as "squawk box" begins right now. "squawk box" starts now. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. the markets are closed today in honor of former president jimmy carter. we do have some trading. major stock index futures are trading at this moment. they will close out 9:30 eastern time today. the treasury market will be open until 2 pm eastern time. we have energy and metal future had currencies and crypto that will trade as normal throughout the session. with u.s. equity trading closed for the day, cnbc was special coverage of the funeral for jimmy carter. in the meantime,

let's get a check on what's happening with u.s. equity futures. there are modest declines. dow futures are off by 26 s&p futures are down by about eight points this morning. the nasdaq, which has been down for two sessions in a row is indicated off another 30 points today. treasury yields have been the big story. that is what we follow yesterday. we watched the 10 year get up to 4.73%. that is the highest we have seen since april. this morning, they are lower. >> to the 20 year get over 5%? >> i don't know. >> i heard we had 5%. for we don't even have the 20 year on the board. >> i did hear have five, it could go like that and come back down. for there it is at 4.964.

to california, five people dead, more than 130,000 evacuation orders as wildfires rage and ravaged communities from the pacific coast to inland pasadena. the worst of the winds that spread the fire subsided yesterday afternoon. there have been more strong winds. those are expected today. the national weather serviceafft neighborhoods. celebrities like billy crystal, mandy moore, and paris hilton lost homes. president biden declared an emergency after arriving at a fire station for a briefing with the governor. president biden canceled trip to italy citing the need to help to monitor the response to the fires. by some estimates, there were

estimates yesterday that are growing at this point. i saw 52 billion and i saw 57 billion. the insurance companies are getting hit. is not just that, it is going to shut down los angeles. not just the schools and the personal devastation, but we are a business network. the long-term economic impact of this is real. >> it is just so sad watching these fires burning out of control. we watched this yesterday and it was 0% contained. >> it can happen at any time. i lived there. when i was there, there was a huge one of these. it was the flintridge fire. it was a long time ago. is like a flash fire. you are there one second. one little airborne flash comes and lands on your roof and you are done.

if the soap down your house and do you can, but what those wins can do, they get up to 160 to 170 miles per hour. for you have hurricane strength winds with no humidity. >> i was trying to think about just the impact to the city, long-term. some are comparing this to what what did happen during the 1980s writer strikes. every studio in town is shut down. most schools are shuttered in many places as a result of that, the parents cannot take their kids to school, which means they are not working. there is true devastation here in people's lives.

people's lives are changing in a material way as result of this. to i hope you saw james was speaking yesterday. he lost his house as part of this after just being able to rebuild. he says nothing compares to the loss of life happening here. just the devastation, a lot is being destroyed. for there was a subsequent interview with him on laura ingraham's. he was on for almost half an hour talking about what his neighbors did and a lot of different anecdotes. it was tough. >> we'll bring you a live report from altadena, california . we will talk more about the impact of this historic and very tragic moment in los angeles. u.s. soccer person shipping companies reached a labor deal to avert a strike. the agreement still needs to be ratified by port employers and tens of thousands of members of

the longshoremen's association. the two sides of the agreement protects current jobs and establishes a framework for technologies that will create more jobs. it is modernizing the east and gulf coast reports, a compromise on automation was key to the deal. is a full automation is off the table. port operators will have the ability to add technology to modernize the boards. the longshoremen have a guarantee of specific jobs that would be associated with specific equipment that is being added. we have been talking about this since it happened, and it was push up until now. it was one of the things coming up in the new year that we were worried about, with inflation. it is les moonves aside. the biden administration's planning a round of restrictions on the exports of a.i. chips before the presidential

transition. bloomberg is reporting that the u.s. was to curb the sale of a.i. chips used in data centers on a country and company basis. the goal is to concentrate a.i. development and friendly nations and get global businesses to align with american standards. the rules would buy the world into three tiers, those with full access to american ships, those with limited access, and those that would be effectively blocked. the chip stocks fell at the report was published after yesterday's closing bell. you can see that nvidia shares are off by 1.1%. amd, brought tom, and others are down by less than 1%. officials are concerned about inflation and present electric trump policies. they said they would move more slowly as interest rate cuts are going on, without mentioning trump by name, they did feature four mentions of the effect of changes in immigration and trade policy on the u.s. economy. trump has signaled plans for

sweeping tariffs and mass deportations. the fed says the high degree of uncertainty made it appropriate to take a gradual approach as they move toward a neutral policy stance. did you anticipate two quarter point cuts this year. it is nice that they are in the business of anticipating things, if only a couple of years ago, during the pandemic with all the stimulus, they anticipated there was something other than transitory inflation. shares a costco or higher. the company reported an increase in net sales for december of 9.9%. costco said the late timing of the black friday weekend shifted purchases that would normally happen in november into december. tomorrow is the jobs report. talking about shifting things. i think they should just add it into february.

>> they are off today, we can be off tomorrow. >> ebay jump by 9% after meta will test out rollouts on the marketplace. you can view ebay listings directly on the arketplace and complete transactions on ebay. they are trying to appease regulators that would find the company $800 million, not billion dollars. we are living in 1 billions world these days for tying up the marketplace. >> soon to be trillions. >> people are trying to figure out the next number is. 1 trillion? >> yes. for this whole set up, i don't like change.

i believe if everything is okay, we will be fine. but we are way too close. is for >> you mean on this tiny desk? >> you know, aren't we close? don't you feel close? >> this temporary desk is closer. is for is it symbolically or physically? >> all of it. >> it is jimmy carter, we can celebrate his life. when we come back, remembering former president jimmy carter. we will take you lived to washington for a closer look at his economic legacy. as a reminder, cnbc on special coverage for the funeral of president jimmy carter at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. we will be right back. that's right james, it isn't. car, where are we going?

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president jimmy carter is lying is a in the capitol rotunda. we want to look back at his economic legacy and lessons for future administrations. emily wilkins joins us for more. good morning. lawmakers paid their respects to jimmy carter the last two

days. when carter was in the white house, he did not have the best relationship with congress. even though was controlled by members of his own party. carter, much like present electric trump, they both ran as outsiders and they really were outsiders when they arrived to washington, d.c. kimberly martin and the assistant professor said their unwillingness to conform to washington insider culture led them to clash with members of their own party. >> we saw people coming in is political outsider. we had two people learning to be president as they go along. sometimes that trips them up and sometimes it helps them in the end. for another parallel, carter with the deficit hawk. you try to root out wasteful spending and the government. that was also something which caused tension within his own party. other democratic lawmakers saw their victory and the trifecta as a reason to spend money on their priorities. carter was at the point of

findable them back. carter embraced some deregulation. you focus on energy policy. these are items that we are expecting to see under president-elect trump. while carter is in the capitol rotunda in the center washington, d.c., some contrast where he was at where we are currently asked with the next administration. a lot of different contrast that you can look back to, including president carter with the current administration, president biden, in terms of the inflation that brought down carter, and brought down president biden as well. the inflation that raged out of control. some people talk about the idea that president carter tried to address that by installing look her. they did raise rates, and it works, but not in time to help him lyrically. for another thing that professor martin mentioned during the conversation was that

something that jimmy carter did with the energy industry may not have paid off while he was in office, because he did see the raising rates of oil. what you did see was generations after he left, or several years after he left, you start to see the policies that he put in place payoff. it makes me wonder, for president biden, he did pass major legislation on chips and semiconductors and a bill that has to deal with transportation infrastructure. that something that democrats struggle to communicate of voters like saying hey, look at what we've done. it will be interesting to see, is there a sense that biden's policies paid off, not time for him to win reelection or make it to the election, but maybe to factor into his legacy. coming up, the stock markets are closed, but futures are open for trading. investors are looking ahead to tomorrow's jobs report. we have a live report from the

front lines of the california quk fires. "sawbox" will be right back.

the stock markets are closed for former president carter's funeral. investors are looking ahead. with the chief market strategist and chief economist at stone ask. are you worried about inflation, like the fed? for we should be worried about inflation if we see about potential growth in the united states, and of the department of government efficiencies is

not successful in bringing down expenditures. i am more concerned about inflation. the market should be as well. >> if the fed is worried about it, what was that? they did 50, they did 25, they did it again, they are doing two more? at the same time, they are saying not to worry, because we are thinking about it? it seems like they are trying to have it both ways. if i was worried about it, i would not cut and i would not have cut. >> i think they are on hold. they will be on hold for the foreseeable future. the last thing they want to do is reverse policy and potentially high. that is a risk that no one is talking about yet. is something that could occur if inflation does get worse. i'm talking about 3.5%. >> that is way too high, obviously. all you do is compounded for a couple of years and look at the

effect it has on people that can least afford it. you think the economy, the labor market is slowing? it seems like we have balanced risk. do you see the economy accelerating or inflation declining? that is what we would like. >> the good news is two things, private investment is strong. emf put a data point up at 20%, and that is near record amounts of investment. and economic growth in the united states is still about potential. if the economy grows about 1.8% this year, as it did last year, that is inherently inflationary. those two things on the phenomenon of stagnation means that things will continue to increase. the risk of inflation ever going back to 2% is really high. the fed has a higher inflation

target at this point. i think the best case would probably be two rate cuts. i don't think it will happen in the first half of the year. i think the underpriced risk is to protect yourself against the rest. the fed does not cut at all. if we do get this turbocharging of the u.s. economy, which is what the pro-cyclical supply-side oriented trump policy would do. we are facing fiscal pressures. the bond market is indicating that will be the central focus. i think for this year, finally, the markets care. i think they care because we are coming into the next administration with an above trend economic growth and high investment. the good news is, we have strong productivity. the productivity level sustain themselves and investments sustain themselves with a.i. and data, i think we could keep

inflation above 2%, but not too much. >> we get two cousin we have the supply-side growth, whatever , is that enough to keep multiples where they are? have two cuts, i don't know. we are at 22? will the economy deliver double- digit earnings growth for most corporations to give us an advance in the indices? they are at levels right now that assume a lot of positive things. cannot move higher? can it go up 15%? >> yes. i think that will be a tough run. as you said, a lot is already priced in. the fact is that profits are at or near record highs. if the u.s. economic growth continues at the pace we are expecting, we can see additional up cycles.

i will say yes, maintain your positions in the s&p 500. play the trump trade. i think there is juice in that. i like small banks. here is more upside. i am recommending that clients protect their positions for the risk of inflation and buying protective puts on the sp 500 and the technology sector. that could face some headwinds, if i am right, and the fed does not further cut in the foreseeable future. >> i wonder with those costs, they are probably not cheap. could we see an early payoff of a.i.? that would be nice if we just had like a quantum addition of something that was like wow, like the internet. the internet changed everything. for i did what you are saying,

think a.i. has to deliver. we reach the mature phase, we should not expect earnings calls on anybody that uses a.i. to get a boost in the stock price anymore. we have reached the mature phase. i think a.i. has to deliver. i don't think what we have seen in the productivity increase, which is phenomenal, will continue without a.i. actually delivering. we have not yet seen the full effect, or the full implementation of automation and a.i. no, we have not seen it yet. i think that will transpire over the course of the medium- term, like in years. i think more is in the pipeline. that is good. brings efficiencies and will curb the structurally higher inflation rate. >> catherine, thank you. to that used to be a different name. for we have been offered an

upgrade now. >> okay. coming up, we are looking at the water recession. entering the third year window relief for watchmakers. i think mark zuckerberg might be making up the balance of all of the problems in the industry. robert franks has a story. as we go to break, we are looking at a live shot of the wildfires burning in hollywood hills. we have tragedy in the making. we bring you the live po omrertfr the eadlines, when "squawk box" returns.

good morning welcome back to "squawk box". the stock market is close in honor of late president jimmy carter. you cannot lose money. robert franks, go ahead, andrew. you may have some money losing opportunities. a time is running out for luxury watchmakers. that the sector has become a financial slump. i made a joke that maybe mark

cyber make up the slack. >> there was a loss of focus on his watch, $900,000 watch. we have a slightly less expensive watch. they are bracing for potential tariffs and facing continued pressure from china's slowdown. they are down since april. we noticed the wealth declined by $31 billion. he is now in fifth waste behind larry ellison. one of the toughest segments right now luxury has been the watches. exports of switch -- swiss watches is down. china sales down 27%. if you look at the preowned or collectible segments, that is been falling for 3 years. prices for the preowned rolexes is down 5%. some rolex models are selling 30% less than they were at their peak in 2021. the ceo, one of the holy trinity watches, she says she sees no signs of slowdown for

the sales of new watches, especially in the u.s. she says there will be an industry shakeout. >> allots has to do with mistakes of brands and companies , of taking advantage of the growth desire clients. >> you mean raising prices? for yes, and becoming lazy in terms of innovation and pushing creativity further. you do see, it is a very polarized performance. to we have a lot of winners and losers. for the full interview and why women could help save the luxury watch business, sign up for my insider newsletter that will be out to the next hour. that is on www.cnbc.com. what is maintaining? is anything maintaining at all? >> it is like the rest of the luxury business. the hyper exclusive, small scale producers that sells the very wealthy high prices, like

rolex, the top three are doing well. the top three watch brands you can purchase in the secondary market and the prices are more than retail. it's like a ferrari. as soon as you buy one, is worth more than what you pay for. aside from those three, the more massive brands like omega, they overproduced, they raise prices, they benefited from the fact that you cannot get a rolex . that associative back. it is the small group at the very top. some of these like mark cyber has, i think have a shot of that watch. there it is. >> that is a company that makes only a handful of those watches, and a couple hundred per year. >> rolex makes over 1 million watches per year. it are the exclusive guys the focus on the wealthy. the very wealthy are not affected by these cycles. >> why do they hold up in value

even though they produce a lot of them? >> that is the genius of rolex to mass-produce, relative to the other brands, but it cost you more to purchase a secondary than preowned, due to its reputation. >> they get the best golfers and tennis players. i don't know what it is, it is a tough business. >> is tough when you buy something that lunches last year, but it will be the same watch the you can give to your son or his son. you never need another one. think of the iphone and thinkable watch. >> it is interesting, when i watched him out, this a mechanical watches would be dead. mark zuckerberg says, the tech folks have been the biggest collectors of mechanical watches. there has been a resurgence by young collectors and mechanical watches. they think it is retro and coo

. the engineering of a watch is amazing. >> for 900 grand, i want to include more time. [ laughter ]i want it to give me time back. >> i don't really want to go back. is great to see you. >> what if you did not meet the right people? what a felt butterfly did something and you are not even born at the butterfly wings didn't do their thing? when we come back, we'll talk about president-elect trump expansionist ambitions. we have the council of foreign relations coming up next. the wildfires are ravaging communities in southern california. we wiltal ke you to altadena in just a few minutes. ( ♪♪ ) partnering to unlock new ideas, to create new legacies, to transform a company, industry,

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president trump is talking about his foreign-policy policy on tuesday. we have the trade rep from the obama administration. thank you for joining us. we have different foreign-policy pieces of it is. we have canada and the panama canal, there is greenland, the list goes on. you want to take your pick and start wherever you like? what is realistic here? >> there are a lot of issues. president trump has an unconventional way of addressing issues. there is often a little grain of truth in what he says that's be taken seriously. should we be concerned about chinese expensive activity in latin america and their role in port infrastructure in our hemisphere? absolutely. is ready to take over the panama canal the best way to do that? probably not. you can leave to a conversation

about what role the u.s. place in the region and how we ensure we have freedom of navigation, like we are fighting for in the red sea and maintaining in the south china sea. similarly, for greenland, the issues of arctic security and climate change is making the northern passage is significant trade routes, and greenland has a tremendous amount of minerals is a real issue. threatening to take it over by force or buying it may not be the best way to develop the issue. it puts an issue on the agenda that does have some significant marriage. the other thing i would say, if you go in history, 1947, there were secret conversations about buying greenland for $100 million of gold bars. it's not the first time the ids and put on the table. the rules change a lot since 1947. peopling greenland are quite independently minded when i look fondly on the idea being sold to the united states. i want to get to the middle

east. he talked about all breaking loose if hamas does not return hostages. that's usually the closest thing to being a realistic challenger problem that is already a problem and needs to get solved. then we can talk about canada. what you think really happens on the day of his inauguration if hamas is not return hostages? to the senses that the israeli may know where the hostages are in gaza, but based on the efforts to rescue hostages, there is concern that any effort to rescue them would lead to the murder. the question will be, does israel go in even further? is there another aggressive effort to level parts of gaza where the hostages and where hamas leadership may still be hidden? and having more carnage than we have seen before?

does the prime minister feel like he has the green light to do that? ideally, it is the threat of all breaking loose that could potentially bring hamas to the table. my understanding is, the conversations about a cease-fire have not progressed as far as the negotiators had expected. they are stuck. at least the option of further military action. that means further civilian deaths as well and israeli soldier deaths and otentially the deaths of more of the hostages themselves. >> shall we go to canada? shall we go north? what are the folks in canada thinking of all this? what is the real impact is of just rhetorically talking about canada's the 51st state? to unlike mexico, where think the president is laid out issues that he wants to see

addressed, whether it is defense or the shipment of chinese goods, or the criminal gang issues, it is unclear that what he has against canada or what he is seeking for them to do. we have a close, integrated, trade relationship with canada. it would be highly disruptive if that were to break down through tariffs or other mechanisms, including the u.s. auto and steel industry, which are integrated across the border. the canadians are very dependent on the united states. a significant percentage live within 100 miles of the u.s. border. the economy is totally dependent on the united states, but they are a proud nation and they enjoyed their independence. there could be issues that we can put on the agenda and the president has gotten the attention of canadian leadership, the question is whether plenty to annex them is

the 51st state, or pursuing this in an alternative ways more productive. >> do you think this protects power or creates power that had been lacking before? the advocates for president trump would say, that is what he is doing. he's putting the country back on the world stage in a different dimension. do you buy that? >> that is certainly an effort he is trying to make. there is a question that if you assert something and then don't achieve it, does that help expand your power or does it undermine your power over time and your credibility as far as exercising that power? you certainly feels that by making these threats, or making these demands, he is setting a negotiating agenda. he wants to negotiate from strength and then he will declare victory on whatever it is he is negotiating. he did that with china.

he negotiated the phase 1 trade deal, it was not a significant trade deal, but having made such a big deal of it, he declared victory. that is where it stands. my sense is, if you want to exercise american power, which is important, one of the key elements of american power are american allies and partners. that is something that china does not have. we have a network of alliances around the world which is incredibly valuable. as other countries paying putting the lives of their people on the line, and their treasure on behalf of issues that we care about as well. on behalf of issues that we are leading on. sticking your finger in the eyes of allies and partners, over time, reduces your power. for given what has happened over the last 4 years, we have partners in afghanistan, how are they feeling?

when you don't follow through on things you say you will do like the redline in syria, there are consequences. when you trash israel more than your trash hamas in gaza, there consequences. we may need to go to what you're talking about, where it is hyperbole that is bluster, with a bit of truth where he will declare victory. maybe all that is true, but we are coming from a place that needs improvement. to i think nato is stronger now than it has ever been. it is larger, we have our countries, and we have more than 2% of the gdp. for that is not from biden. for we know who started the entire discussion on that. >> you thought what happened with israel, rethink the way that has been handled has helped our best ally in the middle east? >> i think by the administration is provided israel with a lot of support.

as for yes, with a lot of conditions. for there have been some issues on humanitarian issues. on the whole, israel got a huge amount of support from biden. the prime minister also said that. he made a clear that he got a tremendous amount of support. as for he seems pretty happy with the outcome of the election. >> my guess is there will be fewer conditions. when we come back, wildfires ravaging communities in southercafoian lirn. we will get a live report from the front lines right after this break. "squawk box" will be right back.

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five people are dead and 130,000 are under evacuation orders as wildfires ravaged communities from the pacific coast to inland pasadena. our news correspondent joins us from altadena, california. the pictures we are seeing are the worst pictures we can remember seeing in a very long time. you are in the middle of it, what are you seeing?>> reporter: good morning to you, and for many people that have lived here their entire lives, this is unlike anything anyone has ever seen. we are in altadena. this is where the eaton fire tore through here yesterday. most of the neighborhood is decimated. you can see the blowtorch is behind us. this is not the active wildfir . these are homes that still have gas lines on. that fire is just burning. we are seeing this in almost every home in this neighborhood. we will walk across the street. you can see this home as well, you can see two of these gas lines going up.

there is a tree stump here that was smoldering for bed, producing some smoke in the area. as far as the eye can see, your total communities that have seriously been wiped off the map. we did hear that phrase from several residents. it is not an exaggeration. the only thing you can make out of this home is the mailbox. you can still see the numbers on it, 309. that is the only thing you can make out here. >> we do here that is not a situation where they have been able to contain anything at this point. what is the latest you have heard about that? what is the expectations in terms of the weather with the santa ana winds? >> reporter: the good thing is, the strong, hurricane force winds that we experience yesterday is not the situation here today. tomorrow, the santa ana winds are expected to return. that is the concern as we move

into the weekend. could more fires flare up? could that hamper the firefight out there? there was an issue, excuse me, there was an issue with water yesterday, not just because we had a aircraft that was grounded due to the high winds, but the fire hydrants ran out of water pressure. the water that was coming out did absolutely nothing to help the fire crews on the ground, battling the fires. there will be a lot of questions , and some investigations into why that happened, and why there is not enough water to put out these flames. it is a horrible situation. this was a wind driven event. that was the major culprit that turned neighborhood like this into sheer destruction. you can see the vehicles here to my right. these have all been burned down to the shells. some of them you can make out the california license plate.

the one further down, you look inside the door and there is nothing but a frame of the vehicle. that is the latest of what we are seeing in altadena. >> please stay safe. we are watching and we appreciate all you are doing. when we come back, remembering president jimmy carter. up next, we will talk to an administrator from the carter u wie.hous yoll deliver the eulogy and will join us next on cnbc. all the buzz around bitcoin isn't just talk anymore crypto has gone mainstream. at itrustcapital, you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies 24/7 with the tax benefits of an ira. that's right, with an itrustcapital ira,

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former president jimmy carter will be honored at a state funeral today in washington joining us right now is stuart

eizenstat. he later served to the deputy union and served in the clinton administration he is eulogizing president carter this morning. thank you for joining us this morning. i was hoping you could take us back to when you first met president jimmy carter >> thank you it's nice to be on your program. i watch it very frequently i actually first met him in 1969 when i had gotten back from the white house of lbj where i came and then was on humphrey's presidential campaign in '68 i met him in a very inauspicious ways he was in office in a building called the hert building with the only furniture being a table

and twofolding chairs. he came in with work boots and khaki pants. i said to myself what am i doing here has this guy got any chance of being governor it took me two meetings to convince me he could bridge the rural gap from georgia who understood urban problems. he understood mass transit and modelled on civil rights and want ed to reorganize the government i was his policy director then and his campaign from '74 to '76 and four years in the hot house of the white house >> why don't we talk about president carter's economic policy and it is something people are digging back. he dealt with inflation and put a lot of pieces in place that he

may not always get credit for. do you want to walk through? >> thank you for giving me the opportunity. he lost in 1980 to ronald reagan with three "is." inflation and the iran hostage issue. he was punished on the economic issues, but the important thing, becky, he laid a foundation that made it much more innovative and gave us a petitive economy and don't take my word for it. phil graham from texas wrote an op-ed in the "wall street journal" on his 00th birth day he put in place natural gas and crude oil which made us energy secure and led us to be the greatest producer of oil and gas and put in place the renewable

energy and conservation efforts we have today and putting a solar panel on the white house critically, he deregulated every major transportation industry. airlines, bringing air travel to the middle class when he came in 50% of the public had never gone on the airplane today, 90% do. he deregulated railroads and trucks which made supply chains much more efficient. he deregulated telecommunications which made possible something like cnbc it really gave way to the cable era. he even deregulated the beer industry leading to local craft industry this is one important legacy he left and on -- >> that was to help billy. >> billy beer? >> it didn't -- >> right. >> it's important to know what he did on inflation. this clearly was an achilles

heel and there is no way around it we had do you uble digit inflatn and double digit interest rates. president nixon had double digit inflation. first of all, the president genuinely was one of the first people in the white house to recognize this was our number one problem. national television speech in 1978 saying this was our number one problem. number two, we had two inflation czars and wage and price guidelines we had a labor management advisory board none of them worked, including a low budget deficit i really want to drive this home he was a fiscal conservative our budget deficits were 2.6% of gdp. much lower than reagan's and much lower than today. that didn't help either. here's what did. july 1979, inflation is raging

he tried all these things and nothing worked he said i'm not going to let inflation be my legacy to the american people. and over the objection and i assure you, i'm not exaggerating, of every one of his advisors, he appointed paul volcker. paul told him he would choke inflation out of the system by high interest rates. he said, mr. president, this will be in your re-election year you will have a very difficult economy. we want to whip inflation. we will have potential higher unemployment the president said, paul, you take care of the economy, i'll takepolitics in fact, as we know, paul volcker succeeded anybody's expectations inflation dropped like a rock, but only after carter's defeat in reagan's two years.

he even put in place something that we've lived within a major way and it's lower inflation he wasn't the beneficiary of it, but created the foundation of it that, plus deregulation. deregulation of energy as well as major sectors of the economy really was a positive economic legacy, but it didn't occur in time to benefit him for his re-election. >> and he pushed back a lot of the left what you just described, stu, i hate to tell you, deregulation, not wanting to spend a lot of money. maybe he was in the wrong party, stu. >> joe, you are absolutely right. in fact, he had as much problems with his own party as the republicans. in fact, we had leadership breakfasts with the republicans and democrats. he said to me, personally, i put it in my book, "president

carter, the white house years. he said stu, i feel comfortable on the budget issues with the republicans over the democrats there had been eight years of republicans and now he has a democratic president who thought would build on the great society. it came at a time of already high inflation we inherited that from nixon and ford he was constantly battling with the liberal wing of the party to get tighter budgets. he achieved that, but it's some political cost in fact, one of the reasons we lost the election is ted kennedy ran against him. he created the national health insurance which would have been very expensive that split the party and really helped lead to our defeat. >> stu, i know you took legal pads to every meeting you ever had with the president you had such a long relationship before he governor of georgia and that formed the

basis of the 2018 book you wrote. we really appreciate you joining us this morning. you are sharing these issues with us and we'll be watching later today with your eulogy thank you. >> thank you for giving me the opportunity. >> we appreciate it. it is just after 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. 7:06 you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc we should tell you markets are closed today in honor of former president jimmy carter major stocks will close at 9:30. the treasury market open until 2:00 cryptocurrency will trade as normal throughout the day. u.s. equity trading closed for the day. cnbc will deliver special coverage of the funeral for president jimmy carter starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern time and a check on the u.s. equity futures at this hour again, futures that will be the future, really, for friday and,

friday, we get the big jobs numbers. dow off 46 points. s&p 500 looking down 12 points the nasdaq off 51 points joe. let's get to/whoa! mike santoli we are within a six-foot. >> none of us are in the usual spot. >> i feel more comfortable if we all had masks o. >> do you? >> a little bit. >> look, what do we want to watch? it is an interesting day for the bond market most of the trading day and cash equity market closed the interplay with equities and treasuries has been almost the whole story for a while. the sensitivity of stocks to every blip higher in treasury yields has gotten to an extreme. you see it has taken a lot of the toll on the average stocks that orange line is everything

in the stock market except for the s&p 500. small caps and not yet in the s&p 500. that has the market breadth has taken a hit based on the rise in yields it's really a legitimate debate of what's going on with the rise in yields. we can talk about it all day and we do. part an of it is we had a recession scare in the fall and we unwound that entirely because growth is looking better at the same time, the stock market is very antsy about the economy's ability to continue to absorb yields at this level. it feels as if, sure, we can deal with it for the right reasons, but what if it feeds back into the interest rate sensitive part of the economy. >> it is not can we absorb this, but this gives you an attractive place if you look at equities run up and valuations. if i can get 5% at something that is low risk >> no doubt about it that that will be brought to bear and in fact, i would have expected and

have been talking for the first couple or several days of this year that there should be asset allocated demand for bonds at this level inflation adjusted 2.3% on the ten-year that's a great thing to lock in in the diversified portfolio. the issue is people are not quite sure whether it's the policy outlook is cloudy or just like what the neutral rate of interest is for the economy if you have a higher metabolism economy out there. all of that is mixed up into the debate i found yesterday yields backed off a bit. >> 4.73 on the ten-year. 4.66 >> yeah. you know, you don't necessarily have to say these levels are this a state back in 2022, 4% seemed like you couldn't deal with it and you got sticker shock. 4.25 and then 4.5. i don't want to get unanchored

from here. >> i wonder if it keeps us from transitioning to the real high growth stocks to everybody catching up. if you are looking at stocks relative to a yield, it better be >> exactly the way the market chooses to play defense as it buys the big quality and known quantities, that has been mega cap growth which is expensive 20% of the s&p 500 or 21% is three stocks, right? apple, microsoft and nvidia. they all trade above 30 times forward earnings maybe it is justified. >> just below it 29. >> if you are looking at full projected next year with the pullback it's in that zone for an overall stock market, that's 21 or 22. >> thanks, mike. >> all right >> it was your thanks. i thank you as well. >> we all thank you. when we come back, we're close enough we.

>> we have to talk about the wildfires burning out of control in southern california leading a path of destruction. a tragedy in front of us we will talk to a top executive of insurance giant usaa. there's the human toll and huge, huge, multibillion dollar economic toll. remember, with u.s. equity trading closed for the day, cnbc has special coverage of the funeral for president jimmy carter starting at 9:00 a.m. eastertin me this morning. "squawk box" is coming right back sive esophagitis, also known as erosive gerd, and relieve related heartburn. voquezna is the first and only fda-approved treatment of its kind. 93% of adults were healed by 2 months. of those healed, 79% stayed healed. plus, voquezna can provide heartburn-free days and nights. and is also approved to relieve heartburn

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welcome back to "squawk box. private equity firm new mountain capital sold stake to private equity giant black stone for more, let's bring in steve, the founder and coo of new mountain captain with $55 billion under management

he is one of the cofounders of goldman sachs in the 1980s one of the ogs >> good morning. >> we all are trying to understand where private equity has been there was a sort of slower period whether we're shifting out of that at the same time we have the new administration with a lot more deal making where are we really? >> yeah, i think private equity has been a very good asset class for many years now i have been doing it since the early '80s it's out performed any period of time with less volatility. deal volume has been slow for the industry generally my firm's done well, but that's going to pick up most people think there will be more deal volume >> a lot fewer exits >> that's the same that's the other part of deal volume the industry overall and i think dealmaking in general has been, you know, held down for the last few years and there's a lot of

belief i was with the head of the major banks and the deal volume they will sell. >> is that a function of you the regulatory environment is going to get better? that is for the big strategics, i imagine. >> i think, putting my own firm aside which has been steady, i think there will be an increase in volume. not just the expected with interest rates stabilized. the regulatory environment, i would say has been hostile to m&a. people hope it is less hostile >> what about the fundraising world? the reason i ask about that in part because there are so few exits. a lot of the u.s. pension funds specifically are out of cash they have no money to give to anybody. everybody makes a pilgrimage to the middle east and you argue they are trying to spend more money in the middle east itself.

>> for my own firm, we raised the fund last year that went very, very well. i think the key to private equity is there is still plenty of money the $5 trillion asset class. the real question is are you a value added institution or not the key is the firm to prove to the lps who are sophisticated, you can build, not just leverage an index >> help big operators? >> to me, the 40-year story because i'm one of the original people since '81, is it has gone from a form of finance we had a firm of five professionals. my firm now has 250 people we use no debt at all when we bought the company it's a question of the lps are looking for not all in the stock market with their money and tied to a few tech stocks how do you diversify how do you have groups and there are 5,000 private equity firms

which ones can pick the right company and build it and sell it and do the right job >> it's not about levering up. >> it is leverage as a sweetener, obviously it's not your granddad's private equity firm from the '80s. the key is the value added institution to prove that. some of that is getting exits done as well >> there's a shifting model issue which is, you know, you have folks at blackstone and others of how you turn this into a retail product and the apollos of the world trying to create the permanent capital structure or insurance-like structure. what do you think of that and how that will impact all of this >> there's a couple of questions in there one is multiasset class firms. apollo was known as a private equity firm.

i don't want to speak to them. they are thought of as a credit shop or insurance firm they still do private equity my own firm has a credit arm and real estate arm as well. the key is to use the same value added skills to really understand the business. if you don't buy it, you can lend to it multiasset class makes sense on the retail side, i mean private equity is a good asset class. it could make sense for retail i believe you have to be very careful about it and make sure someone doesn't get tell marketed by a firm they never heard of the australian firms and the big gate keepers protect investors because it is a sophisticated decision to pick one from the other. >> we talk about the regulatory environment getting better one of the issues in the last administration is regulators are looking at deals putting private equity firms doing rollups in

the healthcare space and others say they get worried that people are getting squeezed in different places do you think that continues? >> i think again the last administration not just about private equity, but you talk to any business group, they will say there was a lot of hostility on the anti-trust side and distrust of business generally as far as rollups, there are good ways to do them and bad ways mckenzie me out with a study with the best player in the space and most efficiency and they buy up the mom and pop and make it more efficient, which is a lot of what rollups are, that can be very, very good it's not a question of rolling things up to, you know, dominant markets, it's more often having a great business model you're trying to expand and also the rollup is if someone builds the family business and wants to sell at end of the day, they sell and it generates huge tax revenue for the government there is a lot of distrust about

business generally it feels like animosity to business which i hope will be less in the new administration. >> steve, nice to see you. thank you for coming in. >> thank you very much. >> only one way to go. coming up, the latest on the los angeles wildfires. we will get early damages estimates and hear from the top executives of insurance giant usaa we'll be right back.

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five people are dead and more than 130,000 people under evacuation orders as wildfires ravage communities in southern california over 2,000 structures destroyed and more strong winds expected later today. the national weather service describing this as a long duration event contessa brewer is joining us with more. >> it's really historic and for the folks living through it, it probably feels like a nightmare that will never end. with the fires burning out of control, we are getting very early damages estimates. accuweather says economic losses could reach as much as $57 billion. analysts at jpmorgan put insured

losses at $10 million. am best says it is too early to define height the high value of real estate will generate large losses homeowner policies were canceled the last couple years. the surge of new policies, the last resort insurer in california, 225% growth in new policies over two years, including residential and commercial properties and pacific palisades is in the top five concentrated areas for southern california. the fair plan warned last year its financial stability is at risk if it can't pay if it can't pay, all the insurers would then have to chip in to support that system. state farm has the most market share with 8 million in california farmers and usaa and travelers

and chubb. chubb rated down last couple years. it writes property insurance for high-net worth individuals under surplus lines not subject to the regulatory rate approval aig target the high-end policies that we could see getting hit from the fires most importantly about all this, is will the california insurance market hold? that is the primary question when it comes to where do we go from here. >> contessa, stay right here we will talk more about this with the california insurance market, too. joining us is wayne peacock. he is the outgoing ceo his predecessor will take over at usaa. usaa serves nearly 14 million members with 1 million of those in california. gentlemen, thank you for joining us today let's talk through what we're

seeing in california here first. wayne, can you describe the situation? how an insurance company looks at what's happening in california right now >> becky, first of all, thank you for having us on this morning. our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in los angeles and all of our members out there as well. catastrophe season is a 365-day a year activity these days we started with the winter storm right after the first of the year i'll tell you, on the ground, this is devastation. it will most likely be the most devastating fire we have seen. california has a history of having a lot of them over the years. you have seen the pictures i think they tell the story. it's just really, really a tough situation out there. juan, i know you have perspective as well. >> thanks, wayne and becky for having us. i start with the fact this is tragic for anyone that's living through this right now anyone who's lost homes or

family or valuables. it's a terrible situation to be going through. for a company like ours at usaa, this is ultimately about serving the members and being able to be present and being able to help them recover their lives once this event is over >> wayne, let me ask you, insurance insurance companies look at what is happening in california and florida and other places and say, we're going to have to either raise rates substantially or pull back and not offer the same coverage or as many policies pulling out of many areas. what do the understand companies see from the risk assessment perspective that gets them to that position? >> i think it's pretty simple. you look at your expectation of risk and the ability to price for that or ability to underwrite for it and make the decisions of how much exposure you take usaa is different than most companies. we are all about serving military families. we're owned by our

policyholders. we have a different take that we try to serve as many of our members as we possibly can let's take california where a lot of folks have moved out or walked away from exposure there. we're not non-renewing our policyholders there. we are working diligently to stay in the california market. we are very judicious about writing new business for our longstanding members who have been there, we're keeping them on the books. that's a challenge for us because it continues to be in california a tough place to be able to get adequate rate and to be able to underwrite appropriately and make a sufficient profit to have the capital to deliver on days like these when members need us most. that's the big challenge for all of us. if you you can't get the rate y need, you -- >> why has it gotten so much more expensive to insure risk?

is it management on the ground of what's happening there? explain to me, what's the risk profile you look at because you are better at this than anybody? >> a combination of factors. you have expensive real estate and more real estate built into the forest zones then the manner of conditions in california that make that even more challenging you add to that the inflation that's covered that we had in the last few years where the cost of cars and homes to both repair and buy have gone up. the cost of the build environment has gone up and the risk associated from weather events we're seeing today have gone up and ur ability to brin all of those into the appropriate rate in california is very challenging. >> what about reinsurance, juan? i hear everybody complaining it is the reinsurance fault you can't get reinsurance. >> i think wayne has done a nice job of explaining this the reality is the cost of goods

sold is traumatically increased. in addition to the heightened increase we are in right now started in 2017 with the increased tornadic activity and hurricanes, et cetera, et cetera costs are up the costs that surged after the pandemic is part of what is happening here the other is dealing with building and zoning codes, et cetera it is about having a viable insurance market in the state of california in order for companies to deploy capacity, reinsurance companies and insurance companies to deploy capital in california -- >> this is not tornadoes or hurricanes in california we're talking about. the wettest two years in history. >> that caused all this vegetation growth. >> santa anas aren't new none of this is new in california other than it is in

palisades where a lot of the houses are multimillion dollars. >> what happened in california is the commissioner elected and artificially kept the rates low for a long time and we just heard from allstate ceo at the conference at goldman sachs in december saying we're happy to operate where we can do so as a business, but where we can't, like he called out california and florida, we're not going to. that, in particular, had to change california recognized it was at crisis point they came up with the sustainable insurance plan and met the metrics for the end of 2024 a bigger picture for this now i you have large swats of l.a. that are decimated, juan, will reinsurance kick in for this would you expect reinsurance policy as policys paying two, if those people go in and the fair plan has been wiped out, is there going to be insurance available for people

who want to rebuild? >> yeah, contessa, i think for an event of this magnitude and you cited the numbers at the beginning of the segment you are looking at industry losses upwards of $13 billion. that's an y estimate and economic loss of $40 billion the dry is to get communities back on their feet and individuals back on their feet yes, i would absolutely expect reinsurance coverage available for the companies that are on the ground right now trying to help people in the state of california >> juan, you will take over the reins at usaa. these million customers in california are going to be yours to deal w. you ith you are also dealing with an incoming administration dealing with tariffs on canada and mexico of 25%. we get a lot of building

materials from canada and mexico that would go into this. how would this play out in southern california? by the way, florida is still trying to get back on its feet post two hurricanes in the last season >> so, a couple of observations. i think wayne made the most important one which is usaa is a different type of company, right? we have not pulled back with our members in california. particularly active duty members. to provide world class service for them has remained as they are being deployed to deal with these issues regarding the inflationary pressures, you could see inflationary pressures with the tariffs talked about unless within the united states we have the capacity from other manufacturing at these companies that over time will fill in the supply for some of that. this is part of the reason why rates have increased for the industry over the past number of years. the reality is there has been inflation in the system and companies have to charge

adequate rates for the exposure they take. >> wayne, let me ask you, do you think the situation, the wildfires right now, will bankrupt the fair plan the insurer of last resort in california and if so, do operators run the risk of being saddled with whatever losses aren't covered by the state >> look, becky, i think it is early to call what happens to the fair plan. this is a significant event. they picked up tremendous exposure we will have to monitor and see. at the opening of the segment, you said it well, there will be an impact to insurers in the market should there be strain or, you know, bigger challenges for the fair plan. the bigger issue here is getting california to an insurance market that is healthy and reasonable so we can take care of customers and members for us in california and continue to make an appropriate profit so we can stay in business and provide

what is an extremely valuable service to everyone in america that is the real question in front of california for last ten years. this, i think, will bring it to the forefront. >> which means what? the ability to raise rates you charge homeowners and businesses >> we will have to raise rates i will tell you, we stay in california we don't make money in the homeowner business in california we're working really hard to trim in every way possible if you can't get adequate rate to cover the risk, that creates a challenge that is untenable in the long run this may be the event that causes more discussion and more change. >> meaning more discussion and more change if you can't get higher rates to make sure you are not losing money there that you will eventually pull out of the state all together >> here's what i will tell you about usaa juan said it and i said it we will continue to work hard to serve our military members

that's our job that's our mission over the long term, we have to create a more healthy market in california >> wayne, juan, i want to thank you both for joining us this morning. contessa, thank you for bringing this to us >> sure. >> thank you thank you. we have a lot more coming up on "squawk box" this morning. ralph will join us to talk about jimmy carter's presidency. he served in the treasury and white house during president carter's term. "squawk box" comes back after this

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our next guest worked at deputy assistant treasury secretary and as a carter white house staffer, advising the president on urban policy, economic development and other domestic issues. let's welcome evercore chairman emeritus ralph schlosstein our old friend i'm looking at both of us. i voted for carter first time around you worked for him with what you are looking at right now, neither one of those things is possible given the way both of us look, ralph >> we were both 12 at the time

>> you were a child prodigy. >> which maybe why his presidency was not viewed as the most successful of all >> i voted for him the first time that's what i cop to we just had stuart on which you knew well. >> i did >> i enjoyed talking to him very much by the end of the conversation, i had him admitting that carter was much more comfortable with a lot of the republicans around him than he was with a lot of his -- a lot of the democrats he had to deal with >> well, president carter was probably our first president who cared deeply about the efficiency of government actually wanted to control or reduce the cost of government and he also was a true free market person. we forget that he deregulated the airlines, deregulated the

railroads and deregulated trucking when he took office, half of our energy was coming overseas he removed the price caps on oil and gas and that was certainly an important foundation for the fact that we are truly energy independent today. and, you know, he tried to reorganize the government to actually eliminate governmental departments and ultimately he was not successful of that not because of the republicans, but because of the democrats >> we had who was that, becky, we had on that worked with him i asked the question -- >> stu eizenstat >> previously. the half inch versus the three quarter inch piping on 180-page -- >> document. >> some kind of a document -- i asked one of the criticisms that i remember was that president carter tried to micro manage almost everything that came

across his desk which grew -- roger altman it's your partner, roger he talked -- it was some type of retrofitting on page, 180-half inch pipe used he said why can't we use three quarter inch that was used as an illustration as a physicist or someone who studied how closely he looked at things were there times where the forest wasn't seen through the trees? >> you know, there's that true story about how he would manage the people who played on the white house tennis court a little bit less important among the other things that a president has to deal with i certainly remember more than one or two memos that went to the president where i was one of

the signatory with the infinitive correction. the thing with carter, he was a perfectionist and he was highly competitive and he was fundamentally moral and religious man. you know, as a result, i think from time to time, he was frustrated by -- i'm not sure he enjoyed politics i had an experience with my former boss stu eizenstat when we were trying to get the windfall profits tax through the house of representatives and there was a key member from new york city, queens, in fact, who was the critical vote. he came to the white house and met with president carter in the oval office. stu was there.

i was the proverbial child sitting in the background. the dialogue was the president telling this congress member how important this legislation was and how beneficial it was to his district two or three times, the congress member came back and said, well, mr. president, i understand all that you just closed two post offices in my district and i need you to reopen them and that will cost you $50,000 a year so carter listened to that and didn't respond at the end of the meeting, he turned to stu and i once again was not the principal there and heard this here is the piece of legislation good for the congress member's district and he's talking to me about post offices he never did open the post office he just didn't like that somewhat tawdry, but nevertheless part of the give

and take of politics i'm sure he would have been revolted by the partisanship today. >> i can't believe now i'm seeing one of the worst ideas in the history of economics, windfall profit tax. i see where it came from i have you to blame for it >> i had nothing to do with it i happened to be in the meeting. i knew the congress member >> i never saw when oil goes to negative or zero, i never see the government say we're going to help you. actually, they do help the oil companies quite a bit. ralph, i wish we had more time there's a post somewhat controversial post presidential. a lot of it very positive. i think he was a an thorn thorne side of republicans and democrats of some of his successors over the years. he certainly didn't shy away from it. >> he did not. i had one of my close friends was the secretary of defense and

a democratic administration and i remember having two or three hour breakfast with him in the 1990s. he shared with me that the most animated of ex-government officials he had to deal with was former president carter. >> amazing amazing. all right. you've been -- i guess you've been living in england or not? have you >> i split my time between london and new york. if you hear noise in the background,s packing up. >> you must really like to talk to people. all of the parties you had to throw and being the loyal husband with the ambassador with the two greatest allies. you are lucky and also cursed putting those tuxes on constantly does it get old? >> it gets really, really old particularly one known whenever

my wife and i go out it genuinely looks like we're going to two different events. i'm generally in jeans and t-shirt and she looks fantastic. >> you are like the guy on the tv show where they go, you're like with the ambassador who's that guy oh, he's nobody. >> yeah. well, you know what? that's a great show for one reason the husband on that show is such a jerk, he makes me look like a great guy. >> i didn't want to say that ralph, thank you thanks for joining us this had morning. it was fun >> thank you root for my eagles this weekend. >> oh, man okay i will reminder -- i was going to say something about eagles fans. they're tough, are they not? >> yeah. proudly so yeah cnbc will deliver special coverage of the funeral for president carter starting at 9:00 a.m. eaerstn.

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welcome back to "squawk box. elon musk scaling back expectations for the department of government efficiency speaking during a live chat on x last night musk calling the goal of $2

trillion of spending cuts quote a best case outcome. he knows people in the government who want to spend money effectively, but the system prevents them from doing so. when we come back, comments from jensen huang about the longer timeline for quantum computing putting pressure on sector also on nvidia's stock. we will speak to an investor look at the shares off 1.1%. "squawk box" will be right back. dexcom g7 sends your glucose numbers to your phone and watch, so you can always see where you're heading without fingersticks. dexcom g7 is the most accurate cgm, so you can manage your diabetes with confidence.

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biden planning more chip export restrictions before he leaves office we'll talk about that and the comments from jensen huang at the ces earlier this week and so much more after the break. you are looking at some of the chipmakers and what those stocks have done in the after hours as we head to break, check out shares of e-bay yesterday after meta said it would allow

listings to show up on facebook marketplace. it will rollout in germany, france and the u.s buyers will view e-bay listings and e-bay jumping 9% in yesterday's session on the back of the news pushed in part by regulators, if you will, in europe which pressed meta to do some of this "squawk box" is coming right back >> university of maryland global campus is a school for real life, one that values the successes you've already achieved. earn up to 90 undergraduate credits for relevant experience

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it's 8:00 a.m. on the east coast and you are watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe concerner and andrew ross sir kin. it is a day of remembrance for jimmy carter. we'll talk about carter, today and otherwise, leading up to today's funeral.

markets are closed. major stock indexes are open. the treasury markets are open until 2:00 p.m. eastern. then you have crypto trading as normal. with the u.s. equity trading -- let's get a check on the u.s. equity futures. these are pretty modest declines. dow futures down about by 30. s & p down by 10. both the dow and s & p 500 were up by 10 yesterday. you have the nasdaq down close to 50. treasury yields have pulled back a bit this morning. the 10 year was sitting at 473 during the trading session yesterday. today it's at 474. then you have the two year at 476. president biden reportedly planning one more round of export restrictions on a.i. chips during his final days in office. this is according to bloomberg.

the aim is to curb the sale of certain chips from nvidia and others on a country by country and company by company business. to avoid them either getting into the hands of russia, or china or both. joining us now is tony wang. t. rowe price portfolio manager. is it feasible? >> yeah, i think it's a logical plan. the a.i. race is top of mind and important in national security. there are multiple tiers that the biden administration is considering in terms of access to nvidia chips. but i think it's a continuation of what's been going on, so it's not too surprising i think, but really highlights how important accelerated computing and a.i. is. from a long term perspective, this just underscores how

important they are. >> seems like we've got a lot of bargaining chips to use with president xi. they've got things. tiktok. when trump comes in, what do you expect to be on the table realistically? >> it's real hard for me to predict. that's probably above my pay grade to be honest. i hope that both countries eventually figure out a good kind of deal. but you know, i do think that there's a lot of competition on industrial policy and a.i. so, you know, i guess we'll see. so it's hard for me to kind of predict that. >> i just wonder whether the money finally takes over, or whether there are serious -- with either tiktok or with what a.i. is used for, or there are security concerns that are going to override, just, you know, free and fair trade in both -- all three countries. it would be nice if we could

just sell to everyone and buy from everyone, and then handle the other business separately, but you can't. >> yeah. i mean, i think it's a great question. i think what's really kind of interesting is that we're almost at this chatgpt moment of robotics and a.i. so when a.i. is going into the physical layer of the world, that's when the stakes get even higher, because you kind of uncap labor. you can have self-driving cars. this type of technology is really powerful. not just from an economic horsepower standpoint, largely productivity and labor, and a.i. can really drive productivity and robotics can drive the labor part. so that's kind of how, like, i'm kind of thinking about the space and what's exciting, kind of been developing the last few months. >> so have you sold any nvidia? did you buy more? how long is this -- how long is

it going to last, this incredible ride? >> yeah, i think we are still in the early innings when you think about the tan that nvidia is kind of creating in some ways. a.i. is a totally new tam. i think that previously people would compare the nvidia tam to what cpus were. but you kind of miss it. these are all new work loads, and essentially software has historically been written by humans and a.i. agents, robotics, kind of all of this simulation in the real world is really -- all of this a.i. is on top of human written software. when you think about the demand for this, it's not really like there's a finite demand, there's only so many people in the world, so you're only going to need so many smartphones. you can deploy a.i. in just about every part of the

committee. so i think that's why you're seeing such big moves in stocks. so i think that it's not going to be a straight line. but you know, it does feel like we're still pretty early innings. and part of what i've been looking at as well as like this simulation of the real world, the keynote that jensen gave at ces, which had two hours to get into the stadium, you know, of lines, and what he talked about was essentially the ability to simulate the real world through the cosmos platform. so it's kind of like dr. strange, you see in the marvel movies where he can see all these timelines. the a.i. can essentially live all of these lives and then predict what's the best course of action. so i think that's why you're seeing so much robust kind of traction. you can see waymo out in front, as well as tesla doing really well. we're kind of in this like inflection point that makes

this space pretty exciting. >> very good. thank you, tony. good to have you on this morning. thanks for coming on on kind of a pseudo holiday. quasi is a better word. >> it's a residential holiday. we're talking about president jimmy carter, and getting ready for his funeral. we'd like to talk about his economy and his revolution on the markets. janing us is johnny. thank you for joining us joiningus today. i'm hoping you can shed a little bit more light on this. a lot of people appointed his term as a real inflection, not just with political life here, but also the economy, and the big changes he brought about to democratic party thinking at that point. he was an outsider. he had both houses of congress.

but he clashed with his own party a lot of times. so what do you think maybe some of the most impactful changes president carter made, not just on the democratic party, but also on the nation? >> well, let's focus in if we could on the economy. i think many of your viewers would say, as many people do, you know, lousy president, great former president. the truth is so much more complicated and interesting. the big thing on the economy was he faced double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates. if you can imagine that. and you know, it's a miracle he didn't lose all 50 states to ronald reagan, with that kind of headwind. but you know, the inflation, which had started under nixon and then got much worse with opec jacking up oil prices. then it got worse still on

carter's watch because of the iranian revolution, which took all of these oil fields, you know, offline. so suddenly, they're facing this ruinous inflation and carter makes a very tough and very good decision. and he appoints paul volker to be chair of the fed. and i interviewed volker a couple of times for my book, and he actually was very admiring of carter, not just because he appointed him, but partly because he did tell him when they met, before the appointment, i'm going to jack up inflation rates to squeeze inflation out of the economy. and carter, knowing it might cost him his presidency, bert land told him he was mortgaging his presidency to volker, carter did it. and sure enough, interest rates went as high as 19%. they were 15% when he was

running for reelection in the general election. so i asked volker, i said, you know, you arguably elected and reelected ronald reagan, because inflation didn't start to come down until reagan was president, and when it did, and volker extinguished it for 40 years, then reagan was able to get reelected. and volker said, you know, i saw jimmy carter at a fishing lodge after the presidency. i apologized to him for costing him the presidency. he smiled and he said paul, it there were many factors. as we know, there were. there was the iran hostage crisis. ted kennedy challenging him from inside the democratic party, and a series of other things. his communication skills compared to reagan. a lot of things went into that defeat. but the point is, carter was a

visionary president in many, many ways. and the deregular deregular tear environment. >> jonathan, let me ask you about an issue that's come into the forefront this week, with incoming president trump really latching onto one of the things that jimmy carter did as president, signing the treaty to give back the panama canal to panama. how do you look at that historically? >> so reagan came to prominence saying we bought it, we paid for it, it's ours. then carter comes in, and he again really makes a tough decision. everybody's telling him to put off this panama canal treaty until your second term. he says no, i've got to do this. two thirds of the country is against it. it takes a two thirds vote in the senate and carter gets it done. seven u.s. senators lost their

seats because they voted for these treaties. now why was it so important that the canal be turned back, this great artery of global commerce be turned back to panama? why were 19 republicans, including howard baker, the senate minority leader, they were with carter, why? because the joint chiefs said if you don't turn the canal back to the panamanians, we will need 100,000 troops in perpetuity in panama, protecting the canal from sabotage from panamanians. so what donald trump is risking, if he advocates this treaty, we are going to have a war in panama, full stop. this is one of the most dangerous things he's talked about. he's so out of line with this. just to give you some further communication, just imagine, reagan came to prominence with

opposing turning over the canal, right? so he gets into office and i asked one of reagan's senior people, okay, why don't you aggregate the treaties now? reverse what carter did, like trump is talking about, and this senior reagan official said are you kidding me? what carter was did was right. it was right to turn back the canal. it was international interest to do so. and the panamanians are doing a great job managing the canal. so trump is really out of line on this issue. >> jonathan, very quickly before you go, we have not talked much about president carter's reform of the civil service. i didn't realize much of anything that had happened there. what happened, and what's happened since, since that is back on the focus with the incoming administration? >> so what carter did, civil service reform -- the civil service act was 100 years old in the '70s.

carter had a thorough going reform of the civil service. created the senior executive civil service, a lot of other changes that strengthened the federal government. you know the payroll of the federal government is not that much larger than it was when carter was president. most of the growth has been in state and local government in this country. it always needs tune ups, like al gore had reinventing government when clinton was president, and it is time for some changes. but what would not be good would be to totally politicize the civil service. we have a lot of dedicated professionals. it's easy to dump on bureaucrats, but a lot of them are doing really important work, and obviously there's low hanging fruit, getting rid of some of these agencies that don't really do much is a good idea. carter did a lot of that. people are saying he created the department of energy, he

created fema, he was expanding bureaucracy. not true. he did reorganization, but he was a budget cutter moving toward a balanced budget and he did end some programs that were not working. so we need a hard, smart look at the way the federal government, you know, operates, and not just go in there with a meat cleaver. that would be stupid. >> jonathan alter. nbc news political analyst. also the author of the book, his very best. jimmy carter, a life. jonathan, thk anyou. >> thanks so much. coming up, pal an tier's co- funder is going to join us, talking about doge, palantir and so much more coming back.

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ubs is set to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle a doj probe over violations of an earlier agreement. that's according to a wall street journal report. at issue, a provision in a guilty plea in a case accusing it of helping americans cheat on its taxes. credits whiz agreed to provide

the doj with information on any undeclared american accounts that it closed and where the money went next. this new fine would settle violations. creditswhiz was taken over by ubs in 2023. elon musk back pedaling a bit on his boast to cut $2 trillion from the federal government. he said if it cuts $2 trillion, it has a good shot at finding $1 trillion. joining us now is joe, the cofounder of palantir. let's start there, joe. what do you make of the 2 trillion turns to 1 trillion, and not. i don't can know where we go from there. >> it's pretty amazing. i have dozens of friends helping him out in all sorts of ways. bright engineers and lawyers working day and night to map out what they're going to try

to do. it's not for me to smack to them, but i think these guys are being really deep on this. listen, i think if they do get to a trillion dollars, from my personal understanding of the government, that would be impressive. there's a lot of antibodies in the government and hard things to overcome, and it would be amazing to cut that level of waste. >> there's no question it would be. how do you think of the communication of it and the expectations management of it? >> well, you know, i'm only speaking for me personally, but when i mapped it out, i saw you can get to right around just under a trillion dollars, and it's going to be hard, and the next trillion is going to be harder. there's only so much bureaucracy to cut. it would be because of the regulations they're cutting, not necessarily spend. there's fraud and entitlements.

there's ngo spend, and unused buildings and the list goes on and on. >> joe, when you think about big places where you can take money from and the worlds that you lived in, defense being a huge part of that through palantir. how do you think about whether this doge group is really going to be able to effect that. >> the doge group is probably not going to get as much to be in defense as it will in fraud and waste. defense is in large part controlled by the house committees in congress. there's a lot of great bipartisan work they do. it's extremely controversial to cut things, andrew. i'll tell you the truth. some parts of defense are meant to terrify our enemies. that's a very small part of what we spend in defense. a lot of it is tied to special interests. it's tied to welfare. there's a lot of things that

would be impossible to remove politically. so should we cut defense spending? should we get rid of the cost plus stuff that is not scaring our enemies? obviously we should do that. are we going to be able to do that? that's a very hard lift in congress. >> palantir shares up 13%, a huge jump after the election. but there's been a bit of a pull back in recent days. what do you ascribe that to? >> it's nice to see palantir looked at as the extremely valuable company it is. people are understanding how it's tied to this a.i. revolution and to a lot of extraordinary things it's doing. the precise valuation over a company that's going dominant over the next ten years, i'm not really exactly focused on the valuation today. i think the overral trend was correct that it's an extraordinary company, and it's only 55% government spend overall. i think it's about 44% u.s.

government spend is what i understand from last year, comes from government. so a lot of this is amazing commercial progress, and it's just how fast can it grow? >> i think the big questions are not only defense spending changes here in this country, but a big chunk of palantir's revenue is overseas as well. is it changing over the globe? how is modern warfare going to be looking and how are governments adapting? >> this is a big trend last year, as people around the world realize you're going to need more of the very best defense companies. that is very good for palantir, for all of these companies. i think what people don't understand is when you cut defense spending, it's actually also really good to cut defense spending a bit for these new companies. you have these legacy prime companies doing things in ways

that are ten times more expensive. so the really good defense companies, they're screwed because that's going out of them. when you have a company like palantir, when you have these new up and coming companies that are competing with primes, they're so much cheaper. assuming you're going to have is defense spending and cut it and put pressure on it, that's good for people like palantir as well. >> do you see the defense budget being completely reshaped over the next four years, even if the number doesn't come down, in terms of which companies win, which companies lose. everybody from palantir to lockheed martin is all trying to get in there and some stay in there. >> yeah, those guys are already in, and are pretty good. you know, andrew, there's a lot of momentum that's coming from both sides for reform. there's a lot of things saying, wait a second. this cost plus framework doesn't make any sense. we're seeing new companies that can literally do things ten times better at a fraction of

the cost. we have to have competition, so let them in. the thing that's ten times more expensive might win, because they know to play those rules. you have extraordinary people coming in. we have some of our friends we respect going in who are going to be helping run the dod. we have a lot of bull people at arms services who want to make this more of a fair game, where if you win, you actually get the contract. that's been a movement we've already had in the last four years going in that direction. i think it's only going to accelerate hard going in with this administration. >> i want to talk about it on tv here, on the hb1 visa controversy. because in some ways you could argue i don't know if it split apart the republican party, but you can see where the fault lines are, and where you think ultimately president trump will land. >> you know, in some ways this is a healthy discussion.

maga in a lot of ways is about, there are certain people in in country who have been left behind, who have been mistreated. over the years in this country, there's been minorities that have been mistreated in the past. in the last 20 years we've discriminated really hard against some of our communities in the heartland. we've discriminated against white males in the corporate world. it's going to be very important to do two things andrew, i think it is possible to square the circle here. a, we need to make sure we're focusing on people born here around train them, helping them not face unfair competition. there's no reasons we need tons of cheap h1bs coming in, you could tax it to show the abuse. there's lots of abuse going on, and we've got to fix it had a. at the same time, america wins because the best and brightest are here. so those two things are both true. the nuance is on politics, but let's focus on both of those and get it right.

>> also, we want you to weigh in on content moderation, and free speech. you're a big advocate for what elon musk has done on x. what we've just seen in the last 48 hours with meta and what mark zuckerberg has done. what do you think shifted that? how much of that was what elon musk is doing? how much of that is what sort of pressure he may or may not feel from president trump? president trump basically said that maybe it was his threats that pushed him towards this. covered mark as long as i have, whether this is what he always thought, frankly, and then there would be other people in facebook who pushed him the other way. i'm always trying to understand the thinking behind this. >> andrew, we won. we won. this has been a big battle we fought for a decade. elon won, trump one, free

speech won, america won. you're right. zuck has always been a lot more to the middle than the people he works with are. that doesn't get away from the nonsense over the last decade. i think it was terrible. if anything, he was clearly bullied to go against his natural instincts on this particular one and to be forced to have these political fact checkers, clearly, extraordinarily influenced by the left, and he admitted it. you know what? the way we've been doing things, the way i was pushed by these liberals and the democratic party is not going to happen anymore. >> i agree i think you want more speech generally, but at the same time, you're saying president trump won, there's no question he's bringing lawsuits against media organizations other things i would think you would think should be acceptable to be published on

x, or should have been published on meta. there was a lawsuit against a pollster in iowa, she got it wrong. i'm not suggesting she got it right, but i would put that in the category of free speech. there are things that the president-elect is doing that some people would say, not just some people, i think a lot of people would argue is potentially trying to stifle free speech. where do you land on that? >> yeah, so i think it's a fair question, andrew, and again, i can't speak for president trump himself, but here's how i see a lot of these things. i'm obviously vehemently on the side of free speech. if i had to argue the case for what president trump is doing, we've seen a lot of really sketchy stuff from some of these kind of hard left groups, whether they be ngos, others who coordinate between other people to try to influence them to say things, i wouldn't be surprised if there's illegal coordination going on in discovery you find out between

different parties and the pollster or between these give groups. i think if people around trump, maybe you can say they're too conspiracy minded, but maybe they're right. there could be things that come out that you say wait a second, that is illegal. trump sometimes knows what he's doing with these things, he might find something where we come back and say well, they shouldn't have been doing that. i understand why they're looking at that. >> nice to see you. coming up, we're going to go inside amazon's push into live sports. the company hosting its first ever nfl playoff game this weekend. more after a break. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc. et them manage some investments for me too. let's move on, shall we? no can do. client: i'll get out here. where are you going?? schwab. schwab! schwab. a modern approach

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amazon is making a big push into sports. the streamer had its first ever nfl playoff game, has it this saturday, and it landed nba

rights starting next season. our alex sherman spoke to jay marine. prime video's head of local sports and talks about which rights he's looking into next. >> i think it's only responsible to look at everything. i think mlb has done a great job. they've really made some innovations in the game to speed up the game and that's really sort of worked. they had a fantastic world series. ufc for sure. you know, what dana and that team -- i mean, that's an incredible success story. they've grown that into just an incredibly valuable franchise. incredibly passionate fan base. we'd be very interested in taking a look as i expect every broadcaster would. >> do you expect to do another deal for the canadian nhl lights? i know you have a sub license. >> yeah, we would love to continue that partnership. >> alex herman is with us now. this is unique for some of

these guys, i think, because it really could drive subscribers. there's no doubt in my mind. when does goodell take it too far, do you think, or are we nowhere near that yet? >> i don't know, because all the data is still pointing up joe. you take a look at amazon's ratings. they continue to go up from year one to year two. the viewing audience for nfl games is younger. about seven years younger than it is for linear. that's got to be appealing for the nfl. i asked marine, when the nfl comes up again which is going to be in about four to five years from now, assuming the nfl pulls up its opt-out rights, assuming they will do. you could tell from his answer, there's a reason why amazon is called the everything store. every time i asked him are you

interested in x sport, his answer was yes. so they're out there and clearly see a lot of value in live sports for the prime membership. >> i do think i'm underserved. i could see where there should be a way to watch every game. i know there's red zone or whatever. but there ought to be a way on sunday, where if i want something, i should be able to get it. and there's enough distributers now, where we should be able to do that. so goodell isn't at saturation. >> this is something i've talked to other legacy media executives about too. which is that there's at least a possibility that the nfl decides to dramatically alter the way they carve out rights potentially even eliminating sunday ticket to your point, and just giving all of the sunday games out there to the various different entities. netflix, google, amazon, espn, whatever legacy media companies are around in five years, to basically use the college football model, instead of the nfl model. that will be something i'm sure the league looks at.

it will all come down to dollars. can they make more one that way than by selling sunday ticket for $2 billion a year to google youtube. >> have i complained to you about the chiefs game? >> you've complained to everybody. >> can i complain to you about that? >> i mean, i'm a captive audience here, you can do whatever you want. >> if amazon prime brought me that chiefs game against denver where they needed denver to lose and the chiefs put in some of the high schoolers around the area to play that day, i wouldn't subscribe anymore. i'd want my money back. >> you'd give up the free shipping just for one football game? >> here's a hint, alex, he's not a subscriber. >> of prime? >> are you? >> of course. >> i thought you said you didn't buy anything online. >> i don't buy anything, but i have it for the tv, and she

does, of course. >> i was going to say. >> i don't pay for anything. no. alex , i pay for everything. not anything. digging a hole here. for more on this story and the crossroads of business and sports, make sure you sign up for the cnbc sport newsletter. scan the qr code on your screen or go to cnbc.com/sportnewsletter. coming up a lot more on the life and legacy of president jimmy carter, whose funeral is taking place today. cnbc will be delivering special coverage starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. we've got an interview with andrew left. he's going to be speaking out. it's going to be the first time since he was charged with fraud a t lyast ju. loof big questions for him and the implications for the world of short sellers and more. you do not want to miss this conversation. it will happen tomorrow right here on "squawk box." we're coming right back.

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now to california. five people are dead and more than 130,000 people are under evacuation orders as wildfires

ravage communities from the pacific coast to inland pasadena. the worst of the winds that helped spread those fires subsided yesterday afternoon. fire officials telling nbc this morning that they hope calmer winds will help firefighters start to get some containment. but more strong winds are expected later today. those fires ripping through highly populated and affluent neighborhoods. among those reporting that they have lost their homes are celebrities billy crystal, eugene levy, anthony hopkins, and paris hilton. the latest major blaze started around 6:00 p.m. last night into the hollywood hills and has grown to more than 60 acres. you are looking at a live shot of that fire right now. more than 2,000 structures have been claimed. lots of questions about how and when to get this under containment. >> so do we know the wind speed at this point? >> the santa anas aren't as bad as they were. >> it's slowed down but it's anticipated to be kicking up

this afternoon potentially all the way through sunday. >> you can get water any way you need it. >> the biggest problem has been water pressure. especially when you're up in the hills. >> we're counting down, now to tomorrow's jobs report. waiting to see what investors will be monitoring in that data. so many different data points. joining us right now on the markets, brenda vengela. she's also a cnbc contributor for, i don't know, three, four, five, maybe even longer than that. it's the wage data, as far as if you look at the subset of data that comes out in this report. is that what you're waiting for? >> well, i think we're in this environment where the economy remains healthy. i think the job growth will remain healthy. but we have seen that wage growth has certainly come down

from its highs but it's still above inflation. that is continuing to filter into the services side of the economy, and impact services inflation. so i do think we'll see what the reaction is on friday, but i think we get a strong report, which i imagine we are anticipating we will. we may find that the market reaction to that is not great because it just is one more reason why the federal reserve may not lower interest rates this year. but if we look what's being priced in right now, there's little to no rate cuts being priced in. so i think the pendulum has really swung pretty far in the other direction. it's really over the course of the last 12 months we've seen a lot of swings from one way to the other based on what the market is pricing in in terms of what the fed might do. but i think we've swung the other direction, and i think that as we look to this year we may ultimately see more rate cuts than what is being priced in. but i think we need to get

through this period of uncertainty, especially around washington policy and how that might ultimately end up impacting inflation. >> we're going to continue, brenda, but i think we have some live pictures from washington, that we can quickly take a look at. pretty interesting to see something like that, always. you know? compared to other pictures we've seen. but the somber, solemn scene we haven't seen in quite a while. when was the last democratic president that passed? long ago. many, many years. washington officials getting ready for president carter's funeral this morning. the casket will soon move from the u.s. capitol to washington national cathedral. i think, wasn't it lbj? >> i was thinking lbj. >> and how long ago was that?

how about that fact, jimmy carter the first president born in a hospital. >> oh, wow. the funeral services for president carter began on saturday in georgia. they've carried on through here, he's been in the rotunda, and people paying their respects there. you've seen the cascade of people going through to pay their respects. this is the last step of this. this will conclude at the national cathedral today. the carter family is standing by, ready to make that procession as well. >> brenda, i guess we were going to have to -- the nuggets you already gave us, that's going to have to be enough. thank you very much. appreciate you coming on this morning. we'll speak soon, and obviously we see exactly what kind of numbers we do get tomorrow at 8:30. >> right now, the leadership of the senate and the house are

gathering. we're continuing to watch these pictures of former president jimmy carter's funeral. these are the final moments of a remembrance that began on saturday and will conclude today at the washington national cathedral. we'll continue to monitor this. also when we come back, we'll be joined by allen wolff who worked on trade in the carter administration. ck wl rhtx"ilbeig ba. paxlovid is an oral trea tment for adults... with mild-to- moderate covid-19 and a high-risk factor for it becoming severe. it does not prevent covid-19. my symptoms are mild now, but i'm not risking it. if it's covid, paxlovid. paxlovid must be taken within the first 5 days of symptoms... and helps stop the virus from multiplying in your body. taking paxlovid with certain medicines can lead... to serious or life- threatening side effects or affect how it... or other medicines work, including hormonal birth control. tell your doctor about all medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements you take as certain tests or dosage changes of your other medicines may be needed. tell them if you have kidney or liver problems, hiv-1, are or plan to be pregnant or breastfeed. don't take paxlovid if allergic to its ingredients.

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as we near the top of the hour, we want to get back to our very own amon javers who has more on what to expect today. >> good morning. we do expect to see the president's casket moving to the national cathedral later this morning, we're seeing some of the first parts of that process unfolding right now as you look at live pictures.

becky, this is just a moment for reflection. as any funeral is, the funeral of a president, so many of our lives are dominated by the president who was in office at different stages of our lives. one of my first memories of all- time was the 1976 presidential election. i was 4 years old, and i can still remember the election that day, walking the two blocks from my parents' house in philadelphia to the fire station just down the road. my parents casting their ballots and just being so excited to go to the fire station that day, because the firemen always said hello to me when i passed by, and being bewildered that there are all of these voting machines in there with curtains and all the things going on behind the scenes. just the child's eye view into the national drama that was playing out that i was largely unaware of, or entirely unaware

of. that gives you a sense of how long jimmy carter has been a figure on the national stage. i'm pretty old, and this was one of my first memories of all- time. >> i was thinking the opposite. i was thinking a black and white tv, and there was this guy my parents would put on and i was like, why are we listening to this guy again, he was so boring until someone killed him. i remember where i was. >> john f. kennedy? >> yeah. and i didn't appreciate him. i thought he was boring. those were some of my earliest memories of jfk just rambling, but he was saying interesting things, i just didn't know it. >> i think back at the hostage crisis at the tail end of the carter presidency, and i remember rides the school bus on the way home from school and seeing all the yellow ribbons tied on the trees, as people were sending a message of

support with those yellow ribbons. that was a national phenomenon and it was obviously politically devastating to jimmy carter. one of the things that's been lost is sort of the struggles of the carter administration, and a lot of people sort of associate the hostage crisis with the problems that carter faced politically. but in reality, the hostage crisis came after carter's presidency was already in peril politically. he had some real difficulties before then, and that was sort of the political nail, so to speak. but you know this is something that was etched into american's memories and clearly as a 7- year-old then, just driving home from school, those yellow ribbons were iconic. >> amon, stick around. i want to bring in another guest right now. our next guest worked on trade negotiations with president carter. joining us now is alan wolff. distinguished fellow at the

petterson institute for international economics. put all of this in perspective, if you will, alan for us. carter's presidency, his thoughts about opening markets and perhaps where we are as a country today. >> carter focused on opening markets abroad in two major ways. one is our major competitor at the time was japan. people forget about it, but back when carter was president it was going to be the century of japan, was heralded in the newspapers. and we couldn't sell things into japan. couldn't get things into japan. market access was very difficult. and also global trading rules. so carter did two things. one is he concentrated on opening the japanese market and the japanese market became open ultimately. and he focused on setting in new international rules. it's not just tariffs. tariffs are a minor irritant

for most products compared with, varied by a couple of percent from country to country, compared with product standards. he put into affect a product standards code. you can't sell a product at all unless it meets a standard. >> alan, i was going to ask you, what do you think president carter would think of the situation with nippon steel and u.s. steel today? >> well, nippon steel was a vigorous competitor, a not a fair competitor for years and years and years. you have to get across that. but carter, i think could get past that to say what's best for the workers of u.s. steel in terms of that acquisition, and what's best for the u.s. economy? and look at it fairly without emotion as to -- it's the japan of today, not the japan of 50 years ago that we're facing. was that the best option for

u.s. steel? it deserved to be looked at just passionately on the facts. so i think we would not have intervened politically. he would have been sympathetic to the unions, of course, democratic president, but also how is u.s. steel going to survive, and prosper in the future? >> alan, you wrote a remembrance of president carter, and you wrote this, president carter set the tone for the country. carter rebelled against the imperial presidency. you also talked about what you thought was his exuding this personal integrity. i just wonder if that remembrance is a commentary on today, if that's a commentary on him, if that's a commentary on where this country is? >> it is both. with carter what i said in that piece was that america would

keep its word. there was no doubt whatsoever under the presidency of jimmy carter if we had a trade agreement, we'd live up to our trade agreement obligations. and we had agreements with other countries, and we did live up to those obligations. but also on a personal level he couldn't be bought. he couldn't be swayed by a political contribution or anything even more personal than that. on one occasion he was given a watch, not by a member of the public, but by a member of his administration, and because it was a watch that would appeal to him as an engineer. it had all the time zones around the world on the watch. it was a seiko watch and there wasn't much available at that time, so he wore it for a day and then he decided, it's got to go back. i'm not accepting gifts from anybody. so it was a different era, but

also a different man, and personal integrity really matters. he was a man of principle. so it poured over into trade policy because america would keep its word, but jimmy carter would keep his word, and that personal integrity infused his government. it made a difference. >> alan, we want to thank you for joining us this morning and providing your perspective on this important and historic day. we appreciate it very, very much. we also want to thank you amon who we will be speaking with more this morning. >> we're continuing to watch the coverage here of president carter's last moments here at the rotunda, we will continue to watch when he will be deported to washington, d.c. we will here, right here on cnbc continue with our special coverage. again, thank you for joining us

this morning. our continuing coverage picks up now. good thursday morning, everyone. i'm carl quintanilla. >> i'm sara eisen. this is a cnbc special report, remembering jimmy carter. >> today the nation is honoring its 39th president who died in late december at the age of 100. that did make him the longest living president. his casket as you may know this morning is at the u.s. capitol. and after a departure this morning, his remains and his family will be driven to washington's national cathedral, where the state funeral is scheduled to begin in about an hour. >> president biden has declared

today a national day of mourning. stock markets are closed, but equity futures will trade until 9:30 eastern time. bond markets will close early at 2:00 p.m. eastern. tomorrow the december jobs report will be released. you'll also have a so, today isu days we haven't had one in a while. we're expecting all the pomp and circumstance of washington, d.c. and also, you know, a rare moment of unity between five presidents that are expected to be there today, including president trump. >> it's been a while since we've had a presidential funeral last one for george herbert walker bush, 2018. and as you point out, it is sort of a period where all of these fractional differences in american politics are set aside, at least for one day you're looking at some of the color guard here, getting ready to move to the national cathedral. we'll be listening in here take a listen.