>> according to a new cnn poll, the president's approval rating is 48%. one of the reasons why, the delay in obamacare. rich edson is in d.c. explain the developments with the delays. >> okay, charles, this started back on december 23rd, when you had to have signed up for insurance under obamacare on the federal website if you wanted to start on january 1st. a couple of days ago, the administration says if you started an application or visited because of high volume we'll give you until the end of christmas eve day. christmas is done and the

administration is saying you can go ahead and still, maybe if you start an application we'll see if we can get you covered by january 1st. what the administration put out a short while ago. quote, you might have run into delays due to heavy traffic at healthcare.gov. maintenance and others with our system don't worry we may be able to help you get covered by january 1st. the administration wants everyone covered who can qualify for this. they're well short of their targets they set out in september and hoped to have millions covered by the end of the year and the president says government health insurance with private insurance they expect to have 2 million covered by january 1st and we have no idea where the numbers are right now. charles: a lot of if's, maybe, might, mechanical. if you ran into a sloppy website that happened to be ours. it feels like why have a deadline in the first place? it's become a joke, rich. >> there are different conditions in which to get extended and what they're

saying they had a record 2 million site visits on december 23rd. i've got to tell you we visited the website on the 23rd. if you waited two or three minutes you got out of the q queuing system and-- >> that's called shop till you drop. rich, this is an important point that a lot of people are asking about. is the administration disclosing once and for all the demographics who is actually getting enrolled on the website? we want to know if the young are coming in? are they disclosing that young people are getting policies? are they breaking down demographically the number? >> we don't know who is signing up. all we know is that the t hopes 1st to have signed up a million people in private insurance and about a million people in government insurance like medicaid or chip, the children's health insurance private. but they want the younger folks who don't get as sick to pay premiums to get the plans and

one thing that hurts that. if the government phrased out your insurance or your insurance was phased out because of government regulations because of obamacare, you can sign up for a bare bones plan. that's not the design that they want for insurance companies. they want them to buy more insurance to subsidize. >> i remember 3.3 million was the number and 7 million of course by the end of march. i want to go to the next topic, rich, along the same lines. >> put it this way. 2013 a bad year for the president. so, 2014 republicans obviously hoping to pick up seats in the senate. next year is going to be extraordinarily important for whole lot of reasons. can you give us the layout? >> it's mid term year starting on wednesday and when you look at the polls, how far have we come since the government shutdown and everybody was calling for their heads. the obamacare took on the generic republicans are beating

generic democrats. and it's assuming that republicans are likely going to hold the house of representatives. when it comes to the u.s. senate, republicans have to pick up six seats to do this and the map on this one is -- they've got either really incumbents who are in trouble or open seats in six republican leaning states. south dakota, virginia, arkansas, alaska, if they do this and hold their own seats they could take control of the united states. it's a perfect storm, republicans thought they could pull it off. they thought so last time and didn't do so. we've dot a donny brook. thanks. the north and eastern regions of the country. an ice storm from michigan to maine covered trees and power lines, widespread power outages for tens of thousands of americans and cold temperatures are expected to persist. 27 deaths have been blamed on the storms, 17 here at home. ten in canada and for some

people power may not be back on until the end. the market rally in the meantime does continue, the tech stocks leading the way. is there anything to knock the rally off its tracks? we'll find out and the opening bell is next. [ male announcer ] once, tre was a man who found a magic seashell. itold him what was happening on e tradg floor in real te. ♪ the shell brought him great fame. ♪ but then, one day, he noticed that everybody could have a magic seashl. [ indistinct talking ] [ male announcer ] right there in their trading platform. ♪ [ indistinct talking continues ] [ male announcer ] so the magic shell went back to being a...shell. get live squawks right in your trading platform with think or swim from td ameritrade. get live squawks right in your trading platform it's been that way ysince e day you met.. but your erectile dysfunction -

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>> all right. we're a little more than a minute away from the opening bell. joining us is scott shellady. the market keeps trucking, but what could derail this rally? >> let's take a look at last year. the jobs numbers have been fairly volumable. we're going to need to spend on economic growth and uncertainty. what about january? what's going to happen to the taper talk then. there are people that say we could add more taper to this thing. anywhere near washington, i think they could screw up a party in a brewery. so, let's just say that it's going to be very volatile and we're going to need to see steady economic growth before we see anything more than what we've seen right now. i'm worried that people think the party is over and there's nothing to see here, move along, move along. we've only seen five decent numbers. a couple of good numbers, and inflation numbers and gdp

numbers, that's going to throw this into a tizzy. charles: you're saying only up to week ago, conventional wisdom was bringing it back into the equation would hurt the market now? >> yeah, i think that would still-- the government's plan into disarray and be bad for the market. more and more folks coming up to the fact that we've got economic uncertainty and things are better fundamentally, but going back to saying the economy is weaker, that could throw a wrench in that thing. charles: as you can hear, the bell is opening. . [bell ringing] the market is open for trading. and we're up, all major indices to the upside. we're on automatic pilot at least for right now. one of the reasons, it's been a huge name for tech names. yahoo! facebook, twitter, let's go to the new york stock exchange. lauren, what's going on? >> i know, tech is having such

a good year. the nasdaq is up what, 38% this year. s&p is on fire and a lot of members look at that. let's talk about yahoo!. this started the year right around $20, a little less than that and as you can see, it's now at 41. so, that's more than doubling this year, hitting a new 52-week high today. new all-time highs for facebook and twitter. a short while ago pricing at $26. now at 72.51. tech is on fire. >> tech is on fire. you look up parabolic in the dictionary, they have a picture of the twitter two-week chart there. listen we know tech was the place to be in 2013. what about next year? joining us is shah galani. no one expects us to beat this year next year, how do you think we're going to shake out in 2014? >> i think that technology stocks are going to continue to

soar, there's nothing holding them back. they probably need some breathing room, but no reason for technology not to move forward. there's nothing else fundamentally working in the economy, the technology side is working and i think it's global, it's going to be here for a long time and it's a good place to remain. >> you used the word fundamental, fundamentally. from a fundamental analytical point of view you'd be afraid to buy these stocks. the hype is there, excitement is there and they do have growth, but from a fundamental point of view, that bottom line is scary for justification, no? >> yahoo! especially bothers me, a stake in alibaba and may become public next year or the year after. the stock has risen on that. you rise the momentum because of the alibaba ipo is going to boost shares so be it. the revenue in november, the search revenue has fallen.

the numbers have fallen. marissa mayer has done a great job sprucing up the company, but the numbers aren't on a fundamental basis impressive at you will a. but again, the rise in momentum. if you own yahoo! you continue to hold it and raise your stops. otherwise i wouldn't be adding onto this level for sure. >> all right, so this brings me to the next topic, about six months ago i called you the reluctant bull. you seemed to say ride the rally and be cautious. what should we be concerned about? what can tail this rally going into next year? >> i think the economic data coming out in the first quarter and into the second quarter, i think, will be telling as to do we have any forward momentum, enough to get out of what the fed is eventually tapering all the way out? i don't know that that's going to happen soon. we'vv got this sort of goldilocks situation the fed will provide what it thinks it

needs to provide. and economically, the numbers, there's nothing impressive out there. new home sales and all of the housing numbers are unimpressive to me and that's a core element to what's happening with the economy and i don't see any forward movement. i see it fairly flat and soggy. i'm not overly concerned about stocks falling. there's enough momentum there. with the fed as a back stop, i'm comfortable. we have to look at the numbers, if we something nasty we could see corrections long, long overdue. would you be a buyer of that. the reluctant bull in the worst case scenario, if the economy falte falters, we get a 15 correction. >> like people waiting for a correction i've been buying all the way up, discretely and not overloaded. i think that market has a long, long, long way to go to the

upside. charles: that's one of the ironies are being bullish, a lot of people have kept some powder dry. you've made people a lot of money and we always appreciate that. we'll talk to you again soon, charles. back to lauren at the nyse. you've got the top three dow winners for 2013. >> these are the top three, boeing with a gain and american express, new component nike. if you look at all 30 stocks in the dow industrials, only one of them is in the negative for 2013 and that's ibm. it's down about 4%. we're in the santa claus rally right now. the last five trading days of the year, the first two of the new year, stocks gain most of the time history serves. it's fair to say we're on autopilot and momentum continues and we'll probably end 2013 with 29 out of 30 stocks in the green, charles. >> that's remarkable. as far as volume is concerned,

they've got a huge, huge upside for a long time. >> inks that-- thanks a lot, lauren. it's know the just tech stocks. the core economic stocks trying to do well, too. and market watcher david is here with bell. and the u.s. steel, it's parabolic, it's not a twitter, but the stock has come on like gang busters in the last six months. what does it tell you? >> tells me that the numbers that are em about he hadded in this stock right now are probably too low. it's pretty expensive at this point. trading around 30 times mix. look the a the chart up. there now, that's a rally, that's a huge move. . charles: we're talking almost a double now. >> it's starting to break and the company lost money this year, and what it tells me, the estimates are probably too low and we may be at an inflection point and some of the laggard industrial names. interestingly, a couple of weeks ago, goldman announced and actually went positive on the sector, from a sell to a

buy in this thing. >> wow, that's pretty good. at least they didn't wait for it. >> this is an interesting stock to watch, and not just for the domestic economists, but worldwide. where is the raging bull going to turn into an aging bull as one analyst put it and whether or not, you know, we hold. we don't have-- remember we were talking about headline risk, we were talking about the middle east, gas hitting $1 a gallon and the euro zone collapsing. and this year, 2014 elections coming in, but what of the black swan, what are the headlines? >> there's always headlines, military conflict, and the middle east, i knview that as a positive. the u.s. is on the way to energy independence. >> we were talking blue chips and industrial names. >> that affects that. energy pricing being stable here helps. you need a strong consumer to

buy what the blue chips sell so i view this as very positive going forward. >> there was a time when the market was sort of the proxy. the u.s. would do the next six months to a year and you're saying we're back to that traditional role. >> i'm not sure we ever left it. you know, we have those market advances like the financial crisis of 2008, and blind-sided a lot of people and i think that the market is telling us something here, that the gdp numbers, it's about 3% right now. i'm bullish going into next year, we could hit 2100. charles: so that brings us to what scott told us a minute ago and shah told us and the only thing in the black swan category that could derail this is the u.s. economy hitting a speed bump. we're banking on this. it's not necessarily firing on pll cylinders. >> charles, i'm sure there will

be a speed bump along the way and everybody's going to want to come out here and have their moment and accurately predict the coming of the crash and-- >> and on the band wagon in the market. >> there's a lot of dead shorts. charles: we always go out and shields. >> what's going to knock the engines off the u.s. economy? the again, the federal reserve fireworks are over and we're in a dovish taper, right, david? is it industry spikes? is that the kryptonite of the rally? >> what's going to unfold in the next six, seven months. and interest rates are rising because the taper is in place and that became evident starting in may and they're going up for good reasons, that the economy is starting to improve. interest rates are starting to normallize. . charles: great information, but we do have an unwritten rule

and when i host the show, the guest's tie can't be better than mine. you blew me away today. and the market has been trading for almost ten minutes. up 49 points and another 50 point gain on the market, what we like to see. lululemon, now, they've got a new marketing strategy, they're ditching mannequins and using live models for their clothes. is that going to get people in. do we want to see people stretching in that window? we will have that next. (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login... to easily move my money when i need to. plus, when i call my local scottrade offi, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. like everybody. i trade like me.

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>> gaining momentum. let's check on the big board. we were up 26, 42, and now take a look. 16,400, do i hear 16,500? time for the morning gold

report. it held around 1200 which is key and a lot of people may be buying gold looking for an oversold bounce, right now 10 bucks. keep an eye on gold. take a look to sprint. japan is looking to have the recently acquired u.s. unit sprint take a majority stake in t-mobile. it's been moving higher and both of the names are up. a lot of people think they're going to make this happen. if you walked past lululemon store recently you might have seen a different mannequin in the store window. the company recently began using live models with is it an attempt for the name or brilliant marketing? was it just by accident? >> i had no clue until i saw the cloud of people around me. it's a brilliant marketing because lululemon was seven straight quarters. they're interested in yoga and

didn't know yoga existed. you have only 5% of the u.s. population to practice yoga. you don't need to know why to spend $90 on a pair of pants. charles: do you do yoga? >> i'm wondering if the trend of naked yoga. charles: with those crappy pants, for full disclosure, i took one course and i can tell you right now i had to stop. it wasn't meant for me. but, realistically though they've had a whole bunch of negative things happen. at least the guy who founded the company, he stepped down and that's a brilliant move. besides the gimmicks how do they get people interested in the products? >> the window was interesting. and they're fanatical about it, the people on facebook, and i talked to the store associates and asked if they had a men in there, with the yoga positive.

show men why they need this brand in their life and showing the window and hoping to bring the men into the window in a couple of months. >> they've got styling clothes, the clothes are hot, sexy, really nicely designed clothes at lululemon. charles: the problem though, e-mack, they had this reputation having the best clothes so people would pay premium and when you get the pilling. >> this is quality control. if i could watch a person would

the people taking the pictures and baby boomers. and make it into an athletic brand, underarmor and nike, and make it for-- >> how was your christmas? >> short. >> burn it off with yoga. charles: duck dynasty, they had a marathon for this. are this going to pull the plug on this show or is it too much of a cash cow? next. (vo) you are a business pro.

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>> can you believe the hypocrisy? after sparking controversy over the comments from a duck dynasty gas member which led to the star being suspended. a & e decided to run a marathon on christmas. no surprise, it's a top show on the network. >> it's an interesting question, they've got a massive viewer base, i read a number 14 million viewers, viewers we were talking about at the break. the revenue from on-line-- excuse me items sold related to the show nearly half a billion dollars already. here is the problem, here are the risks for duck dynasty and

a & e. talking to media analysts, possibly get the other show members to say, do you agree with bill robinson-- >> they said, no, they're behind phil, 100% behind phil. >> in other words, make good tv. get a gay couple or people who go to the church. we've seen reports coming out of louisiana that gay people do go to the church, get them on camera and debate. the contradictions saying we never judge someone is going to heaven or hell, we don't decide that we let god straighten them out. really, that sounds like a flip-flop, like you were actually judging people who were gay. charles: that point avoid though, from a & e's point of view, they're saying we don't agree with what phil robertson had to say and we're going to keep him off the show or we disagree with the point, but not enough to get rid of the

cash cow. from a pure business point of view, it seems hypocritical. >> i can't say, but what i'm talking about is a business strategy. who how do you hold onto the viewer without alienating em this. his comments were out of line-- >> they like the show. >> every show has a tippingpoint. we've seen that with all reality. charles: what if the numbers keep getting better? >> they keep going. charles: if they come out with an mea culpa? >> i'm just talking about what the show could do which would make great tv to hold the viewers. that's what it's about. how do you get the viewers in there without showing the main players not to be contradicting themselves, flip-flopping or being negative about a whole part of the american population? >> and i think toward that a little bit, a lot of things i've seen post the gq interview, it tells us

something else though when it comes to money and when it comes to big business and money. they may have certain principles that they claim to embrace, but when it's said and done, they embrace nothing more than the bottom line. >> i hear what you're saying, the choice to keep them in the mega marathon, christmas day and into the wee hours. >> which, by the way, none of that would have been a big deal if in fact they had never suspended phil robertson, we don't know with or without pay or how long it's going to last. almost everyone, i'm not talking cynics, almost every one of them believe he'll be back on the show and never miss a beat. >> and somebody has a constitutional right to be on a reality show and say whatever they want. when the private sector makes a decision. >> cracker barrel made a quick reversal, and with the merchandise. thanks a lot. one of the harshest critics of president obama, dan henninger

from the wall street journal has a new title for our commander-in-chief. try in one, your excellency. he's going to explain it coming up. [ le announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance in sync?

try align. it's the number one ge recommended probiotic thatelps maintn digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align. >> good morning, varney viewers, i'm charles payne in for stuart. we're going to cover this at the 10 a.m. hour on "varney & company." president obama's approval sinking to a new low, all about obamacare and it's becoming about the 2014 mid term elections and the g.o.p., can they season the opportunity or they're out of touch with the

youth, with minorities and building blocks? one of the president's harshest critics coined a new term for him, his excellency. and decades of lawsuits, environmental studies, funding shortfalls has the imagery train finally been derailed and we have to get back, it's all about tech. twitter is leading the way. is it a smart buy? how will the company make money? and young people not signing up for obamacare, they'd rather pay $95 in a fine than thousands of dollars for the coverage. and all of those stories next as another hour of "varney & company" is set to begin. ♪ well, steady as she goes at the big board. now dow 16,426. the market is helped, and

fueled by the technology stocks. about you will it be ffll steam ahead going into the new year? liz, to you first. markets are riding on a high. does anything have you worried at this point? >> only interest rates, we've said time and again that's the stock market kryptonite and whether the bond market reacts negatively with a 10-year note going higher. we're seeing the s&p price earnings trending nicely. not stupendously rich, but the stock market is the place to be as the earnings continue with the u.s. companies. >> i know you've been cautious for most of the rally. >> you know what, too cautious, i think you've been more on the mark than i have about this. the market seems to have understood that the economy was ready to grow. all of the indications are the market is ready to go and the president obama's ability to stop the market from growing has been diminished significantly with the rollout disaster of obamacare and other things, but for all of his

attempts to try to put in more regulations to do through executive order what he can't through by congress, and what liz said how the fed gets rid of the balance sheet. 4 trillion dollars of money is printed up, 80% of the 4 trillion dollars is still in reserves by the way about you if that floats out can they get rid of that extra money without inflation running rampant? that's the question i'm not sure about. >> yeah, 'cause-- >> i think that the economy is it going to find a way around it. charles: this money has to seep out, doesn't have to flood out, but seep out before the economic side of the story to make sense. main street has got to participate. >> you have to have the demand there, that's what you're talking about. investigators to david's point, continue to ignore the headlines, right? and they're still searching out high yielding quality stocks. remember tom lee over at j.p. morgan a few years ago said that investors like woodland creatures looking for the high round. no, they're looking for the higher stocks. what's going to knock the

engines off of the economy and we've seen so much headline risk hitting the markets and hasn't derailed the market going up. >> one other thing, technology has helped to diminish the effects of inflation we might have had otherwise. people are now buying on amazon things like, know you toiletry items, stuff that you used to go down to the duane-reade drug stores and you see prices going up, you can buy it on-line and ship for free. technology is having to diminish. charles: although we know that the elementary definition of inflation, too much money and too much goods. ultimately ironically the goal of the fed. they have too many money chasing through, we'll see what happens. >> interesting. charles: the wall street journal reporting that amazon will refund shipping charges and give gift cards to customers whose packages were not delivered in time for christmas. with that, we'll go to lauren simonetti. >> hi, charles, the stock is down a little bit now. and amazon like other tech

giants turning in a spectacular year. i did reach out for amazon and the comment on the story, the ups' stock is hitting a new high today. despite the fact that this is what the company says. and some shipments were delayed. our system exceeded the capacity of our network immediately preceding christmas, and some shipments were delayed. that goes to show you that the shorter period, the six days shorter between thanksgiving and christmas had people buying things up to the last minute and ups could not handle it. you know what? shame on those guys, they need to get their act together. it's a bigger problem for them. the best headache, and they need to fill the orders. >> that's a great way to put it. the numbers are in from a cnn poll, president obama's approval rating hit an all-time low, 41% approve of the job he's doing, opening the door for a g.o.p. revolution in the next mid term's elections. a minority, a key block, if

they're going to take over the senate for 2011 and is the g.o.p. doing enough to win over black and hispanic voters? conservative black chick editor crystal wright is here, i love your tweets, i've got to tell you. you do not back down, you're very brave about this and pretty adamant to the g.o.p. establishment that they're simply not doing enough? >> they're not getting the job done, charles. i'm going to continue to hammer away at the republican party until they start seeing that they're not using their assets. and the assets within the republican party are minorities like you and me, blacks, hispanics, asians, people who they already have elected, elected officials and others who are out of the closet as conservatives and yet, the rnc and the republican party renewses to use people like you and me go into the communities, mia love, allen west, we're an asset. we're not saying you get rid of the white guys, but add some

color to the pallet here, folks. charles: maybe if they stopped using the term minorities they might get a greater sense of urgency. in california they're not the minorities, in florida, and one day in the united states they won't be the quote, unquote minority. you talk to a lot of republicans all the time and frustrates me when they say they don't want to pander, i think they're making a mistake using words like this. >> a lot of people on twitter tell me, crystal, if you want the republican party to be the party of special interest groups you need to be a democrat. when did i ever say that? last time i looked the republican paaty was founded on being the party of inclusion, right? lincoln's party was the party for everyone. that was the root, that's why the republican party was created, they broke away from the wigs --

whigs because they didn't believe. and it makes taking an equal opportunity, not equal outcome, equal opportunity for all americans, black, brown, purple, we wanted to be rich and achieve the american dream. >> it's liz macdonald here. why is it that the g.o.p. doesn't have the, what you're saying, the use of the assets. i agree with the charles, the use of the word minorities seems quaint to me. when will the big ten come into the g.o.p.? >> i think liz, part of the problem is the republican party for the last 30 years has gotten used to winning races from white voters, okay? but white voters as charles pointed out are a declining portion of the population. by the year 2050 more of america, over 50% will be colorful, okay? we're not minorities, we're all colorful people. so, i think they're just hung up on doing business as issue,

and i think we're going to have to lose more national races, sadly, until our party gets it. >> by the way, another problem with the word minority, i don't want to harp on this, my wife is latin american, says there's nothing minor about me. one thing about the latino community, the republicans are interested in getting them involved. every latino, including my family, had as a hard story about the ins, one of the worst bureaucracies is ins. focus on something that people have a direct connection with. say to latin americans, say you know this bureaucracy is, big government doesn't work in this country and what we're trying to get rid of. let's join forces in that area. >> absolutely. don't talk about hispanics and latinos as, you know, villains because a lot of my friends, you know what they say,

crystal, i immigrated here the right way and latinos and hispanics that i know. what they'd like to see us do as conservatives, frame the debate about doing things legally abiding by our laws, right? so we can do it, but we're not -- republicans aren't talking about women's issues or, you know, for lack of a better word, people of color issues in had a compassionate way. let's bring back compassionate conservatives, guys. let's let women like me talk about women's health issues, wow. charles: by the way, doing things by the law. >> my sister-in-law last been trying to get here from nicaragua for the past ten years and can't do it and then there are people doing it illegally and focusing on what people care about. charles: crystal, so many things that everybody has in common, you've got to tap on it, everything david talk about to hard work. and to me is seems simple. hopefully they'll bring in the

right spokesperson. and you get negative feedback, you're not afraid, not apologetic, thanks, crystal. >> you bet. charles: the highly opened movie from wall street stayed to be based on the true story of a stockbroker living the high life off scamming the government. liz and david, i think it's another one of the hollywood attack movies on wall street and i've got to tell you issing, i see these movies and i love movies, i'm a movie fan. i watched elysum, and they said that the rich people-- every time i'm seeing a movie about capitalism, it's attacking it. >> and we had just had crystal on, people want to get jobs and move into the upper bracket. there's no lifetime rich

person's club, half the people fall out of it and half the time people move up. and it's a boring movie, we don't want to read the reviews across the country. people don't want to sit there and look at excess. >> it's getting pretty good box office returns, by the way, but to hear hollywood stars talk about hedonism, there's no connection between what how much money you make and the quality of your work. i think that people are going to see this for the entertainment, kind of sexy girls they have and everybody is fascinated by rich people and what rich people do, and that's why people go. >> are we going to see solyndra the movie? >> i don't think so. charles: a lot of times i think the goal of hollywood and the messages they push. they're not successful, if they

were they'd probably lock up every g.o.p. senator in america. i saw it in a screening with rex reed and other people, and it's a cautionary tale, i would want to be a broker, i was happy to be a broker, not necessarily gordon gecko-- >> americans want to be rich. why do you think that people buy the scratch-off lottery tickets and so forth with one in a billion chances we want to be rich and successful. nothing wrong with that. it's the hypocrisy. i think that people ignored the hollywood hypocrisy and leo dicaprio makes $30 million for a movie and then deride street. charles: trash collectors notice year after year they notice people throwing out boxes, amazon.com, fedex, what does it mean? more and more people are

ditching brick and mortar and buy on-line. liz? >> going on-line, we'd have more green positive effects on the economy. less trash. the people are getting things in boxes and in other words, they are gifted in a box already, it's wrapped and then goes into another box with a styrofoam and it's thrown into the street. that's what we're hearing is that garbage collectors are seeing a rise in trash having collected from on-line deliveries. charles: when they talk about the delivering packages, they said it would be six pounds or less, but that represented like over 90% so to liz's point, people are buying a book, send me this book over, and that does accumulate after a while. >> it does accumulate although frankly i think the concern about too much garbage is overwrought. charles: how about garbage pass an economic indicator? >> i think it's a fair one. people buying not, you know, their electronic equipment, but underarm deodorant and hair

spray and stuff through amazon, i think you're going to see a lot more of that as a result of the fact you can get it cheaper from amazon than the corner drug store. >> the question was, remember at the beginning, there was the environmentalists were saying and listen, i am all for stopping pollution. i tend to agree with a lot of what the environmentalists say, i'm not saying i'm an environmentalist myself. i'm a journalist. >> on-line deliveries were going to help stop pollution and stop waist. well, trucking deliveries and fossil fuels and same as people driving to the mall. >> you can't get it in the next day on a bike alone. >> progress is a good thing. corrugated boxes used to be one of the best economic indicators. and the latest survey from mastercard, larger retailers perform slightly better than the smaller guys this year. let's take a look at j.c. penney, i'm not sure if it's large or small. >> no longer in the s&p, i had to relook that one up.

the stock is up 2% today. it was down a little on tuesday, the last day the market was open, of course, was a half day and that was on profit taking for the most part because the stock in the prior three sessions was up about 10%. maybe these stores are doing better this holiday season, charles. >> well, subscribers in the stock and i'm betting that it comes back although i'll admit it's a high risk play. >> obamacare insurance starts to take effect next week. are enough young people going to be around to keep this program afloat? we're going to ask a 20-something next. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you:

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choose between a couple thousand dollars in coverage or $95 fine, i think it's pa pretty simple choice for me, if i was 23 it'd be a simpler choice? >> a very simple choice. i know a lot of people are deciding to take the $95 fine. the administration is realizinn two different things to get them to vote for them in 2012 and to enroll young people into a bureaucratic broken health system. the website has flaws, everybody knows that. it's a much deeper process than signing up for a trip on kayak.com as the president sold is to people. and i have to pay premiums to support other people older and not healthy. younger people are fleeing from the law. the enrollment numbers are down. charles: even if this thing has really been perfectly thought out and overall burden on young

people to pay for the richest demographic in this country. isn't this idea that i'm young and invincible, isn't it tough to break through, i don't need the health care, i'm not going to have that kind of sickness in theenext couple of years? >> you're right. a lot of people say why do i need insurance? i go to the doctor once a year and if i'm sick i'll go to the walgreen and get some over-the-counter. it might sound facetious, if, but if they're young and unemployed, i'm not sick i'll get that when i'm 30 and 40's when i have kids. a lot of people in their 20's think that way and the young and invincible, a lot of people joke that, a lot of young people think that way. why do i need to enroll i'll get it if i'm sick. >> i hear this $95 figure thrown around. remember it's $95 or 1% of your

family income, whichever is greater. not whichever is less, but whichever is greater. now, a lot of people, a lot of people in their 20 or something maybe 40, if you're making $40,000 a year, 1% of that is $400 it's not $95 and that's how much you have to pay. so, i would be wary of throwing around 95 like everybody's paying 95. a lot of people are going to be paying 3 or 4 or five times that much. >> correct. right, but you have to realize a lot of young people can't find jobs at $40,000 a year, especially 26, 27 it, 28. with youth unemployment around 15%. but i agree with you, even with 1%, thises detrimental. >> by the way, it's 1% of family income in the individual. charles: agi, adjusted gross income, i think that that goes with after taxes, so, it won't necessarily be $400, but be that as it may. >> could be. charles: be there as it may, young people the ones you know,

charlie, we're not getting anything from the administration, they haven't taken the bait? >> correct, they're running away from this completely. i think it's very interesting because these young people voted for these policies overwhelming in 2012 and what they're start to go see there's a difference between the theory of big government and actually having to pay for it. pay through higher premiums and reduced dollars and it's a having paradigm shift and see if it translates to electoral change in 2014 because you're seeing a difference between big government theory and practice. charles: charlie, nice see you. hope you had a great christmas and a great new year. >> it's unfortunately because the chickens are going to come to roose with children staying on their parents' plans. >> can't do both, right? you can't pay for a plan if you're-- >> it's encouraging dependence. this country is about independence. dependence on family and

government, the wrong way to go. charles: and twitter pulled back, so did facebook. the stocks are up huge. here is the question with twitter, here is the company capable of making enough money to keep investors interested and to reward them. the tech editor jeremy kaplan is on the case and he's next. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. it's not the "juggle a bunch of rotatincategories" card. it's not the "sign up for rewards each quarter" card. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round, no-earning-limit-havin do-i-look-like-i'm-joking, turbo-boosting, heavyweight-champion- of-the-world cash back card. thiss the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every ngle day. now tell me, what's in your wallet?

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before time for a check of the markets, above 16,000 out. and their down 8%, and twitter shareholders, and science and tech editor jeremy caliper in, be wary of twitter and joins us now. we have you on an i p o day and it was a great day and ratings were huge and we give you credit. you were pretty critical of twitter as a company and investment. stock is on fire. what are we missing? what are buyers of twitter missing? >> let me clarify. i think twitter is one of the neatest things to happen in the

technology world and a long time. a fantastic whitaker people to community. i don't get a lot of that but that doesn't mean it is a bad technology. it is a fascinating technology. charles: social media is something you get more out of. >> i find facebook to be useful. >> what is the difference between what facebook and twitter? >> the we twitter has shippee the global community, the way conversations take place, information changes hands on twitter but the valuation is astronomical compared to how little money they make. i don't know how they will make a profit. charles: so you love the idea but you acknowledge that there is a strike in the farthest reaches of the globe where there is not even a telephone. we will know about in seconds because of the power of twitter and that is to be admired but not to be invested in. >> perhaps. i can't balance checkbooks.

liz: we had a guest talking about how if you skype, skied bones the image and information. if we are on twitter, twitter own our feed. we were talking how to make money off of that. how will twitter support its valuation having no profit? >> how do they monetize that? just an advertising thing? charles: obviously monetizing it without offending people. next topic, give me two big things you are looking for in tech in 2014? >> there are good things and bad things. one of the good things, and i love when technology is useful. one of the trends is health care tech coming up. have you seen these things? we will see a ton more of those and do a lot more and will help us to lose weight and get healthy and the new year. charles: talk to me and be able

to say stop it. and a huge town, extra digital. psychologically if people buy at these things it will motivate them even more so. >> the concept of how many pieces you take, those little pedometers, i don't think people were wearing them. charles: they want to stress everything to you, the watch, the telephone. we will have things all the way our arms. >> is that a bad thing? it will be a good thing. here is a bad thing we will see more good thing depending how you look at it. the smart phones that have taken over our lives will get a lot more pervasive, they will know a lot more about us and and useful at the same time but something to be aware of. charles: guest on tuesday, check out where my friends are, and this will be scary stuff.

i can imagine ex-girlfriend. if i can know where you are, it poses a threat to you. >> apple came up with technology, beacon, which knows precisely in their stores you what. next western display of gizmos in the apple store. we will see that technology in a lot of stores and retail facilities the next year. and that cases. charles: once the begin is down i don't know if that will protect you. >> if you turn it off -- connell: your watch, you have these beautiful watches. would you give up those 9 swatches for a telephone watch? >> it comes with the watch. connell: won't give up your watch. >> i saw one neat looking watch, and i wear a nice watch too and it has sensors that tell your electronic skin response. charles: thanks a lot.

really appreciate it. wall street journal's dan henning her, he is on the shah and is one of president obama's sharpest critics, at least he has been. his latest column he is calling him your excellency. is that satire? has then changed his tune? i doubt it but you will find out after this. (vo) you are a business pro.

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charles: the wall street journal's dan henning directors to president obama as quote makes his excellency and joins us. you finally realize the regal mess of the white house and the president and jumped on board. >> most people referred to him as mr. president and in my column are referred to him as your excellency. she thought it was more appropriate and it seems to make sense in so far as the president in so ruling by decree, fiat and swim and most of the changes and obamacare have been the administration changing the rules in the middle of the stream and as they go along. eventually you got to come to the conclusion that obama decided he does not need to rule with the consent of the government. he will rule however he wishes. charles: he threatened this in the past. he warned us he would do this. >> i wrote a column called

obama's creeping a authoritarianism based on speeches he was getting at that time and here's a quote from one of the. we will do everything we can whenever we can with or without congress. that was in july. gave a couple speeches in the midwest and he was sending a signal that if he needed to he was going to rule by executive order and decree. connell: this goes back to 2010, john podesta wrote this thing for his organization about how executive orders could essentially ruled the country, the ability of president obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated. they have been talking about the long time. >> it is the inclination of the political left in the united states to impose their policies rather than wait for the country to catch up with them. it has always been there in sting to use regulatory agencies

-- charles: taking usa today, congress, the most abysmal ratings ever, a large portion, two thirds say this is the worst congress ever. doesn't that help the president with this sort of skewed these do nothing dies anyway? gives them a buffer between outrage with the public? >> that might be his argument but the congress, people talk about congressional gridlock, that congress is elected by the american people and reflects the belief and feelings of the american people and the republican party and the democratic party as reflected in opinion the way they want to rule, they are very far apart and that is the reason congress is gridlock. liz: the president is elected too and routinely outsources the fine print to congress but right now, when does the president's behavior become unconstitutional? we have seen with health reform the mounting number of delays

and changes by the administration to their own law. they feel like alice in wonderland through the looking glass. when does it become unconstitutional, the president's activities? >> i am not sure there is a point where it is so and constitutional. the question would be who would buy the litigation against it? in late summer we had a piece on the editorial page by federal judge michael mcconnell arguing it is difficult to stop a president who wants to rule in this way. there are no avenues to slow him down other than public opinion and public opinion for this president is currently plummeting. charles: just recently the appointment of heads of different agencies, there wasn't a lot of real push back. i was surprised at that. i will give people these jobs and we will take a majority of both. >> as a result of harry reid, the nuclear option, simple majority to get these people into office, and you had richard

coeur dray, a consumer protection bureau, new agency with vast authority and powers, the new labor secretary who showed no disinclination to use that power when he was at the justice department and watched the environmental protection agency imposed rules they put on, and based utility's. charles: and the shock troops. connell: your letter was written supposedly by an imaginary navigator. you have all these navigators', people diminish their importance but the fact is they have a lot of personal information of hours, and all those irs agents who will enforce obamacare so they have the shock troops out there. that is kind of scary. charles: redistribution of wealth is not as wealthy to the poor but well going from the wealthy to favorite friends of the white house. political repayment. liz: that is why there is an

equal protection issue under the fourteenth amendment of the constitution. charles: another great article. i like it when you take it -- a change of pace. >> we enjoyed doing it. charles: california's plln to build a high-speed bullet train going dr. ernie els, project facing delays and budget problems. will it ever get back on track or is california's plan for high-speed rail permanently delayed or derailed? we will let you more next.

charles: the other headlines we are watching today, check out shares of twitter hitting $73.50, but take a look at the one month chart. in one word, parabolic. the stock keeps going straight up. the wall street journal reporting amazon will refund % shipping charges and give gift cards to customers whose packages were not delivered in time for christmas and it is the fifth busiest shopping day of the year, deep discounts getting a lot of storage and thousands of people still without power following an ice storm in the northwest. and is blamed on stores in the u.s. power may not be returned to some areas. and california's high-speed train to nowhere. you remember that boondoggle. a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of dreams but are they finally crashing? we will find out. ♪

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charles: it seems the only speaking about the california bullet train project is the project name. one of the lawyers representing affected landowners told the washington times, quote, we are at a standstill in terms of reaching a deal that appeases the taxpayer and the lawmakers. what is it going to take to get this project off the ground? this whole thing, we'd crunch the numbers and talk about it so

much initially during the high face of it, finally may be reality setting in and this gets taken off the drawing boards? >> the only people happy with the project on the consultants who managed to reach in $600 million sequential of dirt has been overturned but you have been following this story. now the loss to the coming in. forget the fact cost has doubled, the actual route has been diverted through central valley between san francisco and los angeles. right now you have a federal oversight transportation board that took a look at the environmental impact studies and said you can't just wave a magic wand over this, go back to the drawing board. a second the judge a month ago told the high speed rail authority that if he is blocking the use of state bond money this project looks nothing like what voters approved in 2007. charles: what is it any way? is it an environmental project, a vanity project?

what do the proponents of this, what are they picking it as any way? >> it was originally pitchee to the voters in proposition 1 a that was going to zip back and forth between san francisco and los angeles, a romance of the rails, take less than two hours and cost one hundred dollars round trip. now the cost is more than doubled, they diverted the route through central valley like a train to nowhere. other interesting facts that have caused some problems with the voters. they were promised the fleet lines would be dedicated to high-speed rail. now it looks like they are sharing freight and other transportation railway lines. we were also promised they would get outside funding sources and five years later not a single private investors stepped forward and that will mean the taxpayers have to subsidize and the final thing, my favorite fact of all. the government says california high speed trains have to be built in the u.s. and there are no american companies that can build a train did goes faster

than 160 miles an hour. they are built in europe and japan. we can use the in here. charles: even china. connell: in europe and japan and china they are having problems with these high speed trains. high-speed trains are killing the european railway network. european railway, so-called slow trains were a wonderful thing and they are dying because of these high-speed rail that only rich people can afford. this is a subsidy for wealthy people.% >> you are finding so many folks originally when they were talking about this they were talking about this train that will said business people back and forth from san francisco to los angeles. that is going nowhere because all the people who say environmentally this is going to be literally a train wreck but the other thing is if you want to get california out of the cars we love them whatever you do with high-speed rail has to be cheaper, faster and more convenient and it is none of

those things. the affordability and convenience of airplane travel specifically with southwest airlines mean you can zip around the state for relatively low cost. charles: get those trains to come to our front door as well. i am glad we caught up with you because we have forgotten about it but shouldn't because this could be a huge boondoggle that could be mimicked in other states. when california make these mistakes a lot of other states for some reason like to do them too. we will talk to you again real soon. the numbers don't lie or do they? right now they say the economy is picking up steam and the stock market is rallying but are we just cooking with gas? this is the quicksilver cash back card from capil one. it's not the "limit the cash i earnvery month" card. it's not the "i only ea decent rewards at the gas station" card. it's the no-games, no-signing up, everyday-rewarding, kung-fu-fighting, silver-lightning-in-a-bottle, bringing-home-the-bacon cash back card. this is the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on eve purchase,

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charles: back in the 1930s the coolest cats on the planned merger as musicians who coined the term gasser for a person or event could trigger an enthusiastic response from the crowd amasses. from that we got the term cooking with gas which became synonymous for something being exceptional and building momentum. only the most jaded politician exceptionally is becoming harder to say there are not positive signs of momentum. it seems big business might be buying into the notion that main street is come back.

the great gdp number was largely inventory build, we are talking $115 billion in the parrot quarter vs $32 billion in the first quarter. the durable. report tuesday showed the biggest jump in business investment since january. for the rally to continue these trains have to pick up. the question for investors is whether these are real numbers for just cooked up data from the uncool hats. liz: so glad you are bringing this up because people out there seeing the gdp numbers coming in strong we are asking a solid question which is either the number is being maneuvered, manipulated and we have seen time and again in argentina, china, venezuela, doing that. when you see commercial loan growth at u.s. banks the dollar amount trending in the spring as a was in the spring at the time of but lehman collapse, electrical consumption not coming in strong. when you see data coming out of

washington, d.c. counting research into ipads or intangible assets in gdp growth for the first time adding the equivalent of the economy of belgium to u.s. gdp because those in tangibles are coming in can we trust the numbers coming out of washington on the economy. connell: right before the last presidential election a year ago we had some extraordinary blowout jobs numbers that were revised downward after the election was over. no wonder people think the books are being cooked rather than the economy being cooked with gas. half the nation of corn to whereas muezzins says we are in a recession. technically that is not true but if you feel that way, that can reflect itself on the economy. we have great stats, let's wait for 2014 to see if they expand. charles: a term that came up a couple recessions' ago was jobless recovery. is that a myth? can that be the case?

50% of people who see we are in a recession is there reality, the reality of their lives. could we be in something akin to a jobs recovery, jobless recovery? liz: that has been debated since it began in 2010-2009. connell: small and medium-size businesses create jobs. big guy the doing great. small and medium-sized business are not and they create the new good jobs employees grow with. those are the companies we need and they are dying. charles: hopefully maybe this could be the turn. your take on cooking with gas is next. ♪

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charles: so we asked you on facebook and twitter whether you truly believe the data suggest the economy is heating up or do you think the some is out theret cooking the books.

here's what you had to say. jeff says analysis is heating up, i do not trust government numbers in the least. that is a common theme. because they were cooked before the election last year i have almost no confidence they are accurate numbers and gp now. the calmness status on an improving, it is still a dying economy. we talked about big business coming back, main street could take the bait. do you make anything of that? david: in the '70s a lot of these companies really took off in the '80s beginning in the '70s. wyou can begin the green roots n the beginning but you need tremendous tax reform for those companies to take off. liz: stop throwing a banana peel.

arles: to your point, they enough.rust the fiscal policy he is there. connell mcshane. connell: we will continue here with more confusion at only on this show, but with obamacare. just because you signed up does not mean you will be covered. this is the deadline, extended again, again. complaints pour again after ups and fedex to not get online purchases delivered in time. imagine that. if you are not in the stock market, you may want to rethink it, at least for today. december 26 is opposed to be the best day of the year for the market historically. drivers in florida got pulled over for speeding in christmas. they did not get a ticket. something a lot better. coming up this hour of "tech "markets now."