foresure. i think you're a good sport. it was a freight show. susan: time for group karaoke with the producers, yeah. stuart: 10 seconds with neil cavuto. no over time breach into his show. five, four, three, two, one. hey, neil. it's you. neil: i can wait. i can wait. stuart: sure you can. neil: whatever you got. stuart: not going to happen, neil. neil: not going to happen. got it. stuart: see ya. neil: thank you, guys. great voice, stuart. lousy sweater, great voice. as you heard congress went ahead and passed the relief package but we got a congressman who is on, doesn't like the spend being package attached to it. doesn't like the better than 5000 pages had to be read in a matter of hours. even if you're a speed reader, that is tall task. congressman mark green on that. what he makes lousy direction

washington is going in. continuing to funnel out money without looking at details where it is going. europe banning travel increasingly from the united kingdom. some say go slow on great britain as the virus variant was, they're calling it is prompting a dramatic shutdown across her majesty's kingdom. we saw at the height of all of this. giant the in industry in the women's per fume, cosmetics, you know the estee lauder ran that. ran that pretty much a big chunk of his life, still emeritus. his leadership on leadership and ipos and good president and ceo, acting like a human being, and not a jerk, which was perfectly timed for the christmas season. he gets what it is like to be a human being. i will show you what that means, what he says later in this show. it is shall we say our gift to

you. he is a yuletide gift to all of us. meanwhile a gift for a lot of people waiting on washington help, getting some of it last night. we're monitoring reaction to it because a lot of folks like it, a lot of folks don't really flip over it. it is before ther than something. a lame-duck session that view people envisioned. chad pergram, on the latest where we go from here. hi, chad. reporter: took six months, but just before midnight the senate approved a mammoth coronavirus to boost the ailing economy. both measures passed on a bipartisan basis. >> covid package it is targeted f your family of four you get 2400 bucks. if you lose small business, you get another round of ppp loan. there is $38 billion to get vaccine to place near you so you can actually take it. reporter: the house approved the

plan 359-53 knows nos came from republican, libertarian michigan representative justin amash voted no. two democrats tulley gabbard of hawaii and rashida tlaib. republican senator ron johnson was one of them. he described the 5600 page bill as monstrosity. johnson said it, could be weeks, maybe months, before people understand what is in the bill. most lawmakers want another covid bill sometime early next year. >> this is not a tough call. we need to pass this then we need to prepare to build on it in the next congress, hopefully in a bipartisan fashion and with an administration that actually give as damn about the american people. reporter: something to watch, there will be narrow majorities in both the house and senate next year and although they might fight publicly joe biden is good friends with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. those factors could dictate just how fast they score another

covid deal next year. neil? neil: chad pergram, thank you very, very much. there are a number of key things missing from this as chad touched on including that liability protection that mitch mcconnell had been hoping to see and that keep as lot of businesses pretty vulnerable here. kristina partsinevelos following that and impact it is having in places like, well, new york city. hey, christina. reporter: neil, exactly businesses did not receive legal liability against covid-19 lawsuits in the second stimulus package. so businesses are concerned that they may be sued left and right if employees or customers get sick on their premises. for example, already according to the lawsuit tracker andrews, hunter andrews, they found already over 6700 complaints filed against businesses across america pertaining to covid-19 as well as hundreds of lawsuits. more specifically tyson foods is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after a worker at the waterloo,

iowa plant contracted covid-19 and passed away. those larger firms may be able to incur the larger more expensive legal fees. it is the smaller ones that could be hit hard. fox business caught up with a work place safety attorney says it is really difficult for the businesses to keep up with the ever changing rules. >> companies worried about that because of ever changing guidance with respect to cdc and local state and health officials. they are really concerned they will miss something accidentally. reporter: at least 21 states taking it into their own hands to file some type of liability legislation but you have civil rights groups as well as labor groups oppose any type of shield because they feel like employees are at risk when they go to risk throughout the pandemic. possibly employers may skimp out on protection. neil. neil: kristina, thank you very, very much, my friend.

following all of that in new york city. i want to go to congressman mark green for some of the reasons kristina noted and many, many others he was a no vote on this massive spending plan. he is a tennessee congressman, a physician training. we get a double bang for our buck here. congressman, thanks for joining us. you were not keen on combined $2.3 trillion worth of spending measures, were you? >> no, not at all. there were a lot of reasons. thanks for having me on the show, neil. you know, first off, just the sheer fact that it was 5593 pages handed us, handed to us with five hours 45 minutes to read it before we had to vote on it, that principle alone is enough to vote no on it. you look at the chock a block full of spending. we're a nation that is deeply in debt and to take the coronavirus and say, well, why don't we, why

don't we spends millions of dollars to eradicate -- i get murder hornet, that is a big deal butter radcation programs for marijuana certainly weren't that effective. i hope that these are a little better than that. billions of dollars to green energy. a billion dollars to foreign governments. 10 billion to bail out the postal service. as so it seems to me the democrats got a lot of what they wanted and the republicans didn't. liability protection being one which you mentioned. neil: if it could have been carved out that the 600-dollar stimulus checks could have gone out, the 300-dollar a week un unemmoment federal extended 10 weeks as planned would you have voted for that. >> sure. i think our plan all along, what we wanted, what the senate actually sent over to the house, 40 plus times, was very targeted relief. to workers and to particularly

industries that were struggling because of the forced shutdowns from government. those all made sense to me. yes, i would have supported things like that but when you make such a blanket, i mean, museums? millions of dollars for museums? $40 million more for the kennedy center? this is liberal government handouts. we can't afford that. and i think coronavirus has shown us our, the bandwidth we have to handle crisis because of our current debt picture is thin. neil: let me ask you because, president-elect joe biden already indicated that he would like a follow up coronavirus relief measure, stimulus measure. would you be open to that? >> again, very targeted on specific businesses, if you bring a business -- one of the things great in this bill, i wish i could have voted for it, this, the fix to the tax deduction on the ppp program. that was a good fix to a program

created in the cares act. if there is something like that i'm going to be all for it but when you lump all this stuff together and you tack in all the extra spending, it just, it is going to destroy our country. neil: let me step back and also look at the variant strain in britain. as a doctor, are you worried about it hitting here? >> it is probably already here, neil. when you think about rna viruses they mutate frequently. i anticipate that if its as prevalent as it is in the uk there is, you know, that strain is probably present in the united states. it looks like it is in south africa. they picked up there already. it is probably already here. it is, you know, has a higher, it allows the virus to transmit faster, however it doesn't seem to be more virulent, meaning deadly. so i think there is really nothing to be too concerned about right now but we've got to dig into it, get to the bottom

of it. neil: while i have you congressman, there are reports that the president would be very angry at vice president pence if he goes ahead and when there is a formal joint session of congress confirms the electoral college majority that joe biden has won. he will all but look at him as a turncoat. what do you think of that? >> well i think those two have a pretty good relationship. i imagine that you know, vice president pence will follow the rules of the house, the rules of senate, for this joint session of the constitution. i think the president and vice president have a pretty good relationship. you know, i think the vice president following the rules would be okay. neil: does it worry you the way the president goes on with this, maybe understandably is concerned about fraud and process that might have been flawed but almost every legal case and his own attorney

general said not to the degree that it would have changed the results of the election? if you had to advise him or talk to him personally would you it will him to let go or would you say fight on? >> no. i would say continue with the legal cases. i mean that's again, my statement all along has been we have this process. continue those cases where there is suspected fraud. i mean look at, look at it this way, neil. think of the future of our election. people right now, there are a lot of people who are struggling with confidence. so i'm really hopeful that the president will take all of this out, make sure that the decisions are made by the courts and, we can create some confidence for the american people because right now, even a pretty significant percentage of democrats think that there was some funny work in the heck shun. neil: but not enough to turn the results? in other words, do you recognize joe biden as the next president

of the united states? >> i'm waiting on all these court battles to work their way out. neil: really? all right. congressman, thank you very much, good catching up with you. we hope you have a very merry christmas. healthy one. congressman mark green of tennessee. as the government get at there were a lot of things he liked in the covid relief package, if he could carve it out sim them he would have supported the relief checks of $600, $2400 up to family of four, that sort of thing. they could be coming out as soon as next week. given days ahead of christmas, if you knew that was coming, would you be more inclined to spend some of that money this week? ♪

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♪. neil: all right. it has been an on again and off again, sometimes more oven acrimonious relationship between the white house and the u.s. postal service and how if any will it change under a biden administration? grady trimble has been looking into that. he joins us out of chicago. hey, grady. reporter: neil, we'll get to that in a second we're looking at holiday shipping. just about all the shipping deadlines have past. we see a steady stream of at the post office. we know a day or two in delivery could make the difference between a happy child on christmas and a disappointed one. 3 1/2 million packages per day are being delayed. that is according to ship matrix and on-time delivery rate has fallen for just about all of the major players, fedex, ups and the postal service. the postal service with the worst performance out of all of them. last week's snowstorm contributed to that. usps is also taking on extra

packages from e-commerce companies, that fedex and ups turned away to make sure they avoid having those delays. this holiday season of record breaking shipping volume comes as joe biden, as you mentioned has very different plans for the postal service compared to president trump. biden does not want to privatize the postal service as president trump and many republicans have suggested doing. he wants more funding for it. he also wants to eliminate the requirement to pre-pay health benefits for future retirees. that requirement in particular is one of the major reasons the postal service is losing so much money, nearly $67 billion in losses over the last decade. the postal service did get a lot of money from that latest relief package, $10 billion but the problem is, neil, just in the last fiscal year alone it lost nine billion dollars. so whatever joe biden does when he takes office, he has a lot to sort out with the postal

service, getting its finances back on track. neil? neil: grady trimble in chicago, thank you very much, my friend. we told you a little bit in the last segment about those stimulus checks could be out as soon as next week. $600 for individuals, up to $2400 for families depending on the number of children. will a lot of people knowing that they have the money coming start spending it down in a mad dash for last minute christmas shopping? my next guest hopes to see that. matthew che, national retail federation president and ceo. matthew, good to have you back. that is what people do. you often times hear ahead of a tax refund they spend that ahead of time or plan to because they know they have the cushion coming in. what about with these stimulus checks? >> neil, i guess i would start by saying if past is prologue, we know what happened when the stimulus checks went out earlier this year and how quickly virtually all income levels one

way or another either continued to spend or put those dollars to work right away in the economy. certainly there was also an elevated savings rate. it is not as high now as it was then. it is still high by historic standards. people are paying down debt. people are going out, consuming. if they're in a household that needs the money, has to put it to work right away, a lot of checks will go right back into the economy very quickly which we think is positive. it will help keep people employed, keep people out there working, hopefully keeping all the communities moving forward in a safe around healthy way. neil: in the latest quarter just reported here there was revised slightly upwards, that is the gdp growth to about 33.4% clip and consumer spending was a large chunk of that. how do you see consumers spending in the new year? >> well, you know, neil, consumers have been really keeping the economy afloat over the course of the last 10

months. we've all been out there doing certain kinds of consumption, although maybe in different segments of retail than traditionally. so there is much more emphasis on work from home. you go to school and educate from home. you entertain around dine more from home. you exercise at home that has implications t shifted things around. they were due in large part to the early relief that the congress and administration put out there in a bipartisan way. as we've seen again with this second largest in history stimulus package just announced and passed over the past couple of days. we think that as we get into the new year consumers will want to get back out there. there will be pent-up demand. we'll see some spending shift around in categories as the economy reopens. people will be out there dining, traveling, spending time in different ways than maybe the last 10 months. i think we're on a good path. we have a long way to go of course in the next six months or go to get everybody vaccinated but optimism i think ought to be

the watchword over the long to medium term. neil: did anything measure improve fortunes or provide opportunities for retailers? i'm not sure as a group per se, even in the paycheck protection program, some of these others, smaller retailers, not big box guys, certainly not amazons what do you think? >> neil, our concern obviously some of the companies that you mentioned, there are many others have done very, very well. that has been a real conundrum, a real challenge here, some way as real tragedy that you have two realities in america right now. you have some businesses organizations, communities, families doing very, very well. you have others doing very, very poorly. in terms of businesses specifically there are many small, medium independent businesses that have not been getting relief and support they need. more money for the ppp. more unemployment insurance dollars, direct checks, that will help businesses directly or

as people put money to work will help them indirectly. neil: are you confident that consumers are confident? confidence fell to the lowest point of the year, even lower than at the time of the pandemic? they seem to be going into the new year maybe not as robust as we thought? >> yeah. i think there are a lot of unanswered questions in the minds of some consumers and in the survey work we've done with our partners we're out there in the field every week asking questions of thousands of consumers. the interesting thing, neil, if you go back historically, whether years ago. you will remember the fiscal cliff. we know what it's been like when debt ceiling showdowns. we know what it is like on tax reforms and debates about tariffs. consumers do have the ability to hold two things in their mind at the same time. they can be aware of challenging circumstances and yet their behavior continues to support economic activity. so i think people are going to still be out there spending.

they may be aware of the challenges of the next few months but i think as we look ahead, the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to become reality. we stay diligent, follow the medical guidance, stay safe, get ourselves into the spring and we ought to be in a much better place and the consumer, surely pent-up demand there will rebound. that ought to be a good thing as we get into the new year. neil: all right. from your mouth, matthew. i hope you have a good christmas. get a gauge on how retailers are doing. matthew che, national retail federation president and ceo. when we come back. britain is feeling isolated. not only because of this new variant, this new strain of the virus but because so many countries now do not want the brits to come there. the fall out after this. ♪. did you know you can go to libertymutual.com

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♪. neil: all right. in britain the case if in doubt keep them out. ever since we learned a variant of the virus has bedeviled the united kingdom a number of european union countries say nothing of our own looking askance at possibility of bringing bruiteddish passengers or anyone from britain into this country. a number of airlines made moves to test brits coming here, or where else for that matter making sure they do not have the virus. it is come from the worst time for britain already dealing with a spike in cases and a slowing economy to deal with that. let's get the read from nile gardiner on all of this, the former forerin policy advisor under maggie thatcher. good to have you. her riff christmas my friend. >> merry christmas, neil.

neil: for your wonderful country here, i'm wondering where this is going? as soon as we got news of the variant of the virus people were closing their doors to the brits. what are you hearing now. >> it has been an, extrordinary year for the united kingdom on so many fronts and now you have a new strain of covid-19 that apparently has a much higher transmission rate. it doesn't seem to be more deadly but it is easier to transmit by all accounts. hence you have the travel bans implemented by dozens of european countries at the moment. of course this is causing a lot of worry, concern, ahead of the december 31st deadline for britain's exit from the european single market, customs union. the increasing likelihood after no-deal brexit on december 31st. so many fronts of challenges for the british government but i

think there are a couple of reasons for optimism in terms of the big picture, neil. firstly the european commission of the executive branch of the european union today urged all eu member states to lift the travel ban on the united kingdom. we'll see if european countries follow that. particularly the french who are blockading british freight coming into the country. causing huge logjams on the kent coast of the united kingdom. secondly the uk was the first country in the world to introduce a covid vaccine, pfizer vaccine that roll out actually has been very successful. there is no indication, neil, that the vaccine being introduced is ineffective against the new strain of covid-19. so that is very good news. and also in addition to that astrazeneca and also oxford university combined together to

launch a new third vaccine in addition to the existing two american vaccines and so the british are also leading the way in terms of vaccine development and that's good news as well for the united kingdom on the horizon for 2021. neil: i just wonder though, dealing with brexit, dealing with all the other things, then this covid variant that has happened here, never mind the fact that vaccine makers say their vaccines would in fact address this, it seems to be coming at the worst time for britain for boris johnson in particular. how do you see this playing out? >> yeah. that is a very good question and you know, boris johnson has had an incredibly difficult year. let's not forget he actually contracted the covid-19 virus back in march-april. neil: right. >> he was in extremely gravely dangerous situation at one stage

and he recovered from that, survived covid. now he is leading britain toward as full brexit on december 31st and dealing with a new mutation of the covid-19 virus. so he is coming under very heavy fire for his handling overall of the covid response but i think every single european government has faced tremendous challenges in terms of addressing the virus including the german government actually which was the european leader in terms of the early covid response and the germans are now facing tremendous challenges in terms of addressing the latest covid situation. so you're seeing lockdowns emerging across europe including across huge swaths of the united kingdom known as tier 4 regions. 16 million people are covered. every european government is facing tremendous difficulty in addressing the situation. i do think overall boris johnson has handled the virus in the best way he possibly could.

i think a lot of the criticism of boris johnson has been actually very unfair. any leader would have found this to be a extremely difficult situation that, difficult leadership moment but i think britain overall i think is going to do very, very well in 2021. it is the first country in the world in introducing the vaccine and i think that is a real demonstration of leadership and also the u.s. and the uk work closely together in terms of vaccine development and once again the u.s.-uk special relationship is leading the world. it is because of the work of u.s. and british scientists mainly that we are seeing the vaccines being introduced and we're seeing great britain and the united states standing together shoulder to shoulder on the world stage, developing the rescue package basically in terms of the vaccines that will save the free world from covid-19. that of course is a huge accomplishment. neil: absolutely, absolutely. nile, thank you very, very much. very good seeing you.

be safe around healthy yourself. nile gardiner following all of the developments. hard to believe, forget runoff election, that election is two weeks from today. already georgia secretary of state is very curious about thousands of out-of-state ballots? how does that happen? after this. ♪.

♪. neil: all right. two weeks from today that runoff election in georgia and already concerns about a number of out-of-state voters, or at least their ballots, why are they out-of-state? are they living in the state, just so happened to be out-of-state as they're mailing them in? a lot we don't know. the secretary of state is

concerned enough about it to want to investigate. jonathan serrie in atlanta with more. what is this all about? reporter: neil, georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger sent out 8,000 letters for individuals requested georgia absentee ballots and on file with the u.s. postal service having out-of-state changes in address. that is fine where the move is temporary, someone attending college in another state or a member of the military assigned to duties in another state but raffensperger warns anyone looking to come to georgia to temporarily cast a ballot in the runoffs, or anyone established residence in another state but thinks they can game the system, we will find you, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. early voteing in georgia is in the second week, a group "true the vote" submitted electoral

challenges, 364,000 voters who filled out state or in state changesprove their eligibility before casting ballots in the county where they're registered. "true the vote" research was performed uniformly across all counties without any demographic history. the democratic party said this is baseless, despicable attempt to wrongfully disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters including our members of our military serving abroad. election officials in large metro counties declined "true the vote"'s request to investigate some of these voters. dekalb county is taking up the issue as we speak this afternoon. neil? neil: jonathan, thank you very, very much. to charlie gasparino looking into ratings in sports. i would be remiss if i didn't get you to weigh in what is

going on in georgia concern about ballots and all the rest. what if it isn't quickly resolved? what if election day turns out to be a mess where you can't get conclusive results that night? >> that could be a problem. a lot is riding on this. democrats have to win seats, have to win both, to get a majority in the senate that means joe biden has a blank check. he can spend, he can tax, do whatever he wants. republicans win one of those seats, then you know, it's a stopgap on all of his anti-business taxing and spending plans. so those are, that's the stakes. usually markets don't like uncertainty. so if it is really, if it is something that looks very protracted like hanging chads type protracted yeah, you will get, you will get some market sell-off and a lot of volatility. i kind of think that is not going to happen. i think they're planning for

this to come in, be somewhat orderly. the secretary of state is obviously investigating certain things. if you look at polling data it is very interesting. the polling data had it tied or democrats ahead, republicans according to recent polls, polls are all over the place sometimes have both kelly loeffler and david perdue ahead. it will be interesting. they're ahead within the margin of error. obviously any sort of irregularity could have impact on the race itself. i want to turn to football. not only because i'm a huge football fan, neil, but you know, one of the fascinating stories i found in terms of sports and football right now, i watch it every week. i, you know, i can't wait to watch patrick mahomes throw a pass, he is that great but sports ratings overall including football are down and the ad revenues because of those ratings are down. people are trying to figure out why. if everybody is locked in,

everybody wants to binge-watch stuff, why aren't people binge-watching one of america's favorite games, if not its pastime? baseball is nominally the pastime but football is very popular. a company called morning consult came out and did some interesting research on this, neil and what they're saying is, again you can't draw -- these are just sort of snippets and anecdotes why it might happen. i don't know if this is the exact reason why football ratings are up but the league's embrace of social justice issues apparently is resonating with enough fans, that the ratings are off. they found that of all the things that people are listing of why you're boycotting sports, why you might not watch a sports game, 17% of all the respondents, that was the highest number, said embrace of social justice issues that all sports are doing is turning people off. does that mean americans are largely racist? i don't know if you can make

that point but what i think it does say is this, i think the nfl faced this in the past. on a sunday you work all week. you're inundated about bad news about this, that, the other thing. you want to turn on football and watch the game. you don't want to be preached to. the last time the nfl went through this with the one knee issue with colin kaepernick, it quickly embraced people, it made people stand for the national anthem because so many people boycotted. i want to say one other thing, neil. i have don't care about one knee. i support it. i don't think it is the most provocative social justice statement in the world but a lot of envelope fans, trend conservative, heavily military, middle class, not rich, they don't like it. you know you got to know your customer out there. neil, back to you. neil: you do. you do need to know your customer. a good many of them are not pleased. thank you very much. charlie gasparino on that. back to the covid the effect

it is having on our economy, don't forget about the british economy, you might have noticed covid charges that sneak in, if you dine out or have food delivered or a apartment building they have a surcharge for workers even down to the holiday checks that they get. is it getting a little over the top? after this. ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away.

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♪. neil: they're called covid surcharges. you might notice on your delivery of food from a restaurant or service at, you know, a building where they tell you to look at the bellman and recognize the fact that he or she is working extra hard. so given, a tip, covid surcharge tip. even some buildings, one very interesting market watch story had it are increasing those tips, typically holiday tips by some 25% to account for this. they call it a covid surcharge. so they're happening everywhere.

some people are okay with it. others say this might get built in permanently to the cost of living right now. heathitha herzog, jonathan hoeng with us as well what do you think about all this. >> unless mayor de blasio fixes something pretty quickly we'll probably see the surcharge sticking around for a lot longer but i do have a statistic for you neil. oracle came out with 42% of people will order christmas dinners from restaurants. so the demand certainly is there. people are looking to restaurants to provide that food. so surcharge or not restaurant ordering is going to happen. it is just a matter of what restaurants going to do in the future? are they going to follow the linear model, people sit down, they order out, they order their food, they take it out, pay the bill et cetera? or are they going to look at a business model looks more like a

retailer where they have skus, product, people buy branded restaurant product they can take home or these meal kits? i do think restaurants will start looking more like retailers. >> meantime restaurants are just struggling to survive. neil, hanging on by a thread and especially some of those mom-and-pop joints, neil. i'm not surprised they're having to add a covid surcharge because their costs have gone up so dramatically, neil. we talk about economics a study of what is seen and not seen and whenever government regulation they put on surrounding covid from the lockdowns down have been a severe cost especially for theirs businesses. their costs have gone up if they have to have a temporary surcharge, i'm excited to see, neil, a lot of businesses are passing it on to their employees. that is kind of a trend we saw with a lot of big box retailers. basically giving front line employees cash. i know when someone brings me my

dinner at night, i'm always generous but now during the holidays i am more generous because i truly appreciate the front line restaurant workers and delivery people making the economy and holidays work. neil: no, i agree with you on that and i think for restaurants in particular they want to charge that and all, you know, they have got to make ends meet. it is very hard in this environment to do that. where i might want to draw the line this market watch story i was alluding to, hitha, management in the building, co-op in new york, raised allocated testimony you give various staff 25%, recommending a 25% increase in such tips in this covid year. her husband apparently thinks it is a good idea and should continue next year. she is not a fan of that. so to the earlier point that jonathan was getting into it's a temporary thing, that's one thing and restaurants i believe are a distinct different thing.

what do you think of that? >> neil, this, what is happening with small businesses and restaurants is not just something that is going to go away in three months. as people get vaccinated or as the virus hopefully dissipates sooner versus later, it is just going to be a ripple effect. so if this has to happen through 2021, if it sticks around for a little bit longer, listen, i don't think the restaurant industry will rebound as quickly as we think it is going to. and like i said, they have to think of different revenue streams. until they figure out what the revenue streams are, i think the surcharge will stick around for a little bit longer. but you know, neil, a lot of people go out to dinner way more frequently especially here in new york, than i think typically we used to maybe 10 or 15 years ago. maybe we go back to the model, we go out to restaurants, when it is a special occasion, pay

that surcharge, make it special. maybe that is just something, maybe there is a reckoning that needs to happen there. as people kind of embrace that specialness of it, they're happy to pay a little bit more for it. neil: what do you think about the concern of her husband advocating paying next year as well, the 25% surcharge, tipping charge? >> yeah. neil, the truth is, i hate to say it $100 ain't what it used to be. i mean -- so you know, i'm sorry. getting a little interference in my ear here. i just say $100 ain't what it used to be. i think it has a lot to do with government money printing. a tremendous amount is printed. it is difficult to be a generous tipper for the front line employees used to be 25 or $50 -- [inaudible]. neil: jonathan. we have audio problems with you

i apologize for that. a lot of people didn't agree with you are if your ears simultaneously. i apologize for that. there are people look askance. i apologize for the confusion here. the dow is down 105 points in the middle of all of this. our charlie brady points out that nasdaq is getting in and out of a all-time high, large part of apple plans down the the road to start making its own driverless cars. russell 2000, small caps and the like putting in a good stay. on track for a record close. we'll have more.

neil: all right. not yet signed, but pretty much sealed and ready to be delivered. i'm talking about that covid-19 relief package, better than $900 billion worth that the president of the united states is expected to sign any moment right now and get that money out to people, particularly covid relief checks that are due out as soon as next week, $600, up to $2400 depending on the size of your family, and staenan extension o unemployment benefits that will run out soon after the pandemic, ten weeks of them that will be around $300 a week at the federal level whether you have lost your state unemployment checks or not. let's go to blake burman, what

we can expect on capitol hill. sir. reporter: as of late, things in washington, there is always a process and that is what is undergoing right now with that 5500-page bill. president trump is expected to sign it at some point here in the near future but there is a process to get the bill from the hill over to the white house, and that's sort of what's playing out right now as to why it's technically not signed at this moment. of course, one of the big things involved in this is the direct payments, the $600 direct payments going to certain individuals. half of what it was in the cares act that was signed back into law in march when it was $1200. well, professor scott baker of northwestern university, one of many economists, a part of the team who have looked at it and believe the $600 level should be increased and broadened out instead and the income level should be lowered instead to sort of get it to individuals who make less money than the

$75,000 for an individual or $150,000 for couples. listen here. >> i think that that would probably be a more cost-effective way to stimulate the economy, certainly. again, you are going to be missing out on some people who maybe had high levels of 2019 income but lost their jobs and might not be eligible now for ui payments for some reason or another, or kind of fell through the cracks. reporter: baker is part of a group that studied the first round of $2500 checks and here's what they found. roughly 40% of people who received the stimulus check the first go-round who had $100 or slightly less in their bank account at the time spent the money within the first six weeks. for those who had up to $1,000 in their account, that number dipped to roughly 20%. for those who had at least $4,000 in their accounts, only 10% spent the checks in the first six weeks. now, the democratic senator bernie sanders and republican

josh hawley were pushing for those checks to be $1200, but neil, opponents as you know feared runaway spending. the cares act, $2.2 trillion. this measure, $900 billion. you're talking $3.1 billion between the two and right now, the national debt stands at some $27.5 trillion and counting. neil? neil: wow. all right, thank you very much, my friend, blake burman following all of that. again, when we get news the president has indeed signed this measure, we will pass that along. it is expected shortly. meantime, i want to go to jackie deangelis. separately looking at the arrival of these vaccines. we've got the pfizer one and the moderna one, and some prominent names are beginning to get them, aren't they? jackie: absolutely. so today, or earlier this morning, we watched dr. fauci, 80 years old, as he sat in the chair and he got the shot. he didn't get the pfizer one. he got the moderna one. that is the most recent to get the fda emergency use

authorization and i think he was trying to intimate to the public that both vaccines and even whatever comes out in the future are safe. we also saw hhs secretary azar getting his shot today. this is after vice president pence got his, president-elect biden. they all made a public display over this to instill confidence in the public over the last few days. now, where we stand on covid, increasing concern as you have mentioned about that mutation coming out of the uk. officials watching that very closely and there's different views on travel bans in europe. dr. fauci saying that he thinks a travel ban from europe to here is premature at this point. meantime, shifting gears to the west coast and california specifically, because governor gavin newsom saying the lockdown in southern california is likely to be extended as the icu capacity there is falling close to zero basically. the current end date of the new order was december 28th. it became effective on december 6th. but residents can expect that to

be shifted out. now, it's impacting people in los angeles, orange, riverside, san diego, santa barbara and ventura counties, so it's a very expansive part of the country. california's secretary of health said the hospitals may run out of room for patients that need to be admitted in general, but don't need intensive care as well. so that's the urgency that the state is balancing there, neil. neil: all right. thank you, jackie, for that. jackie was just mentioning california, what's going on. we are just getting word that california's governor newsom has named california secretary of state alex bedia to fill kamala harris's senate seat. she's going on to become vice president of the united states. this is the first latina senator in california, i believe the first ever in the state. yes, first ever in the state, according to the "wall street journal." we will keep you posted on any further developments there. he was expected to pick a

latina. indeed he did, california secretary of state. meantime, i do want to bring your attention back to covid relief and all this activity and a separate spending measure. all of this is happening at a time when a lot of people thought that a lame duck session would do little, you know, just come in, show up for work and leave. they got a lot more than that done. let's go to the politics white house national correspondent, much, much more. you know, susan, this is surprising a lot of people. i remember when they were first talking about, you know, a lame duck congress looking into providing covid-19 relief. it seemed ridiculous that the two sides couldn't come together and there were old wounds, the election. didn't happen. what happened? >> well, it was a torturous process, to be sure. eight months in the making to get where we are today. that's $908 billion covid relief package. early on, back in may, the house democrats passed a $3 trillion

package and they said they wouldn't budge from that number, or then they went down to 2.4. the republicans are now saying the one we passed just yesterday looks a lot like the one we offered in july, so weren't you just playing politics with all of this. so yes, there's a lot of squabbling about who is to blame over why this didn't happen sooner and whether the campaign presidential politics was the reason, and i think there's a lot of merit to those arguments. neil: if you don't mind my getting into this issue about when the electoral college formally comes before giant session of congress i believe on january 6th, day after the georgia runoff vote, the president apparently has been making it clear that mike pence as the president of the senate,'s the the vice president who makes it official in these

joint sessions, if he goes ahead and confirms that result that joe biden has won the electoral college, it's going to be a tension convention. what do you make of that? >> absolutely. i think mike pence is well aware of that because he's planning a big foreign trip right afterwards to get out of town. but it's interesting, if you look at vice president pence, what he's been doing while trump seems hunkered down at the white house, he's been business as usual, projecting sort of ongoing strength and he's had a covid task force, coronavirus task force meeting, he met with the governors this week. he went down to georgia to campaign for the senate runoff. he has really been looking, people are watching what he's doing and saying he's really looking for -- with an eye to 2024 to sort of keep appearances up and say you know, i'm managing this well, i'm going

out with my head held high and i'm still working on behalf of the american people. neil: it's interesting that pence in, you know, a meeting with reporters, wrapping things up talking about the stimulus package and everything else, even though he talked little about that, he did vow to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. now, presumably, that's resolved on january 6th, when the electoral college makes it official in the joint session. he is going to confirm that and he is going to tick off donald trump. that seems to be a gimme. >> i don't think he had a choice, really. right now, just as bill barr has said, the attorney general, there hasn't been systemic election fraud proven. we have seen a lot of cases. they are going for another bite at the apple on the pennsylvania case, there's a constitutional question raised there because the election officials went

ahead and changed the laws on when you can have an extension of those absentee ballots coming in when it's really the state legislators' job to do that, you know. that is something that is a point but the supreme court has rejected getting involved before and i just don't see it happening. so i think pence, the vice president is looking at the political reality of the situation and he also has to worry about his political afterlife. neil: yeah. it is weird, as we are showing an image of the white house with the presidential reviewing stand for the inaugural parade. i don't know how they will do that this go-round but he sees it every day, the president sees it every day, probably doesn't like seeing that every day. susan crabtree, thank you very very much. want to go to danielle dimartino booth right now. this back-and-forth on how the electoral college event will be handled in a joint session of congress, let's talk about what corni congress just did right now, getting these various stimulus measures off, money to keep the government running and the big

one, the $900 billion plus of covid relief, will that do the trick for the economy? or will we need still more? what do you think? >> well, i think the quote unquote, k-shaped recovery continues. people who own stocks, people who own homes, that they are taking money out of their homes like they were atm machines back in 2007, they pulled $100 billion cash out refinancing equity out of their homes in the third quarter. people who have assets are doing much better than the people who have -- are behind on $70 billion of rent. that is foregone rental payments so far. the stimulus bill just passed provides for $25 billion of rental assistance to this cohort and only one month of the moratorium on rental evictions being extended. so you're talking about ten days from when congress gets seated, the new congress gets seated, that they have to make sure that there are not a bunch of

millions of americans who are not thrown out of their homes. again, neil, there are two different stories to tell here and we also have to bear in mind that small businesses continue to suffer. 48% of landlords in america are small businesses. this is not just a story about people who can't afford to pay their rents but it's also people who can't afford to pay the mortgage because the people, their tenants are not paying. two different stories, neil. neil: yeah. very good read, too. one of the things i've heard from a number of democrats and particularly democratic operatives behind the scenes who are saying you know, we don't flip over this $900 billion package because when joe biden comes in, we are going to have, you know, one to blow that away. in other words, presumably get into the trillions. then what? >> maybe, maybe not. everything, everything hinges on what happens january 5th in those two georgia runoff elections. look, it has taken congress, what, seven, eight months to come up with this.

i don't see why there should be any presumption that if the gop remains in power in the senate, that there is going to be anything easily done when we have just had in our rear view mirror finally what gridlock can look like and how long that can be drawn out. so again, i would be remiss to be presumptuous at this juncture, neil. the pressure on biden on day one in office is going to be immense if georgia does not flip to the democrats. neil: danielle dimartino booth, i wish we had more time. i always learn a lot listening to you. have a merry christmas. >> likewise. merry christmas to you. neil: we have a lot more coming up. you hear about these countries and various entities that have strict, you know, provisions in effect if you violate quarantine. well, in one country, they throw you in jail. now one american woman trying to

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neil: all right. here's a lesson in life for a lot of you who go to foreign countries and ignore their quarantine rules and

regulations. if you do so, say in the cayman islands, it could land you in jail. charles watson with more from atlanta on what's going on. charles? reporter: hey, neil. 18-year-old skyler and her 24-year-old boyfriend have been in a cayman islands prison since last tuesday serving a fo four-month sentence. this morning, an appeal hearing was scheduled on the island in an attempt to overturn the sentence after she and her boyfriend, who is a cayman islands resident, were convicted of breaking strict covid-19 guidelines. the two were jailed after a court reversed a much lighter sentence that originally included community service and a fine. an island judge presiding over the case purportedly said this was as flagrant a breach as could be imagined. he went on to say it was born of selfishness and arrogance. mack's grandmother says she isn't disputing the fact the mercer college student broke quarantine protocol just two days after traveling to the cayman islands from georgia, but

she does think the punishment is way too harsh and says she's written president trump personally seeking federal assistance. >> my response from trump was from his staff and they said we have turned it over to a federal agency. i wasn't really sure what that meant. but i do believe they're working on it. reporter: skyler mack has released a statement apologizing for her actions, saying i was afforded the opportunity to enter the islands during these trying times and i abused it. i am humbly asking for the forgiveness of the community and the state department tells fox news that they are aware of this case, but they declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns. as for the mack family, they say they want her home in time for christmas. back to you. neil: charles watson, thank you very much. charles in atlanta. you probably know the estee lauder company but it wasn't always beautiful. when it started, it was a bumpy ride. didn't look like it would make

it. i want you to meet the son of the founder and how he made it click, after this. ♪ research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ to listen, is to hear more than what's being said... and offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started call a dell technologies advisor today.

neil: one of the things i love about my job is talking to people who are really rags to riches stories. in other words, coming from virtually nothing, then becoming in this particular gentleman's case, worth more than $21 billion, representing a family that is among the richest on the planet. but it wasn't always that way for leonard lauder, whose mother,estee lauder, founded what would be an odd beauty company that she sort of concocted with beauty creams and special potions in her apartment to see if they would sell. there were great doubters among them, probably including leonard, but he's put together a remarkable book that chronicles the family's comeback in the midst of the depression, thinking big, the company i keep. my life in beauty. leonard lauder reflects on that

life and especially not forgetting what life was like before he became a billionaire. take a look. >> once you have that in your blood, you can't throw paper clips away. i turn all my [ inaudible ] upside down so i can use them again and before going to bed at night, turn off all the lights in the house. neil: incredible. you know, i was thinking, too, the great ipo wave we have been seeing in this country, all these new offerings, and it gets back to your philosophy, which you talk about when your company went public, i believe back in 1995, you said i swore that neither the company nor i would change as a result of going public. i was wrong about the first. as for the second, i was still living in the apartment i bought in 1971. i still had a tiny one-bedroom hideaway in the country.

i had already acquired 90% of my collection of cuban paintings, your art fascination lasted, but you didn't materially change who you were at your core. i'm wondering when we see this rush to gazillions in the markets today, you know, of young people becoming instant millionaires, wondering if they could learn a thing or two from that. >> you know, i'm bewildered by them, by all of that. because look, the main thing is this. if you have made millions or even billions and haven't had a rough time in your life, haven't had any challenges, you're missing something and may not be able to deal with it. i've had enough tough times to appreciate the good times and i take care of everything so that nothing goes wrong and the other thing is this. i'm protecting not only my family, i'm protecting my lauder

family, the people who work for me and work for estee lauder. they're the ones i worry about. they're my number one worry right now as we go on. neil: you know, one of the things i was thinking about you, leonard, the little touches you brought to your career, that very few thought of or did, how you wrote personal notes to salespeople, customers, and you continued to throughout your career. for all i know, you are continuing to this day. why was, is that important to you in this day of e-mails and texts and the like that that's sort of like a bygone sort of notion? >> well, it's not a bygone notion. people love recognition and people love thanks, and you know who's the master of all this was george bush, george 41. he wrote personal notes to everyone, even though he was the president of the united states.

and they treasured them. now, i have everywhere i am, i'm sitting here at my desk, i keep a little blue notepad with me and i write things, i write a thank you to someone. it may only be dear so and so, thank you and good luck and sign my name to it. whatever it is, people save those. people love recognition and if you don't recognize people, they won't recognize you. neil: that's a very good point. you also talk about when you are the boss and you should admit you screwed something up. i was thinking of john kennedy, who famously after the bay of pigs could have blamed it on his predecessor but didn't. but you point out in the book, apologize when you're wrong, never be afraid to admit that you made a mistake. it shows that you are human and people will respect you more. but in corporate america today, leonard, so many companies have

teams of lawyers that say that's the last thing you should do, you never want to leave yourself open to culpability. what do you tell them? >> listen, that's not human. if you made a mistake, i'm sorry, i have grand equity sessions and i have a two or three-hour session each time called leonard lauder's chamber of horrors. these are all mistakes i've made. how much can you learn from success versus how much can you learn from a failure, a mistake that you made? i think the latter. if you made a mistake and recognize it, boy, have you learned something. neil: what if you haven't, right? i always wonder that a lot of bosses are afraid to even get correction. you said that you should not be threatened by people who might be smarter than you. in fact, you should encourage that. don't be threatened by them. you said embrace them.

that's the last thing a lot of corporate honchos want to do, even presidents when assembling their cabinet, for fear someone will outshine them. so what is the benefit of surrounding yourself with people who, you know, might take your job? >> first, i'm not afraid of that. but what i do feel is this. that you are only as good as the people who surround you. so you are known by the people who support you and who you indeed in turn support. think about this. the guy who is my hero, is ronald reagan. look at his cabinet. look at the people he had. every one of them has gone on to greatness in the future. jim baker -- neil: that's right.

including a certain relative of yours, right? including a certain relative of yours. >> of course, my brother ronald. he surrounded himself with great people. they help cover you in glory. neil: you know, you mentioned ronald reagan but you were also very fair and balanced in quoting, looking at presidents. john f. kennedy came to mind when you mentioned he set a goal for this country about landing a man on the moon that seemed preposterous when he was saying it in 1961, at the end of that decade we would have a man on the moon, but big goals are important, but how do you instill that in workers who might not share your big dreams? how do you pound that home to them? >> the main thing is this. share your vision with people. don't assume that they know what you're talking about. very often, i will have a meeting with people, there will be five or six of us sitting around the table and at the end,

i say let's review the minutes and i ask each of the five, the six, what they learned, what our decision was. believe it or not, 99 times out of 100, none of them get all the decisions right because they heard what they want to hear, not what was said. so the main thing is this. you have a vision. if you have a vision, and explain it to the people around you, again and again, they will buy into that vision and they will make you and your company great. but share it. neil: no, no, i definitely think there's something to what you say because when you talk about the key to leadership, obviously it's to inspire but also, it's key to listen. you had mentioned ronald reagan and john kennedy. memory serves me right, historically looking at both men, they were very good listeners. in fact, we have learned later,

listening to a lot of tapes of the kennedy cabinet meetings, he was speaking the least in room. ronald reagan as well. you had mentioned my father frequently said god gave you two ears and one mouth. of course, he also said i have been vaccinated with a pho phonograph needle because i talk too much and i learned to listen, but through listening, i learned. we don't do a lot of that, i hate to say it, even in my business. what do you think of that? >> listen, you have to learn to listen. i have two little phrases which is the key to success. number one, be kind and number two, listen. if you can be kind and listen, and deal with your people with respect, you cannot believe how much you can accomplish and how much you will be remembered and followed and celebrated. that's the way to go. neil: you know, leonard, but you know what's remarkable about

your career, i'm not blowing you smoke here, but you were way ahead of the wave that people didn't appreciate at the time, or take for routine now, they appointed a female executive and the rest. you had said that not only is it a good idea to have women on your work force, but never make a decision without a woman at the table. you said it wasn't just the stores and how they had evolved. enormous forces were at play, i think you were talking about the 1970s, reshaping our culture and our consumer. the young women in the baby boom generation were old enough to start buying cosmetics so you want to hear them out. but it was novel because ironically, in an industry that would be addressing products for women, very few were talking to women. that's remarkable. >> well, in many cases, they were depending on what they call consumer information.

market research. yes, we all need market research but you have to remember, the key to success is number one, intuition and number two, understanding who the people are that you're dealing with and selling to and understand their needs. i think if you look back at some of the political parties in the past who have succeeded and those who have not succeeded, the ones who have not succeeded were the ones who were tone-deaf. tune up your hearing aid, turn it up, listen and you will make it. neil: you know, i was thinking of you because some of your wisdom mirrors that of my belated italian dad who said stay humble, in your case it will come in handy. but he would also take a page from you on the companies that look to be locked in the industries they're in. i know you went on to talk about the fact that the first to the

market always wins, but sometimes it doesn't pan out that way, right? when walmart came into being, it was up against the kmarts and caldors and they were in that same market. but they came to it and exploded it. so do you always have to be first, or do you just have to try something differently? i mean, you were against revlon. you could make the argument they were an established name. but how do you address that? >> it depends what first is. first could be just a little tiny thing. for example, walmart. okay? they're up against kmart. does walmart have a constant price? kmart was always cutting prices, you never trusted their prices. walmart was everyday low price. amazon, same thing. in the uk, one of the department store groups there would simply

say never knowingly undersold. they will never sell something at a higher price and if you have a lower price and bring it and show it to them, they will match the price. people need to trust you. if people trust you, you're in. and trust, if people trust your vision, you've got them. neil: you also talk about there's no substitute for hard work. no matter what you're doing, there's just no substitute for it. obviously you have amassed over $21 billion. i'm sure you don't keep track of that sort of thing but i would suspect your children or pointedly, your grandchildren do. how do you instill that work ethic? how do you, for people who, you know, are part of your family and are among the world's richest, to still have that sweat equity sense of purpose? >> i must say, my father always

beat me to work. he was always there earlier, before me, and at the end of the day, he came home but he was always there first. a bit of advice that i give to all young people, never come in late. be the first there and if you can, be the last to leave. first there and last to leave always gets it. so that in the navy, i had -- one of my senior officers said if you're on time, you're already late. think about that. neil: my dad used to have meetings, he was a stickler for time, much like you. he's not a billionaire, i should point out, but let's say he had a meeting at 8:00 and it was 8:01, he would have the door locked. it was a glass cubicle area where everyone in the room that was meeting could see that you were late. and his whole line was once it happened once, it wouldn't happen again. what do you think of that?

>> was he smart. listen, you have inherited all of his genes. you are the luckiest guy in the world and i don't know how many children you have, but let them understand they've got a father who's got good genes and i like to celebrate my father's genes. my mother's genes are totally different things. both brought into the total person and i thank them. i can't thank myself as much as i can thank them. neil: very magnanimous man. my three children do not practice that. i think i would disappoint on that. the great thing and the one thing i love about my job, politics notwithstanding and all of that, you get to talk to people who have done great things in their lives, but the one thing that most impressive about leonard lauder, he doesn't act like it. he's still that poor depression

era kid who says i always tell people you can take the baby out of the great depression, but you can't take the great depression out of the baby. he never did. he never has. he never will. i suspect he is instilling that in his children and in his grandchildren as we speak. as his mother and father would have wanted and an example that lives to this day. we have so many people back and forth whether you come from money or you have no money. sometimes we live by the pedigree in our heart, not what we have in our wallet. he embodies that. more after this.

neil: by the way, getting flooded with e-mails on that interview with the estee lauder descendant, leonard lauder. one told me no matter how much his company might make things smell good, you, cavuto, still stink. all righty. did you send that?

no, you did not. i was watching you the whole time. all right. we've got some big news coming out of california right now. the governor has already named his choice to replace kamala harris. of course, the california senator is going to become the vice president of the united states on january 20th. let's get more from william la jeunesse who that choice is, what we know about it. reporter: alex bedia becomes the 11th latino to serve in the senate. he will be the first latino senator from california. he is the son of mexican-american immigrants. father was a cook, mother a housekeeper. graduated m.i.t. as an engineer at age 26. he went to the l.a. city council, then state legislature and now two terms as secretary of state. this was a very contentious fight among different minority groups, gays, lesbians wanted one of their own. also, women were lobbying for another woman like senator harris. latinos said hey, we are 40% of

the state population, we deserve that seat. blacks said no, this is a black seat. here, you have ex-san francisco mayor willie brown making that argument. >> why would you replace the only black woman with somebody other than a black person? racial minorities should be wise enough to know they should not try to fill each other's vacancies. reporter: the other candidates for this gig were two members of the house, basically barbara lee from san francisco, aged 73, and karen bass. of course, she's from los angeles. that, however, by appointing either one of those, would have reduced the slim democratic majority in the house, neil, but the other candidate was the latino mayor from long beach who is also gay. this was a very contentious identity politics type of fight. padilla is a close friend of governor gavin newsom. he will likely take office we

believe with the new congress on january 3rd, when they are sworn in and then of course, they will be eligible for certain committee assignments, very important to california. there's two years left senator harris's term so he will have to come up for re-election then but for the most part, being a very deep blue state, this two-year term, history suggests, could turn into a lifetime appointment. neil? neil: all right. william la jeunesse, thank you very very much for that. when we come back, apple in the business of making cars in just a couple of years? siri-usly? okay. service at the ready.

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neil: all right. apple's stock up and tesla stock down. know why? apple is looking to build a self-driving car of its own, maybe a whole fleet of them, in just a few years. with jeremy caplan, digital trends, susan li with us also.

this could be a big development. it would be a serious threat to tesla. at least that's how the market is reading it. how do you read it? >> the market is definitely reading it that way and rightly so. if there's one area apple can innovate on, it's battery technology. that's the heart of this big report we have just seen. some new innovations, new type of battery technology, lithium ion phosphate, whatever that means. if there's something they can do to move this industry forward, that is definitely the space. i feel that's very believable and very accurate thing. the question is, will apple take that initiative, that technology, and then make an entire car which involves an entire supply chain, a whole industry that they don't work in. that seems a little bit more far-fetched but who knows? they have a great brand. neil: susan, you have been reporting on this. at the very least, the tesla thing with the s&p 500, it's been a skid since. what's going on? >> i think apple is probably motivated by the fact tesla is up 700% this year. you have the chinese electric

car name nio up 1,000%. this is a large market that can, by the way, accommodate more than just one, two or three players and as you know, apple plays for keeps and they only play for big spaces. now, this is not entirely a surprise because project titan has been in the works inside apple since 2014 according to reports but it stalled in the last few years. however, 2020 has changed that view, especially with the new government initiatives. california for one has indicated that the world and the future is going all electric but i think it's too early, i think it's too obvious to call the apple car the i-car. what do you think? neil: yeah, i don't know if i can deal with that. but let me switch gears a little. for both of you, it concerns google and facebook, of course, targeted by so many attorneys general, now reports that the two of them will join forces if need be to respond to that pile-on. what do you make of it, jeremy? >> i have been thinking a lot about this, neil. the case against these two

companies is very large, involves a lot of different moving pieces, are they monopolies, are they juggernauts, do they have too much power. this one specific detail is very interesting. it comes out of something a lot simpler and easier to prove. price fixing. if these two companies which have one hand on the front of the neck and one hand on the back of the neck of the ad tech market, if they are collaborating together, that feels like a very easy thing to prove and the liabilities and ramifications for that seem profoundly bad for facebook and google. neil: you know,'s the be it's b remarkable, stocks have held up very well through this. facebook is what maamazes me because that just becomes a bull's eye for these guys, yet through it all, up, up and away. i'm not saying consistently but it's absorbed these body blows. >> yeah, still close to record levels. you are still looking at google above $1700 apiece and that indicates to you that wall street doesn't think that they are going to be broken up into

pieces even though we have three lawsuits filed against google in just two months. in this case, though, this "wall street journal" report is true, there are some smoking guns here when it comes to the price collusion and the e-mails but proving it and going to court with $50 billion in the bank for facebook and $100 billion in the bank for google to fight these charges, i think what wall street is saying is it's going to be a tall order for not only the state but also the ftc to prove. neil: final word on that. susan, i want to thank you. jeremy, thank you very much. i apologize for the truncated nature of this. we are following the california developments in the thick of this, latino california secretary of state to take kamala harris's place as senator there. she has two years to go on her senate term so he will fill that role. then the question becomes, you know, what will be the fallout from all of this. again, the makeup of the united states senate won't be known for sure until two weeks from today, we get the results of those runoff elections going on in georgia.

but this could be an interesting development in a state that leans let's say kind of left, that once in that job, it's his to lose. more after this. .

♪. neil: all right. in light of the variant on this virus in britain a number of major carriers are trying to make sure passengers they take from britain are good to go.

in other words are virus-free. british airways, virgin atlantic, delta, among those requiring testing on their flights for covid just to make sure when those folks arrive at any location they are safe to be there. expect more of this. expect charles payne right now. hey, charles. charles: hey, neil. thank you very much, my friend. good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne and this is "making money." breaking right now, call it chill on the news. as major indices, mostly limping along after long-awaited fiscal stimulus comes to fruition but once again super exciting stuff is happening in the world. most of us excited, many of us missing out owning the future. i will go in depth on the next industrial revolution. it is happening right now. i think you need to get on board. congress easily passing a 100 billion-dollar economic relief package. only a fraction going to the american people. no protection for small