going to davos, he doesn't want to be part of elites. you look skeptical. lauren: i'm a little skeptical. stuart: what? lauren: you will tell me, december last year was terrible. december this year is great. i'm worried about january. i told you you were going to kill me. stuart: leave it at that neil, bail me out. it is yours. neil: we're following same thing you are. markets are in record territory yet again. the president's approval level is rising right now. in fact according to one poll he is leading all his democratic likely opponents. we've got "wsj at large" host gerry baker, is it officially the economy, stupid. gerry, great to see you again. good job with the attorney general. i want to get into that with you. journal, your show, the idea it all comes down to the economy, how we're doing, how we're feeling that is a very positive

backdrop for good couple years. only now are we seeing it pop up. am i missing something in the president's poll numbers? >> i think you're right, neil. always been there. the economy is in good shape, right? not spectacular shape as many some of the president's defenders would say. it is in good shape. unemployment seen recently down 50-year low. market likes it. that is a pretty good backdrop from president running for re-election. i think what making it particularly powerful for him, he is up against candidates of a party seems not to just be replacing the president, seems, democrats have been going through this process, talking about replacing nature of the u.s. economy. they are proposing many of them, pretty radical transformation. some more radical than others to be tear. "medicare for all," wealth tax, significant regulation. neil: least among them has dramatic plans to raise revenue. we're talking even in

joe biden's case, 3.2, $3.4 trillion over 10 years. >> so the challenge i think for noters next year, if there is any independent voters made up their mind left, do they like the president's performance on the economy? generally they do. he gets high ratings. if they don't like it, they want to replace him? or they want radical transformation of the u.s. economy and indeed of the u.s. itself, other things like illegal immigration, that kind of stuff? i do think -- power of incumbency in a strong economy is going to be amplified you're up against candidates who do seem to be arguing for a pretty radical change. neil: mayor pete, trying to moderate his earlier positions maybe look what happened in britain. get your sense of impeachment as you reminded me, many visits, many times, has not moved markets. you're quite right. is it working in president's

favor, beyond a fund-raising mechanism, a lot of people, especially after the inspector general report, despite the media collectively said about it, raised a lot of questions what prompted this investigation in the first place, this cabal the president calls it, going after him? you raise that with the attorney general. he of course is among those saying, look, they did, they did point out in this report, some disagreements with it, enough to say, there were serious doubts about the way this whole thing was conducted? >> the president had very good couple weeks, right? he had, impeachment as you say working to some extent in his favor. not a huge amount. there is damaging revelations out of that. polls suggest, fox news's poll notwithstanding polls are moving against impeachment last few weeks. neil: would that hold if it's a short senate trial? >> that is good question. for all sing, all dancing trial,

both sides are interested in that democrats increasingly like that who knows what could be thrown up. if they manage to get john bolton and mick mulvaney to come testify. neil: do you think there will be in any witnesses? the markets dismiss this, going anywhere, when you start having witnesses, people testifying all bet are off. >> they will. we'll have to see. could then mushroom into much larger investigation which the democrats hope it may. republican may hope it will make it look even more partisan. the i.g. report was well-covered last week, i interviewed the attorney general last week, again there are all kinds of questions what exactly president trump, about the way president trump's responded to russian overtures about the election. legitimate questions about that. but the i.g. report, despite some media coverage, it really did show there was some really questionable activity by the fbi, particularly over the pursuit of a fisa application

over carter page. that is a really serious business. 17 errors in that report. errors, the i.g. refused to say whether it was politically motivated. when i asked the attorney general directly last week whether it was politically motivated he didn't say either. he said we may see more when -- neil: kind of made it clear he is leaning. james comey in interview with chris wallace, said fisa warrant is difficult thing to get. apparently easy thing to get, right? >> it is, if you essentially put things in the application for the report that aren't true. all are keough missions which -- i asked the attorney general where are judges, four separate judges who approved those four fisa applications were they misled? you bet they were. only thing about fisa court, the whole process has to be reviewed, the defendant, the target of the investigation has no ability to put on his case. it is just fbi, prosecutors,

essentially investigators, we lay out all this here. as we saw with that case, with the carter page case, they can omit or include anything they like. nobody has the ability to challenge it, say actually this information is missing and which is crucial determining whether or not you should be allowed to surveil this person. so it is a flawed process. i'm afraid to say, the fbi as we saw last week, really, really handled it pretty badly. neil: bill barr, talking to you, give a sense he winces at the that he is in the pocket of the president? no one said that about john kennedy utilizing the services of his brother bobby kennedy as attorney general, or the attorney general -- >> eric holdwer barack obama. neil: does he, did you get a sense that that is something which he chastens? >> no he said very interesting thing to me. he said there are only two types of people who can really take this job, these positions. people who are too young to know the potential, how damaging the

consequences could be for their career and people who are too old to care. he said i'm in the latter position. he really, gave me the impression that this is all these accusations against him are water off a duck's back. he was attorney general 25 years ago. neil: that's right. in his position he doesn't need to kowtow to anyone. >> you can argue again, he said things maybe make him a little partisan, i would argue not much more than any other attorney general but his specific criticisms of the process that led to the russia investigation into president trump are pretty valid and once more, and once more, well-supported by the report from the inspect general earnings and then some. great interview by gerry baker. dow is in record territory. imagine if bowing were not part of the dow, because it is slip-sliding yet again today, we would be well north of 29,000,

probably at rate we're going. boeing right now is kind of freezing production on its 737 max plane. the question for how long. some say maybe permanently if this drags on. that might be a bit extreme. one of the issues weighing on this stock for some time. just about underwater on the year. deep digital chairman dave maney joins us, money map press chief investment strategist, keith keh gerald. begin with you, and end with you. on this boeing situation there is waiting for gadot drama around the 737 max, what if it is put off for many, many months if ever, then what? >> well, i tell you, neil, that is the key of the day. boeing handled this poorly from the very beginning. if i were sitting in that seat i have got to imagine there are discussions canceling production moving on to an aircraft people trust. that is the real issue. that will impact the stock market.

i think another quarter of bad earnings coming up. any money in it now will get scared silly. neil: you know you could also do this, too much punishment, dave, right? you could look at it, boeing will still be making planes. not going out of business. might not be the 737 max but a host of other models. it is getting pounded a little bit too much what do you think? >> probably not too much. it's a really big deal on this particular plane which is their overall volume leader and a gigantically sized and important project. the product, you know, always in the fact it appears to crash under certain circumstances was a phenomenal market fit with huge demand from airlines around the world. it is still there. they're still placing orders for it. you don't want this, i don't agree they're going it to pull the plug or it won't fly. what i do think, they have two stocks, two crashes. if there is another one, you

could imagine it threatening entire company's commercial airline production process. they simply can't have that. but it doesn't mean they're not going to fly again. it doesn't mean the backlogged planes sitting on the lot in seattle area are not going to be delivered. i believe they are. it is not going to be on the calendar that boeing wanted because governments are being very cautious with good reason. neil: you know markets are abandoning some of their caution and their reticent. not to say the bears disappeared. bank of america yesterday, keith, piper jaffray joining bulls here, talk of a meltup in the first quarter, you still want a good number, bears or doubters out there. fewer bears than doubters out there now. how do you play that? >> well i think you play it almost anti-indicator. one of the things we know from history, neil, very clearly, investor tend to do the right thing at precisely the wrong time.

meaning they sell when they shouldn't. they buy when they shouldn't. what you want to do, look at this, institutions are calling for much higher march. public sentiment is good. numbers are good. at the end of the day look to the companies. what are they doing, what are they feeling? they're still investing. we have good jobs data, good employment date things running in the right direction. companies we talk about all the time creating value will still create value. that to me is bullish regardless what these reports suggest. neil: you could look at it, comeback in boeing shares, freeze on 737 max production notwithstanding david, is markets way of saying, sometimes we see selling overdone we address it. sometimes when we see skepticism that has been played up in the media, we pounce on it. so how does this market play out next couple weeks of the year? >> well, if i knew that for sure, neil, i wouldn't be here. i would be in hawaii somewhere doing something more fun but,

having said that, look, i mean we're in the middle in our company, you know, with chief marketing officers of significant companies and fortune 500 companies every day and it is my observation that they're feeling pretty good about things. they're making good, aggressive plans for next year. people are really working still to absorb how the internet changes their customer acquisition targets and makes it better. i don't see any big, dark cloud hanging over next year which means the end of the year is probably going to be pretty good in the markets. neil: we shall see, gentlemen. thank you very much. we're focusing on rules committee. they're debating particulars on impeachment, that is another factor in the markets. but a positive one. i will explain that in just a bit. congressman, mark walker, latest republican house member to say he is leaving but not before he has to get a lot of work done. he is next.

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neil: all right. just to let you know what is going on capitol hill right now. the rules committee is sorting out how they are going to proceed with a vote on two articles of impeachment. they're focusing on abuse of power, obstruction of justice. there is a science to this, a method to this by the way, before they get it to the full house, likely for a vote this weekend. this occurs at a time when 24 republicans have announced they are not seeking re-election to the house. among them, my next guest, north carolina republican congressman mark walker. congressman, good to have you. >> thanks, neil. always good to be with you why aren't you running again? >> well predominantly our seat

was, thousand a district hillary clinton won by 22 points. we looked at some other options. met with the president and vice president in the oval office last week, talked about some of those options, but right now we think our time is best traveling throughout the state helping, a list of slew of candidates, maybe preparing for 2022. the president we feel like we have his support doing that, if we run for senate in 2022. still a little early. that is our goal over the next year. neil: so you're considering that in 2022? >> we are, yes. neil: you know, it is interesting, congressman, that 24 republicans, including yourself announced similar moves, not to seek re-election in the house. we had similar wave in the midterms were not interested in running again. we know what happened. obviously democrats took over the house. are you looking at something else though afoot here that, just see a blue wave or how would you -- >> i don't know that i see a

blue wave. i can tell you specifically in north carolina the president is trending up. i think democrats have had a huge role in that process with some of the outlandish behavior that they have seen, the american public has seen over the last few weeks. but i don't know specifically the house. a lot of it comes to redistricting, some of those things, specifically from the guys, each individual once they go home, start spending thanksgiving or christmas with family, sometimes especially if you're retirement age, some of these folks think maybe it is time to transition back home. neil: you're far from retirement age. we'll talk about that later. i want to get your sense of the environment there now. i talked to many of your republican colleagues, congressman. it stinks in the minority. you're pretty much powerless to do anything. that was in full view with the impeachment hearings and a host of other pieces of legislation you hoped to advance but you can't advance? >> you're right. even things people don't see. i spent first four years in the

majority. things like sharing room space, some of those things. democrats, they rule it pretty tough, kind of lock us out bringing in our witnesses. i'm ranking member on intelligence and counterterrorism. even trying to find a balance doing some things just in the spirit of fairness is very difficult at times. neil: so, knowing now that this battle likely will end with the president being impeachmented in the house, if you had to advise your senate colleagues, many of whom seem to favor a very quick process, involving no witnesses at all, how do you feel about that? >> maybe i think there is an argument to be made for one or two witnesses. i think you can kind of show the absurdity of some of this. the democrats in my opinion, neil, had a chance to kind of take the high road here, listen the call was bad, it was more of a bully tactic, if you're looking at it from a democratic perspective but with their behavior, overshooting the

runaway to this level saying president is saying do us a favor is tantamount hold him for treason, i think it's a huge process whether it is in the house or senate. i think senate, i would advise them to move swiftly, don't block out everybody. you can continue to show absurdity, calling a witness or two. neil: we'll watch it closely. congressman, thank you very, very much. >> thank you, neil. neil: meantime, driving with a hangover, you know that is not a good idea, we have grady trimble around to show you why it is not a good idea. reporter: hey, neil, i know i look ridiculous in this suit. when we come back from the break you will see how ridiculous it is to try driving with a hangover. we'll show you coming up. ♪. >>i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. wasted time is wasted opportunity.

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neil: we already know driving drunk is very dangerous but what about driving with a hangover? grady trimble at ford headquarters right now testing something i guess they call a hangover suit? reporter: that's right, neil. so i'm not a great driver when i'm at my best. here i am in this hangover suit with nolan from ford, trying to drive through this solemn, pretty much hitting all the cones as we go. nolan, describe what i have on and how it mimics a hangover. >> this is hangover suit. we have bunch of weight on his wrists, ainge kest, chess, on his head. on his chess, we give him a headache. these earmuffs amplify the sound outside of the car. also play a pus sitting sound. you notice the eye goggles. those are giving you a little bit of double vision, along with sensitivity to the light. reporter: giving everybody

watching perspective, i am not hung over but i generally feel queasy with this on. goggles makes it hard to go through the solemn. i have pulsating noise. this thing on my head give meese a headache. it is good time of year not to drive with a hangover. everybody knows not to drive drunk. the next day you probably shouldn't be driving either. at least i know i shouldn't be, neil. i will hop out for a second to give you a look at this thing. here is one of the cones i hit. you can see what this looks like. i mean i have got weights all over the place. it throws me off as i'm trying to brake and turn. so that is why i have created a mess here. i do want to mention since we're at ford anyway. ford announced it is investing 1.45 billion in southeast michigan to create 3,000 new jobs. it is ridiculous to talking about this looking like this.

something important ford is doing. the president by the way is in michigan tomorrow. it will be interesting to see if he brings that up at all. neil: bottom line, you are not actually experiencing a hangover? this is supposed to mimic the hangover? reporter: that's exactly right, yeah. i promise i'm not at work hung over. neil: i will try to buy it. good job, my friend. that he, very, very much. meantime, did you hear about this california guy who determined himself to eat chick-fil-a for the past 114 days straight? there are some questions to ask this guy, like why? and did you gain any weight. next hour. you don't use this old thing, do you?

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neil: continue to go on rules committee in capitol hill. going through the house, in particulars, getting articles of impeachment before the full house floor later in the week, probably this weekend on abuse of power, obstruction of justice. whether it is moving minds that have already been made up is anyone's guess. there are 31 moderate democrats who are from districts the president won handily in 2016. 21 of those 31 moderate democrats already indicated

they're going to vote on at least one of the articles of impeachment. most on two of them. jeff van drew of new jersey is no. wants to swap parties to be a republican. the math favors democrats getting their way on impeachment. we'll keep you updated on that. meantime, facebook, infighting continues among prominent board member, peter thiel, billionaire, arguing over social media giant's no political ad policy, but some executives there shared thiel's concerns. jackie deangelis has more. jackie? reporter: good afternoon to you. peter thiel, big investor in facebook, board member, advising mark zuckerberg don't give into the pressure. stick with the decision to continue with political advertising even after all the criticism. remember twitter ceo jack dorsey saying recently the company is banning political ads. that put face bike on the spot but it said in september it wouldn't change its political ad policy.

it's a hot button topic. increasingly part of the conversation too heading into 2020 because social media platforms were so influential in the last election. "the wall street journal" is reporting this, it is going as far to say not just about posting political ads, that they don't fact check or censor the content in any way. listen to what zuckerberg told dana perino. >> in a democracy i don't think we want private companies censoring politicians and the news. i generally believe that as a principle, people should decide what is credible what they want to believe, who they want to vote for. and, i don't think that should be something that we want tech companies or any kind of other company doing. reporter: thiel didn't comment for the story. he is influential american voice, entrepreneur, venture capitalist. a billionaire. known for founding paypal, but also known for some conservative views. facebook will be in the hot seat

next year, antitrust, privacy violations, so much to watch for as we head into the new year, neil. neil: jackie, thank you very much. both parties are piling on the company. we'll watch bernie sanders who right now, seems to have a problem with older voters. so he is asking their kids, even their grandkid for help. democratic strategist kristen hawn. we have campus reform editor-in-chief cabot phillips. cabot, what he is trying to say, look, i'm popular with the younger dem, talk to mom, dad, gramps and grandma. that will not close the deal, right? >> yeah. from a campaign perspective it is understandable move. they're seeing deficiency they have with older voters. studies show people are more likely to relate they know and trust and taking campaign political advice. far more effective as campaign ads. i don't see that changing right now. if you look at polling data, older voters are staying far away from bernie sanders.

there are two main reasons. they understand they will foot the bill for a lot of free policies. they have been paying taxes long enough to know it will ultimately fall on them disproportionately thank young every generations. they have seen socialism in their lifetime. bernie sanders says they bring the socialist ideas. they remember the soviet union. they remember things from their own lifetime where younger voters have not. those two main things contributed to lack of support from among older generations. we getting toward retirement age. we don't want our 401(k)s disappearing. we don't want a fundamentally rye ordering the economy way sanders wants that. neil: british elections a little bit, party, liberals at the time, labour, drove very far left in a lot of its policies. a lot of people interpreted that as a sign and warning to democrats, don't do the same. what do you think? >> i think there is some truth to that definitely. i don't think that bernie sanders has tried his hardest to

take the democratic party the way of socialism. you have seen in the last several months even, there is not the desire to do that. i think, the older folks that we're talking about, it's a typical campaign tactic to ask current supporters to ask other people in the their networks to support you i don't think we're going to get there the party is not there and ultimately i think there is less send to be learned whereas somebody like bernie sanders who i don't think that will be the case as our candidate come november, then we will lose the presidency to donald trump. neil: you know there must be something to that. if you look at it, cabot, look at the appeal and the pivoting lately of pete buttigieg, he is clearly trying to get some space between himself and some of the more liberal candidates. i'll wondering where you see that going? >> yeah. he came into the campaign positioning himself as more after progressive. he raised his hands saying we'll

give free health care to illegal immigrants. stack the supreme court up to 15 judges. he saw warren and bernie taken over the progressive wing. we'll look at moderate wing. biden is seems to be slipping. this is not the moderate force. he clearly saw window, he is pivoting. now i'm more of a moderate. i'm mayor pete, midwestern moderate democrat. that pivot can work for him, coming in voters knew so little about him this isn't like bernie sanders trying to become moderate this is someone voters didn't have their mind made up on yet. there is chance for him to start to go more moderate. it says something how far left the democrat party has gone, when someone like pete buttigieg can be considered a moderate in this race. neil: kristin, whole impeachment drama sorting out among voters and those in the democratic party? >> it is interesting. i think the candidates made a big mistake in the beginning of that debate raised their hand on

"medicare for all." that clearly wasn't the right way to go. on impeachment, it is in a lot of our districts tough districts you mentioned where democrats won in areas where trump won by large margins, we're seeing that impeachment, we're not totally underwater on impeachment. there are of course places where we're losing by 20 points on that issue but it really is not just a talking point. people really back home when i talk to members when they come back to d.c. after being back in the districts voters right now, it is height of the impeachment. everything going on the hill. but it is really jobs and health care. people really feel strongly about health care. so, you know, i think yet to be seen but, if we're able to get this done in the senate, you know, i think that it will be more about the issues that impact people's everyday lives. neil: that would be economy. we'll see how that sorts out. thank you both, very, very much.

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neil: this is bringing us to records right now. u.s. housing starts rising sharply in november. future home construction, building permits like to call them, best they have been in more than a dozen years. so that has been a one-two punch for markets. that don't need much excuse for buying up. that is going on. records across the board. states vying for the best economic outlook. we're monitoring this, continue to do all week. fox business digging into top states right now. nevada surging ahead to number four, thanks to company incentives, very nice tax environment. lauren simonetti with details on that. hey, lauren.

reporter: neil, okay, nevada has the most liberal tax structure in the entire country and return on investment because of that in terms of tax savings is enormous. take a look at here. no personal income tax, no corporate income tax, no inventory tax, no inheritance tax, the list goes on. they are selling that sales pitch to the entire country, including next door neighbor, california. 22 companies moved from the bay area specifically to reno. why? because well the tax savings i just mentioned. if you check this out, there is a 9% corporate income tax in san francisco. none in nevada, in reno. nevada offers abatements for capital expenditures. lower payroll taxes. wages are lower too as you can see, but so is the cost of living. and the government there just moves really, really fast. the group that supports bringing business to the western part of the state, says when they first started courting the out-of-state businesses, they were able to get a new building

a new company up and running for them in a year. so they brought in tesla. they brought in some manufacturers and dozens of tech start-ups. workers followed. nevada's population tops three million. let's look at price of owning a home. okay, about $275,000 in vegas. add million dollars to that, live in san francisco. make your pick, neil. what do you think? neil: beautiful place. still very expensive place. that is what it comes down to, right? reporter: nevada can be awfully hot. neil: but it's a dry heat, a dry heat. thank you very much, lauren. meantime california's minimum wage hike is set for the new year. they're doing it step by step. in the new year it will be up to 13 bucks an hour. a lot of restaurants are shutting down in the face of that because they can't afford it including this next fellow. he owns a popular eatery perry's. paul is with us now. thank you for coming. >> thank you for having me. neil: was this your only

alternative facing that? you could have had fewer workers, could have adjusted hours i guess but i'm sure you looked at all that, right? >> i did. we're open 24 hours for over 51 years. i've been cutting back as needed. so we shut down the graveyard shift for a couple weeks. we shut downswing shift. the last three weeks, we've been running breakfast. only my core eight employees were left. neil: what has been the response, certainly from those workers? >> they understand. they're family. they're not even workers. they have been with me for years. 15 to 20 years, my average employee has been with me, which is a lot for a restaurant. i started when i was 15, 31 years ago i worked my way up from a busboy to assistant manager, to a cook, to general manager when i was 25. then 10 years ago i bought it. the restaurant, but unfortunately five years into it i realized something was wrong. i wasn't making any money, my sales were up 20% in those five

years. so i went to a financial consultant, took all my books in. at the end of the story i paid him $1500 for him to tell me i overpaid, anywhere five to 6% just for the business. i was paying double rent what i should have been paying. that is how it started to go downhill. neil: were there any carveouts, paul, for guys like you? you're not a huge restaurant chain or even single resident. $13 an hour next year. >> correct. neil: that is what it is going to be. >> correct. i have my cooks make a little bit more. make a lot more. when minimum wage goes up i haven't given across the board. every dollar that goes up, it costs me $40,000 to the bottom line. that is a lot. i can't raise menu fast enough to compensate that. with rent going up, workman's comep is terrible in california. california is rough place to run a small business.

workman's comp, epl, property, liability everything is expensive. neil: what do you do? you're well-regarded. you have loyal fans and customers. they want to follow you anywhere you go. >> no, no more restaurants for me. no more restaurants for me. i did 31 years. i'm done. i will be a truck driver, that is kind of weird. i will drive a truck. neil: really? >> i got a job lined up. great benefits. great pay. home every night. and less stress obviously. neil: you know there are a lot of strawn owners your area, your state, going through the same thing, looking at the same cruel math. >> correct. neil: i'm wondering, does the state know that? does it empathize, working at carveouts not doing what you're doing now. >> honestly i don't know if they care to be honest with you. i don't know. i'm not a political guy. but i do know on my end, a dollar, my servers, pay taxes

only get a quarter of that anyway. more i raise menu price, less their tips get. if they could sign a waiver, 99% of my servers would be against minimum wage increase, drops their tips. bill goes up. i have to raise menu prices to compete with that. they get less tips. on the check, that dollar, they literally get a quarter, which is nothing. i don't know who it is helping, not helping me. it is not helping my employees at all. neil: very sad -- >> now they're without a job. neil: very sad. obviously you have a legion of fans, people love your food, your restaurant. you personally. >> correct. we just had busiest weekend in 51 years when everybody found out we were closing. i had, i ran out of food on saturday. had to close early, tell people to come back sunday. from sunday 6:00 a.m. we were, we had waiting list all the way until we closed the doors at 2:30. we never done that in 51 years. it was packed out the door.

best weekend ever. so people love it. people coming in to give us all hugs. tell us thank you. for all the great food and service we gave them for 51 years. it was wonderful. it was a lot of tears. it was bittersweet. neil: great testament to you. i wonder with all the people now losing jobs and state counting on extra revenue from higher hourly wages you wonder how mixed up is that? >> i don't know. everything goes up. everything at the grocery store goes up. life goes up. that dollar doesn't really help anybody. i don't know what the plan is. hopefully they can fix it because, i mean, that greed destroyed a 51-year-old business. it is kind of sad i think. i don't know. it was my whole life. my first and only job. now i'm starting from scratch back to, i'm 45. starting all over. which is okay. i'm a big boy. i can handle it. but you know, sorry.

neil: totally unnecessary paul. you're a class act. amazing worker. >> thank you. i appreciate it. neil: you're a great boss. >> that's what they tell me. that's what they tell me. yeah. that's what they say. neil: i wish you well, my friend. this need isn't be -- >> appreciate it. thank you for taking time to talk to me. i appreciate i. neil: paul, have yourself a merry christmas. try to. >> merry christmas. thank you very much. speaking of christmas you can understand a big demand right now isn't necessarily a gift but maybe a loan payment. ♪.

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neil: this proves you can move fast looking at a christmas break. the u.s. senate just passing that 738 billion-dollar defense bill authorizing something called space force, that spending measure, which ask we're told to the president's liking will be shuttled down over to the white house where he will likely sign it. dish network chairman charlie ergen back in the news, testifying in federal court defending the t-mobile-sprint merger. he would work out to an additional player i guess in all of this. charlie gasparino, here to explain. >> thanks for having me back. the trial should be set, settled. a group of coalition state ags. they're challenging the t-mobile merger with sprint. they're saying it is leading to anti-competitive behavior, eliminates, by merging two eliminates a major carrier.

charlie ergen as part of the deal, how it got through the u.s. department of antitrust i will create a fourth wireless carrier. neil: he has to do that? >> he has to do that. this is why i think the thing could be settled today for all intents and purposes. if he convinces the judge, victor moreno, it's a judge, not jury trial he will be really a competitive fourth player, has a timetable, from day one, what lydia moynihan, my producer, her sources are saying will try to emphasize that, day one, dish will be a competitive force in the wireless business, if he can convince more rain know of this, he is convincing guy, also a very volatile guy. neil: eccentric. >> eccentric but poker player. he is known to walk away from deals at the last minute, but if he can sell this to the judge, t-mobile-sprint feels they take it over the finish line. so today's testimony is probably the biggest day. we have john legere up there,

the t-mobile ceo. interesting guy, colorful, showed up in the magenta outfit and everything. we had the sprint former ceo who is now part of softbank, as you know controls sprint. neil: right. >> before this, if this deal goes through they won't anymore. deutch telecom, which controls t-mobile, but, he is going to be, he spoke. they have had witnesses. the judge seems, if you look at what he says, very hard to read his mind you know, but some of the things he said he raised issues with the government's case this won't be a very good deal for consumers. so he has raised the issues. if charliering again who has been prepped, lydia found out a lot last couple weeks by the t-mobile lawyers, if he can sell it, they feel like they got a chance to win it today, put this thing away and, you know, go home happy. pay attention. neil: if it doesn't happen, one of them, sprint or t-mobile would go out of business? >> here is what i don't

understand about the government's case. i'm all for lower prices. but if sprint, if sprint will go out of business, if you look at its financials, the deal will have to get repriced for all intents and purposes. we reported it is likely to be repriced, sprint's financials are problematic. they are not a healthy fourth competitor anyway. i don't understand why this is putting consumers in such a lurch. neil: if it drags on much longer it could be a problem. >> dish will have the spectrum. charlie ergen has it and he bought some more. neil: thank you very much, my friend. we have a lot more coming up, including protests going on in france, all over trying to rejigger the pension system there. and it is not being well-received by residents, saying we like things the way they are right now. we can retire early. we don't have to worry about working longer than we intended. that is not going down well there but authorities including president emmanuel macron saying it is going to happen.

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so i know if i'm getting a great price. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar. neil: impeachment is still going on, the rules committee debating the ground rules how the house will handle the two articles of impeachment probably for a full house vote this weekend, but patient's patience for it apparently is waning a little bit. a lot of it could have to do with the economy and things picking up. we do know republican donors are spending on all of this. hillary vaughn has the latest from capitol hill. hey, hillary. reporter: hey, neil. while the terms of a senate trial and impeachment are being deliberated, congress is getting to work. the senate just passed a $738 billion defense bill that includes establishing the space force as the sixth branch of the

military and also includes 12 weeks of parental leave extended for about two million federal workers but also today, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell making it clear that he is not accepting the witnesses that senate minority leader chuck schumer and senate democrats wanted to bring forward as part of the senate trial, saying that evidence gathering phase of the impeachment probe is over once it heads to the senate. so we will not hear from white house chief of staff mick mulvaney or former national security adviser john bolton. right now, the house rules committee is finalizing the ground rules for tomorrow's floor vote, where lawmakers will officially go on the record and vote for or against impeaching the president, but while democrats are letting impeachment monopolize the agenda on the house side of capitol hill, at home, republicans are flooding tvs and smartphone screens with ads and also raking in millions in fund-raising off of impeachment. the trump campaign and rnc took in more than $10 million in small dollar donations last week, when the house judiciary

adopted the two articles of impeachment. 72 hours after house speaker nancy pelosi gave the go ahead for the impeachment probe weeks ago, republicans raised $15 million in just those 72 hours after that. the democrats are not talking up impeachment at home and the democrat congressional campaign committee says they do not have any specific stats on how much money they have raised specifically in response to impeachment but the dnc does say their impeachment ads they believe are 70% more effective than their regular ads but how that translates to campaign cash and donations is not clear. neil? neil: thank you, hillary, very, very much. meanwhile, the markets are digesting all this impeachment or no and raising to records, that's certainly the case with the dow, s&p and nasdaq. so it continues this sort of melt-up that a number of firms including bank of america say will well go into the new year in the first quarter at the very least. to david dietze. david, what do you think of that argument, this melt-up, whatever

you want to call it, continues unabated? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, you got a trifecta of good news here. you've got first, of course, a very dovish fed which is going to continue the low interest rate environment. friday of course, the phase one deal was reached. i know the details aren't totally nailed down but it's looking good and finally, of course, you have the usmca agreement, too, which is going to broaden trade relationships with our neighbors to the north and to the south. so i think all those things are drowning out the concerns about the impeachment. of course, the impeachment, you know, it's hard to characterize as an economic issue. someone's taxes goedon't go up, don't go down, there's not a subsidy involved so it's hard to draw a direct line between impeachment and change in activity on main street. neil: when you look at that whole impeachment issue, and maybe that it can be on the flipside, a galvanizing force because wall street doesn't think anything will come of it, what if something does?

it's an aberrant event but wall street so summarily ignored this and focused quite rightly on earnings and quite rightly on trade accords that seem to be buttoned up as we speak, that that has been driving stuff, as well as a busy consumer and shopper, you see that continuing? >> well, let's put this in context. i have been doing this for decades here. of course, every four years, half my clients tell me the world is going to fall apart if the other person wins. basically my message is if you look at history, the market does just as well under the dems as it does under the republicans and the key to our system is gridlock and even if there is an impeachment, no one is talking about a flipping of the senate any time soon. let's not get too excited about, you know, completely throwing the baby out with the bath water depending how this impeachment works out. neil: because the argument the president has made, as i'm sure you're aware, you impeach me, you impeach the bull market and this grand recovery. to his point somewhat, somewhat,

the fact that the least of liberal or progressive of the candidates plans to raise tax revenue a lot, i believe the former vice president joe biden's case, by about 3.4 trillion over ten years, and he is one of the draggers on tax hikes. so wouldn't that necessarily for a market used to seeing rates at this level, that any pop up like that would be greeted unfavorably? >> i think just about every economist will tell you that taxes are a drag on the economy, as opposed to flipside what is being used a mere transfer of payment probably less count countervailing support for the economy, infrastructure spending. what happens is there's a lot of banter but as you win the nomination, of course, you start moving to the center and of course, once you are competing with the other side, you start moving to the center, then ultimately, the ultimate american success is gridlock. once you assume power, you've still got to get through mitch mcconnell. neil: well, there is that.

unless the senate swaps. we'll see what happens. great seeing you again. then there's france, where the same leaders who were snickering at this president are now facing a world of hurt. i'm talking about macron and the battle right now to sort of liberalize, i use that as loosest of terms, the state's pension funds. the goal of france right now is to simplify them, make them more market-centric, raise the retirement age, maybe means-test some of this. it's not going down well. jonathan hoenig not surprised it's not going down well. it doesn't shock you? >> no, neil, this is the breakdown, this is a societal breakdown of a mature entitlement state like france. big regulation, big taxes, big supposed entitlements but look what the result is. schools, hospitals, buses, trains, the eiffel tower all shut down.

in fact, traffic jam 300 miles long coming in and out of paris. so these protests which are organized by unions and other anti-capitalist factions, have tremendous costs to france both short term and long term. we saw it in greece. we are seeing it in france and it's the natural outgrowth of this big spending, big entitlement state. neil: in the past, governments, not only this one, macron with the yellow vest fights over gas taxes to address climate change and all that or even going back to cherac who was dealing with the same pension issues 20 years ago, maybe 30 years ago, it never changes. the governments can't really get out of their own protesters' way. so what happens? >> no. no. it doesn't change, because the ideas that haven't changed. look, france just finally got their unemployment rate below 10%, what, in ten years plus after the global financial crisis, that it's because of this essentially socialist big government think. the welfare system in france

makes up about 30% of its gdp. that's compared to about 6% here at home. so that's why you have had this generation upon generation of economic malaise and a society which has been essentially told that you don't have to work. that's why youth unemployment in france is double what it is here at home. so these entitlements supposedly supposed to help the french people, have not helped the french people. they have retarded the economy over generations and this strike is literally grinding the country to a halt. neil: you know, it does serve as a reminder, macron as well as angela merkel were among those leaders who early on or as recently as the last nato summit, dismissing donald trump, laughing, snickering at him. the irony is that donald trump is running the soundest economy on the planet right now. >> yeah, and the most free and the most individualistic. that's america, neil. that explains our success historically. france is almost unexplainable when it comes to the

super-generous public pension programs. you can retire with full benefits in many cases at age 60. that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world and that's why the french -- france's economy has been so weak for so long. it's specifically because of programs like these. neil: all right. jonathan, maybe you are ruling out your next paris trip but wherever you go, enjoy yourself. jonathan hoenig. meanwhile, a lot of americans are asking for more money this holiday season. financial expert chris hogan says they should be asking for something else. after this. ♪ limu emu & doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

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neil: all right. never mind it has been one of the most successful stocks over the last ten years. netflix is facing some tougher competition here in the u.s., yet overseas, it's a very different story. that's the story the company wants to get out. kristina partsinevelos has been looking into that and joins us right now. kristina: netflix wants you to know it plans on taking over the world regardless as competition ramps up. growth is slowing in canada and the united states and netflix wants you to focus on the potential outside north america which is why it released detailed metric is in a federal securities filing. netflix has a whopping 158.3 million members globally, more than the population of russia or mexico, and more than 90% of the company's growth comes from outside the united states. in this graph, you can see that asia is netflix's smallest market but growing very very rapidly. you ever wonder how much does netflix make off of your subscription? in the united states and canada, netflix averages $12.36 in

revenue per month for each customer. investors will be paying close attention to those numbers in the future, especially as netflix offers much lower pricing in markets like india, where mobile only subscriptions are three bucks a month. yet netflix, like neil mentioned, has been the largest or seen the largest valuation gain over the past decade. back in 2010 it was valued at just less than $3 billion. now it's worth over $132 billion. netflix usually likes to keep its data to itself but the company wants investors to focus on a different narrative. growth and value will come from its international business. so far, investors like the numbers. pushing the stock higher today. neil? neil: not too shabby. great report. thank you. meanwhile, there's amazon, too, looking to block sellers from using fed ex for some prime shipments. remember amazon has grown substantially with its own delivery service. i believe it accounts for more than half the packages it does ship back and forth now. tech analyst is here, says it's

all about on-time delivery concerns. but wouldn't you want to spread the wealth? rely on anyone and everyone? >> yeah, absolutely. so to be specific, in this case, fed ex air is still fine. third party sellers can still use fed ex air. obviously that's a lot more expensive than fed ex ground which is really the sticking point here. from a customer's point of view, they blame amazon when things are late, not fed ex or ups. it's amazon's fault. amazon is trying to make sure that hey, if these packages aren't coming on time, there's got to be a reason so let's cut out the reason. in this case, fed ex ground. neil: is it their way of saying look, we are building our own infrastructure and our own transportation system that doesn't rely on any of these other guys and this is a way to send that message? >> i don't think that they want the public to really be aware of that situation but i do think strategically this is definitely what they are planning. they want to make sure their logistics operation, their shipping operation, becomes the primary source for all amazon

deliveries, that it's more reliable that it gets packages where it needs to go. the sticking point with that is obviously at some point, you got to open yourself up to antitrust concerns. you can't start owning every single portion of your business, because it didn't work out for rockefeller. neil: well, there is that. you know, when you think of the onslaught that amazon is dealing with, not only from the president of the united states over jeff bezos's ownership of "the washington post" but then bezos going after the white house and more to the point, the defense department for pulling a cloud contract he thought he had secured that microsoft got instead, i'm just thinking that and the pile-on in washington from democrats and republicans alike on all these guys. next year could be a doozy. >> yeah, absolutely. i think there are a lot of people that are very concerned with the power of the big tech companies at this point, so politically it's not totally out of the realm to get some points by saying hey, maybe amazon's not playing fair, facebook, you name it.

neil: all right. so who do you think, not that you are a stock picker or forecast stock, but who do you think is likely to face the most aggressive legal antitrust just pain in the neck kind of challenges from uncle sam and a host of state attorneys general? >> yeah, absolutely. i think amazon at this point has the most in terms of their business and the most areas in which it affects like the everyday consumer. they've got the speakers in homes, they've got shipping, home streaming, you name it. at that point, once you are really that diversified, you start to wonder hey, maybe this should be separate companies. obviously look at google and alphabet and how that all played out. i think amazon is probably the one that is most diversified and open to that possibility. i'm not saying for sure it's going to happen but of those, yeah, definitely amazon. neil: also, when we talk about big ideas, for the new year, you know, all this talk that amazon and/or google, they go into a

variety of new areas, in the latter's case, maybe health care related issues, you know, prescription purchases and the rest, amazon, the world, how does it play out next yoeear, y think? >> i think more and more companies will continue pushing into this idea of subscription-based revenue. look at apple with their new efforts with apple tv which has not been gangbusters but certainly, they are trying to do that. and more companies want to sort of ensure that they are getting that steady $10 to $20 a month from consumers whether they are buying anything or not. obviously amazon already has that staple but i think you will start to see more companies try to dip into that, whether it's facebook, you know, youtube, you name it. neil: you know, a lot of these companies, most of them are sitting on a lot of cash. apple is, amazon is. it's always been this talk in the background maybe they use that to buy more content, you know, and to be a bigger player in the content world, to boost

their own streaming services and the like. do you think that's the case, or you think they would do something that big, it would be kind of a traditional type move which wouldn't fit pretty much any of these guys' background? what do you think? >> well, yeah. i think if you are talking about subscription services like media, so in the case of, you know, disney just launched their streaming effort, they had to pay a bunch of money to secure a bunch of fox content, all sorts of shows. i think if you are trying to get into that sfpace, you need to know you will spend a bunch of money. i realize it feels like kind of a retro mentality or strategy, but the only way these streaming services are going to sort of rise above the pack is if they have this strong base of legacy content alongside the new stuff. apple tv launched with very very little in terms of retro content. it's all just new stuff. if those new shows don't hit, it's trouble. neil: yes, it could be.

always good seeing you. thank you very, very much. we were talking about disney plus. by the way, it is off to a roaring start with its own streaming service and mobile downloads, better than 22 million to date. 22 million downloads with the disney plus service. meanwhile, robert gray on bringing the past and making it cool again, because vinyl, vinyl is coming back. reporter: neil, that's right. these records are from 1968. when we come back, we will tell you who surprisingly was not even born but is driving sales of this format once left for dead. this piece is talking to me. yeah? so what do you see? i see an unbelievable opportunity. i see best-in-class platforms and education.

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neil: that is magic to my ears. the record revolution with adele is spinning on and not just adele. vinyl is now accounting for one out of every five physical albums sold. when i get into the nitty-gritty i return to america. anyway, robert gray on how retro is returning right now. robert? reporter: that's right, neil. you know, this all started about a dozen years ago when vinyl sales started to return to positive growth. it seemed a bit like a fad. it was kicked into overdrive and we have seen more than a dozen years of year over year growth in vinyl. if you take a look at a long-term chart, sure, it's a long way from the heady days of the disco days back in 1977. more than 300 million albums sold per year. but when you think about it, taking body blows from first compact discs in the early '90s, then digital downloads at the turn of the century and now in a streaming world, vinyl still continuing to grow and you know,

it's about 17 million last year, it's going to grow again this year. we are basically in record technology incorporated. they have been pressing vinyl here since 1972 and there is so much demand out there right now, they are actually pressing 24 hours a day, five days a week. they want to give the post office some time on the weekends for a break. here's how the process works. take a look at it. these pellets are where it all begins. then they are sent through vacuum tubes around the rest of the plant, then they are molded into little biscuits, if you will, that are then pressed out into 12-inch albums. they are cooled at the same time and voila, you have an album in the room next to us, where they put it into a jacket, package it up and send it on. who's driving the sales? you think it's baby boomers as you look at some of the titles here, but these guys are pressing everything from frank sinatra, we showed you iron butterfly before the break, to, you know, adele25. by the way, they had to have

special security for that particular album, because they were worried about it getting away and they just pressed one for kanye west as well that's in quality control. he's checking it out right now, to give his blessing before they can start sending that out to shops. but who's driving the sales? it's really surprising. it's actually millenials and ge ge gen-zers who are accounting for half of all buyers now. back to you. neil: if adele is in on it, i'm for it. thank you very, very much. i told you about the time we called her for an interview. first thing she said was hello. never gets old. actually, it gets very old, people tell me. vinyl records to chick-fil-a and a record there. california man, i don't know if he's an adele fan, i know he ate more than 100 consecutive meals at chick-fil-a.

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cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. nice rock.atment centers of america. it's time to drop gold. go digital. go grayscale. neil: all right. corporate taxes are already pretty low, lowest level in decades, but the headline number, they got down to 21%, the conventional rate is actually much lower than even that. edward lawrence has all the details. hey, edward. reporter: interesting new study by the institute of taxation and

policy found that yes, the corporate tax has a big impact on the amount, had a big impact on the irs and the amount of money taken in. a new study shows that the corporate tax rate of 21% with tax deductions and tax incentives, companies pay an effective rate of about 11%. now, other think tanks look at this and say yes, when you lower the corporate tax rates, companies will pay less but the director of the tax policy for the cato institute says the numbers are skewed a bit because some companies took a one-time accelerated depreciation on capital investment, for example. cato thinks a better look at a country's competitiveness is in the marginal effective tax rate. canada's department of finance just researched this for the u.s. to see how theirs stacks up to the u.s. and they found a marginal effective tax rate for companies of about 18%. the american enterprise institute says yes, the irs is taking in less money, but the study compared apples to oranges, because the reportable taxable income to the federal

government is not published. so you can't actually figure out the percentage of tax a company paid. regardless, democrats trying to be president jumped on the amount of money that corporations are actually paying and the fact that it's less. listen. >> when we think about how we strengthen our middle class, we beat back the influence of money so the government is a little more level. we do it by saying progressive taxation, companies like amazon ought to be paying something. billionaires ought to be pitching in two cents. reporter: republicans say that by lowering the corporate tax rate, you have opened up companies to create more jobs and bring those jobs into this economy. the corporate tax rate here shows the big divide between republicans and democrats on their fundamental philosophy. back to you. neil: thank you very much, edward lawrence. well, forget gift cards. a lot of americans if they had their druthers and a lot of them in debt would prefer you maybe

make a loan payment for them or something like that. to everyday millionaire, best-selling author, financial expert chris hogan. that's not a bad idea, is it? >> well, i mean, you know, everyone can have a wish. you can't exactly tell people what to give you for christmas. but neil, i think it goes to show the financial situation of most americans right now. people are up to their eyeballs in debt and they understand that getting a payment that they could use toward debt would actually be a gift of relief for them financially. neil: but again, if you were going to pay or make a student loan debt or help someone like that, that will be more expensive than a traditional gift or let's say hickory farm cheese basket, right? >> no, i completely agree, especially you talk about a student loan payment or credit card or mortgage payment, that's a significant dollar amount. and what's scary is that 48 million americans are still paying on christmas from last year. so i want people to really become aware, recent studies show that people are planning to spend around $1680 on gifts this

year, but if you don't have cash and you don't use that cash, i want people to avoid debt. i've got four tips for them, because i don't want them to have a holiday hangover in 2020. let's take control and be real. tip number one is to set a budget. i want you to understand how much you can afford to spend on christmas this year, and make a list of the people you can shop for. give it a dollar amount and remember, you're not trying to prove your love with the size of the gift. that's step one. tip number two, neil, i know you do this, use cash. cash is the way to go. you can set up envelopes for each individual or for holiday shopping overall. it's going to keep you aware of how much money you have spent and where you have it. tip number three is give the gift of time, not everybody has the money. 78% of people are living paycheck to paycheck right now. if you don't have money, give the gift of time. you could cook a meal for someone or watch their children

or run an errand. that has intrinsic and real value and it could be a great gift to people that have multiple kids. finally, tip number four, this one's big, say no to yourself. 22% of people end up buying for themselves this holiday season. every time they go out shopping. you can imagine, that can rack up significant debt if you're not intentional. neil: those aren't bad ideas. the cash thing you guys do in brown bags, of course, always alarms me. you look like mobsters running around the mall. leaving that aside, i'm wondering about just the debt issue. i was thinking when you were coming here, i'm reminded of the fact we are piling it up again, not necessarily to melt down like levels, but it's getting there and i'm wondering what you think is going on. >> well, i think it's more of the same. until people wake up and learn how to count, this is always going to be something that's an issue. we have debt at our fingertips, all kinds of mailers, digitally,

electronically. until americans wake up and understand debt is a thief, any interest you are paying is a penalty, and they charge you interest when you have debt. i want people to not be penalized. i want them to be rewarded. get yourself out of debt and get the reward of savings and investment and interest in your investments. we've got to i cwake up. debt is readily available and this time of year, people try to justify it and it's dangerous. you got 48 million people still paying on christmas from last year. we can't compound that. neil: you're right. we always focus on our government and the federal level, state level, but americans themselves are piling it on. they always use the excuse well, just to have debt, it's cheap with very low rates but as you remind people, don't get enticed by that. right? >> no, no. we can't fall for that tricky math anymore. interest that you pay is a penalty. above all, here's the reality. we can't rely on the government to try to save the day. what we have to do is care less about what's going on in the white house from a debt perspective and care more about

what's going on in our own homes. we need to get on a budget and get out of debt and avoid it. that way you can take 2020 and make it the best financial year of your life. i can help you more by going to my website, chrishogan 360.com if you are serious about getting ready for the new year, i can help you. neil: i think all your ideas are brilliant but the cash and brown paper bags, that's scary on many many levels but i know it works. you have had great success recommending that. you are quite right, you think about it, my friend, when people ask for investment tips, i always ask how much do you owe because you clear that out of the way, you have 18% or more debt on a card or whatever, and that's cleared out of the way, that's a nice return right there. >> well, it makes serious sense and helps people to breathe more. the average credit card interest rate right now hovers at 18%. imagine that. when you are doing the swipe-a-thon in the mall, you are doing your financial future a disservice.

neil: some of the processed cheese baskets, they only take cash. you could be right about that. chris, hope you have a merry christmas. you make people think and help them as well. i appreciate that. they do as well. thank you. >> thank you, my friend. neil: merry christmas. meantime, not a merry christmas, well, pre-christmas environment for the british pound, hitting its lowest level in five months. i don't know why this was such a shock to the currency system there, but apparently, prime minister boris johnson meant what he said about getting brexit done fast. my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes.

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neil: all right. you know what, ge makes a lot of the engines for boeing so not surprisingly it gets caught up in the downdraft and all the questions about the 737 max on

whether it's ever going to resume production. to susan li filling in for charles payne. that's a big factor. we start seeing not only the general electrics of the world but all the others tied to boeing. susan: that's right. the manufacturers and even the fuselage makers as well. we have spirit aerosystems also falling yesterday as well when boeing temporarily, they say, halting production of the 737 max. but general electric, this is a comeback year for the stock, up from 50% so far in 2019, down 60% the year before. don't forget the stock was trading at just around $6. now we are back up to $11. this has really hurt them this year with this cut first of all in april of the 737 max production, down to 42 planes a month. that cut their quarterly cash flow by $400 million and they still have a lot of debt on the balance sheet. i was looking this up just as we were talking here. $100 billion for debt on general electric's books and that's after kucutting the dividend twice.

boeing hurting but having a knock-on effect on suppliers as well. neil: i'm curious about what you have uncovered. i know you have been reporting on this, that it hopes to eventually have the 737 maxes flying again, but it must be aware in the back of its mind there's a possibility that might not happen. susan: southwest told us that they are basically going to wait until april next year to see if they can get the 737 max back into the skies but the faa said some of their targets and boeing's own target, yes, the airline's as well, to get the plane back into the sky, has been way too aggressive. some don't even think april will be a possibility. maybe never again, as you mentioned. neil: all right. susan li, look forward to seeing you in about 16 minutes. susan li filling in for charles payne very very shortly. meanwhile, the president is about to meet with the president of guatemala at the white house. you know how that goes. sometimes he will break off to talk to reporters afterwards, maybe bring up impeachment, maybe bring up what's happening on the rules committee right now. there's that to look forward to.

and a guy who is coming up who, for better than 100 days, has been eating nothing but chick-fil-a. why is he doing that? after this. [ dramatic music ]

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some people say that's ridiculous. i dress how i feel. yesterday i felt bold with boundless energy. this morning i woke up calm and unbreakable. tomorrow? who knows. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website. make the world you want. neil: taking aim at the competition. thought i only did british accents, didn't you. it's rolling out a new ad aimed at chick-fil-a's policy of

staying closed on sundays. a clever move. we have fox news headlines 24/7 anchor bret larson. what do you think of that? >> i think it's great. i have actually really enjoyed this back-and-forth between all the providers of chicken sandwiches, including the original which is who they are all going after, chick-fil-a. everybody loves their chick-fil-a. popeyes placing this ad in various newspapers around the northeast asking for chicken sandwich specialists who only work on sunday, which is clearly an attack on chick-fil-a. neil: has that boomeranged with the religious community? >> actually, it hasn't. i don't know, i mean, most -- i think most folks who are familiar with chick-fil-a understand that's part of the reason why they are closed on sunday, so you can enjoy a day of worship if that's what you prefer. i mean, even there's a chick-fil-a i think in the mercedes stadium in atlanta and even it is closed on sunday. neil: when they have a lot of football games. >> and i may be wrong with that mercedes stadium, so if you guys want to send a tweet -- i don't

know if that's actually where it is. but the funny thing is, these chicken sandwiches with popeyes, they were selling them at one point a thousand of them a day in some locations. they sold so many, they sold out, then had to bring it back and of course, they brought it back on a sunday. that's when they started selling it again. wendy's got in on this, too, at one point. when they were all kind of warring on twitter which was also very enjoyable, all the twitter wars between our fast food giants, it's all been good news for popeyes, because they are selling more -- [ speaking simultaneously ] >> i'm not going to weigh in on who has the best one. but people wait in lines for chick-fil-a. a couple blocks from here, people wait in line at lunchtime. you can't go there. it's a madhouse. neil: stick around for that. the next guy is not only waiting in line but this is the only

thing he's been eating for the past 114 days. all these ads didn't stop him from staying locyal to chick-fil-a. 114 days straight having nothing but chick-fil-a. even his wife got fed up. he was kind enough to stop by. mark mendenhall is his name. >> thank you for having me, neil. neil: why did you do this? >> great question. a lot of people have been asking me why did i do this. there are three real reasons why i did this. first, i had heard about this young man named joey from atlanta, georgia, that went 100 days straight at his local chick-fil-a. i read that article and thought you know, i eat here two to three times a week already, i could totally do that. that's a great idea. so i thought this would be something fun to unite the community. we know there's bad news in the world today, so i thought of having something fun for our community to do. that was number one. number two, we turned this into a fund-raiser for the school

district's adopt-a-family which adopts families in need during the holiday season. then it was great. then the last thing really came about chick-fil-a. i truly love chick-fil-a. i always get a large diet coke. i love chick-fil-a. it's not just about the food, though. it's about the people. they hire incredible people, which two of my children work there. neil: now it's coming out. >> by the way, i did bring you some food for later if you would like. neil: you are far away from me. let me ask you, though, what did you do on sundays when chick-fil-a was closed? >> so normally, i don't shop on sunday, i go to church on sunday, i don't go out on sunday. i stay -- that's my family day. so chick-fil-a was the perfect pick to do this challenge. because i never had to go on sundays. so it worked out perfect for me and my family. neil: when you ate 114 days straight, obviously that included sundays.

maybe i didn't get that right. did you just order an extra sandwich on saturday and have it on sunday at home or what? >> no, no. i called them chick-fil-a days. a chick-fil-a day meaning you go monday through saturday and when they're closed, i get a day off. so it's consecutive chick-fil-a days. neil: i understand your religious commitment but that's really not 114 days. you just wiped off one day of the week. >> well, yes, but they're chick-fil-a days. neil: who am i to argue with a guy who's gone that long? did you miss anything else? even your wife was saying honey, enough already, right? >> well, my wife was my biggest supporter through this whole thing. she probably went with me about 80% of the time, and she was indeed my biggest supporter. but she also knew that we had to end this at some point. so i told her, i said if we go on vacation, when we go on vacation, we will end.

so she promptly planned a vacation. neil: no chicken. >> no chicken. by the way, the day after i ended, we ended on friday the 13th and on saturday the 14th, we did not eat at a chick-fil-a in palm springs. neil: how did your weight hold up through all this? >> everybody's been asking me that as well. truth be told, i did not gain a pound and i did not lose a pound. i maintained my weight through the whole process. because i ate smartly. neil: i hear you. >> i threw in some salads and some fruit and yogurt so it's all about eating wisely. neil: you are exactly right. what a fun story, and you did a lot of good there. >> i did. neil: thank you. what do you think of this? that's a devotee. >> that is dedication. i appreciate the clarification there, because i was wondering the same thing. what do you do on sunday. i like the chick-fil-a days.

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neil: you see this happening now and then. big news when a key player might be leaving. shares of roku are sliding after announcing plans for the company's chief financial officer to step down. gerri willis has been following that and a lot more from the new york stock exchange. hey, gerri. >> neil, the fellow who is leaving cfo, chief financial officer, that always makes investors just a little nervous, steve lowden out the door. the company sell telling us this steve is relocating to the seattle area. search is underway for a new cfo to lead the finance team. so this certainly seems like a friendly move and certainly it is not unusual after an april pefor the cfo to take off. that is what one analyst said

today. we'll watch it this is one of the most important stocks in the streaming industry. they are a hardware streaming stock. meanwhile, bed, bath & beyond shares on fire. the new ceo is cleaning out the c-suite, getting rid of the chief merchandising officer, marketing officer, digital officer, general counsel and chief administrative officer. now as you know bbby has been under pressure. the stock has not been performing well. that is why they brought in the new ceo who came over from target where he was chief merchandising officer. he is expecting to put in place a big turn around. this is his very first step. doing so, and i have to tell you, it is coming in the middle of the holiday season. kind of confounding there, neil. surprising but let me tell you, these investors loving this move today. neil, back to you. neil: gerri, thank you very much. take a peek at corner of wall and broad.

any gain on any averages would be a record. all three are in record territory including the dow, well off its highs. one of the things that spurred on the dow earlier on, was interview federal reserve's robert kaplan will be a voting member of the fomc, federal open market committee. he does not envision a change in interest rates in 2020. that combined with the likes of piper jaffray joining a chorus of bulls including bank of america saying environment calls for continued runup in stocks well into the new year, at least first quarter of the new year. bank of merge like piper jaffray saying there is nothing to halt this. it will be a good environment. firm also says technology stocks which are having a nice ride. a surprising bump in housing starts rose more than expected if the period. permit or guaranties for proxies for future construction, they were running up at about a 12 1/2-year high.

shoppers doing well, housing looking better, industrial manufacturing better than expected and a lot of key firms who have a little reticent talking about these markets say they like the markets. could be counter indicator all that. here is susan. >> thank you so much. susan: i am susan li in for charles payne. we're having a september to remember. are we in for the homestretch here? we have experts weighing in on final trading days of what is to come in 2020. house voting on massive spending bills to fund the government to avoid a government shutdown, as congress fierce up for the full house impeachment vote. we're live on capitol hill with the very latest. is it fowl play? fast-food feud among chicken restaurant is heating up