about. that is covered with depth of excitement. that is enriching america. it is enriching every single one of us. way rather concentrate on that, whatever i choose to describe it as impeachment in d.c. i don't think much to that. i love the market. neil, it's yours. neil: thank you for reading my email. stuart: that's good. neil: have a great weekend, stuart. as you said, my friend. we have all three averages well into record territory. as you also said in middle of impeachment talk. roger stone is finding out guilty on all seven counts against him something, if he had to match commensurate jail time he could behind bars the rest of his life. trade talk are looking up. economic numbers are looking okay. the pace of corporate earnings looking promising. go to john lonski, following this closely, moody's capital markets chief economist. john, it is amazing. ignores roger stone guilty

verdict, all counts. ignores what was pretty intriguing morning session on capitol hill, the second public impeachment hearing. slugs -- shrugs it shoulders keeps buying. what do you think? >> if they don't beat expectations interest rates will fall enough to help the downside risk. worldwide economic data is not all that great. the market is very confident that there is some sort of safety net out there, safety net taking form of lower interest rates if needed. neil: all right. so if we have the dow flirting with 28,000. stuart pointing out through the presidency up 10,000 points, is it a rich market through your eyes? whoever is the white house occupant, for time being is it rich in your eyes? >> a rich market, from the perspective i would have

difficult time telling somebody to go ahead to move into the market. neil: jump in now? >> jump in now. i said that a year ago, even before that, and i have been proven wrong. tough remember, we have unemployment rate at 50-year low. how much lower can it go? my goodness, we're running out of qualify workers. neil: they used to say full employment was 5%. humphrey-hawkins testimony, down it 5%, we're there. 3.6% where we are now. where can we go. >> they say if you believe an economist you will believe anybody. nobody knows who is full employment. japan has 2 1/2% unemployment rate, maybe lower, no inflation yet. how low can we take the jobless rate in the united states. we have a problem of a shortage of qualified workers, people that are willing to go ahead and take on a job. a lot of small business people are complaining about the

shortage. neil: i find remarkable, you were one of the first to pounce upon it, american consumer. she, he have been busy buying their views on the world are very different from their bosses, corporate bosses, ceo's, cfos, who have been curtailing capital spending, hiring plans. cautiously until headwinds on trade calm down a little bit. consumers not so much. even the most conservative forecast for holiday sales are in the four, 5% up tick range. are you in that camp? >> 4% lower end of that range. neil: not too shabby. >> not too bad. retail sales running year-over-year about 3 1/2, 4%. that is pretty good. that covers a broad away of different categories. we're not seeing retail sales or consumer spending boom in the manner that occurred in the past when we had the jobless rate drop to 3 1/2%. so it is a, it's a decent pace

of retail sales. said that earlier in the program. things are okay. neil: right. >> but they're not booming. the fact that retail sales are not booming tells me that we're not going to run into a problem with inflation anytime soon. it is a good thing. keep interest rates low. maybe provide an opportunity for more people to find a job. neil: you know one of the less bullish signs i leave you with, i don't know if you concur, market could go higher, there is still ample skepticism out there, not as ample as it was. good many people holding on to cash. talking individuals, companies themselves, investment houses, and that usually is a counterindicator, that many people are not feeling that giddy, constructive cell meant. are you buying that? >> there is lot of institutional cash on the sideline that could come into the market. neil: right. >> could take care of the trade matter. i don't know if settling trade is necessarily going to lead to economic growth well above 2%.

neil: thank you very, very much, my friend. we'll update you in a second bit revelation here that roger stone is going to spend potentially a lot of time behind bars. found guilty on all seven counts fence him. >> including to seek a thwart a house investigation about possible russian interference, lying to investigators, obstructing a congressional prone, witness tampering, on and on. with john, markets are resisting that. ignoring second day of public hearings on capitol hill. hillary vaughn with latest on how those are faring. we are in a bit of a recess? reporter: we are in a break. republican members will get their chance to question when they return. former ambassador marie yovanovitch has no. she was fired before it happened.

that was not the point chairman adam schiff wanted her to show up. democrats say yovanovitch is victim of what they perceive alleged corruption in the trump administration. of the some republicans say the questioning of yovanovitch sounded more like a therapy session. the counsel asked yovanovitch how she felt, what her reaction was? they didn't want to upset her too much but they wanted to read some excerpts from that phone call that happened on july 25th. but right before this hearing started the president did release a second transcript of a phone call that he had with president zelensky in april during the hearing. the president defended his decision to fire the ambassador on twitter. here is what he tweeted while this hearing was on going. everywhere maria yovanovitch turned bad. started off in somalia. how did that go? fast forward to ukraine, the new ukrainian president spoke unfavorably in my second phone call about him.

it is u.s. president's absolute right to appoint ambassadors. chairman schiff read yovanovitch president's tweet about her and asked her to react in real time? >> the president implicitly threatened you in that call record. and now the president real time is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, it is very intimidating >> designed to intimidate, is it it not? >> i mean i can't speak to what the president is trying to do but i think the effect is to be intimidating. reporter: so this tweet could be getting the president into a sticky situation. one top republican tells fox news that is exactly what they were hoping did not happen during this hearing. neil?

neil: hillary vaughn, thank you very, very much. they were in the middle of a vote here, they will be returning soon. republican turns to start having marie yovanovitch. update on roger stone. found guilty on all seven charges against him. if he served minimum sentences for all seven charges he would behind bars for rest of his life. having said judge jackson in this case is releasing on own she is not releasing him from the gag order that he had to shut up because he wouldn't shut up. that is not getting him to have to go to jail immediately. tom dupree on the fast moving developments. i tend to look at things through the prism of wall street, often times, maybe naively. when they collectively shrug

their shoulders bet money on it should we? >> this is interesting, neil. i think the whole impeachment proceeding hasn't surprised anyone the way it played out. we haven't gotten that much more additional information before the process started. if you look at today's proceedings, democrats did what they set out to receive. miss yovanovitch, long track record of service to the united states but she doesn't have first-hand knowledge what the president did, what the president was thinking. that was not their objective. they're objective was to paint a human story, illustrate the human consequences of rudy giuliani shadow foreign policy. that sort of thing. i expect that is when they set out to do and i expect the strategy will continue through the remainder of the hearing. neil: have any body blows been delivered here, anything the president should worry about? a lot of republicans wincing when the tweet came out. that became a source of of

questioning. >> what the presidentpresident did, is a danger for republicans. that she comes across the sympathetic, average american viewer, this someone put herself in harm's way for decades, served our country notably. the president has unqualified right to fire ambassadors doesn't like but what happened here is fair? if president is attacking her in personal terms, that is risk that will backfire, cause the american people say whoa, why re with peeling on this person. neil: tom, a lot of people talk about fairness. whether it was right he was looking to can her but that is the president's wont, right? he has the power, you know to fire these diplomats. they serve at his pleasure. and then there is the breaks. obviously in this environment people scrutinize it a lot more closely but will republicans pound that theme, that whether you like someone or not, she is a very compelling witness to your point, it doesn't really matter? the president can do what he

wants even if it is the person in question might be deemed a saint? >> that is exactly right, neil. the president for whatever reason has plenary authority. that means unrestricted authority to choose people who represent the united states as ambassadors. the president exercised that power in this case. i think from the democrats perspective, the value of today's hear something really just to put a personal face on what happened. there are some people involved. there is so much shadowy evidence and facts. we have anonymous whistleblowers, that sort of thing, from the democrats perspective today there is opportunity to put a human face on their story, their narrative. we din hear as many questions about legal standards as that sort of thing as you might have expected today. you heard a lot of emotionally driven testimony. how did this make you feel, sad, hurt, intimidated? questions not really relevant to the impeachment inquiry, but democrats think resonate with the american public. neil: thomas, thank you very, very much.

tom dupree. >> thank you, neil. neil: house re-upped the export-import bank. this is one of those issues very important to corporate america. that is a vital source of funding. i only mention that because it could set the stage for doing that proverbial walking, talking, chewing gum at the same time. if they get this done, perfunctory matter in the united states, they could make progress an usmca the trade deal we have yet to be committed to on the part of canada and mexico. that could be passed before the end of the year as well. a boon obviously for those waiting to get unresolved issues resolved. why we're up about 145 point. separately though, we're hearing that united airlines will extend the boeing 737 max flight cancellations until at least march 4th. boeing as you know earlier this week, indicated it wants to send planes out to the customers,

including united airlines with no guarranty with those airlines will be flying them anytime soon. meantime i do want to take you to the roger stone hearing right now going on. he is just leaving the courthouse. can we look to see if there is sound, guys? all right. pregnant pause. he has been found guilty of all seven count against him. in case you joined us, a key confidante of the president, found guilty trying to thwart an investigation into the russian interference in the 2016 campaign that, lying to investigators, witness tampering, obstruction of congressional probe, other things, lying, lying, lying, how one of the prosecutors put it. the judge in the case told him to still honor a gag order. in other words to shut up. he has a predisposition to running to the nearest microphone. he avoid the it there. she is not moving to throw him in jail right away.

he is free on his own reconnaissance. roger stone could be facing a lot of years behind bars. if you add it up, on all seven counts, maybe the rest of his life. we'll have more after this. to the outside world, you look good, but you don't feel good. with polycythemia vera, pv, symptoms can change so slowly over time you might not notice. but new or changing symptoms can mean your pv is changing. let's change the way we see pv.

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>> is he bringing it helmet? >> be some ejections coming out of this. >> suspensions. >> that's right, suspensions. neil: indeed there were. of course we're just learning now that miles garrett of cleveland browns has been suspended indefinitely hitting pittsburgh quarterback mason rudolph with his helmet. apparently again and again. jeff bezos striking back against the president, citing clear bias

that microsoft getting pentagon cloud contract win. jackie deangelis following fast moving developments. hey, jackie. reporter: neil, amazon filed a notice in u.s. court of claims that it plans to protest the decision to award microsoft a cloud computing contract worth estimated $10 billion. amazon saying in a statement quote, it is critical for our country that the government and elected leaders administer procurements objectively in manner free from political influence. the implication that president trump's feud with jeff bezos owner of "the washington post," had something to do with this decision. this is the tart of highly anticipate anticipated and long legal battle. look for the boxes gloves to come out. the pentagon has not commented. a decision on this contract was expected in late 2018. it took a year more than that, more than expected for the pentagon to assess or rule out

potential winners. oracle, ibm, amazon, they were all cast aside. microsoft was named the winner this past october. the contract very significant is where the cloud with all these companies are in stiff competition, cloud services they're projected to main revenue driver for both amazon and microsoft. as you can imagine jeff bezos is not taking this lightly. the issue for amazon is proving that the president's alleged bias had something to do with the decision making in the end, not making it seem like a case of sour grapes. neil? neil: jackie, thank you very, very much. to the money map press chief investment strategist keith fitz-gerald, what amazon does. the way jackie laid it out, if you think about it, keith, the contract appeared to be already set and awarded to amazon. i think what bezos is kind of charging, it went up the food chain. it was unrewarded and then microsoft gets it. does very a case?

>> well, i'll tell you, i haven't seen the contract. i haven't seen the bid. full disclosure i don't have all the inside information. this does strike me very much as sour grapes. let's not forget oracle was after amazon thought amazon had inside track and hiring executives, all conflicts of interest. this is not exactly like supplying doughnuts to the nearest army post. this is owe fist indicated contract and -- sophisticated contract and only handful of companies in the world can meet government specifications. neil: government contracts are awarded in haphazard fashion. i noted in my career, go to competitor or dumped all together. say the monies are not there, the government rethinks them which the government has power to do but is this going to send a signal to corporations that win contracts that they can be pulled at the last second? >> you know, i think that is an interesting thought that i hadn't considered before, but

no, i don't believe it will. i think if anything it is going to reinforce the bidding process. you know these bids, neil, took years to put together, years in the making. i have no doubt huge teams put them together. they are very sophisticated. i think microsoft won because they deserved to. neil: google, expanding antitrust probe that involves a lot more attorneys general, i wonder where you this is going? a cloud is always over the stock, not done in damaging way. i'm surprised it held up as well as it has. what do you think? >> i tell you, i think google is a great investment. as usual i also think regulators are chasing the wrong horse, neil. if their argument were truly what it is they would be going after weaponnization of personal information. they would be going after credit rating companies. they would go after mortgage suppliers. they would go after health companies. that is really the issue here. not the fact that google had tentacles in all kinds of businesses because it's a great company. the issue, are they weaponizing

harming consumers information and we have no say in that. neil: thank you, my friend. hope you have a good weekend, keith. >> you as well, neil. neil: keith fitz-gerald. roger stone sentenced coming up on february 6th. we're watching impeachment hearing in case of roger stone. the president already tweeted on the fact that he was found guilty on all seven counts against him. so now they convict roger stone for lying want to jail him for many years to come. what about crooked hillary, comey, strzok clapper, shift at this schiff, ohr, nelly, steele and all the others including mueller himself didn't they lie not seen in the history of our country? people thought roger stone found guilty on any of the charges, rather than on all of them, the president would pardon him. given outrage expressed in the tweet maybe so.

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and through retirement. >> neil: trade talks ongoing with china, they want a mechanism to check that china is committed to buying all agricultural products it says it will buy. you're in a big farm state. are worried that they will not deliver the goods? >> i always get concerned about china. i get very excited when we are nearing the end of a deal or a phase of negotiation but, china does tend to pull back when things get a little hot. neil: all right. trust by verify. iowa senator joni ernst very worried about trusting china as the white house signals a trade deal is getting close. that they will make good, chinese on commitment to buy upwards $50 billion of agricultural products. what we don't know what the mix of those agricultural products will be, over what time horizon they will be making good on that.

price futures group senior analyst phil flynn is with us. the devil is proverbally in the details my friend, right? >> it really is. tell you what, the senator is absolutely right. that is one of the main sticking points getting the phase one trade deal actually done, the verification process that china is actually going to buy them. the trump administration want them to put it in writing hey you will buy some soybeans or buy so many dairy products, buy some hogs, the chinese are backing off, yeah, we will do that but we don't want to put it in writing. the bottom line, talk of flexibility in case the chinese don't like way things are going, they want to pull out at the last minute. they also want to tie these purchases to the total relaxations of all tariffs. so this is why these negotiations have been so hot and heavy. i don't blame the senator for being skeptical. neil: nevertheless the markets are reading no need to worry here. do you buy that? >> i, i do.

you know, i'm feeling very optimistic that we're very close to substantial trade deal with china. they really do. they need it more than we do. their economic data is horrible. at the same time it is kind of interesting, our farmers need it too. at the end of the day the farmers are taking the brunt of u.s.-china trade war. they want to start exporting their goods particularly when it comes to pork. one of the issues we've had is the asian swine fever decimated the pork crop in china. there are shortages there. they are having runaway inflation because pork is a major part of their diet. here in the united states we have a glut of pork. we want to send it to them. the disruptions in the global marketplace are getting them solved will be great for everybody. i think the market will get to that point because the market is going to demand it. neil: what is interesting, phil, i noticed, it hasn't gotten much buzz or press but the chinese agreed to lift this four-year

band on u.s. poultry. that was sort of like an add-on. the magnitude of that, be pretty substantial, wouldn't it? >> we're talking billions a year for u.s. farmers. so that is huge. and that is opening up the door for a lot of other trade opportunities. even though the american farmers, neil, have taken the brunt of this. once we lift some other tariffs in the marketplace, everybody is going to benefit. china is even going to benefit. just because you have tariffs on and you're having protectionism, protectist poll is in the country, doesn't mean things are as good as they can be. they can be actually better. this will be a positive for china as well. neil: we shall see, thank you my friend, very, very much. phil flynn in chicago. >> thank you. neil: elizabeth warren's two cent plan sounds easy and simple and cheap, translates into billions of dollars for billionaires, even like steve ballmer of microsoft. he was walking a political tightrope yesterday.

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[maniacal laughter] gold. gold! right, uh...thank you, for that, bob. but i think it's time we go with gbtc. it's bitcoin exposure through a traditional investment account. nice rock. it's time to drop gold. go digital. go grayscale. neil: elizabeth warren, some of these others come to you say, all right you have to kick in more so we can do a lot of this, you say? >> my attitude about this is

i've been very fortunate. if the will of the people is that i should pay more i will pay more. i certainly know that there are things i believe in -- neil: how much more? bill gates, 10 billion now. if i had to pay 20 billion-dollar instantly double. consider 100 billion, that is another issue? >> i would prefer to frame it a little differently. i would say okay, how much tax do people pay today in various income brackets? how much does the top 1%? how much does the top 1% make? how much does the top 1% pay? we have government data, neil. we can look at that. neil: 1% pay a lot of taxes, disproportionally, this is the rap you get on the left they're not giving nearly as much as they can and should given how much they control the wealth? >> there are obviously people who make far more and pay far more. that includes everything, state and local tax, you have to talk

about taxes talk about the whole enchilada. talks about property tax. even corporate income tax, if you stop to think about it, who pays corporate next tax? the shareholders the corporation. you take all of that 3.7 million on eight 1/2. could you scale that up? sure. could you make 3.7 more than 8.5 because you want to tax wealth that people have? you could do that but, i think everybody needs to give a thoughtful view of what the truth is today before we're deciding what the right thing is. neil: all right. that was steve ballmer, former ceo of microsoft, what he is saying, even if you tax guys like him full 100% you would not be able to afford a lot of this stuff out there. he has a "usa today" facts website that looks into government revenues that come in, go out. it is unsustainable way it is. charlie gasparino, on pushback people like him are getting for this, what do you think? >> they're pushing back.

neil: absolutely. >> leon cooperman, jamie dimon. bill gate his partner. neil: right. >> i will say this hard to feel sorry for billionaires when they complain about taxes, we all get that but i would ask the average person to consider this, start talking about top 2%, 1%. not just billionaires. they're getting people in the sweet spot anywhere between, you have to look at numbers where it is, anywhere between 200 grand a year making family of four, long island, making 250, 300 grand a year up to 3 million. if you're a family of four and you make $300,000 a year, combined, two kids, put them through college, you live on long island, you live in california, do you really feel like the top 1%? you don't. i don't care what you say. maybe if you live in the middle of nowhere you do but you don't. that is the problem with whole notion of top 1%. that brings in all the people

that are not the 1%. neil: elizabeth warren comes back at these guys, she is just feeding her base. argument, michael bloomberg jumps in, patrick in massachusetts, it feeds her narrative these guys are getting annoyed because something i'm saying or doing, and all to the good? >> donald trump would learn this if he ran against a real moderate. elizabeth warren will learn this if she is, if she is the nominee. you can't win with your base. aoc and, whatever "the squad" all them, they don't represent 60 to 70% of america. 60% to 70% of america are right, send her-right and center. they will look at your plans to redistribute wealth, spend a lot of money. when they really hear it, it will be eye-opening for her. neil: i hear with you're saying. polls are fleeting into this game yet she leads president in

all battleground state, certainly nationally. that will be tested. >> if you look at latest polls, it's tight. within the margin of error. neil: what i'm saying short of the president focusing if she were the nominee what she is saying, as things stand now he has got some selling to do? >> against her it is easy sell. neil: tougher one with -- >> bloomberg, others will not do what she is going to do. if she is the nominee, she will talk about this. here is the bottom line, she thinks top 1% are billionaire. there are not that many billionaires. mike bloomberg is a billionaire. neil: right. targeting guys like you eating at fancy place. >> targeting families of four -- neil: no, targeting you. >> targeting families of four making $250,000 a year that live in long island or whatever. they are trying to say they are the greedy rich. obama tried to do it as well. he was a little less effective. neil: keeping the base happy. let me switch gears if you don't

mind, the roger stone thing. >> i know roger real well. feel bad for him. neil: could be in prison the rest of his life. do you think the president would intervene and pardon him? he already tweeted his outrage at hem. >> i think he should. this will annoy people for me saying this, roger stone didn't make a lot of friends over the years. i happen to like roger a lot you know. but i will say this, look at his crimes. they were process crimes. he was not, he did not help wikileaks break into the database of -- neil: big no, no, if you lie. >> he lied, he -- neil: a lie is a lie. >> not saying it is bad. it isn't good. bill clinton is not in jail. you have to put it in context, he lied about stuff that wasn't a crime. martha stewart did the same by the way. she went to jail for what, 18 months? neil: is there any risk if the president were to pardon him? >> i don't know. neil: if you think about it,

february 6th is the actual sentencing date. so, you could argue that president waits this out, sees what the winds are doing. >> i think, can he pardon him after he gets in prison? i wonder. neil: you can pardon anytime. men have been prison for years. that's a powerful presidential power. >> it is. my guess is he will wait to see what type of sentence he gets. if roger, if judge shows leniency like judge did with martha stewart, less than a year. i think, roger can work out for a year, get back in shape, come back out. if it is like something throws the book at him, like 20 years, i could see the president pardoning him. neil: real quickly the markets ignore all of this? >> it should this has nothing to do -- neil: second hearing today, roger stone news, if the guys at carner -- corner of wall and broad are tuning it out. >> here is what it comes down

to. roger stone doesn't mean anything to the president, if the president gets impeached and convicted by senate, mike pence would be in there, same sort of fiscal policy. not getting a big change there. they -- neil: i don't think they see that happening. >> here is what really smart money is saying. look at the alternative. if the alternative is elizabeth warren, and a crazy donald trump, trump is tempermentally a little different, let's face it. he does some not smart things which the ukrainian thing is but take him and his policies and contrast to elizabeth warren does, wall street and investors will say, as long as the guy is in there we like him. neil: lloyd blankfein, what the heck? what is she doing. i like democrats. >> my guess is, you know what? i my guess, i can't mike bloomberg would vote for elizabeth warren over trump. he hates trump and thinks he is temper mentally unsuited.

elizabeth warren would destroy bloomberg's business. regulate the banks to hell and attacking him. neil: they're looking and weighing that. trump's campaign message not perfect but better than all those guys. >> not even close if you think about it. neil: thank you my friend for showing up. i understand you had to run to get here. i ran six miles. did mark simone's radio show of the got stuck in traffic and i jogged in my suit everything from 42nd. neil: clark kent. >> you think i need a shower now? neil: yes i do. i was noticing. thank you my friend, very much. have a wonderful weekend. charlie gasparino, my friends and there is everybody else in this business. just remember that, no the the matter what you think, trump loyalists and all, he is annoying to everyone. i think it's a great quality. lasik eye surgery is all the

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no commission. delivery drones, or the latest phones. no commission. no matter what you trade, at fidelity you'll pay no commission for online u.s. equity trades. ♪. neil: victims of convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein may get some money from his estate. not that easy, maybe not that fast but fox news correspondent bryan llenas has details we know. reporter: lawyers representing jeffrey epstein's estate worth more than $577 million, know it wit be target of dozens of epstein abuse victims seeking financial compensation for their surfing. rather than bogged down for years they are asking the court in the u.s. virgin islands to establish a victim's compensation fund dedicated to

pay epstein accusers settling their claims out of court in an expedited and confidential way. the proposed compensation fram would accept claims via website, 90 days after the court gives approval. the state promises to design the compensation fund with the help of eckstein's accusers and their attorneys. the fun would not be operated by the estate but rather three independent claims administration experts, including kenneth feinberg who developed the september 11th victims compensation fund who pays out billions to victims that became sick or died as a result of 9/11 related illnesses. feinberg helped distribute funds for catholic church abuse victims. one accuser, jennifer rose, said she will not participate in the fund and she will pursue litigation instead. attorney lisa bloom, who represents five epstein accusers, she says most of her client support the claims fund but each woman is going to have to decide individually if they

will participate. >> my opinion is it should go entirely to the victims but at least in an amount proportionate to what they have suffered. we need to recognize the emotional pain, the suicidality, the lost income, the medical bills, therapy bills, everything that victims go through. it is time for that. reporter: $577 million. meantime, neil, questions about epstein's death remain unanswered. the director of the federal bureau of prisons which operates the manhattan jail where epstein died will face a grilling from congress in a public hearing on tuesday morning. neil. neil: bryan, thank you very, very much. meantime fox business, can taylor switch old songs. why she says she can't and that's a problem.

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♪ ♪ just another picture to burn neil: taylor swift in trouble, trouble, trouble. see what we did there? basic cable. the music superstar says she can't play her old songs but big machine records is refuting that, that she he's the company millions of dollars, settle that, the life will be hunky-dory. it is not quite that simple. lauren simonetti is looking into the whole taylor swift controversy. what is the deal? >> there is a lot of hate on both sides. big machine's bosses hate taylor swift and vice versa. this was founded by scooter braun. back in the day, she was 16 years old. she made six albums with big machine records, all of them went platinum. she left that record label.

now she is with universal. as part of the arrangement, she said, i don't own the rights to my own music. i don't own my masters. i really want to. neil: how did she let that happen? >> maybe because she was 16 at the time. a lot is usual hollywood stuff. she can own rights to all the platinum albums if she rerecords new stuff, rerecords albums starting in the year 2020. neil: oh. >> she would sound different, being 29 now, rerecording something she sank at 16. either way, this is why this is an issue. she is artist of the year. she will be awarded later this month at the amas. netflix making a documentary about her. she reached out on social media, enlisted fans to tell big machine, if you want to hear my music, it is not 2020. this is 2019. i can't play it for you. i can't perform at the amas, if i can't perform this music. neil: she gets money, royalties from the old label?

>> she does. neil: if she were in a concert she could still deliver the songs? there are tons of them, right. >> big machine put out earlier statement, yeah, whatever you can play at the amas. they didn't specify exactly what, giving this statement to "tmz." taylor swift can 100% perform all the catalog past and present at the amas. our confusion with the statement, we have no legal right to stop this. we never tried. they're settling this once and for all. there were death threats going to family members. neil: both their economic interests to come to some sort of agreement, isn't it? good for them? good for her? isn't that how stuff is resolved? >> they want to get beyond taylor swift. she and her fans are such a headache. neil: never with adele fans. >> she pack as heavy punch. went up against apple and

spotify, didn't like how they paid their artists. she changed rules at both of those platforms. scooter braun and scott borchetta are totally done with taylor swift. neil: i have no idea what you're talking about. >> those are the bosses. neil: isn't it amazing how adele remains above the fray? >> she does. is she coming on the show anytime soon. neil: surprised i never heard back. i'm in my office. >> hello. neil: there should be a phone service, like adele. >> i think there is one actually. neil: there is? look at the time. i got to get out of here. meantime, say hello to records across the board. see what i did there? dow, s&p, nasdaq all at record levels. ignoring, think about it, second day of public impeachment hearings. ignoring roger stone, maybe going to jail for the rest of his life after being found guilty on all seven counts

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neil: all right. the dow at an all-time high, s&p 500 at an all-time high, the nasdaq at an all-time high. this despite the second day of public impeachment hearings against the president of the united states, for the first time in more than two decades and roger stone, a close confidant of the president, now staring at possibly being in prison for the rest of his life after being found guilty on all seven counts against him, including perjuring himself, lying to congress, witness tampering, you name it. the president putting out a

tweet in support of him, saying that he was kind of bulldozed in all of this. we will have much more on that. but again, taking a look at the corner of wall and broad, people who bet money on this stuff are betting that this is much ado about nothing. so if we were worried this was amounting to something, a worry for the president, a constitutional crisis, however you want to frame it, so far, not the case. what to make of that? blake burman has the very latest on all this stuff. blake? reporter: hi, neil. there are, though, a couple potential headaches for this white house today, as it relates to the impeachment inquiry, and it involves what is going on up on capitol hill, as it relates to the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. she is continuing her testimony right now at this hour and earlier today, as she was testifying, president trump sent out the following tweet. he said quote, everywhere marie yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in somalia, how did that go, then fast forward to ukraine where the new

ukrainian spoke unfavorably about her in my phone call with him. it's the president's absolute right to appoint bams doambassa. shortly after that, adam schiff, top democrat on the house intelligence committee, read parts of that tweet to yovanovitch and started to build up the argument that the president in that very moment was engaging in witness tampering and witness intimidation. watch. >> now the president in realtime is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses' willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, it's very intimidating. >> it's designed to intimidate, is it not? >> i mean, i can't speak to what the president is trying to do but i think the effect is to be intimidating. reporter: remember, democrats if they do go forward with impeachment articles, don't necessarily just put forth a

quid pro quo article. adam schiff just laid the groundwork for witness intimidation. before that, the white house released the rough transcript of the first call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine after zelensky won his election. it's a fairly innocuous 16-minute call between the two leaders but here's the issue. the readout of that call that had been put forward at the time by the white house said the two talked about rooting out corruption. however, when you go through that three-page transcript, it is not mentioned, corruption not mentioned at all. so either what was just put out by the white house today is not an accurate representation of the call, or what the white house had initially said about the call was not an accurate representation of the call. either way, the president a couple times today has tweeted about the stock market and what is going on on the corner of wall and broad, as you can see there, left-hand side of the screen. but here in washington, at least, as it relates to what's going on today, no talk about that.

instead rather once again, neil, talk of a tweet from the president and whether or not this could potentially be an issue for him down the line. neil? neil: just to be clear, my friend, the call in question here is the first call with zelensky back in april, right, not the one later on -- reporter: very first call, yep, april 21st after zelensky had just won his election, there was this call, the president's aboard air force one. 16 minutes, according to this transcript between the two. lots of congratulations back and forth but again, the white house talks about corruption, said corruption was involved or talked about on the call and there wasn't a single mention of corruption in the transcript so there's going to be questions there. you're right, this all started with that july 25th call, the second version. but they are rolling out the first transcript today. neil: i cannot keep up with all of this. thank you very much, blake burman. then in the middle of this, we have roger stone, a key confidant of the president, found guilty on all counts against him, including lying to

congress, witness tampering, the whole shooting works. david is following all of that. what's the latest? >> hey, neil, good afternoon. roger stone is gone, he's still under a gag order. he's going to be sentenced on february 6th behind me here at federal court. roger stone, someone that does not shy away from a camera, as you know, but do not expect to hear from him. so far he has been following that gag order. he was warned by the judge. now, roger stone convicted on all seven counts, as you mentioned. witness tampering, lying to congress, several of those counts were making false statements to congress. roger stone was stoic when the verdict was read today. jurors, they conferred and they agreed on all of those seven counts. now, the statutory maximum in this case could put roger stone behind bars for up to 50 years but that is the statutory maximum. more than likely, because of his non-criminal history, he could get just a few years behind bars. ultimately, though, that's not up to the jury, it's up to judge

amy berman jackson, when she sees him here on february 6th. one more thing, if i can point out an interesting part in the trial. last week, last friday, steve bannon was called to testify for the prosecution. he didn't come willwillingly. he was subpoenaed. he called roger stone an access point to wikileaks. many say that was incredibly damaging to stone and his defense team. he said while stone never bragged about having non-public documents, he was quote, an access point to wikileaks. neil? neil: thank you, my friend. in the meantime, stocks higher today amid all of this. a lost t of it could have to do with things like the china trade deal, according to larry kudlow talks are in the final stages. edward lawrence with the latest on that. reporter: yeah, this is what the markets are really focused in on. commerce secretary wilbur ross said today in all likelihood, there will be a phase one deal. others in the administration saying we are at the finish line for that deal. now, today u.s. trade representative robert lighthizer, treasury secretary

steven mnuchin, had a phone call with their counterparts in china, the chinese vice premier liu he and chinese commerce minister. listen to how u.s. commerce secretary wilbur ross characterized this situation today. >> so we're really in a win/win position. either the tariffs will continue or we will have an acceptable deal with china. so the important thing is to make sure that the deal is what we think it is, make sure that it is consistent with the promises that they've made to us. reporter: and there's more good will building. china has bought more soybeans yesterday, also lifting the ban on poultry. the first time they are going to be able to import u.s. poultry since 2015. the market's also focused on another deal, the usmca. a lot of good will, the fact they may be getting close to a ratification vote. moderate democrats in districts that turned blue had a caucus

meeting yesterday with the entire democratic caucus, they told that group that they brought the majority in and they need usmca. that's according to sources, congressional sources here on capitol hill. federal reserve also watching to see if the uncertainty will be cleared up. >> logistics supply chain arrangements are critical to u.s. companies and if you're going to be in a long-term competition with china, shoring up our trade arrangements with mexico and canada are essential to u.s. competitiveness and u.s. taking share. reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi says she would like to have the ratification happen this year. neil, a lot of good news on trade. probably what the market is looking at. neil: you are probably right. edward lawrence on all of this. in the meantime, we are looking at the longest bull run, now the best bull run. the s&p 500 with gains today up better than 468% since march of 2009 when the bull market technically started, marking the

best streak we have seen since world war ii. we have market watcher courtney dominguez here and anthony chan. i know the market climbing a wall of worry, but even climbing a wall of a potential constitutional crisis, impeachment stuff, these guys seem to be shrugging their shoulders and saying whatever. >> yeah. i think really what you are seeing is we have had tons of headlines. yes, right now it's the impeachment, it's been trade wars, it's been an inverted yield curve. pick your poison. investors have the most cash on hand they have had in a decade because they are so nervous with everything going on. we are finally seeing they are looking at the fundamentals, markets hitting all-time highs. we just saw for the first time since trump's election, we saw cash actually balances go down which means people are starting to put their money to work. but there is still a lot more money to go in which means the markets can really go higher. neil: again, if that many people are still cautious, at what

level would it trigger a concern for you? when the cash is depleted or what? >> not at all. there's plenty of cash to go to work right now. i see that as a contrarian view. when everyone else is nervous, that's probably your best buying opportunity. we aren't getting huge buys in. people are just starting to dip into the cash. there's about $3.5 trillion sitting in cash that can go into the stock market. we are just starting to see that happen. neil: what do you think? >> i think it's great all that cash is on the sidelines but you have to ask yourself, what are investors looking at? the biggest concern for investors, we can have a recession. guess what? the economic fundamentals and numbers are suggesting we're not. we are going to have sluggish economic growth. second point for investors, sluggish economic growth historically means economic expansions last longer, more opportunities for profits. great news. some potential good news on the trade front. it's not so much just getting a trade deal that's great. it's that the potential that if you get a usmca, you get a china trade deal, business sentiment starts to pick up which means the achilles heel of this

economy, weak business investment, they start to lift up and guess what, when there's a boost in business sentiment, employment goes up. if employment goes up, guess what, consumer spending continues its parade. neil: it just feeds on itself. >> all this stuff is very supportive. neil: i hear you. one thing that's interesting, i look at a lot of particular stories where you talk about markets ignoring potential disruptors, boeing saying the soonest it could imagine flying the 737 max is march of next year so it gets pushed back, pushed back, boeing's stock is up. so what is going on here? >> i have to agree with you here. you have to look at the fundamentals. the economy is still in a really good place. we just had an earnings season that's better than expected. the consumer spending is still really strong right now. we are a consumer-driven -- neil: all the consumer. >> exactly. that's what people are looking at right now. you will see people that want to get in before there is more of a bump in the markets because just because they are all-time highs doesn't mean they don't have more room to grow. people understand that.

neil: normally when consumers get happy and bullish, but his or her bosses are not, you read about trepidation on the part of cfos and ceos to hire people or plan more capital spending, and they're not, there's a disconnect there. >> there's a disconnect but the disconnect can melt away. courtney's right. you are seeing earnings beating and another thing that people are not talking about is the fact that earnings growth is actually a lot slower than revenue growth. you might say is that a bad thing? it means workers are getting a little more, and they are going to buy more and that in turn will support -- neil: but that's relatively contained. that's what amazes me. >> yeah. you are going to see investors are trying to get in here. yes, they aren't taking a lot of their gains right now but they do still have money to put to work. they have other places they can reinvest to without taking their profits. neil: thank you both very much. the dow up 132 points. the dow is up about 20% year to date. we've got about a 24% uptick on

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neil: all right. talking about the dow record, credit apple for that. you can credit obviously a lot of the, you know, apple, you know, helping this advance. in fact, apple has added nearly 400 points to the dow since the dow hit 27,000. could its entrance into the streaming business now cause its stock to go even higher?

it's not a guarantee but market watcher lenore hawkins follows it all. what do you make of the apple phenomenon and whether it gets even more of a phenomenal boost from what's happening in streaming? >> well, not just streaming. so what we're seeing with streaming is maybe they might start bundling some of the apple tv with the apple news and tim cook was hinting recently about maybe an iphone subscription model. then also seeing better than expected iphone sales. coming next year, we will probably see a very big boost from purchasers that are going to get phones that are 5g compatible and we are also seeing better than expected in wearables and service. neil: do you think that has been factored into the stock? >> i think yes, some of it has, but right now, as you were talking about with your earlier guests, the stock market is just -- everything is doing really, really well, regardless kind of -- i disagree on the

point with the fundamentals. yes, earnings came in better than expected this last quarter, except for so far, still on track to be the third quarter in a row in which corporate earnings are declining. it's going to be negative overall. so the third one in a row. we are well into a corporate earnings recession. you have the atlanta fed gdp now just came out at the fourth quarter, gdp growth, .3%. they are predicting. i don't call that fantastic fundamentals. neil: one of the things, i don't know whether you are in that camp that when we get earnings for the first and second quarter of next year, they start popping up again, that the comparisons are such we could see 4%, 5% the first quarter, 5% or 6% the second quarter. i don't know what the latest numbers are. are you in that camp, in that all of a sudden down the road it justifies what's been happening now? >> i think we probably will see a little bit of that, but more of what we are seeing happening i think is a function of two things. one, investors have since the

financial crisis, investors have been trained that any kind of pullback is actually buy the dip because if you didn't -- neil: they have been richly rewarded for doing that, right? >> exactly. exactly. we have a whole generation of investors who have no idea what it is to actually see a market in turmoil because every time that would happen, some bureaucrat or politician would step in with usually a lot of central bank aid that would boost the market back up,ished that. you also have right now, the fed is being very supportive, more supportive than officially, because they have been doing this whole -- we had some people talking about what's been going on overnight lending between the banks, where banks despite having extra reserves aren't lending to one another so the fed has kind of stepped in to help. that is actually more than not calling it quantitative easing but it's of a sort that's more putting money out there just like it did with quantitative easing and oh, when that started happening, look, stock prices started going up again. neil: you're right.

i didn't think about that. do you factor in this impeachment stuff and today, the roger stone guilty on all seven counts stuff? us it just noise for you? obviously the collective market is shrugging its proverbial shoulders. what about you? >> right now, yes, exactly. right now the market is -- i think the market is more looking at oh, well, it just doesn't go down so i'm not going to trust that the market is ever going to go down but i think this does have the makings because we have ourselves set up for something that could be -- we have never seen before. you've got an issue with potentially a president where they are pushing more and more potentially criminal charges against a president. we really haven't seen something like that before. how that's going to affect the market, i don't know. then if you look around the world, there is so much geopolitical instability that the market again is just kind of shrugging off, up until the point where it doesn't. that's what i'm worried about. having that cash on the sidelines, i'm not so stressed out about that. i kind of like having investors have cash on the sidelines when we see that there is a lot of

instability. nobody is talking about brexit right now and that's still coming up and could be pretty dramatic. neil: yeah. it's all about cash on the sidelines. it's going quickly to stocks. is there a level at which you say all right, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is getting giddy? >> right, i think we are at giddy right now. people are also not talking about what we are seeing with all the baby boomers and the retiring. you have your mandatory, the minimum required distributions coming up right now. neil: true. true. >> those baby boomers, they are not going to be putting money into the stock market over time. they are more and more pulling money out. so they were the ones, you look when the stock market really took off, that was when the baby boomers had enough money to start putting it in. there's no bounce of generation behind them but all that being said, the u.s. is still the best economy right now in the world. isn't saying a whole lot, but it is. it's still the strongest economy. that's where people are going to be putting their money. fundamentals, not so much on the corporate side but fundamentals

as far as royalties, put the money. neil: true enough. you look at the alternatives, there aren't many out there. for now, there aren't any out there. thank you very, very much. have a great weekend. >> thanks. you, too. neil: all right. the president's former top confidant roger stone could go to jail for the rest of his life. the sentencing will be in february. but we know right now that he is staring at potentially decades behind bars, unless the president pardons him. not such a great concept. after this. imagine a disease is caused by too much of a bad protein, but a company develops a way to actually attack it. what drew me to capital allocation in health sciences was the potential to help many people through investments that help fund medical innovation. my team and i often choose to invest at the very early stages of human trials. investing lets me use everything i've learned as a doctor to help make a positive impact. so that's why i go beyond the numbers.

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the impeachment hearing that he could obviously ask this woman a great many questions, marie yovanovitch, former ambassador to ukraine but because she wasn't the point person or around for these crucial calls or moments in question here, why bother. does he have a point? the former federal prosecutor doug burns on all this. what do you think? >> it is a typical trial lawyer type of play which, as you know, i would be happy to ask you all kinds of questions but point of fact, you were gone for a couple months before this phone call ever took place. he's making a sort of dramatic point. now, where i come down is it's a mixed bag. i don't automatically say you were gone, that's it, you're useless as a witness, but at the same time, it's highly relevant but the other point is that they are utilizing her to drive a different discussion. obviously you don't need me to explain it, which is that we had some kind of shadow diplomacy under way, it undermined her, it was unfair to her. that's a political discussion, because legally, you have heard everybody say this, the

president does have wide latitude. let's face it, to recall an ambassador. neil: i'm wondering where any of this is going. we always like to keep track. you remind me of this, whether it could change minds, you know, if you are a democrat by and large, you support what's going on here and want to hold the president to the law. as a republican you think the whole process is ridiculous and you want to nail the democrats to the wall. where do you think this is going in that regard? is it moving the needle? i could still see maybe impeachment getting a vote in the house, but it doesn't go much further than that. your thoughts? you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan. that's why we're offering seven things every medicare supplement should have. it's yours free just for calling the number on your screen. and when you call, a knowledgeable licensed agent-producer can answer any questions you have, and help you choose the plan that's right for you. the call is free, and there's no obligation. you see,

medicare covers only about 80 percent of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. that's why so many people purchase medicare supplement insurance plans, like those offered by humana. they're >> -- starting to come into play which i find interesting. neil: all right. we are continuing now with doug burns, taking a look, the former federal prosecutor, at where we stand in this whole impeachment mess and fight. doug, i guess the question going forward now is the added wrinkle today of roger stone, a former top confidant of the president, who is staring at maybe spending the rest of his life behind bars. do you think the president will pardon him? >> i don't, actually. you know, that's a little bit of a tough prediction but i think that people have been screaming and yelling going back some time about different pardons, paul manafort and michael cohen, until that relationship got

worse and so on. but i don't think he will. you know, it's an interesting thing because again, we go into heavy political characterizations which don't necessarily square up with a straightforward criminal case. the political characterizations are that, you know, this very much involves the trump campaign but the straight legal reality's real quick. there weren't that many witnesses, five witnesses, but there was a lot of documentary proof and it undermined a lot of the claims that he made about what he knew and who he had interfaced with and spoken to. he claimed that he had one sole intermediary on this, turned out it wasn't true, and it reminds me a little bit, obviously different subject matter, martha stewart, convicted of lying, separate and apart from an underlying crime. you can debate in fairness, by the way, whether some of the wikileaks stuff could ostensibly constitute some type of crime but assume that it doesn't, he got convicted for not being truthful and not to be corny,

you can't go in and lie basically. neil: there is that little detail. doug burns, thank you. former federal prosecutor. you have been hearing from a lot of billionaires on this show and others, not too keen on elizabeth warren's constant attacks. they all say to a man or woman that look, i'm happy to pay more in taxes, just not that much more. imagine traveling hassle-free with your golf clubs. now you can, with shipsticks.com! no more lugging your clubs through the airport or risk

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neil: want to apologize for what appeared to be a technical snafu where we went to break in the middle of that interview with doug burns. had nothing to do with doug. had nothing to do with me, per se. it was a master control issue. when people tell me master control, i say i don't want to ask, don't want to ask. so if we inadvertently left the programming and resumed it, i apologize for anyone sort of alarmed by that, including doug burns. i just saw the light on and kept talking. normally that's what you do with talent. just have the light on and they will just keep talking. that's exactly what i did.

again, for that confusion, i apologize. i will blame anyone else but me. in the meantime, mike bloomberg blaming pretty much everyone else in the democratic primary system right now but himself for the state of where things are going and it could explain why he wants to jump in as a candidate. he's already spending $100 million on anti-trump campaign ads to sort of grease the skids or maybe leave it at that. to the daily caller news foundation's chris bedford. what do you think? >> a hundred million dollars is a lot of money. it's a real lot of money. he's absolutely got it to spend. but i'm not exactly sure what constituency he's going to try and reach if he wants to run. his plan right now is to sit out the first four primary states which is at least an unorthodox plan. then to come in in some of the more rural states and california, come in for super tuesday. the problem for michael bloomberg running the democratic primary, he is pro-immigration. he's also pro-stop and frisk, pro-iraq war, pro-surveillance,

anti-teachers union and a billionaire at a time when populist rage is at a peak. while people like donald trump, who want to take the furniture in the mansion and throw it out the window, they can appeal to people in a populist time. the guy in the mansion has a more difficult time doing that. neil: you think about it, a lot of those views and assets of a michael bloomberg might do well in a general election, but he would have a tough time getting it through his party. right? >> he would have a tough time getting it through his party and a tough time in rural and industrial states. $100 million on a campaign ad is one thing. but just in june, a few months ago, he pledged $500 million to shut down coal plants all over the country and end coal and it hit some of the poorest places in the country. at a time where democrats have really lost the white working class, he certainly would not be able to win them back. i think that would strengthen donald trump's hand on that, while he might have a mastery of the suburbs. neil: they are all expressing that, people like bloomberg and

why deval patrick jumped in the race, about the direction the party's going, not a big fan, neither of those gentlemen, what elizabeth warren is painting for the democrats, that if she were the nominee, that the party would be grabbing defeat from otherwise the jaws of victory. do you agree with that? >> i think that elizabeth warren is actually worse candidate than hillary clinton was. i have a specific view on this, maybe, because i grew up in massachusetts, so i have been watching her for a long time. but just today, her new wealth tax plan that she came out with, the "wall street journal" said could lead to people being taxed over 100% in the united states, some of the richest. there's no question -- neil: i'm not sure how they came to that calculation. maybe it's the compounding nature of it, right? >> i was reading it a couple times myself. if i was a math genius i wouldn't be a reporter but i do have good comprehension on that. elizabeth warren's class war rhetoric is not actually

seemingly exciting the left as much as some of bernie sanders' is, the hard left, who still think she's a poseur and it's alienating the donors. americans think there is a problem here and there is a disparity here but americans are not an envious people who want to take from those who are successful. it goes against the grain of our country and i don't think it will resonate with voters. neil: what do you think of the markets ignoring all the impeachment stuff, ignoring even today the roger stone news? what do you make of that? >> i think it's -- the cake is baked. watching the impeachment news today, it's so difficult for everyone because everyone knows the democrats are fwogoing to v to impeach, the republicans will vote against it and it won't get through the senate. this is the absolute of washington theater. it's really refreshing to see new york and chicago figure out that washington theater doesn't always affect them as much as it should and there's no reason to panic. neil: that's a very good read on it. thank you very much. have a good weekend.

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we'll take very seriously any data or concerns that are expressed and fda will take a strong look at that but as always, we would advise patients, talk to your doctor and make sure you go into any procedure getting as much information about the risks and benefits of that procedure as possible. neil: have you heard about this? all of a sudden you got an issue, the new warning over lasik eye surgery. health and human services secretary alex azar says the fda is now looking closely at concerns, these have built up apparently over the years, after former fda adviser said the procedure should absolutely be taken off the market. to family physician and rowan universiti university, dr. jennifer cuddle. thank you for coming. do you share those concerns? >> so let me put it this way, neil. any time we have any medical procedure or medical intervention, there are always potential risks. that's just a fact.

now, while there have been lots of concerns raised, i want to be very clear. you're right, there have been a lot of complaints filed on the fda's site. while that's also been the case, the fda has a robust site about lasik and one of the things they say is when lasik is done properly on the right person, the benefits outweigh the risks. so you have both sides there. that's really what we are seeing. do i think it's a great thing that we are looking into patient complaints and looking at this closer, absolutely. i think it actually sort of helps us drill down on what we need to do which is making sure we are finding the right person for lasik. i think that's a really crucial step. neil: you know, normally, this is sort of like, if you have bad vision or blurry vision, this improves it, but if there's a risk, even a small risk you would go blind as apparently a number of cases have, a tiny risk, i'm told, that's another matter. other issues have cropped up like people seeing spots before

their eyes, temporary graying out. that elevates the concern level here. i guess it would depend on the percentage, though, right? >> sure. well, absolutely. you are totally right, those are potential side effects. some of the more common side effects that are often talked about are sometimes people get double vision or blurred vision. they might see halos or starbursts. they might have glare or dry eye or have problems with night vision. you know, those are potential side effects. some people get lasik surgery and their vision is not completely fixed. they still have to wear glasses. or they get the surgery and it's fixed for awhile, then it sort of recedes. some people actually have to have a second procedure. so i don't want to downplay that at all. those are very well documented potential consequences and side effects but this is why, i go back to this, you know, there's risk versus benefit with anything medical we ever do. remember that lasik for most people is elective surgery so it's really about at this point in time, the doctors making sure we are performing the surgery

properly but properly on the right patient. not everyone is a candidate for this. that's one of the things we need to focus on. who is this right for and who is this not. neil: i'm just going to stick with glasses. you know? once a nerd, always a nerd. while i've got you here, the president is announcing this new drug transparency rule in the next hour. he wants to do that. what do you think of that? >> well, look, as a family doctor, i'm all for transparency. i was literally in the office two hours ago seeing patients and you would never believe this, maybe you would, twice this week i have had two patients, one patient that i had to send to the e.r. because of something critical going on, another patient i wanted to send to a test. do you know the patient i had to send to the e.r., before she would go, insisted on calling her insurance company to find out how much it would cost. now, there was something critical going on. the other patient did the same before he would get the test. my point is that there are a lot of patients who want to know

what things are going to cost. they don't want surprise bills which oftentimes is happening. if a doctor -- as a doctor it surprises me, too. so the idea of transparency, not only am i a fan of it personally as a physician but i'm a fan because my patients are literally asking me how much is this going to cost. someone i'm trying to send to the e.r., before they go, are calling up the insurance company in the exam room asking the insurance company how much is this going to cost me. neil: you know, doctor, i always talk about healthy eating and all of that stuff and you always remind me, eat your fruits and vegetables. you get very annoying with that. but you are very wise to remind me. white castle now is introducing an impossible stuffing but it follows on the heels of so many others offering beef alternatives. it's all the rage. it's not going away. it's expanding. what do you think of all this? >> you know, look, i'm not a

vegetarian. i am a meat eater. i eat everything. i'm always saying a well-balanced diet when i come on your show. but i like the idea of having options for those who don't eat meat. don't choose to eat meat. so i'm actually a fan of the impossible type stuff. i would be willing to try the stuffing and see what it tastes like. i have to admit before i came over here, though, i ran this by my office staff, i said what do you guys think about an impossible stuffing. i don't think they were quite convinced, to be honest with you. but i'm a fan. i think let's give it a try, see what we think. neil: do we know whether it's healthier for you? people have told me it might have a lot of natural ingredients, it's not necessarily lower in the cholesterol you want to lower and all that. what is it? >> yeah. yeah. well, it's a good question. i'm not sure that i have the specifications for you and can run down what actually is in it and if it's healthier. one thing i will say, though, oftentimes, just because it may seem healthier, i'm not talking about necessarily the impossible burger stuff, i'm talking about anything in the grocery store,

just because we think it should be healthier doesn't always mean that it is. so with this, i would say to your point, look, if you are on a restricted diet, if you have heart disease or other things, you may want to get that ingredient list and pass it by your doctor because we shouldn't assume just like with anything in life, certainly food, that it's necessarily going to be healthy just because it sounds like it might be. neil: all right. that's what i have always said, doctor. now you are coming my way. all right. i have corrupted you. doctor, thank you very, very much. have a good weekend. always good having you on. i'm getting some e-mails on this 43, 45-second blackout. one viewer saying i noticed as soon as doug burns was talking about how this could be a trialsome day for the president, you went right to commercial. i see what you're up to, cavuto. really? this is master control. i don't even know what that means. more after this. ( ♪ )

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♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right. here's how important this china trade situation is. no less than former secretary of state henry kissinger warning that failure to mend these relations between our two countries would be worse than the world wars. >> what is worrisome about the trade situation is that we are aware of our problems rgs that both sides have developed an attitude that we are dealing with an adversary rather than a potential partner. neil: so again, we've got some problems. to "making money" host charles payne. what do you think of that?

charles: those are deep. we lost about 40 million people around the world in world war i, 56 million in world war ii. i'm hoping it won't be that catastrophic. listen, the world's top two economies particularly strategically in place, one in the atlantic, one in the pacific, you want us to get along but the ideologies beneath our nations always means we will be at some sort of competition and there will always be some uneasiness with that relationship. neil: you know, i think, i don't want to put words in his mouth, but what he's saying is it's much easier if you are doing business with each other to avoid some of these problems that get up to the military side, and that if you resolve these differences, you can avoid even starker differences. charles: yeah, and i get your point. listen, kissinger made the secret trip to china even before the famous nixon trip in 1972, and you know, i think the idea is hey, if it's going to be this symbiotic relationship, particularly economically, maybe

it's time for americans to sort of demand more. i will just tell you why. in 1972, the year that nixon made the trip, gdp per capita in china was $132 a year. a year. now it's almost $10,000 a year. in america it was $6,000, now it's $62,000. we are up nine times, they are up 73 times. it's great, it's been a wonderful relationship for both countries, but obviously china has benefited a lot more and if we can sort of level this out, get a fair relationship economically, then maybe the military stuff will be pushed off but also, let's not forget yugoslavia. when tito passed away, it disintegrated, you had people who were neighbors and friends and the best person at someone's wedding and just overnight, old animosities overtook that and they became sworn enemies. neil: we have been talking about the markets, you and i certainly always talk about them and the reaction to developments that would normally, normally rattle them. no rattling today. think about it. roger stone may be going to jail for the rest of his life unless he gets a pardon from the

president, who knows. the second day of public impeachment hearings rattling a lot of cages but so far, not rattling stocks. what do you make of it? charles: when i hear reports saying the market is ignoring those things, i think it's the exact opposite. i think the market is looking at it and saying it's not going to evolve into anything deleterious. it won't become a constitutional crisis. meanwhile, i think the most important driver of the market right now is just good old-fashioned earnings. the number one performing stock in the s&p is applied materials. they posted numbers last night that are mind-boggling, just absolutely mind-boggling. don't forget, we started earnings season off with a miss on texas instruments they blamed on china, they blamed on everything else, now it's turned completely around. so this economy keeps going and the market's keying on that longer term i think it also assumes that everything else is going to be okay. neil: what about the consumer? obviously, he, she, very important in the mix of things, showing no reticence that let's

say their bosses are, ceos and cfos, who cool it on capital spending until the clouds on trade may be clear, but they are showing none of that reluctance. what are we to make of that? charles: i got to tell you, this is remarkable. the american household, the consumer is absolutely remarkable. wages are soaring, job security is stronger than it's been in a generation for sure, and yet savings is over 8%. our ability to pay, you know, our debt, our debt as a percentage of household wages is at the lowest it's ever been. we are so strongly and firmly positioned as a nation right now to keep this going and i think people will. i think as long as nothing knocks them off, and i'm not sure what that would be but right now, people feel really good and they don't get over their skis, neil. you know, we are spending but we don't go nuts. we had retail sales report out, we spent a little bit less on household supplies, we spent a lot more on the internet. we kind of gauge it but we keep going out there and i think the most important thing is we just

are not getting over our skis as a nation and we are powering this economy higher. neil: all right. i'm just happy that it won't be my wife carrying the nation. that the nation will help her out. charles: you know, jeff bezos sent my wife a plaque. neil: you just got a plaque. all right. thank you, my friend. charles: you got it. neil: always the best. charles payne. meantime, not only the dow but the s&p 500 and the nasdaq, all in record territory now. the big question, can you hold that for the next couple hours? we shall see. eterans with va loans, va mortgage rates have just dropped to near 50 year lows. veterans can refinance their va loans with no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. newday has extended our call center hours so that every veteran in america can take advantage of this unexpected drop in interest rates. one call can save you $2000 every year. to start saving on your next mortgage payment go to

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neil: all right. looking at capitol hill right now where marie yovanovitch, former u.s. ambassador to the the ukraine, is still handling questions. this time republicans are grilling her over what she knew, when she knew it. obviously saying that the president has the power to fire anyone for any cause or no cause at all and she even admitted as

much saying i serve at pleasure of the president. this was a bit disruptive. president tweeting in the middle of all of that. as charles payne saying maybe markets ignoring but but assessing it. hey, charles. charles: thank you, neil. markets surging at all-time highs a booming economy continues. we'll break down to the strong economy and strong consumer. plus, president trump is about to give a speech on biggest problem in the country, rising health care prices. we'll bring you his full comments as soon as we get them. former ambassador to ukraine is grilled on capitol hill. we'll have more on "making money." ♪. charles: stocks rallying to record highs while