up. made it something worth watching. it is on "fox nation." it drops as, what i mean by that, it drops, it appears today on "fox nation." have we got that straight? it drops today. neil, it is yours. neil: look forward to that thank you very, very much, stuart. looking at historic day. not talking about what is happening right now. back and forth on wall street all but ignoring it. why that continues to be the case. economy apparently is the reason here. that is one thing that can't be impeached. blake burman, how the president is weighing all of this. blake? reporter: the final process is underway here in washington as the house of representatives just approved the rule that will call for six hours of debate when we get the final vote later this evening, probably sometime around dinnertime in washington, d.c., on articles of impeachment. it's a mere formality at this point president trump will become just the third president

as of this evening to be impeached by the house of representatives. the president said leading into this he was not going to be watching what was transpiring up today up on capitol hill. i'm told as it relates to the president over here at the white house he will be having a series of policy meetings throughout the day, probably making phone calls as well before he leaves for that campaign event in michigan later this evening. he did huddle last night here at the white house with top republicans in advance of this vote up on the hill today. one of those was top republican in the house, kevin mccarthy who gave this readout earlier today. listen. >> he is focused on what the american people need but it is the strength of who he is. that is why we have a strong economy. why we'll come out of this. why, when you look at this, at the end of the day, everything speaker promised democrats, the poll numbers are low, they're divided. reporter: democrat argue that the president abused his office by trying to get a foreign

country in this case, ukraine, to investigate a political rival joe biden and say he obstructed congress by not allowing witnesses to testify and didn't produce documents. >> i've heard some on the other side suggest this process is about overturning an election. that is absurd. this is about protecting our democracy. reporter: neil, leading into the vote, president trump set that remarkable, scathing letter to nancy pelosi, a sort of laying out his thoughts of the president tweeting today as well. i'm told when it really comes to the president's thinking how he feels about all of this that letter sums it up. it was even said to me by one white house official earlier today, neil, called that the mother of all letters. neil. neil: that is one description. thank you very much, my friend, blake burman at the white house. president will be at the big campaign event in michigan, battle creek, michigan, more to the point, likely when

impeachment vote comes down. we should posit the 21st anniversary formally when they moved to impeach bill clinton. backdrop then, strong market, strong jobs economy as well. sound familiar? we'll see if that plays out here again, that backdrop saving president from impeachment as potentially saved bill clinton from impeachment. former dallas fed advisor danielle dimartino booth with us. it is interesting to try to put in perspective what is going on in the country now, what was going on in the country for bill clinton. i always argued it was an environment that helped bill clinton. i doubt he would have been impeached anyway in the senate but it was a nice backdrop. this president as well. what do you think? >> without a doubt, without a doubt. actually bill clinton did not have the powell printing press working in the background alongside a robust economy. there was a straw poll went out on my twitter feed right before

i was coming on the air. over 350 votes in. big deal, little deal, no deal. over 60% of the votes saying this impeachment is no deal at all for the markets. that is obviously what we're seeing because we've actually got green across the screen today, despite all drama inside of the beltway. neil: as former dallas fed advisor i would be curious to get your take on the role of the federal reserve right now keeping all of this stuff going on, not impeachment stuff, economy here. interest rates are in kind of a sweet spot. data seeps could ton firm them keeping them in -- seems to confirm them keeping them in the sweet spot. that the president said we cut rates that could help the trade posture if we did but doesn't look like that is in the offing. what do you think? >> i think the fed is lot more concerned getting over the end of the year potential liquidity strains in the market. why they're fast and furiously printing money and growing the

fed balance sheet -- neil: what is causing that. sorry to jump on you. we run out of cash essentially what is going on. what is going on with that? >> we do effectively run out of cac, banks are incentivized at the end of a quarter, the end of a calendar year to pare back their assets so they get a better standing with the regulators and don't have to pay the same amount of fees. soon as the year turns, they tend to ratchet back up those holdings. but this is a product of also the treasury and the debt ceiling coming to a head in mid-september but right now, if you will, the treasury's checking account at the federal reserve, most simplistic way i can put it, that has been replenished so we don't have near the same strains we had in mid-september going into october but i think jay powell will overdo it so we don't have those spikes in overnight lending rate that do tend to make investors

skiddish. neil: more of a political question, danielle, if you will indulge me, if the president is reelected i can't see him reappointing jerome powell to run the fed. maybe if a democrat were reappointing him, we've seen cases of that under republicans and democrats in the past. what's your thought on all of this? >> isn't that ironic, neil? jay powell has been instrumental, i would say jay powell has been more instrumental in driving the stock market rally, that trump likes to call his own than any other of his three predecessors. there is certain irony there i'm not so sure that you find somebody that the senate confirms that's going to stand up and willingly say as an american i'm willing to take rates into negative territory to satisfy my president. so you know, there is always, there is always a better candidate in the minds of politicians but again, jay powell has done a great, a great

favor to president trump. neil: we'll see what happens, danielle. getting a little ahead of ourselves there. i am the one who forced that on you. appreciate your insight. >> not a problem. neil: steve moore looking for a job on the federal reserve. ultimately took himself out of the running but a lot of people still want to see him there, maybe who knows in chairman role. former trump senior economic advisor joins us now. good to see you, steve. >> neil, good to see you. mary -- merry christmas. i saw the president yesterday at the oval office. i would love to see a guy next federal reserve board chairman, steve forbes. how about that? steve forbes for federal reserve chairman? neil: not a guy steve moore? >> i have gone through it. art laffer was there too. art is a good friend of yours. there are a lot of good people. neil: if he is reelected certainly would not be jerome powell? >> there will be a new fed chairman. look, i agree.

think about neil, where we are today. this is what, december 18. remember what, i think exactly a year ago today, remember what jerome powell did. made one of the greatest mistakes in the history of the fed by raising rates. remember that, neil? week before christmas. the stock market fell by 2,000 points t was a disasterous christmas. ever since then they have righted the course at the fed. neil: let me ask you a little bit about the environment right now. you're a good student of history. a great student of history and we all remember the bill clinton impeachment, i remember covering that and one of the things came through a backdrop of a lot of americans very happy the way things were, despite him perjuring himself about this relationship. they wanted to keep it going. wall street wanted to keep it going. they did not want that disrupted. as you and i discussed wall street is not red or blue, they're green. they love money. the same applies here. that backdrop helps the

president. what do you think? >> there is no doubt about it. look, if you think about the last three impeachments, obviously richard nixon, bill clinton, and now donald trump, think about how lousy the economy was back, 1973-74 when nixon was impeached. there was high inflation. high unemployment. people didn't like the direction of the country. this president was being accused of all sorts of crooked activity. american people said get rid of this guy. he had to resign. bill clinton being impeached at a time when the stock market went through record highs. we had budget surpluss. people loved direction of the economy and republicans got nowhere. i'm surprised that nancy pelosi doesn't have the political smarts this runaway freight train is going nowhere but over a cliff. i believe this will hurt democrats, neil, more than it will hurt donald trump and republicans. neil: we will hate you.

we're leaving you to go to nancy pelosi. hope you have a wonderful christmas. she is speaking on the house floor. >> no party comes to congress to impeach a president you everyone of us as our first act as member of congress stood on the historic house floor before our beautiful american flag and raised our hands in this sacred oath. i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. so help me god. for 230 years members have taken that sacred oath which makes us custodians of the constitution. when our founders declared independent established a new nation they craft ad system of government unlike one ever seen before, a republic, starting with the sacred words, we the people.

for centuries americans have fought and died to defend democracy for the people. but very sadly now our founders vision of a republic is under threat from actions from the white house. that is why today as speaker of the house i solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of the president of the united states. if we do not act now we would be derelict in our duty. it is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. he gave us no choice. what we are discussing today is the established fact that the president violated the constitution. it's a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections, the basis of our democracy. hundreds of historians, legal scholars and formal prosecutors regardless of party have stated that the president committed

impeachable offenses. since today is a national civics lesson, though a sad one i submit these documents for the record and commend for students to study. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, madam speaker. what we are discussing today is established fact that the president again violated the constitution. it's a matter of fact that the president is again an ongoing threat to our national security. and the testimony of decorated war heroes -- neil: we'll continue monitoring this from house speaker nancy pelosi. she was given a scathing letter by the president of the united states who even questioned whether she really was praying for the president. had serious doubts about that. that was some of the less in your face parts of that. it looks like she rounded up, speaker, the votes necessary to impeach this president, at least in the house. given a couple of more absences

there, the magic number to do that would be 214, not necessarily 218 which would be straight majority if everyone was present. it would be 214. apparently she has the votes. when she gets them, when they're cast, sometime late tonight. more after this. e... woman: is this all the devices you have? your tablet... seriously? smartwatch, your backup tablet, and... woman: anything else in your bag? ...whatever that is. (beeping) this isn't working. introducing samsung mobile workspace solutions. with the galaxy note10 with dex software, you can run your entire business on the one device that does it all. samsung business solutions.

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billion dollars for its role in the deadly wildfires. susan li has a lot more. reporter: being blamed for sparking 19 wildfires since 2017, killing more than 100 people, pg&e settled 13 1/2 billion dollar settlement, getting approval from the courts. half paid in cash. other comes in stock. pg&e agrees to separate $1.6 billion settlement with the california utilities commission. $11 billion paid out to ininsurance creditors. those who paid for fire damages. this clears yesterday another hurdle for california's largest utility company, pg&e, to exit from bankruptcy being weighed down over 30 billion-dollars in liability costs. however the clock is ticking. pg&e has to exit bankruptcy by the end of june next year in order to call and participate in a state fund for wildfire risk. this is under new state california laws. pg&e healey unpopular in

california. see with the protest in san francisco. getting heat from positive gavin newsom from safety record and up keep. residents unhappy about damage of wildfires and pg&e decision to shut down power across a lot of northern california voluntarily this fall in order to prevent future wildfires they say. >> we can't go on and let pg&e do what they say they need to do which is about share shareholder profits. we're calling on the governor, the calling on the pupc to put power in the hands of the people. reporter: 19 wildfires blamed on pg&e since 2017. downed transition line sparked the deadly camp fire, killing over 80 in the state. just this past november, broken pg&e tower sparking the kincaid tower which spread across 77,000 acres.

thankfully, neil, in the kincade fire no one was killed. back to you. neil: thank you very much, susan li. fedex is getting rushed after cutting forecast for second straight quarter. gerri willis with that. >> tough day, neil, company missed on top and the bottom lines and they're even guiding lower for the fourth time this year. tough day for the stock down 9.9%. six analysts cutting price targets on the stock including jpmorgan chase. the analyst saying we do in the see a clear catalyst for the stock to improve. b-of-a saying too many fires at fedex a lot of price target cuts, which is leading dow jones transportation index lower. even ups is down on this news. at the hard of the trouble, amazon transformation from key customer to key rival, becoming important factor in the

logistics business. fedex struggling to keep in the last mile as we were discussing. transportation from e delivery to e-commerce delivery not going as well for the stock as you can see. interesting, the performance is even worse than boeing, which i find kind of stunning and amazing, given the fact, that you would think these problems would be correctable. back to you, neil. neil: thank you very, very much. meantime this focus we have on the moon, everyone and his uncle wants to visit the place, been 41 plus years since we're there. we're going back. all the folks are saying well and good. in case aliens, other contacts of forms of life, with that obsession it ain't happening. ♪.

♪. >> oh, god! >> elliot. >> what? elliot. neil: we interrupt thister rest teal obsession of ours, with impeachment, to think of life way beyond this planet what we're obsessing over. will we ever have alien contact, will they keep talking about articles of impeachment? all seriousness, big concern not having anything to do with obsessions over the fate of the president of the united states and everyone's else focus on moon, that might get in the way of seeking out alien life. go to space.com editor-in-chief on what this could mean. you and i were very briefly

talking during the break, you don't have a problem with the moon. just it could be a crowd gets off the eye of finding life, right? >> scientists today, when they want to listen for those signals from alien life or even just earliest birth of the universe, they're listening to these really, really low wave length, low frequency signals. you need it to be really quiet in terms of signal interference for that. the far side of the moon is a great place for that. if many countries, if many companies, start using that place before the scientists cap get there, they might not have the most, quietest place to listen. neil: static and noise getting way of listening. others argue a matter of seeking out places beyond the noise where we think there might be habitats that go beyond humankind what do you think? >> finding a great observation post to look out where we don't

have the intense radio interference that scientists have on the ground is one of big attractive parts of the far side of the moon. there is nothing over there aside from a chinese rover and lander right now. neil: that is kind of interesting. what are they hoping to find on the dark side? >> it's a side we haven't really explored too much to date. neil: right. >> it's a very different environment than the part that we see when we look up at the night sky all the time. it is very rough. it is very rugged. it faces away from our planet, so it is very quiet in terms of radio interference we deal with on our phones or just signals that are out there. that remote aspect has scientists really excited to use it as telescope staging ground, as a listening post for signals from potential extraterrestrials or even broadcast a really clean signal away from earth. neil: have we got, you always seen disputed reports we have

gotten signals. we're not able to identify them. what is the truth on that? >> there that is a great question. there is a wow signal some folks discovered many, many years ago, people are listening to this day. the question is still out because we need to repeat those signals. we need to hear it over and over again. so far they haven't really pinned down those signals coming from a specific place where they can -- neil: in other words at the could be signals from earth? >> could be signals from earth bouncing back. could be from a satellite we lost track of which happened in the past. a lot of excitement. turned out it was an old satellite that was just acting up. neil: we look to be returning to manned space travel pretty soon. that is the hope at least, instead of hitching rides with other countries. would that change for dynamics in quest for life and mars, look to jupiter, saturn come to mind,

where are you on this, the neck step? >> having more access than what we have today is a definite step forward in search for life, but the push out into the solar system. scientists said many times, intrepid rovers we hear about on mars lasting a decade more, on the surface of the planet do great things. but if you have a person there, they can do those great things in less than half the time. getting people to the surface of mars, getting them out to those potential moons of jupiter that we know have liquid water oceans, could really accelerate that kind of a search for life. there are missions to go to those moons of jupiter. neil: it will take a while. >> take a while. neil: to your point, experts will first hear it rather than see it. in other words we might hear noise or static that might indicate something out there. we just don't know what. >> exactly. what the efforts like sete and others listening with giant

radio telescopes on earth want to lift the push up into space where -- neil: are they undeniable for sure? we'll never announce there are aliens. how would it go? >> that we hear something funny, scientists will vet it, to make sure this isn't something we sent out we're getting back signals from. neil: a momentous event. henny youngman moment. >> for sure that will happen. there will be a lot of debate, neil. neil: moment that comes, it will, i hope i'm old enough to see it but it will, it will be a big event. you will telegraph. >> that is the foal. it will be really exciting and it's a big universe. to think we're only ones here, we look forward to that day. neil: here is something to burst the bubble on you here, imagine if aliens are listening for us, if thing noise and this is what they're catching, what is happening on the floor of the

house of representatives right now? it is not so great. >> high crimes and misdemeanors. unlike the nixon and clinton cases -- don't tear up a piazza with an italian work of art. do seek out an open road. don't squander 100 years of racing heritage.

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i had to expand. nationwide helps protect everything you see in here, brad. every family, every business, every dream. see mrs. hoffman? nationwide protects her home and car, but also her dream of retiring to become a yoga instructor. oh, they have backstories. of course they do. here, i got more to show you. keep up, now. a little hustle. neil: something really fun this week, not impeachment, not impeachment, battle overstates, who provides best environment to invite businesses, hire folks. we're digging into this with north dakota coming in a at number three for best environment on variety of

levels. lauren simonetti has details. >> tell you why, neil, when the nation tipped into recession, north dakota started. north dakota produced record amount of oil. it is a rural state. exports agriculture, manufacturing products and test droneses. faa granted a waiver to fly unmanned aerial people over people and infrastructure. as a result of all of this, there is a huge worker shortage in north dakota. the unemployment rate there is 2 1/2%, second lowest in the country. 3,000 jobs are open. so what are the incentives for workers? quality of life? personal income tax brackets that top out at 2.9%. what are incentives for businesses? workers' compensation costs have low premiums for farming and mining companies especially and the minimum wage is $7.25. add to that, ample job training programs. plus, north dakota is a

right-to-work state. so this is our third day of doing this, neil and we're seeing similar themes throughout. low taxes, business-friendly regulations. neil: you know it all comes together. it is a common theme like you say. lauren, thank you very, very much. the woman does not sleep. while washington is consumed with impeachment, house minority whip steve scalise saying issues like health care, deficit, anything else not getting done. take a look. >> this is one of many things that congress is not getting done because of impeachment. we would have lower drug prices today because of impeachment. we have talked about usmca for months. it should have been signed into law six months ago but then you got impeachment. there are things we can do to get our deficit under control. neil: all right, but that is not getting done. democrats counter a lot of things are getting done. they have been busy as bees in the house. runs into opposition as brick wall in the senate. who knows what reality is. house judiciary committee member

ken buck, if that is the case and impeachment blocked everything. i think that is true to large extent. for the most part, we have seen a lot of messaging bills coming out of the house dead on arrival in the senate. if they would work with the senate. would work with republican minority we would get a lot more done here in the house. neil: wondering to your point, not as in nothing is getting done. house ways and means vote will come up tomorrow. spending measure not everyone's cup of tea. looks like it will get approval in the senate. ultimately signed by the president. president will counter what you said, congressman, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. you say? >> they have gotten some things done. most of what they have gotten done to appeal to their base and will never go through the senate. it was never intended to go through the senate but the model they used with usmca and with

the spending bills, working with the senate, working with the administration, sitting down, doing the hard work, that model works. they haven't done it enough. they have been consumed by impeachment and frankly they have raised the level of anger among members and it is harder to work across the aisle when you have a issue like impeachment sitting on the floor. there is a lot of hard feelings right now. neil: i wonder about that. are you surprised, most of those 31 democrats representing districts won by the president in 2016, i think 28 at last count, sir, are going ahead, voting for impeachment? >> i'm very surprised by that. i remember back in 2009 during the obamacare vote when a number of democrats committed political suicide. they lost in a wave election because they voted for obamacare in swing districts. i see these 31 doing something very similar now. i think that they will lose 12

to 20 seats as a result of passing impeachment when they know, that it is going to fail in the senate. it just doesn't make political sense to me. neil: 12 to 20 seats if you're right on the math, they will still keep the house? >> i think the house will change. neil: you do. you they can argue if we were to lose at that many seats we'll still have control the house. you think that is in doubt? >> i do think that is in doubt. i think they will look at the impeachment vote as turning point what happened. president trump is on the ballot in many, many districts where he won the districts by more than 10 points with a democrat who will be voting to impeach him. he will still win those districts. i doubt voters are going to vote for the president and turn around to vote for a congress person who voted to impeach the president. doesn't make sense. neil: president will get wind of this as he speaks to a crowd in michigan. it could be interesting tv as they say.

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neil: during the break, charlie gasparino and i were talking about softbank group's maybe losing his midas touch. what is going on? >> there are two major investors he wants to snare for the next vision. first vision fund was successful, invested in all the startups. put softbank on the map, particularly softbank. neil: softbank has a gazillion dollars. >> they did. based on alibaba investment. then they created this fund,

this vehicle to essentially fund tech startups. they got a little trouble. it was called wework. they sunk a lot of money. thought the valuation was 45 billion. turns out with all the management problems, down to 10 billion. they had to bail it out, because it was probably going to zero if they didn't. they were doing that, essentially starting another vision fund, a second round. they went to their two largest investors, saudi arabian wealth fund, pif, and the sovereign wealth fund of abu dhabi. i will never say the name right. i think it is called -- mudabla. i'm pretty sure i screwed that up. in i any event they are balking at investment. they were biggest investors in the first vision fund. they're basically telling, basically telling softbank, we don't know if we want to go there with this because of what

happened with wework. this is a big thing. neil: napoleon, remember your waterloo. >> this is big if he cannot attract marginal invests this second fund might not get off the frowned. from what i understand they raised two billion. they need many more. we should point out that the saudis put 45 billion in the first one. the abu dhabi put 15 billion, two largest ones. if they don't do this one, it is a vote of no confidence and big knock on softbank. shows you how much a reputational hit son, softbank has taken on wework debacle. which was pretty bad. they touted things with valuations. they supported adam newman, former ceo. they had to bail the whole thing out, gave him a sweetheart package. looks like all that combined,

not just losses but bailout really hurt, had reputational impact on softbank. neil: what about political commitments he was making with then candidate trump, president trump, to expand, make all these invests? >> i take all that with a grain of salt. a lot of that stuff was baked in we should point out, you know what i'm saying? he was going to put x-amount in. neil: right. >> it was all baked in. so i, i haven't heard word one about this. we should point out softbank gave us a statement. they said fund-raising is progresses as expected as investors assess potential commitments to vision fund two. not exactly a denial of our story. listen, i'm not saying that they're not going to put money in here, you know, just so you know. they could be, you know, bargaining for much better terms. neil: that could be. >> warren buffett through a lot

of money at goldman sachs during the financial crisis with amazing terms. maybe they look to go there. from what i understand now, this is a harder sell than they ever thought. it may be a no sell in the end. like i said, i can't tell you they're not, for all i know they will craft perfect terms tomorrow and they're in. from what i heard. as of last night. this was not happening right now. neil: interesting. real quickly on this market, couple weeks to go, do your colleagues and friend and contacts say we see this continuing next year? what are they saying? >> they're very positive. listen, we have an impeachment going on. wall street thinks it is absurd. they, in this sense they think it is purely political. they're looking at the numbers. the numbers, if you, listen, the numbers would be so much better if trump was not involved with a trade war with varies places or a better strategy on the trade war with china. that said the economy is pretty strong. job creation is good. by the way corporate earnings

are good. neil: very good. >> corporate earnings are the mother's milk of stocks. if you have a good economic environment, low taxes, less regulation, chances are corporate earnings will continue to grow and i think, for all of trump's craziness, and for all of the, this ukraine thing let's face it, it wasn't smartest thing to do. neil: perfect call. >> perfect call. it wasn't a perfect call. he has done well in the economy. neil: you can't deny that. >> i tell you -- neil: you're a hater. you're non-stop hater, 24/7 hater. >> his approval ratings are not that much different than obama's right now. neil: we'll watch it closely, my friend. always a delight. thank you very. >> the funny thing is woe we should read my nasty tweets. neil: no we should not. this is a family show. >> they're not even mean. they're vial. neil: i could beat those.

always good to see you, friend. >> did you see story of maitland ward, former disney actress? neil: i want to pursue this a little later. more on this. more on impeachment process. more on stuff that will come up in michigan tonight, when president is speaking to a campaign crowd. yeah i think it will after this. the epson ecotank. no more buying cartridges. look at all this ink it comes with. big ink tanks. lots of ink. no more cartridges. incredible amount of ink. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. (siren blaring) police officer: excuse me, sir. sit tight. yep, sit real tight, speedy. cause you've got to call it in, police officer: radio to dispatch... type it up, hey, dispa... (feedback ringing) deal with that,

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back on amazon. we looked for the best to report on this. that would be ashley webster. >> looked in the dumpster. found me. neil: that can't be true? >> it is true. this is the worldwide marketplace. people do dumpster diving. what fascinated me when the journal looked into this, the kind of items people fought actually found in a dumpster. trader joe's lemon kurd, which i happen to love. would i buy on amazon? heck no. but they do. third party sellers. it's a marketplace. neil: does amazon know it? >> yes. but where is the quality control? neil: right, right. >> the interesting thing if you went through amazon you could have returned it immediately. you have to go by third party seller's rules and regulations may not be able to return it easily. a picture in "wall street journal," some kid in a garage with all the trash behind him, selling it on amazon that he found in the dumpster. it's a little disturbing, is it not? neil: what is interesting about

the piece, how widespread it could be. >> oh, yes. neil: you don't really know. that would be more alarming thing. you think you're getting something on the up and up. >> caveat emptor, buyer beware. amazon it has grown so fast, it is the wild west. amazon is not perfect and these things happen. neil: i always thought, ashley, amazon's policies dictate everything else? if you are dissatisfied with something -- >> not so much on third parties. i found that interesting. amazon looks into it, look where you're buying from. it becomes hard work to buy on amazon. i will go to the store and look at the actual goods themselves. neil: amazing. this is another commentary on our times, in case you want to deal with amazon, but don't want to get too bogged down. there is digital detox wave. you were telling me about this. 80% want a break from their smartphones and other device. >> they do. >> during the whoday season. >> this is from the parents,

realize they're spending so much time on the phones, especially social media. what is sally doing down the road? what is frank -- by the way kids are growing up as you look at your screen. yes, i think people make this pledge, i'm going to be digital device-free this christmas. not going to happen. i'm sorry, we're absolutely addicted. it is funny i was over in london recently covering the election. happened to stop by for a little lunchtime at the pub. they had these signs, this is digital detox pub. no digital devices allowed. embrace conversation. i looked at the from the sign, look the all the tables, they were like this. they ignored the sign. we are so dependent on these things now, it is very difficult to break the habit. would i like to think we do it at christmas but i wouldn't put money on it. neil: what were you saying?

>> [laughter]. too good. neil: very easy to lecture our kids on this stuff, right? >> yes. neil: all of sudden we have to do it, another reminder we can't. i wonder what success rate will be, eight in 10 folks want control, depends on relatives. >> two out of 10. rather than do this, take your kids to the movie. thinking great. put them in a dark theater, don't talk to them a couple hours. that is the alternative. [laughter] neil: when you go to a theater now, increasingly they have games. whip out the smartphone to play the games. you can't escape it. >> you cannot. very sad thing. i'm one of those, walk over to someone with a bright screen on, once lights come down, movie is beginning, my wife don't do that, they may hit you. i'm like no. neil: it is annoying. >> very annoying. neil: they're like -- >> yes. neil: what are you watching the movie for? we sound like two angry old men. get out of here, kids. >> get off of my lawn now.

neil: exactly. it is out of control. meantime you're looking at this great market. when you were in britain, with boris johnson thing and all, were a lot of people saying this wave got him elected much bigger margins than anticipated -- >> yeah. neil: is that precursor to the u.s.? >> i think it is. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and company, yes they're on the socialist team same as jeremy corbyn in the labour party, he took it so far to the left. he was an angry person. neil: you were the first to report that. it was something subliminal, wouldn't connect. >> he never smiled. bernie sanders does a lot of shouting. people don't respond to that in the end? neil: really? be positive. you're the best. also one of the nicest. ashley webster, have a wonderful christmas. >> you too, my friend. neil: whether your happy about technology, we have records across the board. any of those averages would be a

record. ashley talked about it, if you have a record add to it the next day, it is another record. >> you're welcome. neil: more after this. (thud) (crash) (grunting)

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neil: boy, washington and wall street are proving my theory that they are in alternate universes. today is really crystallizing it. wall street racing to new records because any gain from yesterday, we had three new records, is going to be added gains today, as this impeachment goes on for only the third time in the last century. what to make of that, because leaders are making their case for, well, how odd it is. >> very sadly now, our founders' vision of a republic is under threat from actions from the white house. that is why today, as speaker of

the house, i solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of the president of the united states. if we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. >> really? after we just said the pledge of allegiance, we go back to the speaker's own words and said it would be dangerous to leave it to the voters? i will tell you right now, madam speaker, we on the republican side have no problem taking our case to the majority and to the people of this country. neil: all right. it's all one way. most democrats lining up in favor of impeachment, virtually all republicans dead set against it. it will probably play out that way in the senate when it gets to a trial there. the backdrop is a pretty good economy, pretty strong economy and a very good stock market. could that be the one thing that saves the president. let's get the read right now from the "wall street journal" editorial board member, james freeman. we have paul deietrich and jeane

zaino. it is like an alternate universe. this is a big deal, whether or not you agree with the impeachment, that it is historic, yet the market's hitting historic highs. >> the market is hitting historic highs because they know the outcome of this, as we all do, which is that the president will be impeached in a few hours and he will be acquitted in the senate in early january. so the risk that would make the market move is simply not there to make it decrease so it's humming along because the economy is good. i think as we move into 2020, the market may change its tune because that is where they may see some risk depending on if you get an elizabeth warren as the democratic nominee or bernie sanders or -- neil: i could make an argument there. the market which generally likes making money would assume that those type of nominees would be so easy to beat that it would actually help their case. i don't know. what do you think? >> i agree with you.

but you know there's some historical precedent here. if you look back at the clinton impeachment, from the day the impeachment inquiry started to the day he was acquitted, the market was up 27%. neil: that's right. that's right. >> so you know, when you know the outcome, it's not going to have any impact on the economy or the stock market. neil: you know the one thing you wonder about, though, bill clinton maintained a certain level of popularity this president does not enjoy. now, that's a bit of an anomaly in and of itself because you could argue given the strong economy, the strong market, he should be up significantly, more than he is in the polls. your thoughts? >> yeah. he seems to be getting a little more popular lately, maybe because of the impeachment, but i think the message of the markets is really interesting here. it's not just that the economy's good and therefore, investors like that. i think we have seen the markets as really a reality check on washington's noise throughout this presidency, and right now,

i think the market is really a rebuttal to the democratic case in the house. because the republic was really under threat, if trump was really destroying our rule of law in this country as we keep hearing from democrats in this process, investors would be fleeing. investors don't like to invest in places where there is no rule of law -- neil: where there is risk and urn certain uncertainty, to your point. it's not a political statement, but wall street has said this so long people get tired of hearing it, including you guys, but it's not a matter of being red or blue. it's green. they like making money. they made it hand over fist with bill clinton and are making it hand over fist with donald trump. they want that to continue. >> they want that to continue and to james' point, they see just how the president as described this, as a partisan witch hunt. i think it's a great point about bill clinton because there are similarities here where they see this as a partisan endeavor and i think unfortunately, we may

see this in the future become more and more where impeachment is used as a partisan weapon and the markets will probably say oh, it's very much like other partisan weapons that are used, we will keep going along and won't be impacted by it. neil: the world in which we live. by the way, something the labor secretary took up a little bit earlier with maria bartiromo. take a look at this. >> big surprise to me there, somebody who is a lawyer, for a long time, is how small and unimportant it seems right now. impeachment is meant to be a very serious step. there's just a feeling i think here and certainly outside of town that it's not a serious exercise right now. that is sad. neil: i don't know whether it's sad but the gist of it is we have weaponized impeachment and a lot of republicans feel maybe cynically that it will happen again and again. i'm wondering if that's true. what do you think? >> i think we are making it

easier and easier to have impeachment and just as during the clinton impeachment basically said we will never, ever impeach a president for sexual peccadillos so that's now off the table forever. neil: in so doing, we also said it's okay to lie. it's okay to lie under oath. and maybe for defined reasons, who's going to tell the truth about that, i get it, but the standards started changing and that was where the slippery slope started. what do you make of that? >> if you really want to remove a president from office because he told a lie -- neil: no, no, now it sort of opened the flood gates for the same kind of thing that exists now and might exist more in the future. i don't know. >> i think republicans feel like they paid a price in the following election in '98 for that prosecution of bill clinton.

so since then, they didn't try to impeach obama. there was not an impeachment vote in the house. neil: although it was a republican two years later who won the presidency. >> true. i think that was the american people kind of partly giving al gore the tab for bill clinton's mistakes or whatever you want to call them. but the point is there is a political check. if the american people do not want this to become a regular part of our politics, they can express that very clearly in 2020, not just with the presidential vote but how they vote for members of congress who played various roles in this. neil: i just wonder how everyone gets back together. >> in an odd way, impeachment has brought congress and the president together. you look at the usmca. that never would have happened, democrats would have menever agreed to that. the president may not have agreed to some of the changes, if they were not both in political peril. neil: they both wanted to look like they were doing something. >> they have to go home to their

districts and say they are doing things. otherwise democrats get clobbered in 2020 and the president likewise wants to say he's like bill clinton, he's on the job. it's bringing us together. neil: it's getting stuff done. wall street likes that. >> one of the things that we now know that sexual peccadillos and lying to the fbi or even lying to the american people, which all politicians do, is not an impeachable offense. but i keep wondering, what is an impeachable offense? i mean, it does bother me that the president tried to play around with our elections. >> i think we should -- neil: that it wasn't a perfect call. >> it wasn't a perfect call. >> he was impeached for lying under oath and he lied under oath to derail a sexual harassment lawsuit against him. i wouldn't call it a peccadillo but -- neil: compared to you could be talking to a leader of a sovereign nation about inserting himself into a u.s. election. >> i think the american people

obviously did decide take was not something that justified removal. for this one, they are going to look at it. i think the end of the day you look at it and say that should be examined. >> people may get there if democrats wouldn't do this on the electoral calendar. if they had waited for the court to bring whoever it was, john bolton, mick mulvaney, others to the table, if they weren't doing this for electoral reasons, the american public may have gotten there, where you are saying they're not comfortable with this but the democrats are pushing this along because they've got to get this done now. that's a problem to me. neil: yeah. we won't know until next november how that sorts out. meantime, uber is looking to expand. that, you already know. what you might not, is it's looking to do so in your own [ inaudible ]. we'll explain. ♪ most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner.

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right. who says you always have to cut prices? right now we are showing you an example of hulu raising its live tv package as pbs starts streaming on hulu tv. separately, we are hearing apple airpods are now sold out. you can't find them anywhere. some people are going to second and third markets. it is a reminder that for the right product at the right time, k you could charge what you wish. we have jeremy owens and elizabeth wagmeister. what do you think of this? >> you're right, these are not cheap. they are $250 a pair. that's really pricey. i think this will ultimately be great for apple. apple always dominates. they know what they're doing. usually when you say something is sold out, that makes people want to get their place in line,

save up and get them. this is now the cool product to have on the market. everybody is going to want them. the fact they are sold out now is just going to make them want them even more. neil: in the case of hulu, what are we to surmise there? obviously they are adding this live package that would maybe be a lure but throwing an extra $10 a month to get it, what do you think? >> i think we have seen all these skinny bundles increase their prices. it's not as slowly as the streaming services, with netflix adding a dollar every couple of years to their monthly subscription fee. youtube tv was $35 earlier this year. now it's $50. at & t service started off at $35 in 2016, it raised from $50 to $65 this year. now we are seeing hulu go from $45 to $55. these companies are just realizing they are taking a bath on skinny bundles and are trying to raise prices to not lose as much money. it's getting to the point where you are better off having a cable subscription. neil: i'm wondering on that, too, when people are cutting the cord, the idea was to save money. if you get all these services,

it costs you a lot more than a cord. where we going here? >> you would be paying rent if you got every single one of these streaming services. there's just so many. i mean, yes, of course if you just get one and the new price for hulu live, you are paying significantly less than a traditional cable package but even with that, you are only getting roughly 60 channels so it doesn't really compute. now, of course, we do have to keep in mind that hulu is now controlled by disney, of course. disney has disney plus which has been doing extremely well. they have over 25 million subscribers already. that is just $6.99. so when you look at the whole overall company, it's not really a surprise that they are raising the price, because as you said, you know, you have to stay competitive and you ultimately have to turn a profit. neil: i wonder what this means for netflix. profit is an alien concept right now. it's been talking up the idea it's expanding abroad and that's not appreciated by analysts. this has been a stellar performer, i believe one of the

best of the last decade. can it continue chugging along? >> well, if it maintains the core subscribers, i think it can. we are about to see in the streaming services subscribers kind of churning through different ones, and taking one for a month or two, then bingeing through something, getting rid of it and going to another one. if netflix is the one everybody keeps, and they churn through the others, netflix is fine. if they are canceling netflix to try out apple and hbo and some of the others, then they are going to run into problems and see a very uneven subscriber base which is going to be hard to sell to an investor public. neil: someone told me not too long ago there's a different sort of verdict for technology companies when they lift prices for widely desired streaming services, products, airpods, whathave you, it doesn't apply to other industries, that they are in their own special category. do you agree with that? >> you know, i don't really quite understand what you are saying. neil: neither do i.

what i'm saying is that we will go a little higher on gadgets and streaming services than we might on other stuff, because it's cool, it's hip, we like it. >> oh, yes. no, i think that people are always going to pay more for something that seems like it's hip on the market and they think there's definitely applies to streaming services. what's really cool is when you are watching the same show that everybody is talking about. it goes back to that water cooler conversation, right. so when you have netflix, everybody has netflix now, years ago they didn't. well, now people are talking about hulu live or talking about youtube tv live, talking about disney plus, everybody is going to want that and they will spend that to get the cool product, the cool product being the tv show that everybody is talking about. neil: all right. final word on that. i apologize for my clumsy question. jeremy gave it to me so i don't know, it was his fault. thank you, guys, very, very much. both of you. much appreciated. you know, they have these fancy devices that can monitor

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dexcom, though, is working with microsoft and google to resolve the issue. so when the device stopped working, the company, though, it only released a statement on facebook over eight hours later which is why another major fix for the company is to message customers in realtime to let people know when things go wrong. unfortunately, this isn't the first time this service went dark. dexcom experienced a similar outage less than a year ago. the issue, though, was resolved within a day. this stock, we take a look at that now, climbing steadily today and over the past year, and despite this outage, analysts at bank of america released a note today reiterating a buy rating with a higher price target of $250. still a long way to go given that it's $221.81 right now. neil: interesting. thank you very, very much. meanwhile, new attacks on the president's tax cuts have some wondering whether we will ever see them again, or an addition to them. after this.

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are not government workers but work for the federal government. that's because the family paid leave, they will get 12 weeks of parental leave guaranteed to be paid going forward. this was passed by the house of representatives in the national defense authorization spending act. the senate has also passed it. it now sits on the president's desk for his signature. this comes with a cost. the congressional budget office says that it is going to be $3.3 billion to the taxpayers between 2021 and 2024. now, if it becomes law, this would be the first change to the federal family leave policy since 1993. employees must be in federal service for one year to be eligible and return to work for at least the length of time they're on leave, or pay that difference back. it also applies only to companies with more than 50 people. now, supporters say this is a huge step forward because the federal government is the largest employer in the u.s., and this could set a standard for private companies to follow. this push spearheaded by the

president's daughter and adviser, ivanka trump, going forward. in this spending bill, it also deals with defense, obviously, but talking about the sixth branch of military. the president has been trying to get space force funded. it is now going to be funded going forward. this is something he has been working on since he became president over the past year or so, his administration has had a huge push in order to get space force to become that sixth branch of military. this bill does that. we have to wait and see when he signs it into law. back to you. neil: edward, thank you very much, my friend. meanwhile, congress applauding the paid family leave. some still shaming the president's tax cuts, though. former investment banker regrets that because it may come at the expense of tax cuts down the road. she joins me now. thank you for taking the time. >> my pleasure. always nice to see you. neil: it's interesting, too, you could argue over the tax cuts but they certainly goosed the economy. they had a big role in that. i think because they had this label of being benefits for the rich or corporations, even

republicans are leery of following up. where are we going? >> you have record low unemployment, record highs in the stock market, and all of these people saying you're not doing well, people aren't participating in the tax cuts, that it's only for the rich, that we have a rigged system and this is definitely not the case. the implications are that people are going to be focusing and supporting bad policy going forward, and it's kept people out of the stock market. neil: you know, you could make the argument that even with those out of the stock market, the stock market is doing pretty well, but you are quite right to say you could get a lot more in, roughly half of the american population is involved in stocks. if it stays at that level, you could start questioning the longevity of this, right? >> yeah. i think you could question the longevity but i'm concerned about all the people who have been on the sidelines for years, when we have had record after record. if you look at 2019, every single asset class pretty much

across the board is up. this is absolutely unheard of. these are people who aren't participating, who have been on the sidelines because they believe that things aren't going so well. when you can just do a quick google search and see all of these numbers are completely false. people are arguing with me about things like the middle class not getting a tax cut when we know that 55% of all americans got the tax cut. they are arguing with me about things like financial mobility when we know that 50% of all americans will be in the top 10% of earners for at least one year of their lifetime. so we can debate things that are wrong but we need to have that financial knowledge and that underpinning so that we can make sure we have the right policies and we can make sure that peeope aren't missing out during the good times. neil: you're right, we make an assault on something based on politics when in fact, you just look at the math and i always try to tell people virtually every group of americans got a tax cut. you could argue over the size and whether you argue it could have been bigger for this group or not, but everybody did.

now it's got this image, especially among some of the more progressive candidates, that it was just targeted for the wealthy and they got everything. then you begin to wonder if you generate that kind of a controversy over a tax cut that was more widely shared than most in history, then you've got to wonder whether there will be an appetite for any type of cut for anyone. >> no, you get they are not paying their fair share argument as well. you have 1% of the population paying 37% of all the taxes and half of americans not paying any taxes. neil: elizabeth warren says that 1% should be paying more, even though it's a third now, they should pay a lot more because they get a lot more. >> i know. here's the thing. let the hundred of us go out to dinner and one guy pays 37% of the bill and half the people get none, would we say wow, he didn't pay his fair share? maybe you could say he's wealthy and he could afford to pay more but we would at least say you have been very generous with us, you wouldn't point the finger and say you are a bad person for this. that unfortunately becomes the

controversy and logic goes out the window. if we continue down this road, you end up with policies like the wealth tax that end up being hurtful to the economy. neil: you know what's very interesting about this, the least of the taxers in the bunch, in that presidential contest, on the democratic side, joe biden, still wants to raise tax revenue about $3.4 trillion over ten years. he's the least of the taxers. >> i know. neil: the typical wall street reaction you get is at a minimum, at a minimum with nany of these guys, taxes are going up. we will see how wall street responds to that if one of them gets elected, but it's a remainder that at the base, taxes are going up. >> yes. and you can't tax your way to prosperity, no matter how you try to spin it, no matter how you try to couch it. at the end of the day, you want that money in people's hands reinvesting it in the economy. the people are better stewards of their own capital than the government will ever be. so i don't care if it's a little bit or a lot, the less money that goes to the government, the

better off we are as a country. neil: the debate is on and the election theme has an idea post-impeachment. we will see what happens. we will get charles payne's read on that. i suspect he's more in the carol camp. after this. nationwide helps you invest for your future, brad. so you can plan for retirement and save for college. oh, that explains this. the nationwide dome. state-of-the-art venue. 80-yard screen. fantasy sports lounge. climate controlled seats. sushi bar. club level pool. really? lastly... retractable roof. whoa. touchdown! peytonville just runnin' away with this one. go peytons. (pop) kind of lackluster. eh, still working out some kinks. who they playing? the brads. worst team in the league. of course.

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neil: all right. well, our charles payne is back and he's really on top of what's going on in these markets and more to come, i guess, right, charles? do we have -- i'm not hearing him. okay. all right. we will go to the panel, then fix him up. this is exactly how i planned it so he couldn't hear.

we will be going to him very very shortly. back with us right now to talk about all of this, james freeman of the "wall street journal," jeanne zaino, iona college political science professor and paul deitrich, not least of all. on the economy and everything else, we were talking in the last segment, when we were all together, about the expectation nothing happens in the senate with impeachment, certainly nothing changes in the market, as far as economic environment. you were raising something interesting about don't assume it's a gimme in the senate. >> the thing people want to watch is chief justice roberts. he's going to preside over this. he has a lot of leeway and he's an institutionalist. he does not want this to seem like a sham trial. he's very big on fairness and -- neil: does he have any role? i think he had to cede to the

senate rules. >> that's the question. the senate, mitch mcconnell could say we oppose your ruling and if they have 51% of the votes, in the senate, he's overruled. but this is where mitt romney, susan collins, murkowski, gardner, alexander, who is not running for office, these five could change that. neil: five republicans. >> by supporting the chief justice. that's going to be interesting. >> yeah. i do think, you know, i don't know where they will sit but i think that's going to be the most intrigue here that we are going to see in this whole process. for most of us, we don't see, you know john roberts but we don't see john roberts. we don't see the supreme court in action. neil: let me ask about that. we were just saying how much you rely on the expected. that's the expected, that it

just sails through the senate, short, sweet, good-bye. but if all of a sudden there's a little more drama to it than we give credit, how do the markets respond to that? >> i think first of all, i'm not sure it's bad for trump if it does become a longer trial with more witnesses. neil: he was apparently itching for that. >> it certainly injects a lot of uncertainty into it so i guess that part of it -- neil: he would not be keen on john bolton or mick mulvaney, his chief of staff, testifying. i think chuck schumer wanted, right? it may open the flood gates. >> but he would be excited for the biden testimony, hunter and joe. that could be a long few hours or days, i don't know. >> i would be excited for that, too. neil: yeah. i want to bring charles payne into this. i think his mic is okay now. we are talking about the possibility that maybe we've got it wrong, assuming it's just, you know, done and out with the senate, when there could be a little drama, there could be witnesses, there could be a

demand where the chief justice roberts forces the issue, again, in a senate chamber where all it takes is a couple of republican votes to at least progress to that stage. what do you think? charles: absolutely right. i think that's been the calculus amongst the republicans, do you try for something short and sweet that you can consider mostly a slam-dunk or do you get very aggressive with this, because it can be a double-edged sword. the longer it lasts, the more chances of something happening, you know, someone changing their mind and you know, there's two things going on here. there is actual impeachment process and then there's the court of public opinion. president trump is overwhelmingly in my mind and companyi according to the data won the court of public opinion so how much does he want to risk that victory. he's crossing the finish line. take the victory lap and move on with the economy, or you know, call up hunter bidens of the world and maybe, maybe create problems you don't want. neil: what do you see happening, charles? charles: i think it's going to sail through.

last couple weeks ago, michigan sentiment report, 1% of respondents said they care about impeachment. we see how it's going in the polls. meanwhile, we see what the stock market is doing. it's absolutely phenomenal. the economy is absolutely phenomenal. neil, we had about seven data points in the last three days that point to a monster 2020. really driven by household formation and bigger business investment. i think we are on a really amazing path right now and i would hate to see it disrupted. neil: i thought it was six. if you say seven, fine. charles: we are splitting hairs. i counted something twice. neil: before you go, is it your understanding right now that the backdrop of the strong economy, strong markets, no one would argue that, that persists right into and through 2020? i believe bank of america was calling it a melt-up in the next quarter, you have others saying it continues, you know, on and on and on, you know, morgan and some of the others talking about

the recessionary fears fading. where are you on all that? charles: i think melt-up is sort of dismissive and really does not play into what really is happening here. we are at a place in confidence in main street america where people now, millenials, others, moving out, forming households, having families, where businesses are going to come back. they will invest tons of money in intellectual property. they are going to buy a lot of kwich equipment. it's going to be the best of all things. listen, success begets success and winning begets winning. i just can't see how -- the only thing that could derail it would be the federal reserve. i really believe powell will not go there. neil: all right. charles, thank you. welcome back. we will be going to you in about 15 minutes. sorry about the microphone problem. i don't know what happened. i'm interested in just his view of the economy and the backdrop of that, nothing could derail it in 2020. there are a couple of things that could punctuate that, though, right? i mean, if all the money

presumably or more of it comes off the sidelines, that's a counter indicator, right? >> yeah, but i mean, consensus estimates for next year are that we are going to have 9.4% earnings. that's great. the market ought to be up 10% next year on that alone. then also, you know, let's face it, this president needs this economy to go through november 3rd in the election. he's going to use every lever of power that he has. he's going to badger the federal reserve into lowering rates if he needs to. there was a recent university of chicago study that said if you pump enough money into the economy, you can extend an economic growth period, just can't extend it forever. neil: what do you think? >> i do think the president does

need that and he needs it through november of next year. i think he's going to use every lever to do that. but i don't think it's a sure thing at this point. look it, we have the china deal, at least the first stage, yet we don't know if they are going to live up to their part of the bargain. so there are still question marks out there -- neil: they do have a history of lying. >> i'm not shoor ure he will nel that many levers, because of the china deal, because of the trade piece with mexico and canada, i think we get the corporate capital expenditure number moving up again, i think people now have the confidence to invest. i would expect a pretty good economy going forward. neil: we will take a quick break here. what would be the ideal christmas present for someone? how about instead of giving them, you know, some gift they will just regift and hand out to someone else, how about helping to pay off their student loans? after this.

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so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ neil: all right. that is the signal out of a crowd that will be there when the president arrives tonight in battle creek, michigan. grady trimble on the ground there to get a read of what the president could be in store for. grady? reporter: hey, neil. well, the president obviously focusing on impeachment today, but these people who gathered here essentially a coalition of vape shop owners and customers, hope they pay attention to their message as well. that's right here, right there, we vape, we vote. essentially what they want the president to hear is that policies like, for example, an

e-cigarette flavor ban would really affect their businesses here in swing states like michigan. so patrick, you drove from a couple hours away. you are a vape shop owner. >> yep. reporter: tell me why you want the president to hear your message today. >> basically -- reporter: that's okay. >> they -- it has actually helped people quit smoking, it's been beneficial -- god, i can't do this. i'm sorry. reporter: no worries. one thing the store owner here was telling me is that 90% of their sales here are the flavored e-cartridges or e-liquids, so that would really put them out of business essentially if they lost out on those sales. tell me -- >> my name is lloyd patton. i'm one of the members of the michigan vape shop owners association. our biggest point here to date is to let donald trump know that we're not going away, that this industry is viable for smokers and for people who want to quit

smoking. the industry itself needs a lot of proper regulation that helps protect not only the children and safeguard that but also protect the choice of adults who want to use this product to be able to quit smoking. [ inaudible ]. neil: sorry, we're having problems with the audio. thank you very, very much, my friend. obviously that's something a little bit different. you don't plan on the dave y of impeachment to become an issue the president has to address. we are focusing on other developments like these markets racing ahead and racing ahead i fields like uber wants to go beyond just driving. uber works has a program that can help you in your home, cooking, cleaning, a whole bunch of stuff. back with james, paul and jeanne. jeanne, what do you think of this? >> i love any help i can get with cooking and cleaning so i'm all for it. but you know, one thing that does concern me is uber, on december 5th, released this safety report with an astounding

number of reports of sexual assault and you know, those kind of things. i think they run a real risk, you know, not just in the driving business but if they are getting into our homes, in terms of how you protect both the customers and the workers. how do you screen them. that safety report was very very concerning. huge risk for uber. neil: what do you think? >> that's a problem with any temporary worker situation, whether it's your plumber or anything else. there should be a way to solve that through background checks and things like that. this uber works is an interesting thing for uber, because this, i call it the uber angie's list, this is a disruptive technology. they are using the technology and the apps that they already have to take on a whole new industry. the temporary worker industry. if you have a party tonight, and you need your house cleaned, they will be there in 20 minutes. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> you know how it started? it's a fascinating story.

when they started uber eats in chicago, the restaurants were overwhelmed by the demand for uber eats, so they were recruiting their drivers to come in and help these people at the restaurants to do it. so it came out of kind of a necessity, they thought oh, my goodness, i can use my same technology, i don't have to spend any more capital, and i can create an uber. what uber did to taxis, it's going to do to the temporary work force people, recruiters in america. this is a disruptive technology. neil: but i do agree with jeanne in this sense. they better get that clientele issue right, right? people that come to your home? >> well, of a certain size, you are going to have some level of crime in any large population, as these things get bigger, the numbers are going to get bigger. on balance, these disruptions are great for consumers and i say get into more markets. unfortunately, california is really disrupting the gig

economy with new regulations. but i think if the government will lay off the gig economy, leave the vapors alone, a lot of good consumer benefits can come here. neil: all right. you don't want the crazy characters. [ speaking simultaneously ] neil: libertarian, yeah. cook for me. don't reach for the knife. meanwhile, personal finance app pillar wants you to help pay off your loved one's student loans this holiday. point, click and pay them off or pay some of them off. what do you think? >> i think it's great. okay, in a way, i do think it seems a little cold that for the holidays you are -- but look it, my students are facing enormous, enormous debt, as are many other people. i think the idea that you can give something that they can actually use, i think it's great. neil: what do you think? >> you know better than anyone that nothing says happy holidays like your aunt paying off your

stoo student loan but it is a problem. there's $1.6 trillion in student loan debt in the united states. i know people have laughed at this, saying well $50 here or there doesn't matter. at my firm, we believe every little bit helps. this is a great idea and who the heck knows what a millenial wants for christmas? neil: right. right. visa gift card. >> this is a better alternative. neil: processed meats and cheeses are one thing. what do you think? >> i know you have been wondering what to get me for christmas. i could use a break on my mortgage this month. work-arounds are great but the core issue is college education is too expensive. i think you get back to what is the core problem, it is a lot of well-intended subsidies from washington, intended to make things affordable and we have seen the result. it's the opposite. neil: you know what i will say,

it's a trend here and people who want to give stock to young people or anyone, there's this push to go beyond traditional gifts. you could start a young person off. tha that's gaining currency this season. >> i have done this myself with my own kids and they really like it. neil: i did it in reverse. i want my kids to give me -- >> i never figured that out, right? >> my parents, when i was born, i won't tell you when, they gave me a savings bond in those days. neil: remember that? sure. >> and i think really, this ought to be encouraged. neil: what do you think? >> yeah. neil: yeah. politically correct. yeah, sure, whatever. all right, guys, thank you all very, very much. good bunch. meanwhile, fannie mae is boosting its housing outlook. this has been the kind of week for housing that surprised a lot of folks.

permits at better than a 12-year high. activity with people looking at homes now and builder sentiment at about a 20-year high. what's going on? after this. (classical music playing throughout) . . .

♪. >> as a general matter i think we have to be careful about trivializing the process and they put in a hurdle of high crimes and treason, bribery, and other high crimes, the articles of impeachment do not allege a violation of long. looks to be along partisan lines. i'm concerned about it being trivialized and used as a political tool. neil: by the way so the president of the united states he can coyed that in more fiery comments. martha maccallum's interview with attorney general bill barr

is coming up on fox. on had historic day democrats looking to impeach the president of the united states, the markets are up across the board, dow, s&p, nasdaq, all looking at records, not what you would formally think. charles: market is so intuitive. i'm charles payne. this is "making money." we'll look ahead to 2020 which i think will be another monster year for economy, key factors that could keep the economy going into 2020. my panel gets how much the process is actually helping president trump get reelected. it impeachment comes up during the christmas dinner, how should you handle it? politics should be prime minister and proper with a live demonstration. all that, so much more on welcome back cp,