>> the dr. j >> scott, i really like groupon. a lot of call activity today and i bought it. >> and my new nickname for weiss, the friendly foil do you like that better? >> the friendly foil >> i like them all bring them on. look, porsche usually trades at a 1 to 1 correlation with volkswagen it's been lagging the last couple months. it will catch up to volkswagen it's going higher. >> good stuff. thanks, everybody. "the exchange" starts now. thank you, scott hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans and here's what's ahead on "the exchange. the great unemployment debate. states ended the extra $300 a week others didn't. so what's happened to the workforce since then we have the latest data. plus the man who's helping to bring bitcoin to el salvador. and he's trying to help put currency back into cryptocurrency by making payments easier and cheaper. we speak to jock mallers getting into reddit, giving up on snap and throwing in the towel on shorting tesla.

mouthful there we begin with the markets. christina is here with those numbers. hi, christina. >> hello so we are seeing equities mixed across the board but this comes once again as the dow and s&p 500 closed at record highs yesterday. the number we're looking at for the s&p 500 is 4474. the hotter, though, than expected producer price index showed u.s. wholesale prices rose sharply in july for the sixth straight month 5.4% but core inflation you take out food and energy, is up only 0.3% so it's still leaving questions about this inflation cresting or not. energy worst performer today this after the international energy agency warned the spread of the delta variant could slow the global oil demand. so i threw up some popular etfs across the board just so you could see how all of them are doing. and now for some individual movers and shakers open door, digital platform for residential real estate, soaring today 18%. and that's after reporting better than expected revenue on this one specifically for the wall street bet guys because

they asked about it, this darling clover health also soaring today. it was the second most mentioned stock on reddit yesterday. there was a lot of unusual option activity on wednesday before the health insurance provider reported revenue gains. you can see share price up 10% and last but not least the dating app where women make the first move bumble saw its paying users jump 20% from a year earlier, and it doesn't always have to be about love bumble bff for friends and bumble biz for business contacts will remain a key focus heading into the future. kelly. >> love it kristina, thank you. kristina partsinovolous. our next guest is not falling into the trap monitoring every word from the fed or worrying about bond yields or even tech multiples. he says the best way to pick your next investment should push that to the side and look at key company metrics. with me is david bonson the chief investment officer at the bonson group it's great to have you back. so drum roll, please, what do you think is the most important thing for investors to focus on these days >> well, i'm a big stickler for

dividend growth. and i think that free cash flow generation from which comes the growing sustainable dividends that we love to see is itself the mark of a great healthy company. so you kind of get two things at once you get the actual benefit of the dividends into your account, either reinvesting for compounding, accumulation, or if you're an income-opera yented investor actually getting about three times the cash flow you can get from the treasury market or the s&p 500 but you're getting it all from what i believe are higher-quality companies, better balance sheets and more stable business models. >> do you think dividend stocks, david, tend to benefit from this kind of stock screen selection, in other words, that people tend to want to own them because of the yield or are they generally not in favor because they're not the super high flyers, the faang stocks, the trendy stocks of the

day? >> there's definitely no question that dividend growth was less in favor relative to faang over those four or five years that faang went to stratospheric valuations but i think that over time when you go back to like let's say 1990, 30 years, the dividend growers isolated far outperformed the overall market. so the idea that people have to give up performance to go this route i think is misguided but it is true in certain quarters or even certain years. but fundamentally we think you get better companies and the reason why is you avoid a lot of the big things that go wrong we can focus on the success stories in high growth, high tech but there's plenty of failures too. and you get to avoid a lot of those. >> one more question before i ask you for some specific names here, but is it getting harder to find these dividend stocks because stock buybacks have become such a huge way for companies to sort of reinvest cash >> yes the one thing i would say is i don't believe a lot of companies doing high stock buybacks are e.

investing the cash think the bulk of it is going just to replace the stock they gave away in employee compensation so i think stock buybacks are largely driven by executive compensation from options and restricted stock but there's definitely no question, especially in the technology suite, that a lot of companies prefer stock buybacks to -- or no capital return at all to dividends however, if you look at the higher-quality companies and you look at the more mature technology companies, you have not gotten the price return out of cisco, intel, ibm but they got to a point where their cash flow generation was so high and the opportunities to go reinvest the cash so low they became great dividend payers microsoft famously did it right after the time of the dividend tax cut about 15 years ago so we thinkar there plenty of opportunities but we have to go screen for them and more importantly, kelly, we have to continue screening because we don't trust them to keep the dividend going, it's our job to monitor it to make sure that that dividend growth is

sustainable. >> so you mentioned ibm and chevron i believe. but h & r block, mid-stream energy also on that list for investors who listen to this, though, i guess this is sort of how you make the point to work with your firm but if they say wait a minute-i want to be able to kind of pick something and not have to overly monitor it i get the sense that most people who want steady dividend income are not really wanting to have to go through and rescreen for the stuff all the time and figure out how much they should turn over their portfolios >> yeah. i actually don't like coming on tv to talk my book so you're kind of forcing me to because i agree. it isn't something that can be done i think passively it's not something that is easily indexed there are passive ways to go about doing it, but you still end up with at&t and general electric and other names that end up cutting their it dividend and so for us that's heresy. we don't believe in it but i do believe it requires professional management. i'm just not saying that to talk my book. it's sort of part of the

philosophy of dividend growth. >> or maybe why it hasn't been more popular for people to do it themselves yeah, for sure david, thanks so much for your time today we appreciate it david bahnsen with the bahnsen group. yesterday we had that big auction of 10-year treasuries. today it's the 30-year up for auction. let's get over to rick santelli who's standing by with the results. rick >> different day, completely different demand this particular auction, 27 billion 30-year bonds, the longest maturity on the treasury coupon curve the yield at the dutch auction 2.04 the one issued market was trading about a basis point and a half he about low that higher yield, lower price. we never like a lower price at a dutch auction. so we gave it a d-plus dog plus it really wasn't very good every metric was below 10 auction average. the pricing was messy. and i guess the moral to the story is that we had wholesaler ppi, producer price inflation, today on the hot side, in many ways hotter than cpi yesterday

outside the year over year but in the end it's about what investors think is coming. they went from thinking rates were too high and inflation would be at bay to 1.12% and a 10-year or well below 2% in the 30-year was just too low and i think the fact that no one really showed up for this one does show there is someplace nervousness out there after these inflation numbers. kelly, back to you >> doesn't it seem inefficient, though, that yesterday you have a softer than expected cpi and probably the biggest demand for 10-year treasuries that we can remember today you have a little bit hotter ppi and so no one shows up for the 30-year it's crazy if they had just waited a couple of days you would have had a completely different outcome >> well, you can wait a couple of days, completely avoid all actions and just trade in the secondary market but i think yesterday was unique i know technicals to some seem like voodoo but trust me, it's a big deal and i think yesterday the way the market played, how aggressive it went to the upside, it was a fade on the

10-year. they decided it had gone too far too fast today not so sure because it was a bit sticky remember, we traded under 130 yesterday and then the market came roaring back expecting a hotter ppi and it was correct. >> all right rick, thank you. we appreciate it rick santelli. meanwhile, jobless claims dropped for the third week in a row as the debate about boosted benefits and their impact on the worker shortage continues. now some state have already seen those extra benefits expire. what are we learning about what could happen across the country as a whole when these benefits are supposed to sunset after labor day? steve liesman is here with some new data for us. steve? >> yeah, kelly, interesting stuff here data from two hr software companies, ukg and home base they track the job markets wall street tracks them. it shows that ending the $300 extended unemployment benefits has had no measurable effect on job growth in fact, the states that kept the benefits in place showed better job growth in july. home base reported a strong

2 1/2% increase in hours worked and a 2.3% increase in employees for july for those states that kept the benefits. the 26 states that eliminated it, they saw declines in both categories over at ukg dave gilbertson writes, "states continuing the additional benefit grew workforce activity in july two times faster than states that stopped the benefit. okay, what's going on here well, one explanation, states that kept the benefit already had stronger growth for most of 2021 as they bounced back from bigger job losses. still, they maintained that edge and put more people to work even while keeping the benefit in place. on the other side, though, mcdonald's ceo chris kampinsky said in the company's earnings call that they had seen an increase in applications from states that ended the benefit. so that can be boosting job search but the current data do back up the idea, kelly, the decision to take a job amid a pandemic that just won't quit, both a little more complicated than just a $300 check >> and the timing, steve, of the expiration now coming at the

same time that people are supposed to be back at school, which maybe resolves a major childcare issue keeping people on the sidelines, could make it either much easier or maybe more complicated to figure out the impact this time around. so what are the factors that could be going into this or explaining the difference in outcome? >> i think you hit a big one right there. the childcare issue is a big one. not only is it not available, say, for example, in the schools but because we have a labor shortage it's hard to find somebody to take care of the kids that's one aspect of it. health concerns are another. in terms of the broader labor shortage we've had a decline of immigration. we've had a whole bunch of people retire. nobody is saying a $300 check is not a factor it's certainly a factor. but it's just one of the factors. the best analysis i've seen, kelly, says it's a combination of reasons why people are choosing not to work right at this time. and you're right, we'll get more clarity with the august data and then in september when the benefits expire nationwide >> yeah. it could be a big couple of months although again, now it may be delayed because of delta steve, we appreciate it as always steve liesman with the latest

numbers for us coming up, the elan of elon. carson block padding his first investment letter with brute honesty about his multiyear bet against tesla and yez y. he's finally exited it. but first imagine launching an app that becomes so popular that the president of a central american company asks you for your help to transform the nation's economy up next we'll speak with the founder and ceo of strike about using crypto for everyday payments we'll be back in a moment. ♪all by yourself.♪ you look a little lost. i can't find my hotel. oh. oh! ♪♪ this is not normal. no. ♪♪ so? ♪♪

right? go with us and find millions of flexible options, all in our app. expedia. it matters who you travel with.

and there you have it- expedia. woah. wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. wow. -big deal! ...we get unlimited for just 30 bucks. sweet, i get that too and mine has 5g included. that's cool, but ours save us serious clam-aroonies. relax people, my wireless is crushing it.

that's because you all have xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one upping itself. welcome back to "the exchange." after a steep downturn bitcoin is starting to make it way back. up 34% in the past month around $44,000 right now not only that but this week coinbase said its transactions continue to grow as its own share price recovers and amc just announced it will accept bitcoin as payment but critics say bitcoin still faces a lot of hurdles and our next guest is betting on new innovations in the sector to help it hit its next big mile stoep which includes moving money around faster and easier and paying bills a lot more cheaply. jack mallers, ceo of strike. it's great to have you welcome. >> yo, kelly, how are we thanks for having me >> listen, i actually want to start on one of the core points of confusion around bitcoin and amc's announcement this week

in the u.s. this is still treated as property. it doesn't really make sense to pay for anything with bitcoin, even if companies let you. you have to pay tax on it. right? so to me do you see a realistic vision in the near term where the u.s. is going to change the way it treats cryptocurrency because otherwise even with the lightning network what's the point? how much are people realistically going to be transacting? >> you know, kelly, i agree. i think there needs to be a conceptual division between bitcoin the asset, this is this hard money fixed supply commodity like asset, and bitcoin the network. there is a monetary network that allows bitcoin to do things like payment standards, receiving standards, clearing cash finality and physical instrument clearance and that is innovative in its own right and we can use that as an infrastructure piece similar to the visa monetary network or the paypal monetary network but instead use the bitcoin monetary network under the hood to do everything cheaper, better, faster. and so at strike we allow you to

use this infrastructure rail with your chase checking account or your visa debit card without making you use and spend bitcoin the asset or the property. so i think that division and that mental model's going to be really helpful and we're going to see a lot of disruption with bitcoin the monetary network >> i want to stay on the regulatory theme for just another moment because we've seen obviously some big moves in congress this week do you have concerns about what's in the infrastructure bill >> no. we have a lot of thoughts but my high-level thoughts are human beings are tool builders innovation is inherent in us az a species and it's what separates us from other primates any country positioning against innovation is not good and is against the best interest of humanity and that's against the very principles america was built on and so i think bitcoin transcends race, gender, culture, countries, borders. and it really allows us to unite. i think the efforts that is combined by all different types of parties and walks of life to

get this right is inspiring and we will get this right not because we want to but because we have to >> and some argue that maybe there's even more of an opportunity now because of the way china has cracked down on bitcoin mining you know that sort of intellectual capital's looking for somewhere to go. tell me about the strike app and what differentiates it from a lot of the other payment and wallet apps. i he no you guys have had some news lately about maybe helping get people off the app more easily i know you're trying to do lower fees even for purchasing or transacting bitcoin than rivals like coinbase. where is this going and what's the use case for people who may not have experienced it yet? >> yeah, so at strike we think that the bitcoin network is the world's best monetary network and it's not even close. the bitcoin network is one of the more powerful innovations for money as a technology in human history. so similar to the paypal network or the visa network or the square monetary network we operate on top of the bitcoin monetary network we are a native neobank like a chime, like a venmo like a cash

app but under the head we use bitcoin, it allows us to do everything cheaper, faster, more global and better. and so you're talking about a network that can achieve bearer instrument cash finality anywhere in the world 24/7, 365. it is the most inclusive monetary network of all time and so that's where our innovation lies. and so with us rolling out products like being the cheapest place in america to buy bitcoin we are taking a direct shot at those that are wasting resources on supporting other alt coins because we think the true innovation is a global unified singular open standard payment standard for the world and that's where we spend our time and resources >> let me ask you one stable coin question before i want to ask you about sort of what's the latest in el salvador. on the stable coin front when you guys were getting off the ground whether it was there or elsewhere you had to use tether. can you explain why stable coins are so important to bitcoin, the lightning network, things that happen in that monetary universe and even with the latest revelations from usdc about how

much it's backed one for one, what is the need in what does the bitcoin community need in terms of some kind of digital coin can the fed provide it or is this kind of a major headwind ultimately to kind of crypto going more mainstream >> yeah, so here's our take at strike and it may be unique it may be different. but this is where we sit is that we're building a product that can be used by all 8 billion people that's because the bitcoin monetary network is the most inclusive network of all time when it comes to money so we're building products not only for the developed world, not only for those in chicago and new york, but we're building for those in third world countries and developing counsel. these people don't have bank accounts they don't have access to any monetary network and so how can we give them the chase checking account, the visa debit card we need some form of cash collateral in a stable coin in this particular instance allowed us to deliver that beautiful experience of using this monetary infrastructure as rails

under the hood in exposing them to a dollar-like balance so we used it to optimize for the experience particular for those in the developing world who don't have access to maybe the chase checking account that i do >> so a necessary evil >> i think it was a necessary solution there's no reason to dub anything good or evil. we optimize to build the best experience for our consumers we would love to innovate and continue to improve on that. but at the time that was what we deemed best. >> understood. so let's talk about el salvador for a moment because we are about a month away from its implementation of bitcoin as another form of legal tender in the country along with the u.s. dollar people have had a chance now to kind of hear the full sort of wild story about how that came to be and your relationship down there and the announcement that kind of shocked the world at the bitcoin miami conference what do you say to the critics, jack, who insist that el salvador is using you and strike and bitcoin to pursue its own political ends, which are, you

know, not the high fa looutin ones you've been describing? >> what do you want me to say, kelly? everyone has an opinion, and i care about none of them. here's the reality how about someone else try and be the sitting president of a central american country like el salvador how do you deal with the absolute asinine monetary expansion that's happening at central banks right now and how do you deal with the fact that over 70% of your citizens don't have financial access, don't have basic human freedoms and cannot live a high quality of life we as human beings designed the perfect money. a money that has a fixed supply, a known issuance, and can be defendant against the macro environment we're in today we designed a monetary network that's open, inclusive to all, only requires a mobile phone and an internet connection and gives the unbanked access to a monetary network that by the way is the best we've seen in human history. to me i question those that

question that. it is an absolute no-brainer and it doesn't come to me as a surprise i think what el salvador is nothing is tremendously brave and they're the first of many. these are two fundamental problems that the human species has faced with money money is the most viral product of of all time, one of the most shared products in human history. it's akin to water in living a high quality of life, and he's giving his citizens hope and i don't see any problem with that and those that have a problem with that i seriously question their motives and principles >> well, maybe we'll see you down in bitcoin beach as this all goes into place. >> you will. >> jack, thanks so much for joining us today and going over a lot of these issues. we hope to check in again soon >> awesome thanks for having me appreciate it. >> jack mallers is the ceo of zaptech and strike and coming up, a conversation on the national student debt crisis with president biden extending the freeze on student loans for what they say is a final time, how are americans going to pay back the trillion and a half dollars they owe we'll discuss that right after this

this may look like a regular movie night. but if you're a kid with diabetes, it's more. it's the simple act of enjoying time with friends, knowing you understand your glucose levels. ♪♪ what happens when we welcome change? we can transform our workforce overnight

out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change. (vo) conventional thinking doesn't disrupt the status quo. which is why t-mobile for business

uses unconventional thinking to help your business realize new possibilities. only one 5g partner offers unmatched network, support, and value-without any trade offs. ♪ payday, payday♪ ♪ ♪ monday, payday♪ ♪ tuesday, payday♪ ♪ wednesday, payday♪ ♪ thursday, payday♪ ♪ friday, payday♪ ♪ saturday, payday♪ ♪ sunday, payday♪ ♪ ♪ payday, payday♪ ♪ ♪payday♪ welcome back to "the expect," everybody let's get a quick check on markets which are well off the session lows the dow is down 142, but only down 46. the s&p positive by four the nasdaq up by eight it's turned green as we moved through the session here let's get to rahel solomon for a cnbc news update >> hello, everyone here's what's happening at this hour new york city mayor bill de blasio saying that outgoing governor andrew cuomo should face "further accountability"

for sexual harassment charges and reporting of nursing home deaths early in the pandemic de blasio also questioning why cuomo is waiting to resign in two weeks. >> i think people should keep a very close eye on him after everything he's done and i don't know why it needs to be 12 days honestly. i think we're all ready to move on and i think the quicker we can move on the better at this point. a new set of questions how clean hydrogen fuel really is lead author telling "the new york times" that hydrogen fuels can worsen climate change, saying that because much of it is produced with natural gas it creates substantial amounts of carbon dioxide in the process. and in chicago officials have found 203 cases of covid connected to the big lollapalooza music festival. with no hospitalizations or deaths reported yet. some 385,000 people attended the four-day event health officials say that the number of cases is not a surprise and they do not expect it to become a superspreader event. on the news, holding big

public events safely and the new efforts to get covid shots to holdouts, tonight at 7:00 p.m. erin but kelly, that's quite the headline there, that lollapalooza was apparently not a superspreader event because of course there was so much concern about the city continuing to hold it in the midst of delta and rising cases >> i think you're just trying to get there, rahel that's what i'm detecting, is wishing you were out there >> i've been to lollapalooza and it is a great festival you caught me. >> rahel, thank you very much. we'll see you next hour. rahel solomon. up next reddit's raise, blocked on tesla and snap is sapped. it's all coming up on rad-re inusa me jt montpithis is andy, my schwb financial consultant. here's andy listening to my goals and making plans. this is us talking tax-smart investing, managing risk, and all the ways schwab can help me invest. this is andy reminding me how i can keep my investing costs low and that there's no fee to work with him. here's me learning about schwab's satisfaction guarantee. accountability, i like it. so, yeah.

andy and i made a good plan. find your own andy at schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. this isn't just a walk up the stairs. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. find your own andy at schwab. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ new customers get our best deals on all smartphones. that's right. but what if i'm already a customer? oh, no problem. hey, cam...? ah, same deal! yeah, it's kind of our thing. huh, that's a great deal... what if i'm new to at&t? cam, can you...? hey... but what about for existing customers? same deal. it's the same deal. is he ok?

it's not complicated. with at&t, everyone can ace back to school with our best deals on every smartphone - like the samsung galaxy z fold3 5g.

welcome back, everybody. let's catch you up on a few stories that should also be on your radar it's time for rapid-fire and here to break down the headlines with me deirdre bosa, cnbc.com editor stove kovac larry's in the bedroom i think he said. and eli patel of the verge welcome, everybody first up this is possibly my favorite story today reddit is raising a new round of funding led by fidelity. they're looking to eventually go public the social media platform raised $410 million they said they weren't even looking for the capital.

the valuation is now over $10 billion up from 6 a few months ago in an interview with the "new york times" reddit's co-founder and ceo steve huffman said as i just mentioned fidelity made us an offer we couldn't refuse, we are still planning on going public but we don't have a firm timeline there yet. all good companies should go public when they can but meli, if reddit were public wouldn't this be the ultimate reddit army stock? right? wouldn't users of the platform itself bid this thing up to like very enjoyable levels i would have to imagine. >> yeah. i mean, the reddit stock army keeps betting op things it likes or things it wants to mess with and they certainly love messing with reddit. i think the big question for reddit is they keep taking all this money they keeping a saying they're going to invest it in the product. the reddit product has looked the same forever i can't tell you one improvement they've made to it what are they using this money for? >> no, but steve, i'm glad it doesn't look any different there's something reassuringly familiar about just the plain text and all of that but i guess my point is if i'm fidelity, steve, i'm thinking sure, i'll bid your value up to

10 billion, you're going to take this thing public and it could be worth -- do fundamentals even matter >> saw this with robinhood too remember our colleague andrew sorkin asked the ceo of robinhood, are you at risk of becoming a meme stock yourself and i can't even imagine a more meta meme stock than reddit going completely viral and just juicing itself up. i mean, a 10 billion valuation right now sounds quaint if and when that happens for sure scl deirdre, i'll give you the last word. >> nilay, the whole point is for it to look the same, right what is the key part of a meme stock, is sort of a throwback. and reddit hasn't changed since the '90s or something. i'm not sure but i agree with you. it doesn't look any different than it has ever since i started using it kelly, what was interesting to me, sign of the times. fidelity gave them an offer that they couldn't refuse, an institutional investor i mean, i expected this from softbank or tiger global but fidelity that's interesting and perhaps a sign of how fierce

competition is to invest in these hot start-ups and perhaps how frothy the market is >> yeah, again, i'm going out on limb here but i almost wonder if institutions are saying we're trying to identify the next meme stock ahead of time to benefit from that liquidity. and reddit would seem such an obvious one. but let's move along and talk -- >> here's my free revenue idea for reddit they should just start charging buzzfeed for access to the comments every third buzzfeed article is just a reddit roundup. just start charging them the money. >> b to b, always the best way to go. perhaps the next meme stock s. is tesla today carson blocks of bets against it are gone. the short seller didn't mince words criticizing musk in his first shareholder letter which dealbook saw he said his bets against the carmaker it's over they've been quote sent to heaven nilay, i'll sort of ask for your take on this one as well because what he's basically acknowledging here with tesla, and this is very similar to what we were discussing, is the fundamentals really don't matter, this is kind of always

a -- >> yeah, between the amount of valuation, between the amount of capital they have, between the absolute loyalty of not only tesla fans but elon musk fans they're in a stable position because you can't knock the confidence down. you can't say well, they're not selling as many cars, ford and jeep and whoever else are rolling out cars, they're selling really well. jeep actually just raised the price of its hybrid wrangler because it's selling sol wp ford is selling lots of mustang mach-es. is that going to knock one tesla buyer of o'their tesla probably not i think that's going to be the case with tesla even as the competition really comes and we find out how valuable their incredible first mover advantage really is. >> and it's also, steve, worth reminding that this stock before presplit was under $200 not that long ago it completely levitated but it's stayed up there and i can only imagine how much that's caused short sellers in terms of losses >> yeah. the shorts are eating it right

now. of course. and they're taking a bath in those calls and we've heard more about that today the elan of elon, as we heard. but that's the thing that's also the risk, isn't it, when so much is tied to the personality and whims of one guy who, you know, is on "saturday night live," who is posting doge memes and so forth obviously his behavior has had zero impact on that. but what happens if he decides to divert his energy elsewhere on the last earnings call last week he said i'm not going to do these earnings calls anymore, i have other stuff, more important things to focus on what happens if he pulls a bezos and decides i'd rather go to space than work on the next tesla model? that becomes the risk, right >> so deirdre, i'll have you close this one out but i completely, completely agree. i guess i'd put it slightly differently from steve which is musk has proven dpreemly effective. as he said in that deposition when he was in that lawsuit a short time ago, his own tweets lower the company's advertising costs because they -- or even selling costs because they serve as marketing, they don't have to

advertise as much. so totally to steve's point if musk ever had to step away from tesla a little bit more, yeah, i think they lose a benefit as a result >> for some of all the great companies, though, what would happen if they stepped away? remember when steve jobs passed away, everyone thought that tim cook wouldn't do as good a job so there's always that risk. but kelly, i was kind of laughing at that interview as well because carson block is a character as well. he sort of was eating humble pie but then he kept talking about how elon musk was a bad person and the only reason tesla is here is because of its capital base and i just don't think that that's entirely fair when you talk about tesla being the o.g. meme stock it has actually grown its business with that capital and certainly the jury is still out for other meme stocks like amc. gamestop even robinhood if they can do what elon musk has done with the capital that he's been able to raise, then fine i think andrew ross sorkin calls it manifest destiny. but i think elon musk has

fulfilled that so far. >> manifest destiny of the meme stocks before we go i want to get your two cents on what's going on at snapchat where people are fleeing the platform for youtube and tiktok as they say money is drying up. creators have complained that a million dollar a day payout snapchat promised no longer exists and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to who's getting paid and how much. snap shares are down about 1 1/2% today still up 50 erase this year. deirdre, i know you guys spoke about this this morning. what are your conclusions? >> well, if i had a tiny violin i might play it. i do feel for these creators who are used to getting more money but the reason that facebook and youtube and some of the other platforms, new platforms have proliferated and are putting the focus on creator monetization, i think goes back to snap leading the way and paying out reasonable high fees to creators at the beginning that has really paved the way for others to do so for more competition. so the idea that it's pulling back shouldn't be unreasonable i think that creators have to find other platforms, other ways to monetize the ecosystem as a

whole has become a lot bigger, and for a company like facebook it's kind of become existential. how do they pay their creators >> sure. nilay, quick last word on this >> well, if you're a creator and you think that youtube and facebook and instagram aren't going to be unpredictable and mess with your money more than snap, like you've got a rude wake-up call coming ahead of you. i'd also say the demise of snap is often predicted but it just keeps doing better and better. >> yes i have to admit. the stock performance this year and the way that it's still entrenched with a lot of the younger demographic has been so impressive million-dollar payouts or not. guys, thank you all today. we appreciate it our best to larry, steve deirdre bosa, steve kovach and nilay patel. u.s. households are carrying $15 trillion worth of debt more than 10% of that is student loans. and while those payments are on hold right now president biden says this is the last moratorium so what's going to happen to this money can it be paid back? and how do we get to a better system for paying for college? that's next on xx xx "the exchange.

welcome back president biden just extended the moratorium op student loan payments for a final time until january. he calls the freeze a critical lifeline to give you an idea of just how critical, take a look at these numbers. student loan debt has surged to over $1.6 trillion and only 2/3 of that is expected to be paid back that leaves taxpayers on the hook for around $500 billion of it, which is almost the amount of subprime mortgage debt during the housing crash. and this crisis is the focus of a new book "the debt trap: how student loans became a national catastrophe. joining me now is the author, "wall street journal" reporter josh mitchell. josh, it's great to have you this is one of those issues that we all sort of wake up every day and know it's there and know it's not going away but in a way the pandemic had an opening to solve it we've been throwing tons of of money everywhere do you think we've done anything to solve it or have we made the problem even potentially worse >> no. even prior to the pandemic, when the economy was pretty strong, about 1 in 5 people were behind

on their student loans so right now when the pandemic is over unemployment is still pretty high. it's still higher than it was before the pandemic. so we can't kid ourselves into thinking that more people are going to be better with their student loan pams after this >> right now, i thought i just saw the other day that they're moving toward -- maybe there's a bill in congress somewhere that would allow people to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy. what do you think the implications would be if that step were finally taken? because now as everybody knows it's one of the only things you really can't discharge >> sure. it's not impabossible to discharge. it's very hard to. this would help with a lot of families there are a lot of people that have gotten into debt they can't repay and interest is accruing on these loans for a lot of people the balance is growing because they can't repay it so loosening bankruptcy laws would help those families. it would not address this issue, though, that credit in this market is very free and the student loan program meaning if you forgive student

debt now or aallow more people to declare bankruptcy it will help those people but what about next year's students the government is still giving families essentially a blank check, which means with the press of a computer key they can still get tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt >> yeah, it's predatory. if this same behavior were applied to people who shouldn't be taking on debt in the private space, they would be hauled before congress or have to explain themselves why they would trap people with debt they knew they couldn't pay back, but nothing happens in this cech so i guess -- and one of the things i loved about the article that i've seen from the book is it explains how we got into this mess, how at first congress was just kind of backing the debt in the early '80s and then they got too involved and they kind of had to dial that back and then all of a sudden the treasury was the only game in town. so how do we keep college from costing $150,000 a year? >> so before the student loan program came into existence a lot of schools actually used their own funds to make loans to students and default rates were low

and there's a very simple reason why. when schools suffer consequences for charging too much and getting students into too much debt, they're less likely to charge so much in other words, if schools know that students are bound to default on those loans and that schools will be on the hook for that money, they're less likely to get them into unrepayable debt it was only when the student loan program put taxpayers on the hook for these loans that default rates really started to rise pretty quickly. and i think members of both parties seem to agree on this concept. republicans focus on non-profit colleges the democrats focus on for-profit colleges. but they both broadly agree that schools if they want to reform the program need to suffer more consequences for charging such high prices and if you'll require schools to put up some of their own money instead of simply relying on taxpayers to make these loans there's evidence to show you can rein in these prices >> and there is maybe a way out, a path forward could be quite some time before we get there maybe a crisis itself will have

to sort of be the catalyst here. josh, thanks so much for your reporting and for bringing it to us it's good to see you >> sure. thank you. >> josh mitchell's new book is "the debt trap." he works for the "wall street journal. shares of golden nugget online gaming are up nearly 60 thers this week as the company became the latest takeover target in sports betting consolidation. we'll introduce you to a company that could be the next one, right after this meanwhile, lumber is going under. the rally is a distant memory and we're at nine-month lows is the bottom finally in stay tuned i'm evie's best camper badge. but even i'm not as memorable as eating turkey hill chocolate chip cookie dough creamy premium ice cream and chasing fireflies. don't worry about me. i'm fine. you can't beat turkey hill memories. millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i started medhaul. citi launched the impact fund

to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything i've got to my company, and my community. i got you. for the love of people. for the love of community. for the love of progress. citi.

every single day, we're all getting a little bit better. we're better cooks... better neighbors... hi. i've got this until you get back. better parents... and better friends. no! no!

that's why comcast works around the clock constantly improving america's largest gig-speed broadband network. and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we're building a better network every single day. . welcome back it's been a busy week of deals in the sports gamble space, and britain's entain could be next in reporting results this morning said that soccer's euro 2020 was biggest event in its history. contessa brewer is here with more contessa >> entain has a lot to crow about here the uk listed global gaming company is partners with mgm resorts in the sports betting igaming platform bet mgm and it has just taken over as the number two market leader in the united states. now, entain, as you mentioned, is probably best known as the

owner of ladbroekz in europe but it's already operating in 27 markets around the globe and has its sights set on 50 more. its new ceo has been on the job for only six months, but she has some big plans for how to capture a quarter of what she anticipates will be a $160 billion total addressable market announcing today that entain is acquiring unicorn esports. >> we actually believe that we can build a global scalable platform is fully complian and taking care of all the different areas of player-protected responsible game and interacting with repor regulators in terms of how we build this for the future. there is a hugely exciting opportunity for us because that platform doesn't exist today we believe we can have a first mover platform here for esports fans

>> they say they can bring millions of esports viewers on board. they announced a significant cost savings initiative and of course the new outreach on esports. so this i think might be somewhat of a gaming gauntlet thrown down by entain because mgm resorts made an $11 billion bid to buy its partner in january. the entain board scoffedand said, look, that offer is way too low. we're going to watch to see if mgm re-approaches with a bid closer to what entain thinks it's worth i reached out to mgm who wouldn't comment although the ceo says he values the partnership with entain but his m&a strategy doesn't rely on only one company >> is the space quickly consolidating? you have to imagine, if so, it will consolidate down to a couple of key players.

>> part of it is there is this big, mad -- i call it a gold rush, people are rushing because they hear there's gold in them thar hills what they think they can earn exceeds what the total market is you have to have a budget, a way to move forward, that's why you're seeing this consolidation happen some of these smaller players bring some tech to the table, some customer base to the table or something alluring. but they don't have the cash to play >> very good point maybe they're all hoping for numbers that add up to more than the whole market c contes contessa, we appreciate it very much, following all the latest for us up next, lumber prices down 70% in the last three months is this an example of transitory maw has supply caught up to dend we'll talk about it next on "the exchange." just to let me down ♪ ♪ and mess me around and then ♪

♪ worst of all ♪ ♪ you never call ♪ baby daydreaming again? but i love you still you know i'm driving, right? i do. ♪ buttercup baby just to let me down ♪ if you ride, you get it. geico motorcycle. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. ♪ when i was young ♪ no-no-no-no-no please please no. ♪ i never needed anyone. ♪ front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪ those days are done. ♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and find millions of flexible options. all in our app. expedia. it matters who you travel with. expedia. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

i'm dad's greatest sandcastle - and greatest memory! but even i'm not as memorable as eating turkey hill chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream with real cocoa. well, that's the way the sandcastle crumbles. you can't beat turkey hill memories. welcome back, everybody. lumber prices have been falling steadily for the past three months after a huge rally. and this morning new ppi data provided further evidence that inflation may be peaking but home prices haven't been

affected, at least not yet the homebuilder atf is setting near record highs. o.o. kyle little, it's great to speak with you again the last time we checked in with you, we thought the drop had run its course but it keeps going. does that surprise you >> thank you, kelly, for having me we kind of indicated that we were moving very low in this selloff back in early july when we talk about the market falling back another 28% we also stated that the prices would likely follow a more seasonal pattern this year which they have and we'll start to see a bottoming out two or three weeks from that time period. that's happened, we're steadily trading at the bottom 10 to 15% of that selloff. i think today we continue to see that support level starting to

begin. lumber in particular, specifically the derivative that's tracked, is only one piece of the pie there are so many other products involved, specifically forest products, that had to start following that trend they have done so and we're starting to see a much more renewed interest in purchasing fiber as we move later in the quarter. >> what is the right price of lumber we're looking at around 500, does that make economic sense to you? how have we had supply catch up to demand? >> i would say as far as the price structure goes, it makes absolute sense if we look back to pre-pandemic, the marketplace was in a very linear and vertical trend channel. and the selloff that we had in early '21 -- or late two-two in 2020, because of covid, went

back because of supply disruptions we went through an all time unprecedented high now we're looking at a search for equilibrium. we're looking at the support level that follows the trend pre-covid is very, very bullish and one that would be making a lot of us in the lumber world feeling much more comfortable in rebuilding inventory for the second half of this year with a projected demand that we are now seeing >> so in other words, you think that the price should still be structurally higher for a while. can you kind of tell us about the broader universe you mentioned other forest products is lumber in its own world because the run-up was so pronounced how does this compare with other inputs and sort of where you see demand from customers? >> what's interesting is, lumber is that one component, specifically the derivative. that went up 400% in the move prior to it and has come back

since. other products, 4x8 sheets that go into the wall or roof construction, they had price increases and now have come back to pre-pandemic levels, a much more normal range. when i say over the last three weeks we see renewed interest, that renewed interest is turning into actual orders and people placing business for the second half of this year. most notably, but the commercial segment, and into the multifamily unit seth. >> commercial and multifamily. so not so much in single family? >> i would say single family hasn't fallen off as much, it's a solid, pronounced demand but multifamily which really went away, when we talk about early may and into june when we said we should wait for lumber prices to move off, that segment took a break now over the last three to six weeks we've seen a substantial change in that, in those

customers and those developers' sentiment and they're booking projects here for the second half of this year and into 2022. >> that's fascinating. kyle, as always, thank you for letting us check in and see how business is going as we explain one of the most unusual parts of the market this year thank you, kyle. >> thank you so much >> kyle little that does it for "the exchange," everybody thanks for tuning in but don't go anywhere because "power lunch of the " starts right over there. that's right, kelly, here is what's ahead washington's new power player, the crypto industry, flexing its lobbying muscle. but there's one thing the industry needs to do to succeed in the u.s the author of a new op-ed piece tells us exactly what that is. and the new flight path, airfare spending is down, cancellations are off, and this sector is struggling a little bit. the former ceo of spirit airlines tells us wh