there between you and your race buddy. that is pretty impressive. it's a rush, right? >> it was a good time. good risk, good reward. dierdre: thanks for that, jeff flock. joining us there from wisconsin. in case you don't know what to do with your summer vacation there is one idea. melissa francis with me. melissa: who knew jeff flock had those legs, right? isn't everyone was thinking? my whole set is horrified. deeder deirdre, thanks so much. knock knock, apple and google trying to break down your door trying to get in your house. turns out the left's great economist is not great with numbers. blow back from thomas picket at this's new math. how booze, videotape is heading up the apple deal. wonder boy elon musk advice to the graduating class of 2014. even when they say it is not, it

is always about money. melissa: let's go so our panel. charlie gasparino, tracy byrnes and jack hough. keeps hitting new highs. >> every time i say don't buy the market it gets too frothy. here's the thing. as long as they keep printing money, they appear to be doing i think market is going up. here is the perversity of this market. it is better when the economy doesn't do well. melissa: right. >> that is the notion that keeps money flowing. melissa: keeps the fed sitting right there. tracy, what do you think? >> i think that being said everyone needs to be invested in their 401(k). don't miss this run. it will keep going and people are on the sidelines. melissa: jack. >> watch mergers and

acquisitions the cover story in barron's. merger activity, deal premiums are little bit below the long-term average. i think there will be another leg up but we're starting to -- >> david boockvar, is that his name. melissa: peter. >> peter put out a interesting analysis about the vix. the vix as low as it was now was back in 2007. melissa: 2006. melissa: right. >> before you know what hit the fan. melissa: definitely pays to run a company. new study says average ceo raked in a cool 10 1/2 million dollars last year, just like me. no. while ceo compensation is linked to stock performance, staples is buck the trend and rewarding executives extra cash despite the company's poor performance this. is always a rub, right? they had reinvention cash award in 2013. i can't believe they called it back, despite the company's poor performance, two years of failing revenue and declining store traffic, they have to retain the talent. jack, do you buy it?

>> i'm not worried about ceo pay. it is cyclical thing. melissa: you're not worried because you don't think it is too high or not -- >> i worry much more about the bottom, not people making enough money. people talk about making minimum wage. when people say ceos make too much money -- melissa: do you try to connect the two. >> they have a rare skillset. i'm not worried how high the top goes. i'm worried worried worried abom moving up. melissa: tracy. >> you pay them in sock. stock market is up. agree with jack. unfortunately people barking and complaining about how these guys don't deserve the money i think they do. they broker deals every day. they get paid for that. >> i don't know if they do or they don't. some do, some don't. if you don't like the way they're paid you can tell the stock. this is the left's, whipping boy. it comes around just about every election year where you, they start bringing out the ceo pay. we should point out, ceos, if they made half as much money as they made this year, than last year, if they make half as much

that won't create one new job, not one, for anybody below them. >> you will see more pushback by shareholders, kind of the way it is supposed to work. melissa: that's right. this is my favorite story of the day. don't tell paul krugman, the left's favorite economist, thomas pickety apparently can't do math. i tell my kids, check the numbers. financial times not only found transcription errors and questionable data in pickety's book, capital in the 21st century, that main thesis of wealth concentration, that concentration doesn't even exist as well. so if this were a research paper that a bank put out, they would be sued. if this was a thesis out of college you would get an f. buttal last he is celebrated. >> a little bit of celebrated he can't do math. he is trying to create a original data set. melissa: you will defend this? you will defend this? a -- >> i knew charlie would say that i read the frig inch book. because i wrote a review.

you don't need to be math genius or marginally to good at math to know this book is full of what. melissa: right. >> notion of rich getting richer and poorer is getting poorer and we need more redistribution. that is what we've had last five years. richer have been getting richer. >> i study economics in college. you can jigger the data any way you want. anybody can take a stats course and make up your own statistics. better off reading funny pages of the paper. melissa: you can't pick and choose. make up formulas. >> just in somewhat defensive pickety, i will say this the power of his argument is not really in the math. the power the argument in ideas and a few theoretical points he is trying to make about income redistribution and widening of rich and poor. melissa: you need data to support that. you can't have what krugman calls the most important economics book of the year,

maybe the decade. the guy goes to the white house and the math is wrong! >> foundation of what he is saying is right. i mean, rich people are getting richer. the gap is growing. but that is not -- >> when you have the spread between income numbers that translates between the big wealth numbers. i don't think the point is terribly controversial. >> i don't i think the math -- >> carry that two. >> takes easy way out attacking the math. real problem is not attacking math. the real problem is his thoughts. he believes in communism this guy. that's a problem. melissa: is apple going to forget about dre? the tech giant apparently not happy with dr. dre's drunken rant about reported beats acquisition. remember this. >> the to bees list just changed. hey, it came out like two weeks ago. they need to update the forbes list. [bleep] just changed. >> in a big way. >> forgot about the

non-disclosure. melissa: apple's beats acquisition still on track. makes you wonder why they haven't sealed deal. everyone covered the deal business knows you keep your mouth shut until the thing is signed. >> you don't do end zone dance on the 10-yard line. >> you're dealing with people in the music industry who do whatever the heck they want and whenever the heck they want. got jimmy ivy and this is still a good deal i think. ride the wave while they can because getting a lot of press. >> why didn't the other buy say anything? melissa: the company, billboard says the company was valued 200 million before apple's interest, not too long before. all of sudden $3.2 billion company? maybe the reason the deal is stalled. isn't because of the these guys. >> come on now. melissa: the incredible valuation. >> i wouldn't buy it but what do i know? melissa: a lot. that's why we have you on the show. >> i used to -- until last week

i had a flip phone. melissa: well, there you go. >> jim ivy is worth a lot. melissa: well, look at oprah, made be a new bidder for l.a. clippers. former microsoft ceo steve ballmer might be in the running after meeting with shelly sterling. what do you think about this one. >> could be interesting meeting. ballmer is one of the more level guys, beating these two nuts on the other end of the table. melissa: look at magic johnson, diddy, oprah, the other people in the running for this, for some reason ballmer is the oddball in that group. i don't know what it is. i'm not going to say. >> maybe ballmer could do for the clippers what he did for microsoft's stock of the wait, forget it. >> he is a rich guy with money needs something to do. >> does magic actually have, i'm sure oprah have the money but does magic have the money. >> magic does a lot of deals. melissa: he has a group. he has a lot of investment. >> clearly the best choice for this team. melissa: i would vote for diddy.

>> why isn't ballmer good for it? he has $20 billion? melissa: fantastic, paul allen and seattle seahawks. turned that franchise around. >> maybe they don't want the team to leave l.a. too. >> he said he would keep it. >> ballmer did? >> ballmer said -- >> you're welcome america. >> ballmer told, charlie, clippers are staying in l.a. melissa: battle of blondes at yahoo!. why katy couric star power left marisa mayer very unimpressed. with smart house technology your dishwasher will never be lonely again. more "money" coming up. ♪.

melissa: the battle for the smart home is on and apple and google are looking to get in the door. new reports say that apple is planning to the turn the iphone into a remole control, for lights, security system and other appliances. meanwhile reports say google is in talks to buy camera company

to watch you in your own home. how fun. we have arne with quantum networks and jack hough from "barron's" as well. start with apple. there are obvious problems, if the iphone controls all kinds of things inside of your house, what happens if you lose it? >> that is pretty good, then i could beat him up over it. depend on what is going on in your home. in my case that would not be good for anyone. >> you don't have to turn it on also. these are opt in features. you want to turn it on, you turn it on. you wan to turn it off, you turn it off. melissa: what if you turn it on and lose your phone? seems like if you're able to make all kinds of things happen from your phone -- >> but apple has a lot of security holes figured out already. in home automation is not a new thing. melissa: your security system. start with that one. you can shut off your security system from your phone. somebody wants to rob your house, they follow you around, take it off your desk or office.

whatever it is, you set it down. everybody leaves their phone somewhere and goes back for it that happens all the time. if they want to shut off the security system in your house seems like one more hack into your phone. they don't even need your phone. they being hack into your phone and get into your security system? >> big issue, one of the questions, where apple went to fingerprint system on the phone to add ex-la layer of security. >> apple thinks about. when ever you have complicated structure like mobile market there are pockets of inefficiency. there will be privacy concerns and gaps but overall, is it convenient though? yes. melissa: yes, there will be privacy concerns as no big deal. >> not opening up your garage door. melissa: that is a big deal to me. >> if you talk with john chambers of cisco how he is talking about the internet of everything extending to all your gadgets? melissa: right. >> the future of tech, all the things not wired on the internet before have to be there, your life isn't secure. you don't have enough information. melissa: i don't need to talk to my toaster at work. i'm assuming my toaster is fine.

>> it actually is a good thing though? melissa: i don't think it's a good thing. >> no. >> so if you don't need your phone and be connected hand it over for a week. melissa: i don't need to know what is going on in my refrigerator right now. >> you will get dependent. melissa: i'm not talking to my fridge at work. >> i have a high rez video thing, i don't know how even existed before these things were invented. >> convenience. melissa: that brings you right to the next one, google's acquisition is nest in january. now they're looking to buy drop cam. that is live streaming video what is going on in your home when you're not there. like you said there are obvious uses. i want to see what is going on with my kids. i love the face time with them. that's great. the flip side, someone hacking in and looking what is going on inside of my home when i'm there with my family. >> kind of another thing you have to be neurotic about and on top of. i'm not sure it's a great idea to have access -- melissa: just don't let it in. i don't think i need to see what is going on in my home enough.

>> don't need a live video feed. melissa: versus everyone else watching later. >> this is reality tv on steroids. melissa: i don't know. i'm very boring at home. still i don't want anyone seeing exactly how boring i'm at home watching doughton abby. anonymous billionaire in san francisco is hiding envelopes filled with hundreds of dollars of cash in the bay areaarea an posting clues about the mystery money at twitter handle,@hidden cash. he has plans to expand cash los angeles and new york. i'm guessing either mr. monopoly or scrooge mcduck. no he doesn't want to give away money. >> how much mon? melissa: i misread that, $100. >> have to do scavager hunt for 100 bucks. melissa: i would take a benjamin. >> time is valuable. melissa: you're very --

>> up to 150. >> sold, sold, sold. people have a lost tile on their hands. melissa: would you help me go look for cash. >> right now. we'll hit the brownie room an green room and look for money. melissa: thanks to both of you. we're still keeping eye on markets of course. the s&p still holding record territory after hitting a new intraday high. mark newton at new york stock exchange. what is sentiment like today? >> it is interesting. sentiment, volatility, extremely subdued across the board. you look at treasurys and equity volatility. when you look implied, vix is down under 12 while futures up near 11. you're starting to see big divergence where people think implied volatility should be at and where it is trading. i still think people are coming back from the long weekend. it is tough to get a real feel as to any type of complacency or what not. melissa: okay. >> s&p new highs. dow transports above 8,000. two things i mention are important, technology and financials both starting to

actually make good ground. financials and discretionary back above the highs from april. those are two that have been unpressure of late. melissa: nasdaq winner on percentage pace basis. mark, thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure, thank you. melissa: grab your passport and grab your hoodie, mark zuckerberg runs to a little legal trouble in iran. romance hard on the tigger. why a stressful relationship would mean a double date with the grim reaper. do you ever have too much mon? ♪. can you start tomorrow?

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melissa: from the u.s. to every corner of the globe money is flying around the world starting

in ukraine after the petro poroshenko is new president. the hid of state immediately struck a conciliatory tone saying his first priority is bringing unity back to ukraine. he promised to sell his billion dollars chocolate business upon assuming presidency. there you go. over to england, one city is giving wall street a inferiority complex. according to the pwc, london is taking over best financial hub in the world. adding insult to injury, london got top marks in international travel and tourism. on second thought, you can have the tourists. that is fine with us. landing in iran where one judge is looking for face time with mark zuckerberg. iranian court ordered zuckerberg to appear in person to answer privacy allegations in facebook. they don't have a extradition treaty obviously meaning zuckerberg will not have to pack

the hoodie just yet. losing extra five pound staring you right back at the vending machine? a new study said diet soda may be a trick to lose weight. before you grab the soda, the study was funded by american beverage association, the very organization that represents drink makers. here is dr. manny with medical dollars. >> conflict of interest if you ask my. melissa: a little bit. >> oh, please. melissa: isn't it logical if you drink diet soda than regular you lose weight. >> couple weeks study, comparing it to all things, to water. god's liquid, you tell me god's liquid is bad for you and their soda is better? not only that, they did it for several weeks. couple pounds difference. we don't know anything about the control system. melissa: carbonated. feels like you're full. water is so boring. i don't know, trying to help. >> there is nothing to help with these people.

overwhelming evidence, overwhelming evidence, all these are chemicals. more and more studies rightfully so are showing how the metabolism gets screwed up with artificial sweeteners. there is nothing good about any of that. melissa: okay. >> to compare it to water is insulting. melissa: okay. diet soda, take that. >> boom. melissa: under fire for naming their flavors. have you heard about this? thin mints. sim mon toast crunch. tootsie roll cigarettes. the companies are fighting back with cease and desist letters. surprising didn't do it sooner especially the girl scouts. does it making to enticing to children and have e-cigarette and call it thin mints. >> absolutely. we did a story a few months ago with e-cigarettes. kids opening it up and drink it. they get all the nicotine. end up in the emergency room. this is a bad thing. this is adult product. should be treated as adult product. it is meant for cessation of

smoking, fine, god bless you. it is not a toy. to be doing that -- melissa: call it cinnamon toast crunch a very popular cereal. >> sue them back at you. two for two. melissa: very tough today. >> i know. melissa: good news for single folks. danish study finds worries and demand due to children and spouses can contribute to early death. what i loved about this, when they went through all of the stresses, the only ones that were associated with mortality risk were related to a partner or your children. i want to show you some faces. you're telling me that these people can kill you. there they are! those people? look at them! >> forget about the sweet little kid. melissa: they're not usually that well-based. >> this is about finding happy scandinavian. you don't see this coming out of italy, right? there is not a nice italian paper that says, italians get loud. they say what they need to do. then they get back and behave. melissa: wait, wait. what are you saying here?

about the dame? >> about the where it is coming from. a long winters. you know, there's a lot of social -- melissa: breaking up with your children and wives hurts you. >> they're prime minister and proper not like italians say everything we need to yell about and get it off our chest. we feel better. when you internalize all that negative pressure of course you can drop dead from that. melissa: are you afraid of mail you get after the segment? i think you made blanket statements. >> it is all happy. the sun is out. all that winter stuff. i'm married to a scandinavian by the way. i'm talking out of authority here. melissa: wow, okay. >> you see? melissa: i'm going to distance myself from the whole conversation. dr. manny, thanks for coming on. >> you got it. melissa: we didn't think it was possible but yelp is taking whineey restaurant reviews to the next level. are you ready for age of video complaints? beat me. tell me what you think about this one.

single guys with the eye of the tiger. bachelors going all out to prove they are the cat's meow. "piles of money" coming up. you have got to see that one. ♪.

still strong after another record intraday high, let's go to the cme, more on this, what is driving the market? >> any energy i had the last couple months you can't get short of the market, it is going higher, volatility index had a seven month low, the market moved higher and in an aggressive market aggressively long you can be flat or mile long and mildly to aggressively bomb, no reason for it to sell

off. melissa: bad economic news is good for the market. are we there right now? does it have to look like we are in a recovery? >> none of this matters. there's a difference, someone is willing to pay, no one wants to short this market. we see it isn't all that good. housing number on friday was okay, we saw consumer confidence okay this morning, pieces of data don't matter. more buyers and sellers, amazon, gross name is. i am on this market. melissa: video might kill the yelp review launching a new video feature critics are saying will make yelp even more annoying. nyu business professor mark brendel in.

here is my problem with yelp. feels like people who bash your business have a personal vendetta, a neighbor of the business, or they are the competition and targeting so much power. now they're getting videos. >> yelp has an incentive to fix this. if they don't, people will just -- if it wants to be considered a site of objective occasions--opinion they have to police this, this seller was good, have the same thing here, a couple reviews by guy with a vendetta against the supplier is gone. when using this review site, you have to review the reviewer. if it is so lopsided, zero stars or five size you got to discount that little bit. >> deal is a contrary indicator. i use it for contrary indications. when someone says they went to a mexican place, iceberg lettuce on their taco, i am there.

melissa: i talked to so many donors, people trashing them and go to yell. and don't want to do about it. and extortion -- >> the advertising group and review groups in two different areas. i found also, and the percentage of abuse, crowd sourcing, and the industry. a thousand reviews out there, 90% say it is great or you have a few schmucks who will try to -- melissa: officials uncovered cases of food poisoning, one investigator found three and reported breakouts on yelp reviews but doesn't that in sent on the one hand, if you are the

restaurant that is competing with another restaurant -- >> you have the same incentive in this case but we would only hope the government would use this on a selective basis. the word sex, vomit, diarrhea and food poisoning. it is a very difficult word to spell correctly. >> and there are a thousand different reviews out there online. and we don't know who is that it and who isn't. melissa: you can't yell for your doctor, the best doctors have the worst patients, people are mad in the waiting room and blast them on yelp and doctors stay away from it, anything serious like that would you go to yield? >> i would. i go to the doctor this morning

just for one reason, to find his phone number. the first thing that comes out in the search. i read a couple of the bad reviews, he is a great doctor but the reviews were spot on. melissa: okay. okay. i don't want to go near it. live pictures from the white house where we expect president obama to make remarks. we will bring those to you as they happen. elon musk dropping knowledge of recent grads. the pearls of wisdom that my media questioning your career path. at the end of the day it is all about money.

melissa: i am melissa frances with your fox business brief. of $45 a share bid for hill firebrands, 22% premium over friday's close, announcing the deal earlier this month about pinnacle for $6.6 billion in the case chiller home price index rising nearly 1% in march, an economist expectations among the 20 cities, 19 for higher home prices last month. only new york posted a drop. dallas and denver hit new record highs and shares of barris

spatial jumping, the retailing getting $150 million lifeline for private equity terms. shares are down 62% so far this year and that is the fox business brief giving you the power to prosper.

melissa: elon musk has some sage

advice for graduates this year. >> if you're starting a company have to work hard. what does super hard mean? work hard every waking hour. melissa: new study reveals the third of job-seekers are wondering why they went to college in the first place. jack howell and mark brennan, this is your business, you are a business coach, life coach. what do you say when you hear 33% which they had started a small business rather than going to college? >> they're getting out there with a great college degree thinking they will find the perfect job and not work supershard, you're going to work really hard, they are not ready for that so then they start seeing their friends or reading things that entrepreneur.com and realized i might as well but my efforts into -- melissa: should they have done that? rather than taking on the debt to go to college to go ahead and

take out the dead to start a subway franchise. >> if you are passionate about something and you know it is all about the hustle and putting the right logistics' in place you can learn a lot of that through coaching and reading. melissa: you have students everyday sitting there saying to be there rather than starting a business. making a mistake? oh oh. >> you can watch me here for free. when did we conflate college degrees with good jobs? you go to college to become educated and become a better person and learn how the world works. now we got to a point that they are investing so much money they are saying i'd better see a return on this. melissa: parents that of view as well. for many years parents are like if i could get my children over the finish line getting them through college their life will be made, it would give them a tremendous guarantee. >> nba or a law degree.

melissa: everyone has a college degree so it is not that valuable anymore. what happens if you don't? your really behind. >> elon musk needs a speech writer. that was not exactly the gettysburg address. the price of college has gone so high it has become for ordinary families a high-stakes effort where you got to secure the high yen, or you could find yourself deep in debt for years and the -- out of reach for a lot of people. >> i was bored out of my mind. i was going on want to start making money. i was then being educated. i wanted to do something, not everybody needs to or should go to college. >> i did 11 years of graduate school. you should look at the german system where some students go the academic route and others go the technical route to get professional training where they can be factory floor managers and highly paid and in terms of manufacturing -- melissa: the way those stories

come together is elon musk is talking about if you're going to be an entrepreneur and wants to really make a difference like i have and make that kind of money you better be prepared to work every waking minute of your whole entire life. same thing for the kids that are saying if you are not going to go to college and wish you started a business cycle you know that means you need to be working superkart. >> for every elon musk giving a speech, we can put up a thousand people who took his route and fell on their face. melissa: get the education. and online dating, they're not pussycats. according to wall street journal men are posing with tigers in their profile pictures to attempt to woo the ladies. the phenomenon has become so prevalent there is an entire

blog devoted to tinder guys with tigers. will this help the bachelor's out there? as the only lady--never mind. looks like it is going to be good. >> what is going on? is he trying to beat the tiger? melissa: not just one guy. jeff flock of guys and i want to say i am so turned on. they all turn me on. >> what i use thinking? >> every time -- >> thanks, guys. filling in for liz claman lori rothman gives us a sneak peek. do you have tigers on the show? liz: no tigers. they are fabulous. >> is it about deal, if big brother knows what temperature setting your he is on, privacy or big hits? is this what apple was talking about, it is over the smart

phone so addition to apple you have samsung, google, control everything in your home from a remote location so will that be a hit or privacy disaster? and also see years ceo eddie lambert and more closures, the debt spiral picking up pace or is the company on track to beat the come back kid. join me in 15 minutes. melissa: the s&p and the dow transport hit new all-time highs. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange checking in on another highflier. what are you watching today? >> let's take a look here, the intercontinental hotel, looking at this names that is getting a nice start today and there could be some big speculation talk surrounding intercontinental and no more on this, inter-continental, not commenting on any speculation.

the stock is up 2.7% and the question is whether there will be any type we have seen so much with m&a activities this year and this will be no different and this is speculation, who could benefit from a potential combination? so everyone is looking at that as well as starwood the hotel and resort would be another one but as i noted you have intercontinental hotels with same day, they will not comment on this but you can see clearly outpacing the rest of the group as it is moving higher and hitting a new high of 3925 today and over the last year, year to date, it is up 15%, really outperforming major market averages. this continues. melissa: breaking news, the president speaking from the white house. we expect him to talk about afghanistan. >> our deployed civilians on

behalf of a grateful nation for the extraordinary sacrifices they make on behalf of our security. also able to meet with our commanding general, ambassador, to review the progress we have made. i would like to update the american people on the way forward in afghanistan and how this year we will bring america's longest war to a responsible end. the united states did not seek this fight. we went into afghanistan out of necessity after our nation was attacked by al qaeda on september 11th, 2001. we went to war against al qaeda and extremists allies with the strong support of the american people and representatives in congress. the international community and our nato allies and the afghan people who welcomed the opportunity of a life free from the dark tyranny of extremism.

thanks to the skillet our troops, diplomats and intelligence professionals we struck significant blows against al qaeda's leadership, eliminated usama bin laden, prevented afghanistan from being used to launch attacks against our homeland. we have also supported the afghan people as they continue the hard work of building a democracy. we have extended more opportunities to their people including women and girls and we helped to train and equip their own security forces. now we are finishing the job we started. over the last several years we have worked to transition security responsibilities to the afghans. one year ago afghan forces assumed the lead for combat

operations. since then they continue to grow in size and strength while making huge sacrifices for their country. this transition has allowed us to steadily drawn down our own forces from a peak of 100,000 u.s. troops to roughly 32,000 today. 2014, therefore, is a pivotal year. to get with our allies and the afghan government we have agreed that this is the year we will conclude our combat mission in afghanistan. this is also a year of political transition in afghanistan. earlier this spring afghans turned out in the millions to vote in the first round of the presidential election. the threats in order to determine their own destiny. and if you weeks they will vote for their next president and afghanistan will see its first

democratic transfer of power in history. in the context of this progress having consulted with congress and the national security team i have determined the nature of the commitment america is prepared to make beyond 2014. our objectives are clear. supporting afghan security forces and giving the afghan people the opportunity to succeed as they stand on their own. this is how we pursue those objectives. america's combat mission will be over by this year. starting next year afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country, american personnel will be in an advisory role, we will know logger patrol afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys, that is

the task for the afghan people. second, i made it clear we are open to cooperating with afghans un two nehr omissions after 2014, training afghan forces and supporting counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al qaeda. i want to be clear how the united states is prepared to advance those missions. at the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 98,000 u.s. -- let me start that over. just because i want to make sure we don't get this written wrong. at the beginning of 2015 we will have approximately 9,809,800 u.s. service members in different parts of the country together with our nato allies and other partners.

by the end of 2015 we will have reduced that presence by roughly half and we will have consolidated our troops in ka u bul and bagram there feel. by 2016 our military will draw down to an normal embassy presence with the security assistance component as we have done in iraq. even as our troops come home the international community will support afghans as they build their country for years to come. our relationship will not be defined by war. it will be shaped by financial and development assistance and diplomatic support. our commitment to afghanistan is rooted in the strategic partnership that we agreed to in 2012 and this plan remains consistent with discussions we had with our nato allies. just as our allies have been

with us every step of the way in afghanistan we expect our allies will be with us going forward. third, we will only sustain military presence after 2014 if the afghan government signs the bilateral security agreement that our two governments have already negotiated. this agreement is essential to give our troops the authority they need to fulfill their mission while respecting afghan sovereignty. the two final afghan candidates in the runoff election for president each indicated they would sign this agreement promptly after taking office so i am hopeful we can get this done. bottom line is it is time to turn the page on more than a decade in which sold much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in afghanistan and iraq. when we took office we had

180,000 troops in harm's way. by the end of this year we will have less than 10,000. in addition to bringing our troops home this new chapter in american foreign policy will allow us to redirect resources saved by ending these worse to respond more nimbly to the changing threat of terrorism while addressing a broader set of priorities around the globe. i think americans have learned it is harder to end wars that it is to begin them. if this is how wars end in the 21st century, not through signing ceremonies the decisive blows against our adversaries, transitions to elected governments, security forces who are trained to take the lead and ultimately full responsibility. we remain committed to a sovereign, secure, stable

comment and unified afghanistan and for that end we will support afghan led efforts to support peace in their country reconciliation. we have to recognize afghanistan will not be a perfect place and it is not america's responsibility to make it one. the future of afghanistan must be decided by afghans but what the united states undue, what we will do, is secure our interests and help give the afghans the chance, an opportunity to seek a long overdue and hard earned peace. america will always keep our commitments to friends and partners to step up and we will never waver in our determination to deny al qaeda the safe-haven they had before 9/11. that commitment is embodied by the men and women in and out of uniform who served in afghanistan toda have

served in the past. in their eyes i see the character that sustains american security and our leadership abroad. these are mostly young people who did not hesitate to volunteer in a time of war and as they begin to transition to civilian life we will keep the promises they make to them and all veterans and make sure they get the care and benefit they have burned and deserve. is 9/11 generation is an unbroken line of heroes to give up the comfort of the familiar, to serve, half a world away. to protect their families and communities back home and give people they never thought they would meet the chance to live a better life. it is an extraordinary sacrifice for them and their families but we shouldn't be surprised that they are willing to make it. that is who we are as americans, that is what we do.

tomorrow i will travel to west point and speak to america's newest class of military officers to discuss how afghanistan fits the broader strategy going forward and i am confident that if we carry out this approach, we can not only responsibly end our war in afghanistan and achieve the objectives that took us to war in the first place, we will also begin a new chapter in the story of american leadership around world. thanks very much. >> what about your plan to train the syrian rebels? melissa: president obama in the rose garden in the white house talking about reducing troop levels in afghanistan from 32,000 down to 9800. let's look at the markets. how they were reacting to this market, the market has been steady throughout that speech on the dow jones, about 60 points. online retailers,

revolutionizing its personnel practices, this time by getting rid of jobs postings. would you expect anything else from the company that pays people to quit and has no managers? pretty funny stuff, they led the way on a lot of different hiring practices. what do you think of this one? >> they realize the number one thing that makes them successful is someone who gets along in our culture and they don't want a whole bunch of proactive resumes being thrown at them, hard to sift through that, they will have ambassadors reach out to people. melissa: it is so touchy-feely. are you skeptical? >> i like a little touchy-feely, not too much. it is costly when you hire the wrong person who doesn't fit in with your culture and pay to train that person, bring them on board and have a disruption. melissa: you have to jump through hoops even to apply for

the job. what are some of the things? >> your resume has at all those keywords to make it through all the spiders but now instead of doing that they're saying we are looking for the best talent. when i coach people i tell them to find companies you want to work for the you think you can make a big impact with an be proactive. who cares if they are higher or not. melissa: and spend a lot of time, i could be the ceo of that. i think it is this online community that will start creating and now the question is this online community, a full on department bigger than what age are had to go through. melissa: is a valuable if it is that big? sounds like a tremendous cost. >> it costs a lot of money to hire the wrong person. melissa: they started with the idea you pay people to quit and we see amazon doing that. take $5,000 right now and go away if you are not happy. is this the practice that happens elsewhere? >> we -- great co-workers.

workplaces, you work in a place where you have one or two people -- melissa: we might all pool money together and get them out the door. that would make everyone happy. guys, thank you so much. that's all we have for you right now. i hope you are making money today. "countdown" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> the wars heat up. pilgrim's pride wants to buy hillshire for more than $5 billion, complicating the takeover of pinnacle foods. sears' stock has plunged 30% from its 52-week high, and there are predictions shares could fall even further. is this the death spiral mark cohen predicted long ago? he's our special guest. and the jetson's home of the future could be here sooner than we think. apple and google racing to dominate the