we have seen massive reductions in poverty, increases in wealth. it's a beautiful situation. lauren: have we convinced you to spend new year's eve in times square? >> you guys, at the beginning you had me kind of worried but you have me thinking it's an iconic moment, my first, got to do it. lauren: "varney & company" is next. ashley webster, good morning. ashley: good morning. thank you to you, lauren. good morning, everybody. here we are. the decade nearly over. two trading days left in the year and yes, the decade. any gain in the dow and s&p at the open will bring new all-time highs. it goes on and on and up and up. it's been on an amazing run since the 2016 election, as you can see, and believe it or not, with 2020 less than 48 hours away, we are also just 35 days away until the iowa caucuses. ready for that? you better be, it's coming soon. we will also take a look at the biggest stock gainers over the past decade which as we know is a blowout decade for the market. also making news, tesla.

the first model 3 built in china rolling off the assembly line and elon musk tells his employees quote, pay no attention to the stock price, unquote. i'm ashley webster in for stuart. "varney & company" about to begin. ashley: let's take a look at the gains for the major averages this year. wow, oh, wow. the nasdaq, 35%. the dow, 22%. the s&p, a mere 29.25%. joining us now, market watcher keith fitz-gerald. fitz, for big gains for next year? what do you say? why not? >> oh, i think we've got all the right things in play. we've got record consumer confidence, great economics, companies growing. this is a great time to be alive and be an investor. there is always a possibility of short-term correction but you know what, even a busted clock is right twice a day. ashley: more and more of those so-called experts are calling for that correction.

ten, maybe 20%. what's going to trigger that? >> well, you know, it's the same old stuff. it could be a misplaced headline, could be a misguided escomputers. they simply go awry because they decide to take profits. long-term investors for the most part should dismiss that, concentrate on ceos and companies with a clear path to profits and products that are changing the world. very simple equation at this point. ashley: forget the algorithms, dreaded algorithms. keith, stay right there. i want to take a look at tesla shares, if we can. riding high above $400, solidly so, up to $431. now delivering its first cars made in china. quite an accomplishment. jackie deangelis, despite the big accomplishment, elon musk telling his employees forget about the stock price. jackie: elon in a leaked e-mail to employees said don't worry about the stock price. my silly jokes on twitter are just that. what matters is our execution

and effectiveness as a company and ultimately, i think tesla will be worth considerably more than it is today. remember, at $430 it's above that $420 mark where he wanted to take the company private. but this is a huge boom for the economy so they will start delivering the model 3 sedans that they broke ground on the shanghai facility earlier this year and they are making these cars there. they are still impor price point will be about $50,000 but you get a 10% purchase tax exemption in china and the government is going to subsidize it because remember, these are electric vehicles so the price comes down. this is huge and elon is right in his e-mail, this is all about execution. he's had some trouble there so it's a big deal that he's getting the china, you know, assembly line, if you will, off on the right foot. ashley: because china potentially could be a big market, especially -- jackie: largest car market in the world and they are possibly offering a 20% discount as well in china. that will get more buyers in for

tesla model 3s. elon musk has got a billion dollars in investment as well from chinese entities. you see a lot of business, getting a lot of money and investor dollars. this is a big market for him. ashley: we also have trade headlines? jackie: just coming through. this should be moving markets today, not that we don't need more gains heading into what the best year for the s&p in six years, record territory, above 9,000 for the nasdaq. and this headline just crossed about ten minutes ago. china's top negotiator liu he will be visiting d.c. this week and signing that phase one trade deal with robert lighthizer, the trade rep here in the u.s. they will adhere and follow through on their promises, they say, according to the u.s. ambassador to china, ambassador to the u.s. ashley: very encouraging. susan: i also think the tesla news with respect to that is key. the timing isn't a coincidence here, if you will. elon musk was waiting for a couple of hurdles to cross, the government now complying and it seems to coincide with this

phase one deal. ashley: it's all great. good news indeed. up arrows indeed. jackie, thanks very much. susan. good news on the trade potential. get that phase one signed. two big names you know, of course, in record territory. take a look at apple, down slightly in the premarket, right at $289, almost $290 per share. let's take a look at microsoft, somewhere stu is smiling. $158 on microsoft. also, that stock just down a hair, in the premarket. we will follow those of course once the market opens in 25 minutes. back to keith fitz-gerald. more gains for these stocks next year, do you think? apple, microsoft? >> oh, absolutely. apple is just shy of the double i saw this year but i think it will continue to go. microsoft i think does double next year. both stocks playing in ai, you've got defense contracts, in apple's case you've got the

medical device pivot which is critical because that's where tim cook wants to take the company. ashley: so microsoft, that would be, what, $316 if it doubles? >> more or less. give or take. what's a few billion between friends, right? ashley: they have done everything right up to now. that's quite a prediction. all right. what about nvidia? you like nvidia, the chip maker? obviously the tech stocks are doing well. so does nvidia, right? >> again, nvidia, the key is really the way the chips are working. they are critical to everything that talks to everything else. it's the internet of things. these chips talk, they make that communication possible, they can process huge amounts of information, and i think the market has underestimated their potential. ashley: all right. but you haven't. >> i hope not. ashley: great stuff. the beautiful pacific northwest, the space needle behind you. have a great day. thanks as always for joining us. >> happy new year. ashley: same to you. switching gears to the horrific anti-semitic attack in new york over the weekend. new york city mayor bill de

blasio partly blaming president trump for a recent rash of anti-semitic attacks. watch this. >> an atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years. a lot of it is emanating from washington and it's having an effect on all of us. >> you are blaming the president by saying -- >> not just the president. i'm saying but we have to be clear, we need a different tone starting in washington. ashley: a-ha. joining us now, former deputy assistant to bush 43, brad blakeman. brad, why don't you pass comment on what mr. de blasio just had to say? >> shame on the mayor. he is the leader of the city of new york. these are where the horrific attacks seem to be happening with frequency. he is the lead representative of new york city, he's the mayor, chief executive officer. it's too easy to blame washington but this is what democrats do. this is part of the trump delusion syndrome that they are suffering from. everything is trump's fault, even things that are happening

under their jurisdiction and their power and their control. shame on the mayor. the mayor should take responsibility for the actions of his own people in his own area, and he needs to stop this. the way to stop it is perhaps to have the governor appoint a special counsel in order to prosecute these crimes uniformly and swiftly. ashley: you know, this is personal for you, isn't it? you were appointee to the holocaust museum if i remember right under president bush 43. are you surprised at the rise of anti-semitism we have seen not only here but certainly in europe? i look at the labor party in england who have been plagued with it for a number of years. >> it's a scourge. unless and until we are able to stamp it out, this will be reoccurring. we have seen it throughout history. if you don't learn from history, you will repeat it. we are not going to repeat that.

never again means just that. jews as well as non-jews have to band together and wipe this out, whether it's against jews or anybody else. this kind of anti-semitism must not stand in america. it will not stand and let's stop blaming and let's start acting against it. ashley: well said. we have to leave it right there. brad blakeman, thanks so much for joining us this morning. >> pleasure. ashley: let's check the futures, about 20 minutes away from the market opening, pointing up. the dow up 33, s&p up 5, nasdaq up 10. muted gains, i would call those. not flat, just slightly higher. we will see how it checks out. we will also check the shares of amazon. it's dominated the holiday shopping season. we will talk about that with gerald storch. he's the former toys "r" us chief. we also have three big name retailers who could be at risk of closing in 2020. now take a look at facebook. the ceo of salesforce comparing facebook to cigarettes, saying it's just as bad for society.

we are on that story as well. senator elizabeth warren pleading for campaign donations after a fundraising falls short this question. what happened to all the momentum she had? we will get into that. "varney & company" just getting started. ly save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance? do woodchucks chuck wood? hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

most people think as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready.

ashley: take a look at the national average for the price of gas. you can see, well below $3 a gallon at $2.58. guess what? americans just keep buying up those big trucks and suvs. so with gas prices so low, who needs an electric car, right? grady trimble joins us from chicago with more on that story. good morning. reporter: good morning. unfortunately, here in chicago, gas prices are above the national average, but across the country, the average has been below $3 for the past five years. so as you said, a lot of drivers are getting comfortable buying suvs and trucks because they can get cheap gas and the economy's good.

they've gotten more fuel efficient so that's been the trend. in fact, edmonds, the car buying and selling website, estimates that suvs will make up 50% of new car sales for the first time ever in the fourth quarter of this year, and the gm, they are even bigger. for example, the chevy tahoe from 2020 to 2021 is going to be almost seven inches bigger. consumers say they want more space so the auto makers are delivering, and there is something in it for the auto makers as well, because these are profit puppies for them compared to the instasmaller ca. again, with the good economy, people seem to be buying the bigger trucks and suvs so they are going to keep making them. by the way, we will head down to indiana after this, where gas is much cheaper than here in chicago. ashley: spend a lot of money to get there but enjoy it once you fill up in indiana. $3.17. ouch. grady trimble in chicago, braving the chilly weather, thanks. we appreciate it.

let's take a look at shares of alphabet, the parent company of google, in record territory at $1354. take a look at amazon. of course, dominating the holiday season. we expected it, and it happened. $1873 in the premarket, up another quarter of a percent. one of our tech watchers said on friday he sees this stock going to $2050 in 2020. 2050 in 2020. all right. joining us, retail watcher gerald storch, former ceo of toys "r" us and a great guest on this program. jerry, was this the year, a game-changer came along for online retail, or was it more of the same? >> i tell you, it's like a rocket taking off. you know how you lose the stage, the next stage accelerataccelers faster? all the evidence shows e-commerce grew from 15% to 20% over the holiday season, on an always increasing base. that rocket is taking off. if you are not on, you are

stranded on the desolate planet. ashley: well, okay. where does that leave bricks and mortar? i think i read this, correct me if i'm wrong, target is doing well in online, starting to really get a foothold, but it still only represents less than 10% of its overall sales which means 90% plus still comes from customers physically coming into the stores. where is bricks and mortar in all this? >> well, there are some retailers who have adoptapted a are doing well. they offer very low prices, big box players, and those that have adapt toed to the internet very well. some have done both. walmart and target are growing rapidly on the internet, they have rapid delivery out of their stores, they are using the stores as a weapon, and they offer great value every day. one of the interesting stories in retailing is that walmart, target and kmart started within four months of each other in 1962. they have taken very different

trajectories. you look at kmart, looks like they will go out of business any day. there is almost nothing left. they didn't adapt and change, they didn't offer customers what they wanted even before the internet and they sure aren't doing it now. retailers who are thriving in this environment, walmart, target, costco, best buy, dollar general, there's lots of them with bricks and mortar but they offer value every day and are good on the internet. a lot of people aren't doing well. department stores are dying. the actual death of department stores really began in 1962, when target, walmart and kmart started. then the internet was the second flood that's really killing them. now you can see there's not much of a future there. ashley: you do agree with the credit rating from moody's, kmart, sears, forever 21, these stores could be in trouble next year? >> you know, you've got a double whammy. they are mall dependent, malls are dying very rapidly, consumers are fleeing the mall. they are going to big box discounters who are outside sometimes, or they are on the internet and they are very heavily focused on apparel sales. apparel has been downtrending

for 10 or 15 years as we are spending our money other places on electronics, on experiences like eating out, on hard goods like other things. so they are in a very bad place. ashley: i always wanted to ask you this. i always thought these retailers liked people physically in the store because they can be impulse buyers, they can buy lots of other things. is that the same phenomenon in online shopping, because i still think there's value to have that customer going up and down your aisles looking at things at the register, buying on impulse. >> hey, look, if you have your choice, you want to get into the store. that's why a lot of retailers are focused very heavily on the buy online, pick up in store option. they figure get you to the store to pick it up, try it on, you will buy other things. that's always better. also, a secret here inside the p & ls of the retailers, it's much more economic to do a marginal sale in the store versus shipping to your home which is very expensive. they want you into the store and they will work hard to get you in the store, which really is

fascinating. some of these retailers, walmart, best buy, target, are actually seeing sales increase in store as well as online. that's phenomenal. that's the ideal profit formula. those are the winners. but there isn't room for everyone. there is probably at least double the retail square footage in the u.s. than there needs to be. a lot of the losing guys are going out of business. at least 20 retailers are going to go bankrupt this coming year, not just one or two. it's going to be massive and it's going to keep growing for the next decade more and more and more. something has to go away. ashley: survival of the fittest. gerry storch, thank you so much for joining us this monday. let's take a look at the futures before we get into the trading session officially today. as you can see, pointing slightly higher. the dow up 10, same story on the s&p and the nasdaq. by the way, we have new numbers on wages rising and the 2020 democrats aren't going to like them. makes all of that talk of economic catastrophe under

president trump seem pretty foolish. remember this? >> economists on the right and the left and the center all agree, trump would throw us back into recession. that could cause an economic catastrophe. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ quitting smoking is freaking hard.st, like quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so, try making it smaller. and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small... ...can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette

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.

liberals and conservatives say trump's ideas would be disastrous. economists on the right and the left and the center all agree, trump would throw us back into recession. that could cause an economic catastrophe. >> health care, the debate on health care is like death. this is armageddon. it is in their dna to give tax cuts to the rich. ashley: couldn't be more wrong, could they. despite predictions of catastrophe and armageddon from the left, new government numbers show that workers' wages are actually rising at their fastest rate in a decade even for the lowest earners. susan: the bottom 25% wage earners, their salaries accelerated faster than top 25% in november. first time in a decade that's happened. you saw 4.5% gains.

as for the top 25% wage earners, they actually saw their salaries up 2.9%. they can also thank the fact a lot of states changed their minimum wage, increasing it and some plan to raise them again in 2020. ashley: absolutely disastrous. brad blakeman still with us. democrats saying the economy isn't working for the middle class. your response? >> they are in denial. the economy couldn't be doing better and the democrats couldn't be liking it less. the fact is if you want a job, you got a job. if you have a job, you are making more money. if you are a retiree, you are looking better every day when you open your i.r.a. so america is hitting on all cylinders, for every segment of society and unfortunately, democrats are in denial. they don't want to see it, they don't want to acknowledge it. the american people know better. ashley: fun to look at those predictions. couldn't be more wrong. brad, thank you as always. appreciate it. when we come back, we will have the opening of the market.

looking for a slight early gain, perhaps more records. we'll be right back. i'm your curious cat, and you know what they say about curiosity. it'll ruin your house. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

ashley: guess what, the futures pointing to a slight gain at the opening bell. this is, by the way, day four of the santa claus rally which normally entails the last five

trading days of the year and the first two sessions of the new year. we have been on the santa claus rally for months, if you want to be technical about it. by the way, the s&p 500 which is also showing a slight gain just before we open has registered five straight weeks of gains. it's been a tremendous year. can it carry forward into the new decade? we shall find out. there they go. they are clapping. the confetti is flying. we are expecting a slight gain and there you go. we have about a 15-point gain on the dow. you can see all the stocks in green, some in red, but a modest gain, up about .5%. not even. .05%. not a record yet, though, i'm being told. there you go. let's take a look at the s&p 500. five straight weeks of gains and again, barely up, flat, we will call it, at 3242. let's take a look at the nasdaq. that's up well over 30% this year. it's down just slightly, down about five points, right at 9,000 on the nasdaq. still pretty impressive.

just slipping below 9,000. big names riding high. tesla, also coming out a little low. it was up in the premarket but down about four bucks at $426 on tesla after some strong news out of china. microsoft, let's take a look at apple, also, just down slightly, .33%. $288 on apple. take a look at microsoft, down just again, .1%. $158 on microsoft. the dow just above the water line, up four points. there you go. joining us, market watcher jeff sica and of course, susan li. jeff, quite a year for the major averages, as i was alluding to. any reason, i'm asking you this with a little bit of tongue in cheek, any reason for a pullback? >> there's a lot of reasons. this rally, this rally has been -- ashley: name one. >> i'm going to name a couple. ashley: okay. >> i think -- not to say it's going to happen right away, but i can name a couple. one of them being that the fed has poured a lot of liquidity

into the market. that's going to taper. that's going to be somewhat less next year. then you also have a lot of this has been window dressing. you have a lot of people who have put money into stocks that they do intend to sell because they have gains, then you have what i think is still ominous which is the trade deal. ashley: what's ominous about that? phase one signed this week, apparently. >> i think phase one is great and we should all celebrate phase one but phase two is complicated. it deals with a lot of the issues that were considered imperative at one point. so i think that could force some people to -- susan: well, i think it's good enough, jeff. the fact that things aren't getting worse between the two largest economies in the world, i think that's good enough for the markets as you saw this year with 25% gains for the s&p and by the way, europe saw its best year in a decade, mind you, and the dollar index, you know, we talk about the dollar because it

is as its weakest since july. that means people are not scared. they aren't running to the safety of the u.s. currency and u.s. assets. so you know, people are bullish heading into 2020. >> keep in mind -- susan: maybe not jeff. >> i believe you should be cautious in times of elation when the streets are flowing with champagne, you should -- ashley: not to clown around. >> i'm optimistic about a lot of things but i think people should be cautious and know that nothing lasts forever. ashley: dare i say you like the s&p 500? >> if you are going to be in the market, you should be in the s&p 500. go for 500 names -- ashley: you just talked the markets down. i don't want to point that out. come on. >> i'm that powerful. susan: the gains are up close to 30% on the year. it was reported just about an hour ago that phase one trade deal will be signed this week with china's trade negotiator liu he heading to d.c. to sign that with robert lighthizer. some would say that right now,

this is good enough, it sets a positive enough background for actual gains next year if companies continue to make enough money. >> well, if companies continue to make enough money and if china doesn't pull a stunt and want this deal to fall apart, i think then we could see a little bit more. ashley: jeff, sad trombones. you used to be the perma-bear. tesla delivering its first cars made in china. we know how much you love tesla and elon musk. >> tesla -- yes, i know. tesla, yes, i have never been a fan of tesla. i have had a lot of negative things to say about them. listen, they are going to make money in china. but this is a company that has grown a lot because of the government subsidies to buy teslas. now they are moving all their production out in china. they are going to -- it's a huge market. they are going to make money but

one of the reasons i do not like tesla is they have a very hard time actually making money on the cars they produce, and they have a hard time producing cars. the fact that they haven't been overly successful at producing cars in the u.s. makes me think that they are going to have an even bigger problem in china. i think if they start manufacturing in china, i think china is going to try to manufacture their own electronic vehicles -- susan: they have them. they have chinese electric car brands there as well. but i would say it's been positive for tesla because under ten months, they broke ground on that factory ten months ago and now are starting to deliver their first model 3s in the world's largest auto market in the world. yes, there are subsidies involved but when government has your back and they are providing about 20,000 yuan which is around $4,000 of that $50,000 price tag in rebates to the consumer, i think that bodes well for tesla regardless of

whether or not -- >> well, listen, i don't like tariffs. i think tariffs serve no purpose. they are avoiding tariffs and i think they are smart to do it. they are smart to avoid tariffs, despite the fact there's a lot of people who will think it's unpatriotic, they are smart to do it. i think there's going to be so much competition in electronic vehicles that tesla will not have anywhere near the market share that people think they are going to have. ashley: a down arrow again on tesla. let's take a check of the big board for you. take a look at as stra sen tra- receiving approval to use its drug for cancer treatment. let's take a look at the ten-year yield if we can. we used to look at it every day

when it was inverted. treasury yield at 1.92%. i guess that's good for the stock market. more money going into stocks. take a look at gold, hovering around $1517 per troy ounce. let's take a look at oil. oil has been, yeah, $62.08 on oil, up another half percent. was stuck in the 50s for so long. let's take a look at apple which was, of course, the most popular smartphone in the world in the third quarter. susan: cheaper smartphone called the xr. there was a lot of doubt heading into this, this base model costs $599, cheaper than $50 than last year's base model and given that apple is not known for cheap products. in fact, they didn't do well with the iphone 5c, remember that low end handset that it rolled out back in 2013-2014? that was not a success. but this time around, different, because it was the most popular smartphone model in the third quarter of this year, 3% of total market sales, and in fact,

people don't even want the thousand dollar smartphones anymore because it looks like revenue has slid on those top tier handsets by 30%. ashley: i have all these down arrows. surely apple isn't up there. wait a minute. you don't like apple? >> this is my greatest hits. apple is a great consumer products company. what i'm wondering, as susan said, first of all, what took them so long to lower prices? eople into the new model at higher prices was not going to get them anywhere. this was actually a smart move for apple. ashley: what about 5g? where should the price be on that? you have to upgrade your phone if you want 5g. susan: well, yeah, it's definitely coming in september when they launched their new handsets but it doesn't necessarily bump up the price. i think the price has already been baked in for telecos who

have to build up the 5g network. they are building their own chipsets now. they just bought out the intel 5g chip business. will that cost more necessarily? i don't think so. i think it will probably cost more just on an inflation adjusted basis because every year they increase their prices by 10%. ashley: let's get into disney now. the second season of the mandalorian will be released in the fall of 2020. i can't wait. "star wars" raked in big bucks at the box office. jeff, bottom line, we talk about it all the time, they are the content king, are they not? >> yes. take out your pen and put an up arrow, because i happen to love disney. i think they have made some brilliant moves. i do think in the world of -- in streaming, there will be a little bit of disappointment for marvel nerds like me, because there will be a little lag for this content to come online and that's going to be an issue, but they are going to still kill it

at the box office. they still own a lot of content and they have an unbelievable future. ashley: very quickly, very crowded field but room for all? >> yes. i think netflix is going to do well. that's been a stock i have liked for a lot of years. netflix is going to do well. there is plenty of room at the table for everyone. ashley: you started off with a sad trombone but finished with gusto. well done. thank you, everybody. appreciate that. let's move on, take a look at the big board, if we can. there you go. we are down now 93 points on the dow despite that news on the trade. we have to look and see what's going on but the dow off about a third of a percent. take a look at facebook. the ceo of software company salesforce comparing it to cigarettes, saying it's just as bad for society. we will deal with that story, interesting. we are also going to deal with new year's resolutions. when the ball drops tomorrow

night, how many are you going to make on diets? guess what? we've got the skinny on those so-called intermittent fasting diets. are they good for you? doc siegel says actually they are. we will talk to him about it. a bold prediction from michael moore, the man who called the 2016 election for president trump. now he says trump is going to win again. we will tell you why, next.

ashley: let's take a look at the big board for you. we started off with a very slight gain and have since gone backwards, as you can see. the dow off 103 points, down .33%. 28,541. we will keep an eye on that throughout the day, of course. by the way, tomorrow, the last trading day of the decade and my, what a decade it has been. for a few big names.

give us three names. susan: well, let's start with number one. this might surprise you. it doesn't surprise me. netflix. it had a market cap in 2010 of $3 billion. now it's worth over those ten years, around $133 billion. another stock that did well is broadcom inc. which makes the chips, of course. this is part of the 5g revolution that will be coming. that's also an apple supplier which i think they are very thankful for the success of the iphone. let's throw in amazon. i can't say anything about, you know, the stocks and chips of the decade, including amazon as well because jeff bezos retaining his crown as the most wealthiest person on the planet, in the u.s., and this stock by the way actually hasn't done that well compared to other stocks over the decade.

ashley: netflix up 4,040% in the last decade. marc beniof says facebook is the equivalent of cigarettes. wow. joining us, jim anderson with social flow. his company helps businesses with their social media platforms. i'm fascinated to know, what do you make of this beniof attack basically saying i guess facebook's bad for you, it's addictive and serves no purpose in society, right? >> yeah. it feels a little bit harsh to me, right? cigarettes, sort of the product used as intended causes disability and death, the obvious criticism. facebook, you want to look for an analogy, alcohol is probably a better one. used properly, facebook is fine. ashley: pretty strong. >> it is strong, but i think facebook is getting a lot of criticism, some of it justified because of its impact and absolutely, if you look at his secondary comments it's all about regulation. he feels facebook needs to be

regulated. ashley: interesting. bit of a personal beef with zuckerberg in there, too? i wasn't aware of one, but he really is going on the attack. >> yeah. these tech titans in silicon valley, you know, they get together and they skirmish periodically. i often wondered, i think sometimes the skirmish is good for business for everybody. when you are being talked about, maybe not a bad thing. ashley: just spell the name right. next case, a new survey finds that 57% of people haven't heard of facebook dating. just 9% are using it. does that surprise you? usually facebook has such far reach but maybe they are not very strong in this field. >> it doesn't surprise me. first off, you know, dating is never going to be anything more than a rounding error for facebook's revenue stream. facebook does so many things. listen to what you said. 9% of people are actually using facebook dating. i would actually flip that around and say wow, for a product that really is not even secondary, tertiary or bond eyo

90% of the people aren't using it. ashley: how many users do they have? >> two billion worldwide. ashley: when you take 9% of that -- >> it's a lot of people. ashley: why bother getting into this? >> dating is a network effect business. the more people you have in the pool, the better the odds. in many ways, it's a perfectly logical extension of what they already do, if you've got two billion people on there, why not get into dating. ashley: heading into 2020, quickly, is the calls for regulations from beniof and from washington, is that going to ramp up and how far along the road do we get to that? >> i think it is going to ramp up. that's not going away. how far we get is more of a political question than anything. i will say, in these very partisan times, there are few things that unite us but antitrust and regulation of big tech seems to be a very bipartisan issue. whether we can actually get anything done in the u.s. in an election year is a different topic. ashley: could it affect the business model? that's what really matters to those invested in these companies. >> it will, but not for many years. if you are looking for this

quarter, next quarter's impact of regulation, i don't see it. talk to me a year, two, three down the road, perhaps. ashley: we will do that. stay there. don't go away. the biggest names in streaming are ramping up their cannabis related content. they are going to pot. susan: they are going to pot. the ceo of content and service distribution company is rolling out a new streaming service that's entirely -- entirely devoted to cannabis, cbd related content. how big of an audience can this be? apparently there is an audience because right now it's going out to 100 million homes across apple tv, roku, amazon prime, social club tv launches on january 15th and people are watching shows like popeye, marijuana mania and more than 200 hours of original cannabis related programming from cooking shows to comedy to even true crime in the future. ashley: not chicken pot pie. susan: they want it to be a

conte content encyclopedia of what you can do with cannabis. there's a lot, apparently. ashley: susan, thank you. let's take a look at the dow 30 again, if we can. we are down 114 points on the dow. a lot more red than green. i think that's exxonmobil in the top left-hand corner. my eyesight is not 20/20. up next, the wealth adviser who boils down her advice to fit on her cocktail napkin. hopefully you don't lose it. we will see what she says about investing in 2020. and we have some good news on taxes in the new year. next hour, we will have an update on the tax that will not go up after we did a report on this program. don't go away. with sofi, get your credit cards right by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. and get your interest rate right so you can save big. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k.

get a no-fee personal loan whor here on a wifi hotspot,te xfinity mobile has more coverage to keep you connected to what matters most. moooo. that's because it's the only wireless network that automatically connects you to millions of secure wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. save up to $400 a year when you switch. plus, unwrap $250 off our best phones. click, call or visit a store today.

it's our most dangerous addiction. and to get the whole world clean? that takes a lot more than an alternative.

so we took our worst vice, and turned it into the dna for a better system. materials made from recycled plastic - woven and molded into all the things we consume. we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want. ashley: let's take a quick check of the markets. new report out says that phase one of the china deal will be signed this week and the market's not really responding to that. you see the dow off 109 points or thereabout at 28,534. only down .33% in the early going. a new report from the "financial times" detailing golden parachutes for the new wework executives, but they are a far cry from what adam neumann got, right? susan: adam neumann, founder and booted ceo, he got $1.6 billion

in a lovely golden parachute, by the way, which is structured so that he can actually earn hundreds of millions of dollars in the future if those leases continue to i guess not lapse. to its knees, close to basically going under if they didn't raise any cash from softbank which was their largest investor. so the co-ceo, the one that jumped in after adam neumann was kicked out, will get $17 million if for some reason they are let go from those positions. so even with an ipo that didn't go through, a unicorn that basically collapsed the entire venture capital market, here's your reward. ashley: this is a big stock market gain inspired [ inaudible ] in the new year. if you haven't got a $17 million payout, you might want to check out this book. "napkin finance." joining us is the author, tina hay. welcome, by the way. you came all the way from l.a. to visit us. why is it called "napkin

finance"? explain. >> so napkins or back of the napkin is actually a very well-known way of understanding and simplifying complex topics. so what we do is we simplify, we engage, we create content that's much more digestible and using visual tools for people. so we have a new book coming out that has a broad variety of topics, from money 101 to more sophisticated topics like cryptocurrency -- ashley: but you can understand it. >> exactly. ashley: what's the biggest thing someone should do, the first step someone should take to build their wealth? >> the first step, especially in the new year, should be build a financial plan. understand, really bring into focus where you are and crystallize the next steps you need to get to where you are going. it's a great time because it's a nice step to remove financial clutter, consolidate and close some accounts, if necessary. ashley: biggest mistake people make, they should avoid? >> not having an emergency fund. ashley: what should the

emergency fund be? >> the emergency fund should be three to six months of living expenses. ashley: you just have to fund that before you fund anything else. i saw on the back of your napkin, hotel tickets are not an emergency. >> they are not. no. ashley: just build that safety net before you do anything else. that's the first thing you do? >> that's the cornerstone of financial security is an emergency fund. ashley: all right. the book again, "napkin finance." sorry it's so quick. it always goes so quick. thank you for being here. we really appreciate it. tina hay. "napkin finance." i have the napkin right here. senator warren says her fund-raising goal fell short. can she get the momentum back just over a month before the iowa caucuses? plus details of the diet doctors say could help you live longer. is this what you should be doing for your new year's resolution? we will get into that. and california's gavin newsom coming under fire for a lot of his policies. wait until you hear about the

new law that says students cannot be punished for disobeying teachers. crazy. hour two up next. ♪ ♪ . .

ashley: coming up to 10 a.m. on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. the market has have been open half an hour. the stocks are down. no records yet today. the dow off triple digits, despite reports that phase one of the china trade deal will be signed this week. markets ignoring that apparently. coming up fund-raising for the elizabeth warren campaign is down big, whopping 30% in the last quarter. we'll have all the numbers in a few minutes. joe biden flip-flopping on impeachment. this time saying he would obey a subpoena in the senate trial. at least for now. we have got a jam-packed hour for you. the second hour of "varney & company" just getting started.

♪. ashley: we begin with this. fund-raising slowing down at the warren campaign. joining us is steven kent, the host of beltway banthas pod cost. thank you for joining us. i'm so sorry i blew the podcast name. let's get to elizabeth warren, don't linger on that. why is elizabeth warren losing momentum? >> yeah. well, polling and fund-raising go hand in hand. after a pretty big blockbuster fall, her numbers have steadily declined as we headed into the winter. that coincided with rise of rivals such as mayor pete who are clear alternatives in the field. it is sobering effect in the democratic base for their northern star which is defeating donald trump. analysts say it is the big support for "medicare for all" and joining bernie sanders in that but it is about electability. voters are quite sober when it

comes to making strategic choices when it comes down to the first couple of states. ashley: that is interesting. you could put bernie sanders in the same bracket because they are so far left. what does warren do now? does she become more vocal? she has been out there for quite some time? >> she is definitely going to become more vocal. she has to keep fighting mayor pete. you know what? this whole thing about her fund-raising, kind of a false flag by the war ren campaign in some way. they're able to pull in plenty of money. they do very well with small donors and they made this big deal about rejecting big dollar donors, but they rake in big money from the small dollar donors as does the bernie sanders campaign and that is where the big money is. obama out there talking behind closed doors with donors they will need to support warren when it comes time, and she might get the nomination. she will get that money back no matter what. ashley: steve, very quickly the way this is playing out, there is growing sentiment by the time they get to the convention next

july there is no clear winner among democrats and you're looking at a brokered convention. is that something you think could happen? >> i don't think that is going to be what happens. i think you will get a clear anointment of a candidate of either joe biden if he can stay clean during the impeachment proceeding and upcoming senate trial and it will come down to elizabeth warren or mayor pete. i think democrats will make a clear decision. ashley: you really think that? that is interesting. for all of them various reasons, mayor pete speaks well, does appeal to a segment out there but he has no experience? >> he has no experience but i don't think that is necessarily what folks are looking for. they're looking for a sense of calm, somebody who will bring stability to the washington and the white house. we've been incredibly political turbulent time there are instances throughout the history, people go back to wanting something very simple. a president that you don't hear from very often because they're not actually doing that much. ashley: out of this crowd, steven, do you think any can

give donald trump a good run for his money. >> the only one who i think can give donald trump a run for the money is conventional wisdom of joe biden a former vice president. he is well-connected around the world. knows his stuff. he is stumbling losing some of his edge. personally that comes with age. he is good contender to win against donald trump in the state it is going to count. voters across early states are seeing that as well. you can link to the decline of elizabeth warren. primary voters vote strategically. they don't like to vote for someone who they think will lose in the end. they adjust voting preferences accordingly. they're not idealogues. warren will run into a tough season here as folks think about voting time in iowa and new hampshire actually hit. ashley: quickly you haven't mentioned mr. bloomberg? >> what is there to mention? he is not going to go anywhere. he will not go anywhere in the democratic filed.

this is not his party anymore. he will face problems someone like tom steyer, andrew yang faces, people are skeptical of their intentions, personal money, their ability to be a credible progressive candidate. ashley: suspicious of their success. steven, take a look at the big board for you. the dow down off a little bit more. off 131 points. down 134 on the dow. bring in market watcher george see. thanks for joining us. you say investors should follow the elections in 2020 and trump is good for the markets. make your case. >> it is more about the policies, good morning than the personalities. president's policies, pro-growth, less corporate taxes, less regulation, for business, all the democratic policies are higher taxes, higher regulation, many would ban fracking would send oil over

$100 a barrel and send us right into recession. not about the personalities but policies. ashley: you say for the new year keep eye on health care and energy. you touched on energy there. let's begin with health care. what is your thoughts there? >> kind of like a more sophisticated dogs of the dow strategy you look at sectors left behind in a booming market. you look at ones that appreciated the least but still have good prospects. you look at walgreens. it has done nothing forever. it is take over bait. it has a high dividend. it brings a lot of safety with it. johnson & johnson as well. people should look at health care and energy because they have been kind of left behind this year. i don't think the bull market is over. recessions don't occur in a vacuum. it is usually fed policy trick that's. i think we have more to go and history says we do. ashley: in the sector what do you really like? >> i like midstream companies

restructured balance sheets, converted from mlps to c-corps. if you collect dividends so many years it is almost inevitable good investment because you get your money back in dividends alone. they are cheap and unloved. remind me of technology stocks in 2002. it is great time to buy one when a sector is that hated. ashley: oil in the low 60s right now where does that leave the american frackers? is this a level that is sustainable for them? as we become essentially oil independent, where does that leave the actual people that dig in the ground for the crude? >> that is a very good question. they have been bragging for years that they can make money at these levels. they have proven consistently they can't. price of oil in wti needs to go to 65, 70 bucks for them to have sustainable free cash flow. i think it will get there next year. it is almost inevitable with the opec cuts and frackers cutting back because they're so out of favor on wall street. ashley: that's true.

we don't talk about opec like we used to, do we? hanging on the edge of the chair to figure out what they were saying as they met in vienna every month. now the u.s. taken that away? >> opec is a strange cartel. in 2014 they were trying to destroy the u.s. fracking companies which was an absurd policy choice and now they're kind of rescuer of the oil and gas markets they have cut supply. if they produced full tilt we would have 30-dollar oil. it's a strange group to watch. they make bad decisions. they are contrary to american democracy with the royalist regimes in the middle east. they're not as important as they used to be. ashley: good thing. energy independence. george seay thanks for your thoughts. you're bullish on 2020. we like that as well. thank you so much. >> thank you. ashley: there are reports that the phase one china trade deal will be signed this week. the market not really reacting to that, susan but the details.

susan: china morning post reporting that the china trop trade negotiator, liu he will travel to a delegation to washington, d.c. this saturday. he will meet robert lighthizer of the u.s. and will sign according to china morning post the trade one trade deal. we herd from the u.s. ambassador that we'll adhere to the promises in phase one. that buying more agricultural products. tariffs were rolled back. one was canceled that was a great handshake from the u.s. side to china. also some tariffs on 15% have been pushed down to 7 1/2%. i think this is market positive heading into 2020 after 30% year for the s&p 500. still in the background. they're not getting worse. they're getting better. that is setting a positive stage for investors next year. ashley: peter navarro just on the news channel telling them that indeed this phase one deal will be signed later this week or early the following week.

it is very positive. you're right. susan, thank you very much. the clock, it is ticking towards 2020. there it goes. there is a new diet fad. it involves skipping meals and fasting for parts of the day. research found it could add years to your life. is that right? dr. marc siegel joins us later this hour to break it down for us. we'll get his opinion. first the stabbing of five people at a hanukkah celebration over the weekend is the latest in a string of anti-semitic attacks. we'll talk to rabbi marvin hier and we'll ask him who is to blame for the rise of t anti-semitism ible. it's like mango chutney and burnt hair. no thank you, i have a very sensitive palate. just try it! hey guys, i think we should hurry up.

if you taste something bad, you want someone else to try it. it's what you do. i can't get it out of my mouth! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. dog, dog, dog.

i'm but how do i know if, i'm getting a good deal? truecar knows exactly how much people have been paying for the car i want. i tell truecar my zip and what car i'm into, and it shows me the truecar curve. this shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car. looks like these folks paid a little more than everyone else. and this guy got the deal of a lifetime. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar. (narrator) before you buy a car, see what others paid for it with truecar. when i lost my sight,

my biggest fear was losing my independence. mmm... good. so i've spent my life developing technology to help the visually impaired. we are so good. we built a guide that uses ibm watson... to help the blind. it is already working in cities like tokyo. my dream is to help millions more people like me. ashley: the selloff gaining more momentum. we're off 168 points. the dow at 28,462. we started off very flat but

since gone lower. down 180 points now. look at shares of spotify. they're eliminating all political ads. why are they doing that, susan? susan: they don't have the means and people to review the content there is a divide among tech companies, spotify, twitter, like google and facebook what to do on political ads. twitter and spotify are going in one direction. they're eliminating all political ads, wash their hands clean of that. facebook says we shouldn't sensor content. you should see what the candidates say true or false. ashley: is this big moneymaker? susan: no the it is not a big moneymaker. google said we don't change the political content but limit ads. you can target specific demographics or lists or phone number areas. what do you do in this era? ashley: hard to monitor too.

that takes a lot of resources. susan, thanks. anti-semitic attacks are on the rise. the latest, stabbing of five people at a rabbi's house in monsey new york, over the weekend. the mayor of new york city putting some of the blame on atmosphere of hate in new york city and washington and elsewhere. joining us rabbi marvin hier. thanks for joining us. do you agree with the mayor and his comments? >> no, i do not. anti-semitism has been prevalent all over europe in 15 years. you can't wear a skullcap in any european city. so to say anti-semitism because president trump has become president of the united states, that he is responsible for this is ridiculous. it is not true at all. what is true is the anti-semitism we've seen in europe is now all over america. by the way, there was another attack following the hasidic

attack. yesterday, a young man in grand central was wearing a yamulke and he was attacked by an african-american. this was not reported but it occurred after the attack in monsey. i have never seen a climate like this in the united states. we're calling on president trump to establish a special task force of the fbi to deal exclusively with anti-semitism. we need a task force 24/7 to try to, to nip in the bud this terrible epidemic. ashley: well you know mayor de blasio earlier this year, rabbi claimed anti-semitism was a right-wing threat. but then i think about, you know, got congresspeople, rashid talib and ilhan omar, two lawmakers in particular, have been very anti-israel. >> absolutely. not only that, but many people

do not know when they said it is about the benjamins, baby, they were repeating hitler's first anti-semitic remarks that he ever made. that is what hitler said. he said their power is the money. for here, a congresswoman say this in the house of lincoln and washington was outrageous. ashley: rabbi, explain something to me i never understood since i've been in country, some 30 years now. why do jewish voters tend to back democrats, when many of the democrats are anti-israel and republicans much more pro-israel? >> i don't know the answer. i know the following. i will tell you my own family history. i had a uncle that was captain on democratic club on the lower east side. at that time they credited immigrants that came to this country then, credited the

democratic party for getting them jobs. as a result, many jews voted democrat. but i'll tell you one thing, i congratulate over and over president trump who did for the state of israel what no other president did. he said that israel is entitled to a capital, just like every other country on the globe and it took courage to do that, and i congratulate him for that. and to say that he is responsible for anti-semitism is preposterous. ashley: are you going to officially, have you sent a request to the white house to essentially call for a special commission or special arm of the fbi to follow these hate crimes? >> we're doing this later today. ashley: very good. we'll have to leave it right there. rabbi hier, thanks for joining us today, we really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: okay, tomorrow night we

put another decade in the books. hard to believe. it has gone so quickly. we have the list of the most influential products of the past 10 years. we'll have the list for you next (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

ashley: the market continues to lose a little bit more. off 186 points on the dow. down .6 of a percent. we started up five point but since gone south. almost headed towards 200 points. we shall see. the dow 28,450 or thereabouts.

"consumer reports" out with the most influential list of products for the decade. the burning question, susan, what are they? susan: they brute up flue problems surrounding health and privacy. start with the amazon echo. i would say this revolutionized the past 10 years. who would have thought you want ad speaker in your own home with a voice controlled activator like alexa, you could get weather, music, everything else shop online as well. number two, we're selecting through these there were was a long list of influential consumer products. airpods. they launched in 2016. upgraded airpod pros launched this year. when you walk down the street, they have future value in this because a lot more people are wearing wireless headphones. you think, wired headphones are so passe. this is a thing of the past. ipads, slowing sales, yes.

a lot of kids still use them as our producer pointed out. they did launch in the 2010, just a few years after the iphone. i would say that it made watching television in bed a lot easier. you have ring doorbells launching in 2014. gives you better access control to security on your front door. but what about access and security in your own home? you know we have heard about lots of stories of hackers getting into ring doorbells and ring cameras as well. tide pods. ashley: tide pods? susan: this is something that p&g launched a few years ago back in 2012, all in one. ashley: don't eat them. susan: kids were eating tide pods as a trick? as a dare? we had folks with dementia thinking it was candy, digesting them, a few deaths were reported as well. tesla model s launched for a few years, it made elon musk very rich.

model 3 came out also the model x. some say this was a front-runner when it comes to electric car technology. i would agree. now what is the best ipo of this year? ashley: tell me. susan: beyond meats. we have to throw in plant-based meatless burger trend that we're seeing. the price really reflects it. beyond meat has rocketed up 3, 400% since the ipo. ashley: yeah. susan: this is another surprising one, another influential consumer product. i was not aware of. i have not had rice cauliflower packaged from trader joes. ashley: i never heard of it. susan: changed the way of v dinners. ashley: rice cauliflower. susan: good according to our producer if you throw sriracha sauce on it. tivo, you can download watch television on all streaming services and record it as well. ashley: excellent run-down. excellent run-down.

susan: there are other products that i think were competitive, casper mattresses. did you think you would order a mattress online. ashley: and i haven't. susan: you haven't. so many products to go through over the past decade. ashley: what will be the next group? >> that has changed a lot, instant pot. best-seller when it comes to prime day. all inclusive, you can cook, saute, steam, everything involved. ashley: getting back to rice cauliflower. i'm on a good diet right now. not a diet. a change of life-style. that could work for me. okay. susan: the new you. ashley: the new me. the trump administration, let's go says executive producer. the trump administration raised the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21. where do libertarians stand on that? i will ask ron paul in the next hour. that should be interesting. over the weekend u.s. conducted airstrikes on iran-backed bases in syria. it was retaliation for a attack

on a u.s. joint base. adam kinzinger will join us next. he was in the reserves in the military. he will break it down for us next. ♪. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

♪. ♪ writing letters on my own ashley: humming along like i know it. but i don't. i'm stu would be all over it. can't tell whether stu like as song or he doesn't. at least he is honest. depends on his mood. susan: depends on the day. this is my new year's

resolution, get a better grasp of the beatles repertoire for 2020. ashley: good idea. we've been following this the last hour. we're continuing to sink. we're down 200 points on the dow, 28,442. no new records as yet. we'll have to see how it ends of course. certainly a selloff on this monday. the u.s. conducted airstrikes on hezbollah bases backed by iran in iraq and syria. it was in retaliation for an attack on a joint iraq u.s. base in iraq. you can keep up with all of that. the very latest, iraq's prime minister, says those airstrikes will have dangerous consequences. let's bring in congressman adam kinzinger. you're in the reserves for the military. congressman, your reaction to all of this? >> i think it is the right move. groups like this, they only understand force. i wish we lived in a different world where we could sit down at a table to negotiate our

differences in this case but we can't. keep in mind these iranian-backed groups, this isn't new. this attack on the base isn't the first time. this goes back to the really the beginning of iraq war. you look frankly what iran has done in the whole region. they're lashing out. they're energizing the militias. they're economically in trouble because of the sanctions. they have uprisings against them in lebanon, iraq and elsewhere. they're desperate to promote something bigger. this was the right move. this was not a massive u.s. response. it was hitting command-and-control of iranian backed militias. it was the punch in the nose they need. could it escalate? we can escalate far beyond they can and crush them with force. ashley: last week i spoke with kt mcfarland who was an advisor to the president. the fact that iran, russia, and china were holding joint military exercises to her, that was the unholy trinity, that was

a nightmare situation and she said it is something we should take very, very cautious look at because that is not a very good development. what's your thought on that? >> yeah i agree with her 100%. right now you have this weird china, russia, alliance, trying to counter of the united states. they generally don't get along but they have us as a chief enemy. we need to remember that every time we deal with russia and china. they're not a friend. iran is in a desperate situation. they have popular uprisings in their own country. their economy is falling apart. they spent all the money on nuclear deal on foreign excursions, not rebuilding their own country. this is where rebuilding the military like the president and congress has done is extremely important. being a counterweight to the uprising, as well as economically and energy independence for europe, taking away power russia has and of course winning this trade battle with china is part of continuing to hold the position in the

world, build our alliances, push back against frankly i think, well-said unholy alliance countering us. ashley: another member of that unholy alliance this, is another one for you, congressman, thanking president trump for intel that apparently thwarted a terrorist attack in russia. what is your thought on that. >> i'm no fan of vladmir putin. i think he is one of the chief enemies of the united states. i'm also no fan of terrorism. any chance we can share intel that may thwart a terrorist attack that is right thing to do. obviously hope russia would do it if they encounter something similar happens here. you can hate terrorism and terrorism risk at the same time you dislike russia but at the same time we can't blind ourselves to the fact that rush is trying to rebuild the soviet union and for instance in syria, is creating conditions for terrorists to really thrive again. you can cooperate on one hand, be competitors on the other.

ashley: as we head into the new year, congressman, are you happy with the way the trump administration handled it is foreign policy? has he set the right tone? >> generally, yeah. there is lot of areas where i would do slightly different. i would push back against russia more verbally, in terms of actual action the administration has been far better than the prior administration, lethal weapons to ukraine, et cetera. continuing to fight china on the trade fight. i would like to see china enter the trans-pacific partnership, compete with china with free trade partners around them is successful. we'll have big challenges in korea. i think on iran and elsewhere they have done the right thing. continuing to strengthen the alliance and to strongly declare our position in the world and not retreat will be really important. ashley: very quickly, the impeachment, what are your constituents telling you about this impeachment, i want to say fiasco goes on and on. we still don't have articles sent over to the senate. what are your constituent telling you?

are they turning glassy eyed on all of this? >> amazing when i travel the district it never comes up. people say i can't believe it is happening. when i'm in d.c., chief thing everybody is talking about. out here it is not, not in illinois. i think democrats mistimed this. they obviously rushed the process and i think people see that. >> we'll have to leave it there. congressman adam kinzinger thanks for taking time to talk with us. we appreciate it. >> happy new year. ashley: amazon, netflix, pushing cannabis-themed shows on the streaming platforms. susan, people want to watch, want to watch more shows about pot? susan: apparently so. there is a content service distribution agency called ronan. they will roll out the streaming service as cannabis fill streaming service across amazon prime, amazon tv, roku. 100 million homes will get access to this. there is a lot of money to be made. we know the market is growing.

according to the ceo of this company, they're on track to make more than $4 million in revenue next year. you might be asking what kind of shows they offer? interesting ones. one called pot pie, marijuana mania. 200 hours of original cannabis related programs from cooking shows, comedy, true crime as well. ashley: cheech and chong. susan: lots of comedy definitely. there is lot of options. one of the top shows on the network called, dope state. on california's laid-back culture. they have a lot of celebrity appearances. season one available on itunes, 4.99 for that. ashley: brave new world. interesting stuff, susan. thank you very much. now this, soccer superstar cristiano renaldo won the all on the field. he last shiny new trophies. he is showing off more bling. he can afford it. 2020 a few days away.

what tax laws and breaks can we see. you remember the whiskey tax we talked about? our tax guy, grover norquist has updates next.

ashley: take a look at the big board. as you can see the dow off 194 points. down almost .7 of a percent at 28,451 on the dow. a selloff this morning. look at rite aid, down 13, almost 14%, down $2.82 at 17.48. it was up big time last week but losing a lot of those gains today. the california law targeting the so-called gig economy takes effect later this week. so the question is, is that going to hurt businesses there,

susan? what does it do? susan: so ab-5. it calls, goes into effect, ab-5. independent contractors like drivers, uber, lyft drivers, they will be employees, classified as employees. which means they will have to be paid benefits. who does this hurt the most? according to studies it is small businesses those can't afford to hire full-time employees that give you full benefits that come with hourly wages as well. some other solutions they could come up with, the employees start their own businesses, their own llcs. you basically pay them like independent contracting contracts. does that make sense? ashley: yeah, yeah. susan: or hourly wages. ashley: yeah. susan: uber and lyft are fighting this in state courts. looking for a referendum in court. maybe this will hold up the ab-5 bill that goes into effect in california. i asked, ebb per ceo, said are

you concerned this goes across the u.s.? he doesn't have the concerns. ashley: uber and lyft both down. not sure related to that. could be a threat to the biz model. susan, thank you. 2020, only two days away. yeah the new year brings us new taxes, whoopee. with us to break down some of all of this, grover norquist, americans for tax reform. grover, we love to talk talks, or don't love to talk about them. talk about new taxes we'll have to face in the new year? >> the good news is, they extend ad number of the extenders of lower taxes, particularly on beer, spirits and wine. this lower tax per gallon on distilled spirits for instance, bourbon, whiskey, they were getting $13.50 per gallon, for first 100,000 now for smaller distilleries. first 100,000, $2.70.

a 10-dollar per gallon drop in the cost. same thing for both wine and beer. so when the republicans -- every single democrat voted against the lower tax on smaller distilleries and smaller breweries. it passed with the republican tax bill. we're 8,000 breweries alone, expansion. tremendous job expansion, tremendous increase in income in the country. it was only two years. they were trying to fit all the revenue costs in a certain size box. they just extended it for a year. if the republicans maintain control of the senate, the presidency, that will become permanent. we don't know what happens. democrats voted against it when it passed the first time. ashley: very good. a year's reprieve at least. i want to talk about the internet tax, apparently hurting small businesses adding a second tax in addition to the sales tax, right? >> this is disaster.

i fought this, americans for tax reform, the tax group i work for, for 20 years. they're trying to say, oh, we'll have people sell across state lines pay the sales tax if you buy something from oregon and ship it to utah, they will force the company in oregon to pay utah sales taxes. a couple problems here. there are 50 states and several thousand taxing jurisdictions. so the, companies have to go to amazon and pay them because they're in all 50 states. they're doing this. so they have done all the calculations. so you pay amazon for the right to do your taxes for you, which makes you less competitive. this is not about sales taxes. this is not about sales taxes. this is not about sales taxes. this has always been about loser states wanting to export corporate income taxes. ashley: right. >> if you're in north dakota, you want exxon international income to be taxed for you.

north dakota is the wrong one. used to be one of the loser states, early 20, 30 years ago working on this project. now they're a rich state and screwed as a result. there are state has lose people because they tax-and-spend too much and waste people's money. as people leave, they have a little shot, well, we'll tax the whole companies, not just american earnings, worldwide earnings. we also with a very bad supreme court decision which was not left, right, i don't know how the guys made a dumb decision, you don't need nexus, you don't have to be physically somewhere by city or state. loser cities, that scare away businesses can still tax them. they have no reason to be reasonable. how do we tell the europeans they can't do this to our successful companies that don't have a footprint in europe but earn income over there. ashley: right. >> if we're doing it to our own states? it's a disaster. we need to get legislation or the court to come back and say,

we didn't mean to be crazy when they opened the door, they were. they were very, they made a big, big mistake. we'll be 10 years sorting this out. ashley: before we run out of time, grover, i want to do big picture, tax cuts from the trump administration. coming into the election year. democrats say it went to the fat cats. had nothing to do to help with the middle class, how would you respond? >> you can do your own calculation. middle income family of four earning $71,000 a year got 2 how dollar tax cut. at that is 58% cut. that will be taken away. every democrat running for president says that is gone. 31,000-dollar a year single mom or dad with one child, 1300 tax increase, tax increase if the tax cuts are taken away. so for middle income families, single parents, significant tax increase if the tax cuts go away. they can say all they want, only for rich people, but people can do their own calculation. look at your taxes this year,

last year, the year before. you can figure out how much your tax cut was, what you lose if the democrats win the presidency and the senate. ashley: the taxman has spoken. there you go, in black and white, the facts. grover norquist, as always, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. ashley: one of the top resolutions on most people's list every new year is dieting or losing weight. the latest trend has people fasting for parts of the day or even skipping meals. research says that could add years to your life. really? so will this trend stick? dr. marc siegel will be weighing in, ha, ha, next. ♪. is where people first gathered to form the stock exchangeee,

which brought people together to invest in all the things that move us forward. every day, invesco combines ideas with technology, data with inspiration, investors with solutions. because the possibilities of life and investing are greater when we come together. ♪

some people say that's ridiculous. 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.

ashley: quick peek at the big board. off 180 points. bounced close to 200 point down. we've been in the saming range for a while. down .6 of a percent on the dow. 28,462. newest vacation trend. travelers volunteering to help

locals. it's a trend they tell me. susan: definitely a trend. teaching english in bally, renovating temples in sri lanka or renovation projects in zambia. this is travel trend, not only see new places but to help out people as well. popular destinations, bahamas and hawaii and caribbean, you can stay at hyatt hotel and donate to hurricane victims. not only seeing treasures of the earth and help people in need. ashley: very noble thing. the new year is upon us. people making resolution, number one, be healthier. bring in fox news medical correspondent, dr. marc siegel. okay, doc, intermittent fasting is becoming popular. has been popular for a whale. are you a fan of this? >> i have become a convert of

this. more and more scientific research backed this. specifically article in the "new england journal of medicine" from johns hopkins, mark madsen. these are heavy-duty researchers, they have reviewed all the studies, they found this, ashley, the cells of your body have something called a met billionic switch. ashley: yeah. >> they go from sugar over to fat. they only do that if you're not bombarding them with sugar and processed foods for a time. you need a period to rest cells of your body so they switch over to metabolizing fats. you know what they do if they're not tab liesing fats? they store them. you know they store them. what happens if your body stores fats? you get inflammation, bad chemicals, blood pressure goes up, heart rate goes up, increase risk of cancer and heart disease. a study out of toronto says it is bad for your brain too. so here is the problem. how long is fasting. how long? ashley: that is my question. what is the routine that is most efficient? >> so the studies say you eat

for six hours, you fast for 18. then they went on to say that is too much. that is too much. take that off the table. here is what i'm saying. sue may even do this. 8:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., get most of your eating in from the morning, say you have your breakfast at 8:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., don't eat after that. >> 6:00 p.m. all the way through to don't eat at night. >> don't eat at night. don't bing up and have a snack. don't do things like that. the other option do five days on, two days off. could you have your weekend instead of bing eating binge eating you have one small meal. that is what researchers looked at. ashley: we're all individuals. is it going to work for some, but not for others? >> definitely. but as an overall concept, i like it. one of your producers said to me, hey, i'm a marathon running.

i'm already doing that. i'm eating healthy fats. maybe don't need to fast and relax my cells. i think she may be right. here is the point. mediterranean diet, plant-based diet, fruit and vegetables, unsaturated fats, not bacon, cheeseburgers, nuts, berries, fruit, fish. eat all of that but have a time when you're off, when you -- ashley: thank you. >> 6:00 p.m. and on, ashley. maybe we'll have one glass of wine after 6:00 p.m. that's it. susan: that's it. no chocolate? >> right. ashley: thank you very much. i still like cheeseburgers. new california law says schools cannot suspend students who disowe pay their teachers. larry elder, our voice of reason from california. hears a thing or two to say about that. get this, the federal reserve says president trump's tariffs led to job losses and higher prices for americans. charles payne did some digging and debunked that report.

he will have the numbers when the third hour of "varney & company" comes right up. ♪. i wanted more from my copd medicine that's why i've got the power of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved once-daily 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy ♪ the power of 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy ♪ 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy woman: with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works three ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation, for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur.

think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3. ♪ trelegy, 1,2,3 woman: save at trelegy.com.

liberals and conservatives say trump's ideas would be disastrous. economists on the right and the left and the center all agree, trump would throw us back into recession. that could cause an economic catastrophe. >> health care, the debate on health care is like death. this is armageddon. it is in their dna to give tax cuts to the rich. ashley: you just got to love that. disaster, recession, economic

catastrophe, armageddon. well, that was hillary clinton during the 2016 campaign and nancy pelosi after the trump tax cuts passed. suffice it to say those sound bites, well, they just haven't aged well, have they. but it's fun to run them. now look at this headline from the weekend. trump tariffs led to job losses, higher prices for businesses, according to the fed. guess what? let's bring in charles payne, host of "making money." charles, thank you for doing this. you spent a lot of time this weekend debunking this report. i got some of the highlights. that's just very misleading. charles: well, first of all, i think any real academic, you know, assessment of the trade war should probably wait for awhile. we are just signing phase one perhaps on this weekend and we will probably do the rest of it maybe even after the election. now, you know, to that point, the fed, you know, they put an exhaustive academic kind of study together and you know, if you just look at the numbers, right, at the end of december

2017, because the trade war began last year, in 2018, there were 12,545,000 manufacturing jobs. there were more at the end of the year that year and as of right now, there are 12 million as of november, 12,865,000. in other words, 320,000 additional manufacturing jobs since the trade war began. ashley: that doesn't jive with -- charles: you can also go to the fed's website and find manufacturing wages have gone up. now, there's a point about profits. listen, some of these manufacturers had to take some higher costs in some places but the idea when we were told that this wouldn't work, and everyone kept talking about things like smoot-hawley where from 1929 to 1934, our incomes went down almost 50%, unemployment went from 6% to 25%, obviously that never materialized.

but you look at some other of these commodities, steel prices are down. u.s. steel had to actually lay people off. lumber prices are down. the fed is openly wondering why there's no inflation. so you know, all of the worst case scenarios have not played out and so i just thought it was a disingenuous effort on their part. i hate to say it but listen, the fed, the chamber of commerce, the business roundtable, traditional or, you know, conservative economic orthodoxy, all of those things said you don't do tariffs, ever, even if you are being ripped off, even if millions of jobs are being off-shored, that that's a tool you never use. well, it had been used before in the past there. are other examples besides smoot-hawley. i kept bringing up the tariffs that took us out of the 19-teens, 1920-22 recession and helped to usher in the roaring '20s. you know, no economist ever will

give me a good answer on that. it's not that i'm advocating for this but i'm saying worst case scenario certainly didn't play out. we know there are seven million job openings. we know blue collar wages have soared in a way that they haven't done in a couple of decades. there has been some pretty good things against the backdrop of 360 billion tariffs in place. in place right now. ashley: and full employment. charles: full employment. we have 1.26 million job openings more than we have people unemployed. that's not a bad place to be. ashley: not bad at all. charles: the fed should come back and do this a year or two from now. ashley: look at china as well. charles: look at the headlines, the top left corner, they are doing a lot to save companies during this economic downturn. that's their newspaper. ashley: i want to get to your take on ulta beauty. this is one of the best performing stocks in the s&p over the past decade. you have been hot on this stock for a long time. take a victory lap. charles: thank you very much. here's the thing. about a decade ago, i dropped my

wife off at one of those strip malls, one of those small malls and i looked and i see this store, i'm like oh, my goodness, it was the most amazing store i had ever seen. it was like ulta salon, ulta beauty, i never heard of it. i went home, looked it up, started crunching the numbers, buy, buy, buy. i just bought and never sold. i have been in and out of the stock, maybe ten times in the last ten years. ashley: that's 252. lauren: did you like it at first? because it wasn't attached to a mall? charles: i loved it. it was amazing. it was huge. it was big. it was beautiful. it was beckoning. i just, you know, i was like look at this place. i got to go find out about it. i went straight home and looked it up. ashley: therein lies a really good lesson in investing. you always preached this. know what you know and know what you love. charles: in my new book, one of the stories i talked about, the first time i ever saw the thing with the coats, you know, when you ring up the items at the

cash register -- ashley: the scan. charles: we all remember that. let's remember first time you saw that, you were like man, how cool is that. i ran home, even to this day, i'm in that stock, zebra. to this day. ashley: lesson learned. want to get to "consumer reports" named the most influential product of the decade. the list includes amazon echo, apple airpods, beyond meat. anything missing from the list, you think, charles? charles: fox business. ashley: done. charles: beyond meat, that's a little premature to put beyond meat of the decade. it had a pretty interesting 2019, unless you bought the stock, you know, in the last six months. you know, i think, though, there are some trends going into -- all based on this climate thing we should all be looking deeper into. no doubt amazon takes number one billing. i think netflix probably would be number two in terms of impact on societies around the world. ashley: up 4040% in the past

decade. charles: you have to give this guy credit. he had a dvd business and said this thing isn't going to work. ashley: the things you used to mail. charles: reed hastings, got to give him credit. he's in the elon musk category of occasionally they overpromise and underdeliver but they overpromised, they are not afraid of overpromising. that's rare these days with ceos. ashley: takes guts. other than now? charles: ten minutes from now. ashley: you are on all the time. charles: i will be on at 2:00. we have a great show lined up. hope everyone tunes in. ashley: as always, fabulous. thank you. let's take a look at tesla. some profit taking has been going on after its big runup, down $17. my eyes are not great, down 4%. certainly $412. they rolled out their first china-built car. lauren simonetti joins us now. she has been on tv all morning. tell me about this leaked company e-mail.

lauren: can i first address why the stock is down? analysts came out, cut the price target to $210 which is down more than 50% but said demand isn't going to be so great. it's good in the markets where it's been, it will be great in china, it will be great in the netherlands but in mature markets it's not going to be as healthy so they expect 2020 deliveries to be -- to miss the target. that's why the stock is under pressure. however, the leaked e-mail -- i know, right? got a lot of expectations there. leaked e-mail to employees, elon musk writes ultimately i think tesla will be worth considerably more than it is today wheere is whether that means the value should be higher focus on heads-down execution. this is the unfortunate consequence of being a publicly traded company. is that an implicit desire stated to employees that maybe they are going to go private? ashley: i don't know.

charles, you are still here. charles: there is an analyst today who put a $4,000 share price target on tesla. lauren: $4,000? charles: $4,000 over the next ten years. he has been really, really spot-on. i will delve into that. i got to tell you, the thing with cowan, we heard that over and over and over again. i think it's not the car. i think it will be the battery technology. ashley: all right. good stuff. lauren: the giga factory in china on track. ashley: very good. thank you, lauren. thank you, charles. next case. senator elizabeth warren slipping in the polls and coming up short on fund-raising. how is that grassroots approach going for her, question mark? we will play what she said about that when she was asked by a reporter. a live look at capitol hill. congress, guess what, are still on a break but we want to talk about that $1.4 trillion spending bill they passed before they got the heck out of town. we have ron paul on that. interesting to see what he has

to say. nothing being done about the debt, that's for sure. the third hour of "varney & company" just getting started. ♪ most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. (second man) virtualize their operations. (woman) and build ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready.

we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get 2 months free.

ashley: elizabeth warren's campaign fund-raising has stalled this quarter. lauren, how strapped for cash are they? lauren: pretty strapped. $17 million thus far. that compares to about $25 million last quarter. listen. >> [ inaudible ]. >> so i decided from the very beginning that i was going to run a grassroots funded campaign. people have been extraordinarily generous and i am deeply grateful. lauren: well, that was her campaigning in iowa and it's interesting, because after the debate where she slammed mayor pete buttigieg for his wine cave

fund-raisers, where does the money come from? but she also has at her back the former president, barack obama, reportedly telling wall street and big money donors you might want to look again at elizabeth warren. maybe in the end she won't have a problem but if she wants to stay true to herself with small donor donations, she might. ashley: interesting considering what she wants to do to wall street. thank you. check out this headline from the "wall street journal." let congress debate spending again. that piece was written by republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana after congress passed a $1.4 trillion spending bill with basically without any debate. let's bring in former texas congressman ron paul. congressman, i've got to imagine you can't be happy about all of this spending. >> no, hardly. but i think it's the same old trick they have been pulling for a long time. it sort of fits into my philosophy and my belief is that

everybody complains about not enough bipartisanship. i've always argued there's too much. just think, they suspended the rules, passed this bill, the democrats got all they wanted and the republicans got all it was they wanted and nobody seems to care, nobody realizes that these debts put a lot of pressure on the fed so we have to yell at the fed for not printing enough money, but they have to provide this. if you didn't have a monetary system that we have and if we didn't shave the bipartisanship on spending, then they would have to maybe deal with some other problems but it's amazing that 90% of what we have dealt with in the last several months has been impeachment and everybody knew the results of that before it started. ashley: exactly right. i mean, this is a spending package, it was 2,313 pages long, but aus sas you said, thi been a pattern of the way they go about business. how do you stop it? there doesn't seem to be a lot of motivation to do that. >> no. it's not going to stop. it's going to end in a disaster because the pressure is too

great. it's an addiction. they worry about the opioid crisis and addiction but this is ten times worse because it involves the whole world and there's no way, i mean, the fed tried to move in the direction of reducing its balance sheet and they tried that a little bit, then there was a cataclysmic crisis in september, oh, we need qe again, they start to create quickly $400 billion. no, it's not going to end because the appetite for big government is very strong and the budget you pointed out endorses this fact that the democrats and republicans like spending and they are not going to stop it because it's too painful. we understand that politically, it's not going to happen until a big crisis hit and there will be an adjustment, but that's what i'm concerned about because i think it can be very very disastrous for us. ashley: it's interesting, i read the op-ed by senator cassidy and he says for instance, just contained in the spending package, you know, he says

obamacare remains the law of the land but the principal way to pay for it has been repealed but no one has done anything about it and it just continues to bleed money. >> it's going to continue, because the basic flaw here is that people have a right to medical care. people have a right to their life and their liberty and to take care of themselves and be responsible, but people don't have the right to get stuff from somebody else that the government transfers but because as long as this is a right, it's going to exist and it will bankrupt the country. we have not socialized medicine, we have corporate medicine. i'm still very close to the medical field and believe me, the insurance company and the drug companies and the management companies and the physicians organizations, they all want to keep this going to make sure they maximize their income but that's doomed to end because people run out of services, they have to ration them and it always means that there's going to be more. republicans when they ran, they added the prescription drug

program. so it's going to continue because it's not efficient. therefore, they say we need more government. well, it's not efficient because we have too much government, but they are not likely to learn that lesson very soon. they will have to reassess it, the country will have to reassess it when we finally decide once again what should the role of government be. should it be there to take care of us from cradle to grave or should it be there to protect our freedoms. ashley: that is a good, congressman paul, talking about big government, another one for you. the federal smoking age just raised to 21. you are a libertarian. is this the government's job to control? >> absolutely not. you know, one flaw in the system that we have endorsed by both factions is that the government can protect us from ourselves. that's very dangerous. that's part of this. they tried that with alcohol and all these other things. everything is to protect us against ourselves and it can't be done without the destruction

of liberty because if you really want to protect people from bad things, you have to protect, well, you know, look at how many bad things come out of radical religious and political viewpoints. you have to regulate that, then, too, so to not expose that because they are not capable of thinking. people need to have a little more understanding and confidence of how a free society works. the founders had a pretty good grasp of this but that's a long time ago. ashley: certainly was. congressman ron paul, thank you as always for joining us and for your input. appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: all right. next case, good news for recent college grads out there. do you want a six figure salary? sure you do. do you only have about a year's worth of professional experience? maybe. i've got the job for you. no, it's not in silicon valley working for a shiny tech startup. we will tell you what it is. speaking of six figures, take a look at christiano ronaldo's new bling. it's the most expensive and

rarest rolex ever produced. we will tell you how much it costs. he can afford it. keep it right here. ♪ ♪ ♪ everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. expedia.

for everyone you love. for your worst sore throat pain, try vicks vapocool drops. it's not candy, it's powerful relief. ahhh vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops and try new vapocool spray.

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 so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

ashley: looking for a good paying job with no experience? that sounds good. well, lauren, there's at least one that pays, that starts at six figures, right? lauren: it is the sweet spot, right? $123,000 is the median salary for a pharmacist. okay. you don't need experience, but you do need a degree. ashley: i would hope so. lauren: and a license and the like. nurse practitioner, $110,000. you can see here all in the health care field, occupational therapist, registered nurses, all really nice salaries with no experience needed. this comes from the interview guys.com, career website. ashley: you have to have training for it and education. not like you just show up and say i want to be a pharmacist, thank you very much. lauren: you often have to take some sort of placement exam as well. ashley: all right. not that we're lazy or anything. soccer star christiano ronaldo has set numerous goal scoring records on the pitch. he's now setting a new record by wearing the most expensive rolex

watch ever. big question, how much? lauren: the gmt master ice is just about $1 million. he's got a lot of really nice expensive watches and that is one of them. he was spotted wearing all of this jewelry, he had a yellow diamond engagement ring on with the perfect canary yellow diamond. he's definitely tricked out. ashley: the price tag, is that the watch is $497,000? lauren: the watch itself and the other jewelry he had on, he had about a million in jewelry. he does have a million and a half dollar watch, though. frank muller watch. ashley: that probably represents one week of income for him. lauren: forbes has him at about $109 million. ashley: bling out as much as he wants. lauren: that's what i said. go for it. that's his girlfriend to the left of him. ashley: in the back of the limo, where else. lauren, thank you. next case, michael moore, you know him, making a call on the 2020 race. who has he got his money on? president trump.

can you believe? we will break that down with another famous midwesterner, governor scott walker. let's take one more look at the price of oil, if we can. at a three-month high. coming up, john hoffmeister, former president of shell oil. i want to know what will happen with oil and gas in 2020 and will america's energy dominance keep prices low? that's next. ♪ huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker? i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have-oh boy.

geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

ashley: all right. let's get another quick check of the markets for you. right across the board, but we are off the lows of the day. the nasdaq is down as you can see .6 and also, the s&p is down about .5. we are kind of holding where we were, perhaps bouncing off the lows a little. take a look at netflix. it says its own content ruled the platform in 2019. lauren? lauren: good thing because they spent $15 billion, aggressively, on their own content and the most streamed show, murder mystery. adam sandler, jennifer aniston. i did see it myself. i can't believe it was the most streamed. but nevertheless, it was. number two, stranger things. ashley: i watched the adam sandler. i laughed. i thought it was quite funny.

lauren: really? okay. i would expect us to say the opposite. ashley: you didn't like it? lauren: i liked it. i'm just surprised it was the most watched. i guess that would explain the adam sandler appeal. ashley: it's a guy thing. lauren: remember, now you've got disney plus so the disney shows are off of netflix. as they spend aggressively on their own content, at least it is paying off for them. ashley: that's good. film maker michael moore said in an interview he thinks donald trump will win a second term. must have hurt him to say it. take a listen. >> if the vote were today, i believe he would win the electoral states that he would need, because living out there, i will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch. in fact, i would say it's even more rabid than it was before, because they're afraid now, they're afraid he could lose. ashley: very interesting. let's bring in former wisconsin governor scott walker.

certainly a very well-known name among midwesterners. governor, do you agree with michael moore's summation? >> i think he's right. i think it's going to be incredibly close and wisconsin will probably be the battleground state. throw in states like michigan and pennsylvania and i think the president is in good position. the economy is booming, we have the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years, we have amongst certain groups the lowest ever, amongst african-american, latino american, hispanic or asian americans, even veterans, people with disabilities, lowest recorded ever. wages are up. things are heading in the right direction. you contrast that with the do nothing democrats in congress, how they dominated the debate, i think the president is in a good position. ashley: what's interesting is michael moore then having made that statement, went on to endorse bernie sanders and encouraged everyone to jump on board with him. i mean, how does bernie and his policies fit in the midwest? >> well, they don't fit at all. the only thing bernie sanders has going for him, i will give him that, is he's authentic. he's the real deal.

he actually believes in that, unlike joe biden, who is really another version of hillary clinton, who will say and do anything just to get elected, unlike elizabeth warren, who seems to be making up things week by week. bernie sanders actually believes in it but his ideas are horrible. i mean, the idea that not only in the midwest but across the nation, if you are someone who's got private health insurance and you want to keep that, that's gone. under this government-run health care system that bernie sanders and others are talking about. if you are a middle class taxpayer, your taxes are going up to pay for that and trillions of dollars of other government spending. i think that's a big fail for the democrats but that's where they're headed and i wouldn't be surprised if bernie sanders is the nominee which is another reason why i think donald trump ultimately wins. ashley: interesting. which brings me to the fact that it's hard to believe, with just 35 days away from the iowa caucuses, there is still not a clear frontrunner amongst those democrat candidates. we have been speculating about this but do you think we could see a brokered convention for

the democrats next july, if there's no clear, you know, winner? >> well, right. i'm standing in milwaukee, wisconsin right now, where the dnc convention will be. i don't think it's likely but i think it is possible. remember, this is the first time you have had four candidates polling over 15% i believe since 1992 in states like iowa and new hampshire. i think mayor pete probably wins iowa because much like it did for barack obama, another midwesterner back in 2008, that grassroots organization, that youthful excitement i think works well in iowa. i think you probably have bernie sanders, elizabeth warren or a combination of both winning in new hampshire. then nevada and south carolina become must-win states for former vice president joe biden. then amazingly, michael bloomberg is spending millions of dollars in states like wisconsin and florida and california, where you've got the big primaries coming just weeks after that. this is a wide open race and that's another thing that's probably good for the president.

ashley: well, talking of the president, impeachment has been, you mentioned the do nothing democrats, they put all their eggs in the impeachment basket and now they are frustratingly not handing over the articles of impeachment to the senate. but how does this impeachment effort that seems to be going on forever, how does that play in states like wisconsin? >> it's a big loser. in fact, the biggest parallel is back years ago, the same group of left wing whack jobs from here and across the country tried to take me out in a recall effort. it backfired. in that recall we actually won more votes and a higher percentage of the vote in the recall election than we did in the original election. that's because not only did the base wake up but independents here in wisconsin thought the left had overreached. we are seeing exactly the same thing. not only in wisconsin, but in michigan, and ohio and pennsylvania and elsewhere, battleground states where not only republicans waking up but independents are saying this is nonsense, we want people who get things done, impeachment is not

what we asked for. this president is actually getting things done even if they don't always agree with his tweets or some of his comments, they appreciate the fact he's getting things done, unlike the democrats, who just talk and impeach but don't do anything else. ashley: we will leave it right there. thank you so much, governor scott walker. thanks for taking the time today. >> happy new year to you. ashley: same to you. all right. the major auto makers are pushing into the electric car space, we know that, but they are still selling a lot of big trucks and suvs. grady trimble back with us. last time i saw you, you were in chicago, you had gas at about $3.17 a gallon. you went south to indiana. tell me the story. reporter: you drive 30 minutes south to indiana, you save almost 70 cents a gallon. check that out. it's only $2.49 here. taxes are pretty high in chicago, as you guys know in new york, and this is a lot closer to the national average of $2.58 per gallon. gas prices have been this low or

around this level for the past five years or so, so consumers have been happy to buy big trucks and suvs, plus those types of vehicles are getting more fuel-efficient. the auto makers of course like this trend because suvs and trucks are cash cows for them. it's just better margins. i'm not just talking about the detroit three. they of course have been focusing on suvs and trucks. they have also been making them bigger and so have foreign auto makers, toyota, for example, makes a highlander. that's actually built in indiana here. that's gotten almost 11 inches bigger since it was introduced in 2001, as well as vw, hyundai, kia and subaru, they have also introduced three-row options in the past few years. so while they are investing billions of dollars in electric, seems like consumers with the good economy and low unemployment are happy to go with gas cars and big cars. ashley: absolutely. just look on the highway. grady trimble, thank you so much. still cold in indiana, too,

apparently. all right. let's stay on oil and bring in former shell oil president, john hofmeister. john, great to see you. we have a glut of oil, oil just down slightly today around $61.29. will prices stay cheap, do you think, in 2020? >> i think the likelihood is very high, ashley. the reason is not only do we have a lot of oil that we are producing ourselves but we have thousands and thousands of already drilled wells that just need to be completed. if it looks like we are coming up short, or it looks like the price is going up a little bit, we can turn on more production pretty quickly, particularly in the permian basin so i think we are in good shape going into the new year. ashley: what about this price, $61.32? is it feasible for perhaps the fracking operations? is this a good level for them door they need it to go up maybe into the mid 60s?

>> well, i think it's still a struggle. what's happening is we are transitioning from the historic wildc wildcatter approach in the texas drilling fields where it might be three men and their dog and a couple of trucks drilling a well to really creating production factories on well-organized and well-managed large reservoirs. so it's hard for the wildcatters to compete and the price stays low because we are producing so much. but that's only part of the problem. another part of the problem is we are producing so much natural gas that we don't have a way to take it off and we are burning it, the natural gas price is so low that it's very hard to make money producing natural gas. ashley: very quickly, is this a case of opec still kind of fading in significance because of the resources we have and the amount that we have tapped into, and the amount that we can tap into whenever we need it?

>> yes. the opec plus agreement, actually, i don't think is going to hold. the russians are already talking about getting out of it. the other countries that are part of it, as soon as they see a price rise, they are going to produce more. so i think we are going to continue to have a global supply situation that just does not diminish in terms of really rising -- raising prices. i think for the balance of certainly the next six months, probably the whole year of 2020, i think we are going to see pretty much stable gasoline prices, pretty much stable crude oil prices. ashley: very good. have to leave it there. john hofmeister, as always, thank you. great stuff. all right. we usually have our next guest on the program, to let's be honest, gripe about the shortcomings of the remain tofo golden state of california. we have a doozy of a story for him but today, larry elder wants to also talk 2020. he's got ten reasons why

african-americans should leave the democrat party and vote trump next year. he will be here to explain. and we will throw larry some red meat with this one. starting next year, it will be illegal in california to suspend a student for disobeying their teachers. oh, my. what will they think of next? keep it here. ♪ (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

i'm but how do i know if,. i'm getting a good deal? truecar knows exactly how much people have been paying for the car i want. i tell truecar my zip and what car i'm into, and it shows me the truecar curve. this shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car. looks like these folks paid a little more than everyone else. and this guy got the deal of a lifetime. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar.before , see what others paid for it with truecar. ashley: democrats traditionally dominate the black vote but our next guest says african-americans should leave the democrat party behind and he's got ten reasons why. only ten. bring in radio host larry elder, good friend of the show. larry, lay out your case. >> good morning. actually there are more than ten, but i had time limitations so i had to stop at ten. let me give you three. the first one of course is the big one, and that is the

democratic party teaches and preaches blacks that they are victims, eternal victims of racism. on election night, for example, a pundit on cnn attributed donald trump's victory to white-lash, never mind in 2012700 counties voted for obama, 200 of them switched to donald trump in 2016. when were the 200 counties bitten by the racist radioactive spider. also, the number one town over 100,000 that voted for donald trump was abilene, texas, which just voted for its first black mayor even though the town is majority white. first black mayor in 136 years. i don't understand how racist people will vote for donald trump and then vote for a black mayor. the second big reason, though, is the economy. obviously the trump economy is rocking and rolling. black unemployment, all-time low. the top reason that blacks gave for voting for obama in 2008 was the economy. obama delivered the worst economic recovery since 1949 and between 2010-2013, blacks lost a

third of their net worth largely because a number of black people bought homes they shouldn't have bought because of the pressure that the federal government put on banks to change lending criteria so anybody who could fog up a mirror bought a home. a lot of people got wiped out and blacks particularly got hurt. the third big reason is choice in school. polls show the majority of urban parents black and brown want the option of getting their kid out of an underperforming bad crime-ridden government school. white democrats do not want choice. these are the white democrats who wouldn't put their own kid in an inner city school if you paid them. those are the three major reasons. then abortion, about a third of alarty is the pro-abortion party. even jimmy carter said he always had guilt about his supporting the democratic party's position on abortion and feels that jesus never would have prevented abortion except in cases of rape or incest. those are the primary reasons blacks ought to rethink their allegiance to the democratic

party. ashley: impressive list. i know it goes on but i want to get this one for you. a new california law says schools cannot suspend students for disobeying teachers. some say it's because suspensions are used disproportionately against students of color. your reaction? >> well, it's absurd. what they are basically saying is teachers are racist and it turns out that irrespective of the race of the principal or irrespective of the composition of the teaching staff, black boys are disproportionately kicked out because of misbehaving in schools. this comes back down to the parents. by the way, this is one of the other reasons blacks ought to rethink their allegiance to the democratic party. the welfare state. the welfare state has encouraged women to marry the government and allowed men to abandon their financial responsibility and you are finding a lot of kids are not behaving properly because there's no father in the home. by the way, all my ten reasons can be found on youtube by searching under larry elder, ten reasons blacks ought to leave the democratic party. ashley: good to know. last one for you. president trump threatening

california with federal intervention if they cannot improve the homelessness problem. could governor gavin newsom get the job done? doesn't seem like it. >> i'm kind of surprised, i'm not sure what president trump believes he can do about it. he's tweeted about this a couple times and said the federal government may get involved but he hasn't been specific about what they are going to do. beyond that, why dis it the federal government's problem? this is gavin newsom's problem. i'm hoping some day democrats will wake up and rethink their allegiance to people like gavin newsom and maybe this homelessness crisis might do it. if i were donald trump i would let the situation go on and blame it on gavin newsom and not own that. it's his own problem. ashley: when will that day come, larry? >> i keep waiting for it. i keep waiting for it. hope springs eternal. ashley: it does indeed. larry elder, great stuff as always, larry. the reasonable voice in california. great stuff as always, larry. you are really appreciated. >> thank you. happy new year. ashley: happy new year to you. all right. spotify, get this, says they are

getting rid of political ads. is this a big deal? lauren: the latest company to do so. ashley: right. lauren: this is for 2020 on their podcasts and on their ad-supported music streaming service, that's about 140 million users, ad age is reporting this is the reason. quote, we do not have the necessary level of robustness in our process systems and tools to responsibly validate content. ashley: big words in there. lauren: they don't have the means to do it. they don't have the technological power, the manpower to look through it. twitter also suspending no political ads, as you know. facebook, advertise away as of now. google's policy is more nuanced. ashley: facebook can afford a legion's worth of checkers but whether or not that works, we have to wait and see. lauren: it's a tricky field to navigate. who can say what, who is fact-checking it, who are the audiences, the microtargeting and the like. ashley: all right, lauren, thank

you very much. next case, we have another contender in the fabled battle of the streamers. it's called the spirit network. it's not about ghosts. their content revolves around, you guessed it, drinking with celebrities. here's what makes them different. you can buy the booze at your favorite celeb is drinking right on the site. we have the ceo on the show next. maybe he will bring some gifts. ♪ any comments doug? yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

it's our most dangerous addiction. so we took our worst vice, and turned it into the dna for a better system. we created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. what will you change? make the world you want.

ashley: amazon, apple and netflix all pushing cannabis themed shows on their streaming platforms. i guess people want to watch more shows about pot. i guess. lauren: it's true, because it's the cooking show, where you incorporate cbd, it's the crime show, it's how you grow it, et cetera. so a service which will launch in 100 million homes -- ashley: r-o-n -- lauren: r-o-n-i-n. they have social club tv, 200 plus hours of original cannabis related programming. the number of hours that we have streamed cannabis related, this year, up 42% from last year. ashley: guess there's a demand for it out there. interesting. let's go from pot and switch to

alcohol. seems to make sense. spirits network is a individuvi streaming service that's all about alcohol. viewers watch and combine the drinks they see on the shows with celebrities. let's bring in the ceo. so here's the concept. we watch this network and you are interviewing celebs who talk about the drinks they like and maybe have some, you know, some knowledge about those drinks, and i watching saying oh, i want to buy that drink. >> you can buy it instantly. ashley: how? >> right from your screen. we are a shopable streaming network available on apple tv and mobile devices including apple and android. you can actually watch over 100 hours of premium programming with experts, celebrities, all kinds of fun, but you can buy right from your screen with a click of a button and in two hours, have it delivered to your home. ashley: two hours. >> in most major cities. ashley: okay. costs? how does this work? >> you just -- the great part

about this is that we support your local store. so all of our deliveries are delivered from the local store. ashley: so you subscribe to the show, right? how much is that? >> so we start off at $9.99 a month for an explorer membership. that gives you content, free local shipping, and also the ability to buy members only products. we also have two other tiers that are $100 and $150 and you get some of the fine stuff in front of me here, including bottles, hand-picked for you based on your flavor profile. so i heard you were a gin fan. ashley: it's been known. >> i brought some gin. we also have some great accessories including a flask, bourbon infused hot sauce, glasswear so you are tasting it correctly. we have nice honey. ashley: this is what you get -- >> you got to have whiskey socks, right? this changes every quarter. so you sign up for a quarterly membership, you get one of these a quarter and then you get a

bottle every single month. ashley: how do i find it? >> spirits network.com. ashley: good luck. i know it was quick but i'm glad you got this in. >> thank you for having me. please check it out. ashley: i will. more "varney" after this. ♪ fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise. feedback that helps you drive safer. and that can lower your cost now that you know the truth... are you in good hands?

ashley: quickly take a look at the big board, down 135 points. we were close to 200 points down at one point. we're trying to come back. it has been that kind of a morning. i want to talk about the stock of the decade as this decade draws to an end. you know what, lauren? netflix, it has gone up 4062.77% lauren: a few years ago we were

writing them off when they raised prices, got rid of the dvd service. the nasdaq this decade up almost 300%. ashley: not bad. i'm sure blake burman in for neil will take advantage of all of that. blake: i would take one share that would be a nice christmas bonus. ashley: can you hear me? blake: we'll take you there. we're down here in washington washington, d.c., ashley. thanks for turning it over to us for neil cavuto. this is "cavuto: coast to coast." u.s. markets closing out a big year for investors. stocks lower today. you can see what is going on bottom of the screen, 132oi