>> i can send a message, syria. she just answered. stuart: what did you tell it to say. appeal, give me neil cavuto on the fox business network now. neil: thinking about what you're saying and reference to your farm before. have you ever taken an uber to the upstate new york farm. stuart: no. why did you ask that? neil: that is the way, i'm unpredictable 2018. stuart: yes, you are. neil: i heard that, wow. stuart: did you hear it was minus 13, 13 degrees below zero fahrenheit at my farm yesterday morning. beat that. neil: it is cold everywhere, stuart, i hate to break it to you. maybe a little colder at your little compound there. we're all dealing with it. liz: so funny. stuart: you're 45 seconds into

your show. neil: you're quite right. this is the highlight. the next two hours rolls downhill. we have a lot going on. techs still on a tear. general market not so much. amazon, google, netflix, facebook, there you know part of the drill, a buying drill. many on the left are calling the president unstable, he is a nutcase. we've been studying in great detail. if you don't like the president, a lot of people do not, that is fine. that saying up to the task of president of the united states, question what he is doing his job. what is not nuts looking at markets. what is not nuts looking at economy. charlie gasparino brilliantly on this, just today in the "new york post." we have nan hayworth. we have democratic strategist, moo i can call star hopkins. charlie, go to you. not real crazy response this market, this economy has had to the supposedly not stable, crazy

president. we should have more such encounters. >> his approach to the economy has been very good and very stable if you think about it. neil: right. >> back up a minute. if the corporate tax rate is at 35%, and the rest of the world is at 20%, what is unstable about the idea of bringing down closer to the rest of the world so you become competitive? businesses are screaming that they can't hire because of too much regulation that was imposed during the obama years. what is so crazy about loosening that regulation so they might hire again? contrast that to the very stable, tightly-wound president obama and, think about this we came out after financial crisis which i covered almost like the world series, even though it was like one of those, when you went to bad at night you were seeing bread lines. it was bad. what did president obama want to do coming out of that? he wanted to raise taxes, he increased regulations, did all the sort of things that you would do if you did not want the economy to expand. guess what happened?

well unemployment anomaly, anomaly, the number went down. under employment shot up. poor people didn't do that well. middle class people did lousy. rich people -- >> the president is crazy. >> rich people, this is the non-crazy person. rich people benefited like crazy the stock market went up because the fed printed so much money that in my view was an insane approach to the economy. as opposed to the sane approach of thumb trump. granted before i get in trouble here i have to point out i do not like his tweets. you and i have called them, when he first ran i called him a junkyard dog. people around here, are you kidding? it is donald trump. you think he is a junkyard dog. yeah, i know this guy for a long time. he does some outrageous stuff. just look at the economy, approaches to the economy. neil: that is another leap to say he is nuts. one of the things you might also raise when it comes to the tweets, i certainly raise that as well, inpolitic remarks about his members of his own party,

tacky, but not necessarily wacky. what do you say? >> these are matters, many said of aesthetics, neil. the president has very different from any president in modern memory. >> most human beings would too. >> people would argue, it is feature, not a bug. his -- neil: his popularity would be a lot more if he didn't have those qualities. to charlie's point he is doing all the other stuff but all this other stuff is what keeps his numbers -- >> i just think people, most people don't like him. for those, for that reason they do not like him. >> but a lot of folks on the left are predisposed not to like him. >> this is like 70% of the country. neil: his approval numbers dipped up to 40, but go ahead. >> i want the economy to be doing well. it seems to be doing well. neil: i don't think you do. i don't think you do. >> it affects me. it affects me.

none of that matters if we're not living up to our morals. neil: michael wolff says he is nuts or unstable. >> i won't pretend to know about his psychological profile. >> what michael wolff said there is open debate inside the white house. just a little background here. i heard about this open debate and i told you about last may, okay? i know where i got it from. now if there is any reporter would love to break the story about the open debate in the west wing about the 25th amendment being imposed on trump. it would be me. why didn't i go with that story. i told all management here about this, because the source list of the open debate was pretty nebulous, this wasn't -- neil: wolff says it is everybody. >> he said, he never talked to vice president pence. it wasn't from mcmasters. it wasn't from the people, cabinet that could get rid of him. neil: he is saying everyone in the staff of the white house

think he is unfit. do you think this was everyone -- >> no, the reason i didn't go with it, i got it from bannon's people presumably. it was steve bannon who is talking about 25th amendment. he may really think the 25th amendment should be invoked. bannon may really think that i didn't feel as a reporter i could report it if it is just that guy who has no power to invoke the 25th amendment. 25th amendment has to be done by the cabinet. vice president has to be involved. neil: in other words, it has to be internal, has to start with internal coup. >> it can't be kellyanne conway. it can't be steve bannon. >> there is, there is no sense, i have done a bit of work with the white house and from my limited perspective i have no sense whatsoever that people aren't, frankly excited about and enthusiastic about what they're accomplishing against stiff odds. >> i talk to republicans too

inside the white house inside congress who are scared what the next day will be. will today be the day he gets too upset and decides to send a bomb somewhere or do something rhetorically. neil: bill clinton had a volcanic temper. this president has a volcanic temer. >> i don't think you can compare the two. neil: what is the difference? media liked bill clinton. media hates donald trump. >> bill clinton had his own issues with the media but he understood history. he was informed. donald trump doesn't understand -- neil: you don't know that you don't know that. >> he is not a well-read person. he admits he is well-read person. neil: this not well-read person, he doesn't like me, got elected president of the united states. bill clinton mentioned you can't be an idiot to do that. >> we talked about, i think he has good instincts how to read people. >> he is a smart guy. let's be real clear. donald trump is smart guy. he is, you know, he is, listen it bothers me that he doesn't read a lot. >> absolutely. >> he is not ant, he is

anti-intellectual is basically where we are with this guy. the question does that fact you're unintelligent, not non-intelligent, unintelligent, you don't want to figure out what is going on, does it ever really catch up to you? i will tell you this, if you look purely on the economic side it hasn't. this was the most logical response. what donald trump is doing right now is exactly what barack obama should have done, after the financial crisis. and he waited and reason why we had 1.3% or something along those lines gdp because he didn't do these rational things. neil: he did enough, he did enough to turn us around. whether president obama should get all the credit for that i would much sooner, credit federal reserve -- >> i actually don't think he did enough to turn us around. neil: i agree he could have done more. i agree the federal reserve propped this up and helped reverse it around. we usually give presidents credit for good or bad done under their 10 your.

this bull market started under barack obama and. >> should it continue. neil: don't you think it is a disservice, i finished his book this weekend, i was left with the weapon, cheap shot, cheap shot, cheap shot, cheap shot. >> i think the wolff book is guarden-variety gossip. >> it is entertaining if you can make your way through it. >> come on. make your way through it? it was well-written. i wanted to read every page i could -- neil: say that again. >> the book -- neil: confirms what you thought. >> not just me, confirms what some republicans privately are saying, what some democrats are saying. >> he is right about this, neil. this is the problem. it was further confirmed by the president's response following the book. >> exactly. >> this is a guy unhinged, that acts rationally, is not rational a lot of times and then -- neil: that doesn't make him -- >> ai free. ] be i agree.

neil: doesn't make him jack nicholson from the shining. >> he confirms the thesis with, sloppy steve. the minute they go out -- wait a second. neil: that is not crazy behavior. >> fake news awards? neil: come on, you want to see them too. >> the president is being consistent with approach -- >> minute you say that i'm kind of brilliant, what did he say? >> it was funny. this is a guy, this is a guy who has a sense of humor. neil: do you think he said that humorously. >> the people i know who are at the top echelons of the people who work with him, what they express is, you know, can't believe the nonsense that is going on outside this white house. neil: a lot of it he feeds but i think it's a leap -- >> because they say look everything -- neil: wolff does to characterize it. >> he is putting right policies in place. doing the right things. we're not surprised things are

going well. be consistent with him. neil: there is a little bit of history there. there is a little bit of precedent to this. very good to see you. happy new year. we remember ronald reagan was dismissed in over his head actor who was suddenly thrust into the most important office in the land, neglecting to mention he was also a two-term governor of california. we, i even went back in time. only one here who probably was there to report on it, was you, abraham lincoln. ill will expressed toward him he wasn't up to the job. i'm not comparing either of these gentlemen to the present occupant of oval office, with the one big difference being they were dismissed out the gate. what do you think? >> yeah. you might not want to compare the two but you can compare the media coverage of the two. neil: right. >> it is pretty much the same thing. ronald reagan was "dr. strangelove" with his foreign policy they're seeing donald trump as "dr.

strangelove." that ronald reagan was idiot. donald trump was an idiot. interesting thing, bill buckley once called ronald reagan the smartest president in history because ronald reagan knew how to go over the head of the media and communicate directly with the public. donald trump has done that nobody can argue that. donald trump has done that as well. third one, he has to be senile. both have been attacked this way. so yeah, similarities really are there. and -- >> who is the better communicator. >> donald trump is right to bring it up. >> i don't think you can compare the great communicator to the great tweeter in donald trump. that is the difference here. donald trump is reviled by, let's give him the benefit of the doubt -- >> 65. >> 60% of the american public don't approve of him. >> that is not true. >> that is not true. >> that is not true. that is not true. >> no, yes it is. he is not the great communicator. the reason why ronald reagan was able to rise above it all is because he was at bottom, a

well-read guy -- neil: and he didn't care. he didn't care about that. >> he was a decent guy. >> he was brilliants thoughtful, never given credit. >> donald trump addressing a national crisis, lifts everyone up. donald trump i don't think he has that self-awareness. >> you don't know yet. >> we had a couple tragedies. he hasn't been able to rise above, bring everybody together. >> markets went up 300 point around this time last year when he gave the state of the union address. a little later. the reason why they went up he was reaganesque. he has it in him. neil: i think a lot of that was so surprised that he delivered the goods that he did. and i don't mean that to besmirch the president. brent, the fact of the matter, is, the left is seizing on this with latest ammunition it needs to get rid of him. i don't know if it will get any better than some other attempts to seize on every development, every russian potential tie to say this is is it, this is it,

and it never is it. what do you think. >> two points. i want to go back to the last discussion which is true. like i said, don't compare the two men. however, listen and to the speech that donald trump gave in warsaw last year. it is as good as anything ronald reagan ever said. >> it was. neil: very good point. very good point. >> that said, if you look at the new rules today, they hate donald trump so much that they're even saying well, if it is only 50% true that is good enough for us. exaggerations. >> donald trump is really good on teleprompter. left to his own devices -- neil: don't you think, let me ask you this, i talked to a lot of liberals and all of that, i have a family of liberals and all that and one of the things that happens is that you get so caught up in your hatred, i can see what feeds it to charlie's point, he does a lot of unlikeable, contemptible things, his manner, way he treats his friend, his cabinets, we wouldn't do that to our worst

enemies. that is my own knee-jerk read. having said that you are so consumed with hate blinding you to getting this guy kicked out of office because it will never happen. you have not been a able to support a field of candidates articulate a position. hence everyone relying on oprah from a gold englobe appearance, that is sad. >> i warned democrats we need to talk about kitchen tables. neil: but you're not. >> i am. neil: kitchen table is like a five-star restaurant. >> exactly why i'm exploring run for new jersey senate. democrats have not been able to talk about main table issues. how we put food in people's fridges and schools. >> he is doing that michael. that is -- neil: you think so. >> absolutely. the president is dedicated to getting results. charles as you said -- >> he steps on his own accomplishments. >> he has to inspire people. >> markets, just -- >> whatever his manner -- markets and economy.

obama recovery lasted seven years. >> can you call it a recovery? neil: bitter than what we had before. >> double-digit unemployment. >> let me make the point. neil: make it fast. >> recovery is seven years. usually end of economic cycle. market basically had no correction during this time. what we should have got with donald trump massive correction in the markets and dip in gdp the opposite occurred. that is major, major accomplishment. he has stepped on his message. >> but nonetheless, what prevails is that -- >> it is not prevailing. >> people's lives. >> people can't stand him. >> they don't feel it. >> they are going to feel it ever more. people are going back to work. two million people in 2017. neil: thank you all brent. font of great knowledge and history i appreciate that. michael, i guess you are as well. i'm kidding. i'm kidding. we have a lot more coming up including markets. a little bit down, some of those same technology stocks leading

the way last year, well they're leading the way again. amazon what is the deal with this company? does it ever stop? after this.

neil: all right. we have 11 days left to get a spending deal done or the lights could go out. i always look it in those terms. that is when we run at of money and time's a wasting to make sure that doesn't ap. invariably you push things up to the a deadline that kind of stuff. "usa today" congressional reporter eliza collins says the the "fire and fury" talk could be a distraction shun. this book could get in the way? people have another excuse not to pay attention to the very real threat after budget impasse, right. >> exactly. it's a lot more to fun to talk about gossip at the white house to talk about a spending deal or raising budget caps. besides reporters are talking about it, no doubt every tv show

brought it up, we're writing about it in the paper, but the president is talking about it. president trump keeps tweeting about it. and every sometime he denies it he brings attention to it. so it is not going away. that is sucking oxygen away from negotiations to keep the lights on like you just said. neil: why does he do this though? i understand everyone is talking about it. he feels he might as will weigh in and tweet about it, it is wrong, et cetera, smart guy, understand that. but if he were to ignore it that would drive michael wolff nuts, would drive all the people wrapped around this, and into it so much because he is not saying boo about it. >> didn't michael wolff say where do i send the chocolates, thank you for all the attention. neil: exactly. >> i don't know why president trump does that. when things get under his skin he brings things up over and over. after he book came out, came out with three statements one against bannon and two against the book.

they think it is very important. the white house and president thinks it is important to defend himself. neil: i understand that it is human nature. i might do it myself but i might want to hold back from making a big deal over a book that i don't want to help him sell even one, right? he does what he does. he is what he is. that is not surprising. we're getting excerpts, eliza, the president's remarks to the american farm beau row annual convention, first group to speak to this group last 25 years, george bush, sr., was the last to do so. he talks about the american businesses going from the highest tax rate in the developed world to one of the most competitive. small and medium-sized businesses will see massive tax cuts. americans themselves will see massive tax cuts. everyone will benefit. these are the type of things he should be pounding to stay on message. what do you say. >> exactly. they should go out fanning out all the surrogates about the tax

bill. it was major accomplishment last month. that is what she thud talk about. they should not talk about fyre and -- "fire and fury." don't talk about the spending deals. these will have to be made with democrats to pass the senate and the house because conservatives will put their foot down on a lot of these deals. republicans if they want to look at what the party did, they should point at the tax bill. neil: what do you make of the premise of this book which is to say that the president is, you know, stone-cold crazy, battier than a bedbug? to what end does that go? wouldn't americans say, wow that is little bit of overkill? >> depends what kind of american you are. if you love president trump you think it is overkill. if you hate president trump it is not. it is stirring up conversation. neil: pool psychiatrists who are never supposed to judge someone

without seeing them, they come to this kind of conclusion, whatever it was, this group they refer to, i would imagine americans, whether they like or dislike the president would say, that's taking a bit of a leap here. >> right. i think there is definitely a level of the doctor, the psychiatrists should know the person they're evaluating. neil: by the way, i'm talking over you, if there is sentiment building in the white house among the top officials that you're loony tunes, don't you have an obligation to tell the world hey, loony tune? >> that is what he is saying. president trump is saying that he is stable, he is a genus. he is saying there is nothing wrong. neil: his staff feels he is so crazy that he is dangerous they would tell the world about it. >> the staff is out there saying exact opposite. neil: exactly. >> really fueling conversation. we're seeing democrats in congress say, look, this means that he is crazy. we need to get him out.

republicans say this is completely baloney and distraction. depends what side and how you feel about president trump. neil: like those who say anchors are so cosmetic and into themselves. eliza you can't see my hair but is it out of place? thank you very much. good to see you again. >> thank you. neil: she is so right. i get this rap for being a never-trumper and all that when you leap into that territory and get that personal and condescending always wrong, always, always wrong. a little more after this.

neil: all right. if the president's crazy he will counter today in a speech in tennessee, if i'm crazy, try to figure out the fact that a lot of people are getting crazy rich under my presidency. better than a million americans now will collect 1000-dollar bonus from a host of companies sharinging the wealth with

everyone. lenore hawkins, "washington examiner," sarah westwood. his peach will be if that is crazy, sign me up. what do you make of it? >> well, absolutely. i think president trump is going to point to his record of accomplishment to combat the narrative from the "fire and fury" book somehow he is unfit mentally for the presidency. the white house is pushing back on it. they called it disgraceful and laughable. president trump tweeted he is a very stable genius. he hasn't addressed it directly. the sweep in tennessee although about farm-related policies, he has a strong record to point to that is did proves the theory and particularly the economic growth under his watch. neil: the one concern i have about the stable genius thing that is exactly, lenore what dr. evil said. i don't want to say he could end up like a bad sequel but he could. what do you make of this, the

back and forth whether he is mentally up to the job, et cetera? >> i think actually addressing it is just, gives it more fuel than it deserves. neil: fully agree. fully agree. >> this is when he really needs to be presidential. when it comes down to it, whether republican or democrat, what you really want, you want to be reasonably safe in your day-to-day life. you want not to be overly concerned with paying your bills and putting food on the table f you have got both of that, then there is reasonable chance for to you improve your circumstances. we haven't had that in a long time. with president trump, it looks like that, most people think at least, they think that is improved. neil: you know, the fact of the matter is, sarah, if i were the president, if he would comment on this or leave it to his minions to say, if i'm nuts, it must be nuts to see the market increasing 7 trillion in wealth. it must be nuts to see our growth averaging under 2% now averaging over 3%. i must be nuts, on and on f this is nuts, sign me up for more of

that. he is not talking about himself personally, he could be stepping back to say what it means to americans personally, and that isn't nuts. they are benefiting early on. so why didn't he do that? >> well, there have been a lot of missed opportunities like that for this white house where president trump had the plans to plug his own accomplishments, instead focused on personal insults. he doesn't seem to be able to resist hitting back when someone comes after him personally. sometimes that exacerbates already bad situation. sort of what we had with the book. there are a lot of problems with the author's credibility. there are numerous inaccuracies found in the book. the white house simply ignored it. it could go down as a long-form gossip column. they're giving the book more airtime and credibility to choosing to wage war with the author over a period of several days. neil: another case of punching down. i agree with that, sarah. although the president is likely to tweet your comments are very

sad. lenore, i'm thinking where does this go from here? usually tell-all books occur here or after an administration are short-lived, sensation around them are short-lived. i get a sense for people to keep seizing the narrative that he isn't up to the task and always see him through the prism of a nutcase. >> this is the president's achilles' heel. his career focused on this was getting attention. more attention he got good or bad was good for his long-term goals. he is as president needs to be the first more presidential. not the first president people thought that was crazy and attacked on a personal basis. to be president you have to rise above it, ignore it, the less attention he gives it, the quicker it goes away. we all know when he gets on the twitter handle he can't resist it. neil: ladies thank you. the book is selling like crazy. so it is not affecting book

sales. michael wolff is very happy the president made such a big deal out of it. it made him instant best-seller overnight. we'll have more after this. but you already knew that. it's also great for finding the perfect used car. you'll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. so, no matter what you're looking for... there it is. this is how buying a used car should be. this is truecar. ♪

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neil: all right. markets are off their highs. only about 30 points here. still up on the month. they were up doing christmas week. you know the drill. if this were to continue for the rest of the month, have a good january, good rest of the year. we're very, very close to the proverbial hat trick. makes you wonder for a bull market approaching nine years old which would be the second longest on record, how long do you keep this going? "barron's" puts together these roundtables with some of the smart maniacs, hosted by geniuses like my next guest, barrons.com editor-at-large, jack otter and others. jack that is going on right now, continue through the week what

is the thinking of this crowd looking at a bull market that seems to know no slowdown? >> it is fascinating. i love hear from this group. when to your point, one point made earlier this is the 386th day without a 5% pullback in the markets. neil: wow. >> that is obviously extraordinarily unusual. viewers should expect it will happen at one of these moments and it could happen this quarter. as a result of new tax laws, a lot of companies will do funky things with their finances to rearrange what they're doing. that could cause earnings results that look weird even though they're actually not. so be, brace yourself for potentially a little volatility, especially when numbers first come out before analysts dig deep into them. neil: five% at these levels were be 1000 points. >> exactly that. >> could be 1000 points spread out over days, et cetera. >> correct. neil: is there sentiment if

happens in the first quarter that would be a buying opportunity? >> this is crazy they were not able to be pin down the at that point. first person we asked, buffett, the market pundits predict at the end year to make fortune tellers look good. one guy made a point we haven't had a global synchronized recovery like this since the eisenhower administration. it's a huge wind in the sales not just for u.s. markets but markets around the world. jeffly dunlop said if you through a dart and hit the u.s., you had some of the worst returns. wonderful year in u.s. markets. brazil was up 40%. so they think that momentum going -- nobody wants to be the one to stand up and say it is going to end tomorrow, right? there is no suggestion it is going to end tomorrow. neil: how much do they credit to your liking, jack, president trump and tax cut?

the president's hacking of regulations and all of that? >> quick background on that, two years ago on this day, jeffrey dunlop said a guy named donald trump would win the primary and win the election. most of us thought that was pretty crazy. neil: right. >> now what does he say? he is happy with the animal spirits that have been created. very few financial people are big fans of a lot of regulation and high regulation. he doesn't like the tax bill. he feels the most powerful lobbyists got their say and it is kind of a jumble and favors some industries over others but the general consensus you put a little more money back into the economy you will see a little bit of a benefit in terms of gdp growth. the question sis -- >> the corporate cut is pretty big. >> it is massive. neil: it could have a lot of ancillary. >> the question where does it go? does it go to buybacks or dividends or go to salaries? neil: a lot is going in the form of bonus checks to workers. >> that is a very good thing.

if you put more money in pockets of people going to spend it that is a big positive. neil: what about the view that the president is nuts according to michael wolff book? there is nothing nuts about the market run-up. there is nothing nuts about the economic run-up. there is nothing nuts in retail sales. those are real developments. whether the president should take credit for that is a game but what do you think? >> you should be guy's pr. instead of talk saying i'm a stable genius. he should put on the table, challenge this. we really didn't get into that a whole lot. most people point out there are many other lenses, it is fun to talk about politicians and politics when thinking about the markets and economy but most are driven by big forces and the biggest one by far is technological disruption and the fact that these huge platforms, the facebooks, the amazons, the googles are driving so many things in the economy. neil: will they still drive

them. >> will still drive them. neil: so they're bullish through this year? >> they are cautiously bullish. among the many phenomenons, one could say rather trump driving market these platforms are driving trump. they have changed economy so much that they have hurt factory workers. one guy pointed out for what it costs you and me to open a nice store in a nice neighborhood, we could create a 100 million-dollar global company to leverage platforms to sell stuff. we would have 20 employees, instead of 100, 200 we need to run the other business. what does that do? that is deflationary. it keeps wages down. it means the 20 people will get wealthy while other 80 people won't have a job. only people with good training having jobs. those forces contributed to the trump victory. neil: those forces still at play. >> they're very much still at play. we're waiting to see how it shakes out but don't bet against the big guys.

neil: jack otter, barrons.com, they are like a mensa convention. they predesign that. we don't want cavuto to show up. the intel ceo is is in deep chip? lauren simonetti with what is going on. >> there is major flaw in intel chips found in devices basically used by every human being that serves the web. it leaves your computer to vulnerable to hacker. meltdown affects only intel chips. specter affects everyone. they exploit the technology that makes your computer faster essentially letting hackers get in. they can steal your password. see your history. get a glimpse what you're doing on the internet. if you think that is bad, consider this. intel was informed of these security issues six months ago. and while there is a patch now pushed out by partners which include apple and might be soft and google and amazon, there is

concern those fixes will slow down computers. there is also concern that intel might have to lower the price of its chips to keep its customers because of all of this. you're looking at a chart of intel now. it is up today. it was down earlier. just reversed course. but it is down for the month almost 3%. we could get information about all of this later tonight. intel ceo bryan krzanich, kicking off ces, the big consumer gadgets show in las vegas. he is delivering the keynote address. he is also under fire for the timing of a personal stock sale. that trade in question took place november 29th. so that was after the company was made aware of this chip vulnerability. this is what intel has to say. the sale was unrelated. it was also previously planned. still, we're starting to see class action lawsuits pile in. because they are questioning the ceo's trade and also the safety of our computers that use intel chips. neil?

neil: seems so glaring for him to do this if he were -- because he is such a prominent ceo in a prominent company. everyone scrutinizes, you know? >> the timing, the size, lots of question marks. they can't prove anything but something investigators will be looking at and lawyers too. neil: lauren, thank you very, very much. a few minutes ago, lauren, we were talking to jack otter about the bullish underpins of this market, will they continue with this market? i'm getting a interesting read on the wires with the atlanta fed president rafael bostick, he is one of the more hawkish members of the federal reserve. he says we might raise rates two or three times in 2018 given weak price pressures, possibly loss of public confidence and its inability to hit a 2% inflation target. what he is saying is despite how much the markets have run up, how much the economy has picked up and rise in housing sales, we don't see inflation.

hence our concern of lifting interest rates a lot to get ahead of that might not be the case. we'll have more after this. when you book a flight then add a hotel you can save. 3 waves later, i think it was the other way around... ♪ everything you need to go. expedia.

neil: this must be music to the ears of minute in the housing industry, construction industry. indications from one of the federal reserve hawkish members,

rafael bostick, that inflation is pretty contained. we might not have to do as many hikes as people say. i'm paraphrasing. three rate hikes mentioned in 2018 could be two, less than that. connell mcshane talking about the news that talking about the construction industry. >> that is big deal going forward for construction. it is kind of a boom. things are improving. people in the construction industry expect the improvements to continue basically for two reasons, the economy number one, the strength you're talking about at this hour we've already seen in the economy and expectation we'll get some sort of a infrastructure bill out of d.c. this year. so first let's talk about where we are, by the numbers the labor department said 30,000 construction jobs created last month, 210,000 positions added for the year 2017. that is jump of 30% from the year before.

construction spending hit a pickup, a record in november, topping $1.2 trillion. that is where we are right now much. in terms of the outlook why the infrastructure bill could be so important. a survey done by industry group, associated general contractors in america, found 75% of the firms they spoke to plan to expand their staff this year. that is a big number, 75% said they are going to hire. the variable in all of this the economy stays strong that we see government spending on infrastructure. the risk factor to go to your point earlier, neil, about comments from interest rate officials, if interest rates go up faster than expected that could damage this or failure to pass a infrastructure bill. that could be harmful as well. for now optimism is high. but from these new comments it may go higher. a construction boom in this country. neil: connell, thank you very much. speaking of optimism, optimism that tensions are de-escalating

between the north and the south and two koreas, ahead of very important talks tomorrow. van hipp, former secretary-general of the army. what do you think of these talks, van? >> i think this is kim jong-un trying to buy more time. president trump after he spoke with south korean president moon, he supports the talks 100% but the president knows what is going on. kim jong-un is trying to buy more time now. this is the 59th minute of the 11th hour. i think the defense tell against agency said in 2018 that north korea could have a icbm with a nuclear war ahead capable of reaching the astronauts. this is 2018. neil: i don't know whether the north is playing the south like a fiddle, for that matter we ourselves, we decided not to conduct joint military exercises with the south until after the olympics, maybe quite a bit of a

and that is what the north koreans wanted? >> neil, i am for informational warfare, the president to this point i inherited the most complex foreign policy and national security landscape i think a commander-in-chief ever faced. i think he made the right moves to this point. one thing i would like to see more of, informational warfare. we're getting in his head but let's really get in his head. he has some problems there under the radar. he had to hire 10 ex-kgb agents to help train his bodyguards. the drought situation worst in decade. crop production is 1/3 less than it what twas this time last year. north korean military officers ordered enlisted men to steal food from north korean farms. do all we can to exacerbate that the army has great psychological operations units. we can do it and step it up from informational standpoint. neil: do you think we'll have any problems during the

olympics? >> i don't think we will, neil. that is good. what is interesting tomorrow, five members of the south korean delegation and five from the north korean delegation and they're all going to meet basically in a little building in, i mean in the dmz. neil: wow. all right. that should be interesting. van, thank you very much. good seeing you. >> great to be with you. neil: we're down 21 points, shaving losses on the district fed remark that interest rates might not go up as much as we thought. that is the only catalyst i see for improvement in the tone. still early. karl rove on talk that is still festering about an unstable president. he heard that before. karl rove coming up in our second hour.

. neil: all right. the president is going to be departing for nashville. he's getting a whole lot of criticism about his mental stability. a lot of people saying he's surrounded by people in the administration who don't think he's up to the task and, in fact, he's dangerouslian up to the task. a lot of people told me that and here i am brilliant reading the prompter. so you're welcome, america. deputy bush 43 chief of staff with us right now. i remember your old boss being questioned about his smarts and tortured english and the fact is he would laugh it off. this president doesn't laugh things off. he fires off. therthere is a difference. what do you think? >> yeah. and i don't think it was heavily that the president

responded to this latest book by saying things like i'm very stable, and i'm, like, really smart. that doesn't help. it diverts attention from what he ought to be talking about and what the media. look, i read the book this weekend in preparation for fox news sunday and, look, there are damaging parts to the book. but the damage is largely done to steve bannon. the first chapter, which is a dinner between roger ailes and steve bannon takes place in michael wolf's townhouse and a lot of ugly things are said about bannon about the soon to be inaugurated president. and then in chapter 21, this is where he says the ugly things about president trump's family. the entire chapter consists virtually of quote after quote after quote, pages of dialogue. it is a dinner at bannon's apartment in arlington, virginia with three people in the room, michael wolf, press aid, and bannon and there's a fourth person in the room, a

tape recorder. so the rest of the book, though, is a little bit flimsy. let me give you just one example. in chapter 8 i think it is, michael wolf spends several pages saying there was a deep disagreement between the president's staff about strategy. reince priebus, the chief of staff, wanted to work with members of congress to advance the president's agenda. jared kushner wanted to work with ceos to generate support for th the president's new ideas and steve bannon wanted to pursue executive orders as far as he could. and president trump didn't understand why he couldn't have all three. well, wake up. every president wants to have all three. every president wants to work with leadership and congress to advance his agenda. every president wants outside groups to come to support and give him new ideas and support for his agenda. and, yes, every president wants to take the powers they have as the chief executive to advance cause through executive orders. so michael wolf spent several pages talking about this quote

deep disagreement among the president's top people on the strategy and then suggesting the president is an idiot for trying to have all three. but it's wolf who is the idiot for not understanding that every single president who wants to do exactly all three of those things. neil: well, you know, i read the book as well and finished over the weekend. it's one thing to talk about a meeting in which you can cite the principles and obviously go back and confirm that meeting. it's quite another for him to cite meetings in which he, the author was not even president and going on conjecture. leaving all of that aside, i'm wondering about the damage to happen because i always think, and i know you and i have gotten into this before. regardless of what you think about the president. once you're president to argue over a book or something like this is punching down. you don't need to do it. >> you don't need to do it. neil: and even have people -- we're going to have two very smart folks in just a bit talking about these markets and just say, well, if i'm crazy, then these markets are certifiably insane.

this economy and what it was is over the top and beyond. >> don't even react to it. stay focused on the big. neil: he can't help himself. >> yeah. there was a book that came out called bush's brain about me. now, this could have been in the trump era spun up president. but you know what bush did with it? he gave me a elaborately-wrapped game called cranium with an official presidential seal on it and gave it to me. one, he said don't worry about it. i get it. they're trying to diminish me by elevating you and second of all, laugh it off and stay focused. neil: laugh it off. just sit on it. laugh it off. >> laugh it off. move on. ignore it. neil: yeah. >> the president has fired -- has put excelrant on this book. neil: what deemed to be

talking about he wasn't going to pay for a landslide or your old boss. when there was a student who was saying that she was failing algebra, he said, well, i didn't do too good in algebra, but it's okay for me. just joke about it. but this president doesn't appear to be able to do that. i suspect his approval numbers were a lot higher if he were. >> i agree. and, look, you put your finger on the key part. punching down. look, we don't care what the president think so about mery meryl streep's acting ability and it diminishes him more than it could ever diminish her. so, yes, absolutely the president -- maybe he wanted to take a swipe at steve bannon, and he should have. but, for example, sending the letter saying don't publish the book or we're going to sue. well, let's see if they actually sue and get anywhere with it now that the book is out there. neil: he tripled sales doing that. that one move alone. >> absolutely. neil: so good, my friend. great seeing you. happy new year.

>> happy new year to you, neil,. neil: all right. in the meantime, as i said on the world market a funny way of saying it. if this is crazy, then bring us more crazy because of course the markets have been on a tear. we're essentially unchanged now. on the markets that have been running "fast and furious" into this month, it did during christmas week, general argument is you continue that through the rest of the month, you've got your hat trick and the rest of the market, and it goes on and on and on. let's ask market watcher aaron and john. aaron, i'll ask you what i kind of touched on with carl. the need to even punch down in this case and just to play off the reality of the markets and the economy whether you want to credit this president for being the reason. if that's crazy, sign me up for more crazy. >> yeah. i -- we all wish the reaction was a little different. but one thing we like to take into account is washington only has so much power over the markets. and we still see investors looking more at fundamentals

the types of earnings. neil: i don't want to jump on you but is hillary clinton had been elected, the markets now, would they be doing this? >> well, also gave credit to the tax reform. in fact, we saw earnings expectations go up an additional 2% for thisiary. so we started off the year before tax reform came in at about 11% growth, which is still phenomenal. any year we're looking at -- so that would have been something we probably would have expected even if hillary clinton was president. but the extra 2%, now we're looking at 13% growth. that is specifically -- neil: that's a big difference. >> and that's a big differenc d. neil: okay. >> so admittedly, it's just one shot. it can be one year's he didn't growth. just a one-time increase. but it's still positive. it's something that's helping investors stay optimistic about the markets, so that's certainly did -- neil: so why doesn't he stay on that? >> he did the right thing, you know, at the start of his administration was deregulation. neil: no, he did a lot of right things economically,

business-wise but then he does all of this weird stuff that gets in the way of it. >> and that's a personality disorder. neil: no. no. but it's not a crazy thing to you. do you think he's nuts, which is essentially the premise. >> i don't think he's out of control, and i think he knows enough when he's gone far enough when it's time to pull back. on the other hand -- neil: you don't think he does? >> you don't think he does? >> i think a lot of this perhaps is an act. he does it to himself. he's a narcissist. okay? and he can't believe than the everybody in the united states is in love with him. neil: we were talking during the break. i think all presidents by nature a little bit narcissistic or they wouldn't entertain that job. so jumping away from that. but i do think that every time he does the other stuff, it gets in the way of what is a positive economic message. what is a positive business message. whether you buy hook, line, and sinker everything he's done. but it is a fairly pro growth

agenda. i think people would argue for that. so why does he step on that? >> and it is concerning because the few negative days we did have last year were often the days where he went into the twitter rant with north korea. so all the negative, the bad days that we've had have actually been mostly attributed to him being viewed as, you know, really pushing sort of politics. neil: i know you're top market economic watcher. which do you think wins it? the average americans that don't even pay attention to this or are they saying, hey, i like what's happening in my portfolio. this guy might be crazy, but i'm crazy in love with what i see going on. >> and ultimately we see it being more fundamentals. and still, 80% of the investors are institutional when we're paid not to pay attention to the headlines and drill down and really try to be -- neil: what do you think? >> just go ahead and keep matters under control with north korea, and he also must not do anything crazy as far

as protectionism is concerned. it's important -- neil: he could undo everything he has done with threatening china with and everything else. does that worry you? that kind of thing that he does? >> well, i think, again, as i stated earlier, it's a lot of rhetoric. when push comes to shove, he'll just shy away. neil: i don't know. he doesn't strike me as a shying away type. >> but he's not going to get -- he's going to need support outside of the administration. he's going to need support from congress if he wants to take some sort of action that could come back to haunt the u.s. economy in terms of trade restrictions. neil: but a lot of the people that you work with and the financial universe right now, a lot of them like the president, maybe a lot of them don't. but they certainly like this environment right now; right? >> what's not to like? we have low inflation, low unemployment. neil: and, by the way, low inflation, the fed president right now anticipating we might not hike rates as much this year. do you buy that? >> i think some of the predictions we had at the beginning of the year were a little high. we're still looking at 2 to 3%

rate hikes. neil: seems to be indicating 2 or less. >> maybe two rate hikes will do it. neil: really? >> we already have commercial and industrial and bank business loans are growing by less than 1% annually. neil: that could be more fire for this rally. >> if you lower rates, you could end up shrinking bank loans. that's not a good sign for the economy. how far can you go? moreover we have this 4.1% december at the same time average hourly earnings slowed. we still have a lot of slack in the labor market. we have a very low labor force participation rate. so who knows. maybe two rate hikes will do it. neil: the market the way we have it now, is the president getting ready to leave. he's going to go to tennessee for this big agricultural shindig, the first president to do so, by the way, in a quarter century. do you think he can stay on message with the markets and the economy and that people

will come around? there's usually a delay when people feel it. maybe they see it next month when they see it in their net paychecks, some of these lucky thousands who are getting $1,000 paychecks will see it immediately. but do you think there will be a spillover effect that will be substantive and consequential later in the year? >> potentially. and we're already seeing retail sales increased partially because of the wealth effect markets keep going up. people feel more wealthy. you add on tax reform. that could be the trigger that could actually start raising inflation as we start to see more and more consumer spending. >> and i'll add too that the market could ultimately prove to be donald trump's master. that if he acts in a manner that drives the market significantly lower, i think he will be -- neil: he won't take blame for that. >> what? . neil: he's not going to take blame for that. >> well, he's going to change his tune he knows when the market's sinking, bond yields rising. neil: he would blame you. >> shut up.

neil: no, erin -- >> yes. . neil: all right. the president and air force 1 headed out to tennessee for this big shindig in which we've gotten some of the remarks he's going to make. he's going to talk at the economy talk, tax cuts, talk about these things that both of my fine guests were getting into here. and so far, he is not going to talk about this michael wolf book. at least when he's on script. we'll have more after this. see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman?

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. neil: all right. the president departing for nashville, tennessee. later georgia. adam shapiro live at the white house on what's in store. because he'll be doing a lot not about a book but about his record. adam. >> not only about his record, neil, but about the legislative agenda he's pursuing. let's start with when the president speaks in nashville around 4:00 p.m. our time, 3:00 p.m. central time, he's going to be talking about ways to improve the rural economy. going to be hitting on different things like enhancing broadband access, issues quality of life generating, reliable workforce and also agricultural issues.

but, yes, he will talk about his accomplishments as well. we know from the speech he's going to say, and this is a quote, american businesses are going from the highest tax rate in the developed world last year to one of the most competitive this year from 35% all the way down to 21%. he's going to talk about the benefits to farmers that they'll be able to expense 100% this year new equipment that they buy. so that's a little bit of what's coming down the pike. but there's also the issue of the trade negotiations and nafta because commodity prices are somewhat depressed and farmers are taking the hit on that. here's what mark short said earlier this morning on fox business about where we're headed with these trade negotiations: >> we're anxious to complete a budget cap deal so that we can get a spending bill to rebuild our military. that is the priority. unfortunately, the democrat position has been to say we're not going to agree to any additional spending until there's a deal on daca. and while we're anxious to get a deal on daca, we feel it's improper to hold hostage our troops who are working so hard

to protect us over illegal immigration. >> and what he's talking about there is the negotiations which are going to be front and center here tomorrow on immigration bipartisan democrats and republicans meeting with the president, of course, also part of the agenda. the funding issue because the government runs out of money january 19th and trying to come up with a compromise to raise spending caps. but thens the other issue that the president is also not necessarily addressing today. but it is there. it is the russia investigation and fox has confirmed that the president's legal team has been negotiating with the mueller legal team about a potential interview and actually the president's personal attorney john doubt issued a statement to fox saying the white house does not comment on communications with the office of special council out of respect for its process. the white house is continuing its full cooperation in order to facilitate the earliest possible resolution. so the president has a full

agenda but that doesn't include some fun as you pointed you the. he'll be headed to atlanta for the college championship game. neil: yeah, they already have some protest going on there. the guy can't win; right? all right. thank you very much adam. you might have heard that trump mueller meeting. what would it mean for this ongoing investigation? fox news senior judicial office, judge andrew napolitano. happy new year. good to see you. >> same thing. i obviously don't know as much about the case as his own lawyers do. but the general rule of thumb is no criminal defense lawyer would ever, ever, ever, and you can put in as many evers as you want let his client talk to the police and federal agents and prosecutors who are investigating the case. that is very dangerous, particularly a client who tends not to stick to the script as the president has. my guess is he has told them he wants to talk to them. but the -- neil: that's going to be initiated by.

by the president himself. >> yes. standard operating procedure simply not to do it. too many people are caught in the trap of lying. so fbi agent asks him a question, bob mueller asks him a question. he gives an answer he thinks it's correct. it's different from evidence that they have, hard-core evidence they have, they could indite him. now, what happens with that indictment, i don't know because no sitting president has been died for a crime. neil: but a sitting president has talked stars people. >> it was a disaster for bill clinton when he did that. neil: it was. not a good move. >> no. not a good move at all. again, my guess is john and tye, well experienced criminal lawyers said we're not going near it and he says, yes, i am. make it happen. neil: wow. your thoughts on this book? >> i've known steve bannon for ten years. i've known the president for 30 years. i am sorry they're at odds

with each other. it appears as though the president is very volatile behind the scenes and at times does explode and in those moments of explosions like with any of us. neil: is it any -- we knew this; right? >> right. right. and any of us when we get angry, we don't say things we expect to hear repeated by people. and i save my anger for off screen. neil: well, you know, you just mentioned something in good just. he wears his emotions on his sleeve. >> yes. he does. neil: and i'm wondering if in this book if we accept michael wolf's premise by face value he's surrounded by people that are afraid of him, afraid to challenge him, but all afraid he's not up to the job. >> there's only one person there that will challenge him and that's general kelly. everybody else as i perceive it. as i understand it. i obviously don't work there. i work hear. is not the type to say that's

wrong, mr. president. it's this way. what's going to be the reaction. neil: so why don't they say something then if that were the prevailing view? >> i don't know the answer to that. why he would say i'm a very stable genius. he may actually believe that. and according to steve mueller when he took on jake tapper yesterday, he is a stable genius. but saying something like that i don't think washes well with the people who were observing this. neil: but to get the 25th amendment thing, there would have to be a coup within the administration; right? to say we don't think you're up to this, and we're putting in motion a procedure to stop you. >> at the time the 25th amendment was being debated and ratified, i was 17 years old and already a fanatic over the constitution, and i've been arguing for years -- neil: i was that way about pizza. [laughter] >> it's a recipe for a lawful coup. it permits nine human beings to nullify the will of a

simple majority of his cabine c. neil: where does it start? it's inspired by woodrow wilson's stroke and his wife was effective running; right? >> i think it was also 1967, four years after the kennedy assassination. suppose he had survived but was incapable of doing his work. what authority would there be for lbj to take his place? this was enacted with broad sweeping bipartisan support. neil: was not put in place your concerns about mental stability. >> no. and certainly not put in place because concerned about his personality and his choice of words. there is concern on the cabinet that he is mentally or physically or both incapable of doing his job. now,. neil: but are there any provisions within that amendment his mechanisms that you know of that would allow administration officials to seek outside psychiatric council to do that? because whether you went or disagree with the premise what wolf is writing about, there are plenty of doubters.

that's a dangerous slope there. >> yes. it is. there's no provision for that but no provision prohibiting it. if the majority of the cabinet says he's out, he's out. even if a majority says he's back in. he's. if they don't, it goes to a vote in the congress. i mean, this is dangerous banana republic-type stuff. but the fact that so many people are discussing it. not just you and me. neil: no, this has been around for a while. >> but being discussed in the west wing. not just democrats in the house that hate him but people who work for him in the west wing, it's very dangerous. he has to burst this bubble somehow. neil: but how can he. >> i don't know. i don't know what advice to give him on that except tout the things that have gone well like the economy. neil: and don't punch down. >> yeah. neil: don't punch down. all right. thank you very much, my friend. >> you're welcome, neil,. neil: i have a feeling the president will be calling him now saying what did you say about me? horrible impression. anyway, a warning from investors about the iphone

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. neil: i want you to read this quote because i think this is the best way to sort of -- from the left, get over the anger and move to having a pro agenda that would counter the president and obviously the policies like economists and together saying that hate is getting the better of trump opponents. he joins me via skype from madrid. very good to have you. i must say i thought your article was excellent. i thought it was well laid out. i thought it was a calm thesis that many on the left. you could say the same about the right when they were taking on barack obama and hated everything he did. they let their emotions run away with them. >> thank you very much, neil,. neil: your premise was what then? that the best way to fight donald trump is to think and

act like supporters. explain that. >> i think the biggest mistake being made by democrats now as to think that by claiming that trump is racist and all of his supporters are racist and that they have a moral supremacy will somehow win them over. i think this is not only not true, i think it plays into the game which trump has a populous is trying to say. neil: now, you talk about a populous but you go back to that famous access hollywood tape and so many things that have happened after that, so many members of the administration resigning or fired. he survived it all. he survived through all of this now. so do you think a book like this which fuels the argument he's not mentally up to the job and he's surrounded by people who are not mentally up to the job. is this too that many people

on the left aren't going to see it happen? this will be the means by which it will happen? >> i doubt it. and i think at the end of the day trump -- defeating trump, which i think is something i full disclosure would want to happen. i don't think it should be done through impeachment. i think it should be done through democratic ways of convincing the larger majority of the populous. neil: now, how do you to do? because i like that because it's just a way by saying turn your anger -- paraphrasing but explain what you meant by that. >> i think trump did something very important last year during the presidential campaign, which was to give hope to many people who were hopeless and across the political spectrum. we cannot forget that trump wouldn't be president if many people had voted for obama earlier didn't swing to his favor last year's election. and i think these people are suffering from real issues. and i think everyone should pay attention to them. i'm talking about the opioid crisis, i'm talking about the

rival of the self-driving trucks, i'm talking about the country side. many of the jobs being -- i think these are all issues that should be addressed. and the more we address things like the mental stability of the president, the more we distract ourselves from the true issue that everyone is suffering. why bother? you know, trump is 40% on the polls. maybe he would win the collection. we don't need these votes. and i think that's a terrible mistake. i think not for a political reason but a moral one. i think the democratic party should try to retake those votes once we're there. neil: you know, the one thing i like you said is sheer outrage at the president's scandal is pointless when directed at trump, your anger gives him rhetorical ammunition to point at his -- having a fake news award i

think they've been put off if i seen them lately. but by believing that your side is all right and the opposite side is all wrong, you're essentially saying you feed a beastly narrative that never helps you; right? >> absolutely. i mean, this is a completely different ball game. this is i think a populous. and this is why as a venezuelan i can see the rules, and i can maybe become -- trump was selected in a completely different platform than from traditional. this is something i mentioned in the articles. i will mention in the up coming book. which is political -- traditional position get elected by saying vote for me. i'll make you richer. i will improve your education, so on and so forth. trump was elected in a completely different platform. he said vote for me. i will destroy your enemy. he managed to give hope back to the hopeless by claiming that all their problems were due enemies that he was the only one capable to destroy.

so when people voted for him, they voted precisely for the scandal he's bringing. they voted for noise, for destruction, for the dismantling of the state they were no longer sympathizing with. and this is why it's very easy for trump to slip the issue of any scandal and say this is evidence of the state. and this is also true with the recent scandal with the book. and this is why i think scandal will never defeat him. i think it's part. it's not only a fault in the product i think. it's precisely an element of it. . neil: all right. so a different strategy on the part of the left to get what they want done and maybe by appealing to their better angels than from the worst ones; right? >> indeed. and i mean, i must say ideally this must come from the right as well. this is happening in both way w. neil: you're right about that. >> yeah. and i think the

major victim here is society. and this is -- and i say this with great empathy because this what happened to my own country, venezuela. where everybody started coming cartoons and politics to cover everyone's identity to the point where no one could ever be anything larger than what their opponent thought of them being. and i think this is a terrible is happening within families, happening within towns. and this should stop. this will only bring more problems. neil: it's well put, and you articulate it very well, professor. very good having you go and the best of luck on the book when it comes out, we would love to have you on with us. >> thank you very much, neil,. neil: it makes you think on the right or the left. sometimes don't let the hate get the better of you. we'll have more after this

. neil: all right. all of a sudden pfizer announcing it's ending research for

alzheimer's. jerry wilson, what is going on here? >> this is an interesting story. listen to this. pfizer abandoning efforts to discover new drugs for alzheimer's disease and parkinson's. compound failed to work despite heavy investment and now pfizer says it will invest more in other areas where the science is stronger. that's bad news for the 5.5 million americans with alzheimer's. the most common form of dementia. some 1 million people with parkinson's, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system. now, pfizer had vast resources for the two diseases and is one of several drug makers along with a dementia discovery fund, a venture capital fund launched way back in 2015 to development treatments for alzheimer's. now, at the jp morgan health conference today, president of phaser's worldwide research and development defended the

company's decision and said pfizer has 15 blockbuster drugs in the pipeline that could get approval in the fedex five years including cancer and rheumatoid arthritis drugs. the company also plans to start a fund outside the company. neil, i guess the good news here the one take away is that other big drug makers like lily are continuing to pursue alzheimer's treatments. but, of course, solutions to these very illusive. neil, i just wanted to also quickly mention to you the reaction on social media largely negative here. people very angry about pfizer's actions and what they're saying it's connected to is this is what we get for tax reform. now, i doubt that these two things are connected. but people are making that connection. neil: but it could be a case that pouring their research and development money into areas where their research and development is more promising. >> that's right. absolutely. neil: okay. gerri, thank you very, very much. meanwhile, plans to acquire

medicine drug maker reportedly as much as $7 billion, a lot of technologies alike. board certified family medicine doctor joining us on what this could mean and what the timing of this could mean. doctor, good to have you. what do you think of this? >> thank you so much. i think it's an interesting acquisition. in general, the entire field of medicine and health care has been forming to this trend all across the board. you have large medical systems buying up small health systems. you see independent practitioners to have their own practices in order to join forces with these large medical groups. whether that's -- you're talking about insurance, whether you're talking about small scale medical care, this is just a trend that's probably going to continue to 2018. neil: has the trend changed, doctor? do you have any uncertainty of obamacare? how it's going to be funded, et cetera? >> it's definitely in question right now. but me as a doctor and what my patients worry about is who is

this trend good for? is this in benefit of the industry? is this in benefit to doctors and patients? a questionable increase in quality, so we don't necessarily see the increase in quality. but we certainly see the increase in cost, and that's all across the board. whether or not you're talking about procedures, whether you're talking about pharmaceuticals, and ultimately the patient ends up bearing that cost. the taxpayers end up bearing that cost. and that's why we need to focus on a few things, in my opinion. those three things are transparency, making sure that all of these deals that these insurance companies and large medical facilities make behind the scenes are known to us. if you look at medical practices that are not covered by insurance, take cosmetic industry, for example. their prices are very clear and therefore the market dictates who gets the money and where the prices are set. but when there's no transparency, that doesn't occur. next, we have to focus on

competition. when there's competition in the field, again, the market forces our play, and you get better quality for lower cost. now, that's the tricky question. how do we get competition without hampering with too many regulations. and that's the tricky part of the situation. neil: to put it mildly. doctor, thank you so much for taking the time. appreciate it. >> thank you so much, neil,. neil: all right. in the meantime, apple activist investors are wondering why the company pours so much time and energy into kids buying its products. and as such hooked them on a little bit too early too aggressively. now they're responding after ths

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weight watchers since she took that stake in october of 2015. the stock has soared more than 670%. the stock itself has been a winner overweight last 52 weeks and she is the third largest shareholder. also reports that oprah is interested in a run for president in the year 2020. neil,. neil: thank you very much, nicole. meanwhile, the pulling 19%, 19 million viewers in the show, the second-most watched in the last ten years. meanwhile, two big apple shareholders are expressing concerns over youth phone addiction. in other words, kids who are just really into this. maybe too much into this. this rings home with me, by the way. deirdre bolton and ceo lisa. deirdre, what are they warning about? >> so they're essentially warning about brand risk

because these are two investors. they own about $2 billion worth of apple stock. so apple actually could ignore them because their market cap is 900 billion, so apple could just say we're sorry and that's that. however, apple in the past has shown itself to being open-minded and flexible and actually responding to either shareholder feedback or consumer feedback. so these two companies, which is actually an investment, an activist investor usually talking to companies and their boards about increasing value and then one of the biggest pension funds in this country saying we're actually concerned this could be a public health issue. they're talking about it from a point of view of an investor, particularly janna saying, listen, if this is found to be true, these linked kids found more depression, anxiety, suicide, that's going to be bad for the stock. it's obviously bad in many ways. but we're talking about the investment point of view where they're saying apple you need to deal with those because one day it will affect your stock price. neil: yeah, face value

immediately think this is not good for the stock. >> yeah. neil: but a lot of parents worry about this sort of stuff. >> everybody worries about it as a mom of betweens myself, i was just saying before it's something that keeps parents up at night. the amount of anxiety, it is toxic, their full frontal lobes aren't even developed yet, and there's just too much information being thrown at them. neil: well, how do you release it with your own? how do you do it? >> well, for us, we've taken -- like i was saying, i would never just give my kids keys to a car and say go drive. we've taken steps to train and teach our children, especially the youngest boy, about social media. about what you can and cannot do. we put different caps on different websites so they cannot get to them. i mean, we go through their stuff every single night before they go to bed. neil: how do they react to that? >> they know. they know that if they're going to have phones, mom and dad are going to be watching and seeing what they're

doing. and i hear parents all the time talking about this. like, it's another job. we don't have time to do this. but if your kids are going to have phones, we need to also be -- make them responsible and parents responsible to know what they're doing. >> at the time of use rate and then there's content what they somehow can see if certain sites aren't blocked when they're 5 or 6 years old that are strong images that they can't unsee. >> yeah. and it's also very important for parents to really talk to their kids too about all the different technology and apps that are on these phones too that you're talking about suicide, the rate is -- neil: it's ridiculous. >> it's ridiculous. neil: it's ridiculous. >> i do. i really do. when we were young, it wasn't like this. neil: but i find that kids can be very clever. you could think you're on top. but. >> and that's -- yeah, there's another app or another. and, again, we just need to constantly as parents be reading up and knowing what the next app is going to be or what the next big thing is going to be because we need to be part of it. we need to know.

>> so this pension fund and this activism investor are actually saying they want teem develop software to make it easier to do exactly what you're saying so that parents can limit time and limit content. and then they also want teem fund some research and actually look into the links between the increase of teen anxiety and phone use. neil: the understand being that apple does may regret it later and will cost them. >> exactly. at the very least, it will become a big pr issue and, listen, apple is not alone. it's the same for facebook, the same for google, even the same for amazon and snap. snapchat's snap has come under fire. neil: and this is the most promising and rabid group of iphone users. they're all young and leverage everything that this technology offers. so you have to handle that carefully. >> and also, today, children are going to have technology. it is the wave of the future. we cannot deny that. but we also have to make sure

that we are on top of it and that the kids -- there's a safe place for these. neil: how do your kids react when you do -- now, yours are much younger. but how do your kids react to this? >> to me, talking about it? . neil: yeah. >> we're very, very open and honest in my house about it. sometimes my 14-year-old would say mom, i know. stop already. it's annoying. but i just keep reminding them, and i keep showing them stories that i find in the media about, you know, that one wrong post. that one wrong photo can cost you your career. can cost you your life, and you're working so hard in school right now. and i just keep trying to because he had this in their -- >> it's true, actually. i've heard college scholarships kids in their teens and they're, like, we're going to think twice about doing this. >> so it's about keeping the conversation with our kids open and honest and just trying to just keep them aware of what's really going on. neil: wise words, ladies. very wise words. thank you, both, very, very much. in the meantime the dow is positive every day this year. it has been positive. we had the christmas week,

which is positive. so far january positive. finishes out this month positive. the rest of the year we're told 27 out of the last 29 is positive. so i can positively tell you that positive is better than negative. after this . . .

♪ neil: all right. we're positive not by much. of course this happens as the president is in nashville, tennessee, he will speaking later on. go on to atlanta for the ncaa

national championship football game. there were added protests planned there. much of the attention now on the dow as well into positive territory as it has been every day this year. we'll see if this holds. trish regan, welcome back. trish: hey, like a heat wave in new york. neil: a balmy 24. trish: i will take it. thanks so much, neil. breaking everyone, president trump on the way to nashville where a short time he will speak to american farmers at their annual meeting. we'll have that for you live. the president is expected to talk about jobs, economy, trade, all the things that i tell you americans do care about in the distracted shall we say with a lot of other stuff going on. the left is salivating over this anti-trump book, "fire and fury." all of this as sources tell fox president trump's legal team is preparing for a possible interview with robert mueller. i am trish regan. good to be back. welcome, everyone to