out. i think will be incredibly helpful. >> a shut down will or will not happen, what needs to be done there? >> i don't think it will happen. i think there will be a short-term extension for a couple of days everyone is here ready to go i think a lot of progress has been done on the temporary tax extenders, the surprise medical billing on the continuation of some of the key tax provisions and the c.a.r.e.s act. i think a lot of work is ready

to go here so really, the covid bill is the last thing for the pieces to come together. >> all right i don't want to preempt any jabbing from andrew. i may be able to jab you a little bit more gently have you acknowledged, have you said the four words, president-elect joe biden yet. >> i have not. i have not played the obsession with concession game i think the president is doing the right thing by allowing the transition to go forward i think that's the responsible thing. unless the president's lawsuits prevail in some way, the electoral college results are going to stand i do think, though, both parties would be in denial if we don't recognize most americans don't trust the election results they didn't heading into this election it's been getting worse over the last number of years, so, you

know, i would urge both parties to not let this thing fall, and actually examine these irregularities, make sure states are following their election laws we've got both parties some work to do to build confidence in these results. >> so what happens under a biden administration to the tax cuts and jobs act in your view? >> yeah, so here we are, we are sobering this week, the tax cuts and jobs act there's no question, you know, it beat all economic expectations drove wages up for the first time in more than a decade especially among blue collar, low income workers, and essentially ended the practice of inversions, companies moving their headquarters, their research, their manufacturing overseas in good economic times, it wouldn't make sense to repeal the tax cuts it's insane to do that as we're

trying to recover from the pandemic certainly i hope a biden administration will understand now is not the time. you take more money out of family and local businesses pockets. >> roll up your sleeves, here it comes. >> congressman, here's my concern. my concern is i agree with you that there are large parts of the country that don't seem to believe the election results my problem is that i believe that one of the reasons that part of the country believes that is because the president and frankly members of the gop have tried to drum this idea up over and over and over again, and frankly misled the american public, given that there are experts even inside the administration, no longer a part of the administration, who said this was the safest election in history, and so while there may have been problems along the

way, and i don't want to suggest there weren't, perhaps, and i think there probably have been problems forever, there's no evidence, and i think we should be factual about it, there's no evidence repeatedly that suggests that the outcome would some how be different than it is clearly the supreme court has ruled. they made it, i think, relatively clear, i know people have argued it was a procedural vote but by not taking it on, don't you think that democracy demands more >> you know, andrew, yes, but i would respectfully disagree with y your narrative there you know, for the last four years, america has been told president trump stole the election this was illegitimate president, including to this day by hillary clinton and former president jimmy carter joe biden agreed with that statement during the election campaign and a third of house democrats

refused to attend the inauguration because they believed our current president is illegitimate. so i think it's unfair to pin this on this president in the next few months because as polling showed us before the election began, 60% of americans didn't trust the election results of both parties. so i will tell you, i think this is a really unhealthy trend that has continued to accelerate and we'd be in denial if both parties don't make a concerted effort to both examine the irregularities and find out what more we can do to start to begin to create that confidence. i think that's really jobs one for congress and for an administration >> congressman brady, thanks it's 15 minutes to the weekend for some people. anyway, it was good to have you on this morning.

and. >> thank you. >> and put your sleeve back down now, you're finished you're done. give you a little rubbing alcohol on that, and you'll be fine >> thank you, sir. >> we'll see you again next time good luck keeping the government open, as they say. >> yes, sir, thank you, joe. >> it wasn't much of a jab >> what are you talking about? >> that was beautiful. it was like a bee sting. >> oh, my god, you said facts, you almost said science. that was beautiful, andrew that was very good i understand what you're saying. >> coming up on the other side of the break, jim cramer's on the day's top stories, and a programming note, don't miss federal reserve vice chairman richard clarida, is joining the gang at 3:00 p.m. eastern time "squawk" returns right after this key portfolio events, all in one place. because when it's decision time, you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

you need decision tech. it's different because i have to talk to a computer. i get like 6 emails a day... olivia please turn your screen on. okay, lift the... there you go. mondays remote, tuesdays at school...

it's the other way around. we might not be able to solve everything. but we can help make sure students and teachers can stay connected to learning. it's why at&t has connected more than 200 million students to brighter futures. to high quality computer science and stem education. ♪ i joined amazon because i wanted to change education and i am impatient. amazon gives me the resources to change the world at a pace that i want to change it. ♪ we provide students stem scholarships and teachers with support. ♪ i'm a fighter and i'm fighting for all students.

jim cramer joins us now. when's christmas, is it a week from today, it's coming up that's all i know. >> definitely. >> rain or shine you know, we had a kind of disappointing retail sales but then we got fedex with all of these shipments. can online just not make up for, you know, the malls being not nearly as crowded, and can people not spending on travel, can that make up for just a lot of people that are hurting right now as well? how is the consumer? it's all fractured and

fragmented. >> this is the crux that i think in real life it can't make up but in the stocks that will be traded, it can most of the stocks are enterprise oriented. only some are retail sales oriented and the retail sales we trade are survivors, big cap, not the little guys. look, if you own a private company, i think you're really hurting, but these big guys, they have a lot of access to credit, and i think that they'll do fine. even, look, darden came out today, olive garden, numbers weren't what we wanted, but i wouldn't be surprised if stocks are up by the end of the day chipotle all time high yesterday. there's enough publicly traded companies that make us look good we know, joe, the places we go and eat locally, wow, i don't know, you have to help them out. and some that we raised capital for them for heaven's sake what are they going to do? >> yeah, i can spend five minutes picking things up i know that even with all the negative news

here we can at least help that way, right, jim, get some takeout, and things like that. >> have to have to do local these ads about local, yes, because those people are hand to mouth, companies we don't want to go under. that's why it is not because of olive garden, as much as i like it, the one on 22 is not bad >> yeah. you think this deal gets done if nobody goes home >> yes >> really? >> yes and then i think there may be a second deal for the -- for once president-elect biden comes in that will help the states. i don't think they can risk -- and no party can risk this going forward on this. those numbers yesterday were really bad and when i'm listening to all the vaccine stuff this week, tonight, today, you have unbelievable stuff but to me the bridge to when everybody gets it just seems to get longer and longer. i was hoping that dr. gottlieb would say i can't believe how many people this weekend will be

inoculated instead, i felt from meg and dr. gottlieb, it is not perfect. and meaning that, i don't know when you and i will get vaccinated. >> i know. i know we got -- we got to make it to that, though, jim. >> we got to stay out of trouble. and we don't know how to stay out of trouble. >> i got a pretty good idea, but you just -- i can't -- i was saying that yesterday, it is not about me it not about us, but you start thinking, god, i waited this long, just my luck, you know, to get witwo weeks before, it is, like, you know, keep up the guard, keep up -- >> it is hard. i went to a party last week, two people came in that i didn't know at the end, lisa, said, get out of here. i said, why? she said, those are people we don't know even people you know could have it, but -- >> my buddy andrew is here today. i'm trying to figure out, i'm not going to wait around after

the show, sorkin i would like to give you a fist bump i'm out of here. i'm out of here. i don't know where you've been. >> is andrew out because david took over his place? andrew, are you like at airbnb >> no. we lost electricity, 25 minutes before the show started this morning. >> that's a story. he's sticking to it. >> like blackout i was on the phone with joe at 6:00 a.m. this morning, literally sitting in a room completely black i rushed over here >> we're developing country, right, at least in california feels like it. developing but not developed maybe new york is like that. con ed, give them a little shoutout there is it their fault? >> i'll wave to you, andrew, when i leave don't try to get too -- don't get close to me. >> elbow bump, come on. >> i don't think so. >> no, nothing >> no. >> nothing at all. >> i haven't seen you in six months. >> this is what we mean about staying vigilant and staying

strong >> i have -- hold on, i got my n 95 here. i'll wear my n 95. >> i'll see your n 95 and raise you my n 95. >> that protects you but not me. >> every man for himself. >> i protect you from me and everybody. >> how about if we just stay away from each other better than this right? >> i don't want you to -- this is no offense, andrew if i'm not here, when you come down from up there. >> i will be offended. >> do you have a fire pit in your apartment like i have in my house? >> yeah, outside not in the city, but -- >> fire pit. >> yes, i do >> i'm smiling, can you tell >> this is not an n 95. >> look out. what is that >> it is a cnbc one. maybe we can do it this way. >> okay. >> all right, jim, thanks.

we'll see you in just -- in -- you got one too. you had one on up next, the s&p 500 adding tesla after today's market close. what that means for the stock.

welcome back to "squawk box. tesla into the s&p at the close of trading today the largest rebalancing in the history of that index. stock soaring this year. because of its sheer size, indexers will need to buy roughly $80 billion worth of tesla stock. joining us is dan ives, managing director at web bush securities. the big question from a technical perspective, dan, is where you think tesla stock goes from here as a result of the buying that is going to happen or is it technically already built in >> yeah, i still think it has fuel in the engine here. i think we could be looking at 7 handle as we go into next week and i think fundamentally you take a step back, this is really a defining chapter in the tesla success story, especially on the profitability focus, that continues to be the major differentiator for musk, especially with tesla and the demand you're seeing on the ev

side >> so, just -- on what sort of numbers basis would you get to your $700 price? >> i think $700 is near term ultimately a thousand dollars. it is only -- right now it is 3% of demand is ev. 6% by year end you could be looking as you look out next four or five years, $10, $15 of earnings power that's the key you're seeing the demand as well as you're seeing the profitability and i think investors right now continue to view tesla as the core way to play ev. i view this as a trillion dollar market the next decade, and that's why i think they continue to grow into their valuation, thousand dollars, as they execute. i they will wink we'll see that >> is that an argument it is an auto company and it is going to make the numbers as an auto company or will make the numbers as an auto company plus, plus something else >> great point

i never viewed it as an auto company. maybe disruptive technology name in terms of that's the multiple. i think you're seeing that more across ev because of what they're doing. they built out the industry, in terms of ev and right now we're still seeing the early days of demand, not just in the u.s., but especially in china, which continues to be the hearts and lungs of the tesla bull story. >> dan, got to keep it quick, we want to thank you on this friday for joining us we appreciate it very, very much >> thank you. >> thank you, dan. we'll show you futures real quick and then, joe, i got to tell you something, let's show you futures real quick, where we are right this second before the market opens, half an hour, of course, before that open you're looking at the dow opening up 38 points, nasdaq off 22 points, s&p up 100. can i come over to your place after the show is over, i

justify got an just got an email saying con ed and the electrician are at the building to assess it and the outage is continuing, it has not been fixed at my building. i won't have power today if i wore my mask, could i come over >> we don't have the normal director i moved out of the shot and i wanted them to take an empty chair, but that's -- okay, we got to go. come over. you are welcome. >> okay, thank you i need internet. >> we got to go. >> i'll see you later. join us on monday. have a great weekend, everybody. "squawk on the street" begins right now. no way no way he's letting him come over good amorning and welcome to "squawk on the street. i'm david faber with jim cramer. we're going to have a good morning, aren't we, jim? carl has the morning off look at futures as we get ready for the open a half hour from now. mixed picture, not doing too much road map this mornin