eamon, thanks very much. want to bring in our next guests for their reaction. >> "closing bell" exchange, dan greenhouse, cnbc contributor, we've got todd schoenberger from land coal capital, rick santelli, steve guilfoyle on the floor of the exchange with us as well. let's see. let's start with you, mr. grinch. you sell on any strengths, even now, even if we get a deal? >> well, fundamental analysis is thrown out the window. this obviously is a headline-driven market. any time you're hearing about something that's going to take place, any hint at any type of negotiation, any type of a deal, the markets tend to respond. right now i think the markets are calling their bluff right now. we're not expecting a lot out of what's taking place in washington at this moment. here's a thing, guys. even if there is a deal, it's going to be tough. you'll have a knee jerk reaction. markets should be rallying, might be a great opportunity to sell into strength, because when you look behind the curtain of any deal that's goi

her son, eamon. and her other lover, ian, eamon's dad. they're one, big, happy, polyamorous family. a woman, her two heterosexual boyfriends. and a child, living together in a comfortable suburban home, just outside los angeles. >> starting to reflect on that building. >> reporter: what do you say to people who believe your relationship and the way you're living your life is wrong? >> thanks for sharing your opinion. we're not here to convert people and tell people -- it's a totally valid choice. >> it's not like we've slept with hundreds of people. and it's this crazy sexual thing. i'm looking for what helps me with the best human i can possibly be. >> reporter: here's how it started. jaiya has been in a committed relationship with jon for years. but jaiya wanted a baby. and jon didn't. so, jon suggested jaiya find another lover. she did. enter ian. three years ago, jaiya and ian conceived eamon. and they're not the only ones doing this. for jaiya, that means limitless love. >> i stopped searching for the one. i can have the one. and i can also have the one and the one and the one.

eamon, you're not done yet. get a cough drop or something, we'll check back. >> we'll squeeze every last whisker out of that poor old voice of eamon's. back to simon hobbes. goes a market flash on a new drug. >> for those with irregularity haeshl heartbeats or shareholders in bristol myers squibb. it's an oral tablet to reduce the risk of stroke due to dangerous blood clots. it's the third time lucky for bristol-myers squibb, already approval in canada and the european union and now it will give it blockbuster status. a rival drug to prodaxa. they will have to prove to doctors they need to come off another drug and in the clinical trial of 18,000 they found it did do a much better job. >> simon, thanks. >> it could be fiscal cliff-proof, the big trade you cannot avoid coming up next. >> and a montana rancher makes his voice heard on estate taxes. if we go over the cliff, he said it could put farms out of business. >> and the governor of montana will weigh in on that himself. more on that when we come back. stay

let me bring eamon in on that. his very considered avoidance of the word "tax rates," eamon, may be, might'nt it, where the compromise possibility lies. in other words, more revenue comes in, more of that revenue comes in from upper income earners, but it does not necessarily involve a heightening of tax rates. >> tyler, that's going to be the crux of this deal whether it comes together later on this year. you can see both speaker boehner and president obama trying not to box themselves in to corners here. president obama here not offering as obvious an olive branch to the republicans as boehner did on his side. boehner's was a little more a abject in tone. the president talked about being willing to hear some options on reform in health care. of course reform means cuts in this context. he's talking about entitlement cuts there, even obliquely. that is a concession to the republicans so that seems to set up these negotiations as a deal between entitlement cuts and revenue raisers. i think we can parse through the

eamon, set us straight. >> brian, that's right. the center of the financial universe has been senator scott brown's facebook page of all things, he is the defeated massachusetts senator. he lost to elizabeth warren. he still sits in the senate until the new senate is convened in january. so he posted on his facebook page that he was heading back to d.c. take a look at what he actually said. he said, heading back to d.c. just learned that the pres reached out the gop leadership with a proposal. it is the first such proposal to be put forth eager to see what it is, how it should be serious. he said he hopes it is a serious proposal. so meanwhile the white house responding very quickly to that. they're saying over there a senior administration official there is no proposal being sent up today. scott brown is wrong. so we'd like to hear from senator brown as soon as he gets to washington about why exactly he posted that on his facebook pain and what he meant by a proposal, but the administration official eager to knock that down. a lit

let's go quickly for reaction in washington, d.c., with eamon javer. eamon, we heard the talk.heard the talk about his family. obviously his ill daughter. everybody wishes her the best. at the same time it does sound like this is the end, whether it's formal or informal, of rick santorum's gop nomination bid. >> absolutely, brian. it is the end politically of his bid. there'll be a legal entity. there'll be some fund raising and all of that will continue. he said just now that he intends to continue traveling the country, speaking to americans. but this was a nostalgic rick santorum talking about all of the improbabilities on the campaign trail. even giving a shoutout to those sweater vests that game so famous on twitter as the symbol of his sort of rag tag campaign through iowa and the rest of the midwest. that sweater vest became a holmark of the santorum campaign. now santorum bowing out here politically. but, interestingly, no mention of mitt romney by name. santorum ending his comments by saying that he intends to work to help fight to defeat barack obama. but no endorseme

eamon javers has the new defenses billionaires are using against bad guys. a security expert who isn't happy with eamon's report and will explain why coming up in a moment. later, will stocks bounce back tomorrow? three of the street's top strategists will weigh in as we look ahead to the next day of trading. [ male announcer ] introducing a powerful weapon in your fight against bugs. ortho home defense max. with a new continuous spray wand. and a fast acting formula. so you can kill bugs inside, and keep bugs out. guaranteed. ortho home defense max. so you can kill bugs inside, and keep bugs out. guaranteed. high schools in six states enrolled in the national math and science initiative... ...which helped students and teachers get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're hitting new highs. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the spx is on my radar. tdd# 1-

play for the long side. >> as we learned from eamon javers,

i hear you, eamon. thank you very much for the update. >> you bet. >> so what is the impact of the president's fast track permit plan? here to tell us that is cnbc's own sharon epperson. evening, sharon. >> there has been a lot of controversy about the northern leg of that project. environmental concerns of course are the main factor there. but the southern portion, obama has been very supportive of. and that's going to take supply from cushing to texas. that's about 700 extra barrels of day. and the president tell us that will happen by the summer months. that's when they're expecting to start construction. back to you. >> all right. many thanks, sharon epperson. folks, let me give you my two cents quickly. this presidential announcement, pure political grandstanding. the keystone pipeline permit should have been granted three years ago after the first successful state department review. we needle as much oil supply and distribution as possible. unfortunately, the president has fought tooth and nail ev

does that seem to kind of make some sense, eamon? >> yeah, absolutely. the thing that's fascinating in washington is it's new year's eve and i hear people already talking the way they talk on new year's day, oh, this is a terrible mistake, never doing this again, i'm totally going to change my ways. that's what you'd normally hear tomorrow, not today, but there's a lot of regret in this town about the way this thing unfolded. i think both republicans and democrats are going to feel some blame for this thing. and yeah, a lot of people are looking past today's fight, baking in the cake some kind of deal getting done, likely passing the house of representatives. and then we go on to the debt ceiling fight. and what happens there? well, it's a replay of what we just saw, or it's a replay of 2011. and i think that's the question is can washington learn how to do these things without this brinksmanship until the last second? the answer is no, despite all the regret and everything that you're hearing this morning. >> brinksmanship. >> people vowing to change th

eamon. thank you. >> michelle, the london whale the big headlinen2012.l the orlando whale make a big splash in 2013. just imagine, you may be able to get a piece of shamu. the story next on "power lunch." >>> this cnbc program is sponsored by the lincoln wish list event. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. >>> take a look at your screen right now. mother nature really dumping snow on our neighbors to the north. they generally handle snow pretty well up in canada, but this storm came as fast and furious tying up roads, airports from ottawa to northern quebec. i'm so glad that's not us, tyler. >> yeah. there was a little snow coming this weekend but nothing like that. time for the power rundown. michelle will stay with us. john carnie is here with us as well. shamu, let's talk about big whale

but eamon's exactly right. absent certainty -- in fact, i would argue that if there is a likelihood, it's that those kinds of layoffs wouldn't occur. one other important thing eamon said that's really true -- these kinds of military contracts work on employment at these contractors with a lag. the projects they're doing now were funded as much as a year ago. that's where those outlays are coming from. so that's also inconsistent with the need to send out warning notice. >> let me get your quick reaction to some allegations that the labor department numbers this morning may have been manipulated. you probably heard my skepticism about those allegations. >> i am deeply, deeply incensed by there. i very much appreciated how hard you were drilling that congressman, but in fact he shouldn't have even been on tv. jack welch should be ashamed of these allegations. we are a financial market station. we have a responsibility not to give oxygen to such unsubstantiation about an agency with incredible statistical integrit

. >> eamon, this is a tough one to read. had the biggest movement been in that -- in the line in the sand with regards to how much people need to make to see their rates go up? would you say that was the white house's biggest concession? >> yeah. the white house conceding on the $250,000 is a big concession, a number that the president has taken out on the stump around the country time and time again. now he's saying he's willing to go up to $400,000 on that. that follows a big concession from the republicans over the weekend when the speaker said he was willing to raise tax rates, not just tax revenue. so there are two kind of consecutive big concessions there, and those are framed on either side on meetings by boehner and obama. presumably that's what they were talking about in those meetings. but yeah, both sides are making significant concessions here. how that reverberates among their caucuses is going to be interesting today, whether the democrats on the one side and republicans on the other can live with what's being

i think the train has more or less largely left the station already. >> all right, eamon. we're going to hear from you in just a bit as well as our own john harwood. you know if the president brings up higher corporate taxes, i guarantee you some of those ceos will push back. >> i'm sure they will. we're going to talk about that right now in fact, brian. >>> 12 ceos, as brian mentioned, will be meeting with the president today. you saw them up on our wall. it is quite an extensive list from a lot of different industries in this country, including financial services. ge's jeff immelt, ford's allan mulal mulally. a lot of people were pushing back saying there is no representative of the financial services industry. yes, there is. the head of american express will be there. the financial services industry is being represented in that room. nicholas calio, ceo of airlines for america, an airline lobby group. he also served in the bush white house as a political dealmaker -- served in two bush white houses, as a matter of fact. welcome back, nick. >> great to be with you. thank

eamon javers from washington, d.c. your take on this?ith actually hit on this, the market will go higher in the short-term. we're talking about $1.4 trillion in new taxes, so, that's more money coming out of consumers' pocket. if we get an agreement on spending cuts from the government, you're talking about government spending going down, which is perhaps contraction their, if not, it gets gdp to zero, even if you might get all excited we have a deal, you are still looking at a negative economic impact going into 2013. >> and there's multiple components to the deal. understand it's not just about taxes, it's about spending and the debt ceiling. how much of your liberty are you going to give up on taxes to get that kind of spending pain? i don't know. all i can see is the government spending is up 9.5% on an adjusted basis on the third quarter. they have to get that down and i doubt there's a deal until they do. >> let's talk housing. that is certainly although h lll cliff trade. look at the home builder's etf. will the looming cliff burn

. >> joining me now, cnbc washington reporter eamon javers. you heard the numbers we just ran down. what is the short-term tangible consequence if we don't get action on the fiscal cliff. >> cote is right, it does cause uncertainly. life is uncertain and so they know that there's going to be this issue and that washington is going to wrestle with it. in the short term, the very short term, i think actually some of the hype around the fiscal cliff is a little overblown, particularly because the first couple of days or week or so after we go over the fiscal cliff we won't see all that many impacts. all these tax and spending impacts take months to go into effect. it doesn't impact the economy until people start paying taxes, which could be several months down the line for most americans. on the spending side as well, spending is built into the cake so again you'd be looking at stuff that would be impacting the out months. for the first couple of months, no real specific impact. the big thing to worry about is whether wall street freaks out or not about the fact that we've gone over th

. >> eamon, thank you very much. is president obama's plan good or bad for business anded economy? joining me now seth and chris edwards, director of tax policy studies at the kato institute.

eamon javers has the latest. >> we saw them trooping in and out. now we're starting to get some indications of what happened in the meeting. i'm told by nancy pelosi's office that she's saying senators reed and mcconnell will try to come up with something. they also said that speaker boehner said in the meeting that he won't move anything until the senate moves first. and nancy pelosi called the meeting constructive and candid. that's the first indication we have on the record from one of the leaders about what happened in that meeting. all eyes are on the 6:30 p.m. house reconveninreconvening. what if anything will they be able to vote on? we don't know the answer as of now. we do know the president did not make any new offers in the meeting today. >> it is staggering for the president to call the congressional leaders in at 3:00 on a friday and tell them to come up with a plan, when that could have been the case this morning. to give them time to come up with a plan. >> you're right, i think based on what we know now publicly it would appear that

eamon, thanks for that. eamon javers with the latest for us in d.c. you were shaking your head. the markets have been like as the cliff turns. literally a soap opera based on whoever says what. then the markets turn lower, higher, et cetera. tomorrow, what's your guess? >> this isn't horse trading. this issue is donkey trading. you heard spending cuts on defense. you heard extension of jobless claims. you heard a lot of benefits being extended. you heard increase in spending. ultimately, this doesn't sound like the things markets want to hear. it doesn't sound like the white house is compromising at all. at the end of the day, the markets, though, today put in a tremendous rally after the boehner comments, which said there's been no significant progress. in fact, i thought that we saw markets really try to put a lot of this to the side. the problem here, or the complication, is what we're talking about with "the wall street journal". we're getting these leakages. it's almost like blue horseshoe is really the messenger again. >> which is a wall street reference. >> i'm making a w

eamon javers is on the political back-and-forth. bob, start with you. as we saw the market got boehner, then got schumered to the up side as well. what do you think the market wants to hear from these guys? >> two things. very simple. they want a deal within the next -- end of month of december and it has to be substantive. there's two parts . a deal soon and it has to be substantive. boehner came out 11:30 eastern time said no substantive progress is made. that's what happens to the smasht. then the democrats started talking, senator schumer came out and said he was confident a deal would be reached by christmas. the market goes up. that's the deals we're looking for. bottom line is this -- the market believes something is going to happen because it's been holding up extremely well. remember all those concerns about higher taxes on dividend? the dow utilities bottomed several weeks ago. okay, it is not a gigantic move but the slope has been upward. utilities are among market leaders today. all right, fractional but it is a fairly broad advance. what ab

good evening, eamon. >> good evening, larry. word that facebook's final market transaction has priced at $43.50 a share, which values the company at roughly $109 billion, ahead of the highly anticipated ipo in may. jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon told his shareholders today that 2011 was a good year, but mortgage-related losses kept it from being a better year. well expect earnings to grow over time, dimon said, adding that hostility towards the banking community continues. aig shares were up today after cnbc reported aig could launch the ipo of its aircraft leasing business, ilfc in the second quarter. earn billions from the ipo and other asset sales. >>> delta airlines is considering buying a conocophillips refinery for over $100 million in a strategy to save on rising jet fuel costs by refining petroleum in-house at the trainer, pennsylvania, based facility. sources say the deal would be the first of its kind for after airline. back to you. >> cnbc's ayman javeri eamon ja. >>> can santorum still surprise in his hometown of pennsylva

thanks, eamon. eamon javers. those that don't live in new york, here is look at the tabloids this morning. the "new york post," off the fiscal cliff. this fall is really going to hurt. ben white of morning money, dennis, said an excuse to get a bic can keeney on the cover. >> relatively slow news day. what geithner did yesterday is almost as if he is strapping a damsel in distress to the tracks and saying the stakes are rising higher. the markets are taking all this tension, all this sort of -- these things at stake to really make the point perhaps that you have to have those stakes really high for people actually to get a deal. >> on "fast" last night when that letter crossed in the green rooms, we were chatting, we said this sounds like a ploy on the part of the treasury to actually get people to start moving. obviously, there wasn't a market selloff, did have the stumbling blocks and traders on friday said almost better if we did see the markets pull back more to crystallize what this could mean for the u.s. e

they like the idea here of running against congress, michelle. >> thank you, eamon. eamon javers.o as president obama pressures congress to extend renewable energy tax breaks many are asking if the president's energy policies are a complete failure, basically a waste of taxpayer money. let's get reaction from our guests. here is dan weiss, senior director of climate study at the center for american progress and christopher horner of the competitive enterprise institute and author of power grab. mr. horner, let me start with you. what do you think of the president's decision to pick winners and losers in the energy sector, particularly when it comes to wind energy? >> well, he's picking temporary winners from losers. they all came with the same pitch, hat in hand saying unless you give me this wag of money we'll disappear. and as he admitted today, what the rest of the sentence was was of course even if you give me this bag money i'm going to burn through it. he was saying his stimulus companies need another bailout oregon they're going to disappear. these are temporary jobs. we're

eamon javers is live on capitol hill for us with the details on those hearings. eamon? >> reporter: hi, sue. well, tough questions today for these regulators from lawmakers up here on capitol hill. they wanted to know about jpmorgan. they wanted to know about mf global, too. the senators haven't forgotten about that. and facebook was in the air today as well. just after the hearing i had a chance to catch up with mary shapiro of the sec. and i asked her whether individual investors can still have confidence in these markets given everything that we've seen going on. take a listen. >> i think there's a lot of reason to have confidence in our markets and the integrity of how they operate. but there are issues that we need to look at, specifically with respect to facebook and as we just testified to, we're all looking carefully at the jpmorgan trading. >> can you tell us about what you've learned about facebook so far in your investigation? >> i really can't talk about it just yet. as we said, we're very clearly focused on it. what happened with the trading. and whether th

eamon javers is at the white house. eamon? >> previous meetings between the president and speaker had been telegraphed a little bit. this one was not today. this is an interesting development but a grim-faced speaker bainer who arrived back up on capitol hill not talking to reporters. we don't yet have a sense of what was in the meeting, what the substance of it was. what we do know is what speaker boehner offered on friday, in a phone call to the president. he offered to raise tax rates o those above $1 million in income and offered $1 trillion in new tax revenue and offered to extend the debt ceiling for sub stan recall spending cuts and reforms on the spending side. they want a dollar for dollar equivalence there. the president of the united states said he want it raise tax rates for those over $250,000 in income and he wants $1.4 trillion in new tax revenue and he with like to have a nearly permanent extension of the debt ceiling, something that congress has said they are not willing to give him. and speaker laughed off la

and i think eamon is right. a lot of details to come later, particularly vis-a-vie, the base broad broadeners. one of the things we have to talk about is deferral. overseas corporations can just keep their taxes, shelter them from the americans forever through deferral. >> but jared -- jared. >> art, larry, i want to ask you guys a question. i think we may have a fundamental difference here. where would you rather see an american firm build a factory? in detroit or shanghai? answer my question. >> no question, you're right on that, jared. much rather see it in detroit. >> then we have to change the incentives. >> but by penalizing those who are abroad, by attracting them back. not by penalizing them for staying there. this is one of attraction, not whacking them on the head with a stick. >> i don't disagree with you, art. but here is the thing. the way the thing is set up now, we have incentives that absolutely, unequivocally, make it cheaper for to set that factory up in china than in ohio. >> but don't raise t

eamon javers is where he belongs at the state fair in iowa. as we get ready to hear from representative ryan. go ahead, eamon. >> reporter: it's great out here, tyler. the sun just came out here. the politicians are getting ready to come out, too. we are expecting paul ryan to show up here in just about an hour's time and make his way to a spot just behind us to give what he's calling a soap bo box-type speech. campaigning on his own today. we ran in to senator chuck grassley of iowa represented the state for so long and knows how the folks here react to paul ryan's selection as a vice presidential nominee and here's what senator grassley told us this afternoon. >> i think the impact in iowa's going to be that he's mid western. people feel that he's a person that can be trusted. but the midwest person thing is mid westerners like straight shooters and he is a straight shooter. >> reporter: and guys, we are getting the first snapshot here of national polling over the weekend of what the pick of paul ryan is doing to the campaign. it's not a ver

eamon. >> not the senate's job to be concise, let alone the senate majority leader. never been known for that. that's not going to change, but what harry reid is saying it's their fault. we already heard from mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, it's their fault, it's the democrats. finger-pointing in washing,ton, but what i heard from speaker bain e. he said we's expecting a new proposal by the president. swu the communication is off on the capitol hill switchboard but mcconnell sounds an awful like a guy that the president will make him a new proposal based on what he and the president discuss the laughed night. the real condition here is will president obama make a new deal for any deal that could be gotten done. >> i just tweeted that out, you nailed, it eamon. lots of finger-pointing an complaining and sour grapes going on and very little in the way of compromise talk. thanks very much. continue to monitor the situation and get back to you, if we need to. >> in the meantime, what does all this wringling. >> and harry reid going at it with senator mcmcconnell.

eamon javers with the story. over to you, eamon. >> hi, maria. battle for a four-year stay at the white house has an enormous price tag. the candidates' campaigns, the committees that support them, and the top three super pacs on each side. here's how it breaks down. the obama campaign burnt through $470 million. another $255 million came from the democratic national committee. the top three pro-obama super pacs dumped in another $53.7 million. team obama comes in with over $779 million in spending. follow me over here to the challenger's side. you see that the romney campaign spent over $298 million. the republican national committee peopled on another $249 million. the top three pro-romney super pacs added a whopping $156.5 million. again, according to the center for responsive politics. total spent, more than $700 million. so far, team obama manages to outspend the romney camp by more than $75 million. keep in mind, this doesn't include all of the spending still going on in october, a key month in any election year. that's going to push throug

and cnbc's eamon javers joins us with a look at what else is coming up. >> reporter: i'm here at thewhite house in washington where the nation's top leaders are in a meeting with president obama right now about the fiscal cliff and entitlement spending. when we come back, i'll tell you what that's all about and what the odds are for a deal. all that, when we come back. [ male announcer ] trading's like a high-speed train. and you don't want to miss it with thinkorswim by td ameritrade. you get knock-your-socks-off tools, simple one-click orders, real-time paper trading to hone your skills, plus anytime you need it support. ♪ stocks, options, futures, and forex. get your trading on track. thinkorswim by td ameritrade. trade commission free for 60 days, plus get up to $600 when you open an account. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. by december 22nd when i take a picture o

if eamon was with us, saw what was implied by this, he would disagree. what is the deal? is that when we're on the d or e or a? i don't think we were as close to a deal as the dealometer is applying. >> i skeent it from here but i think we're closer to a deal than earlier in the week. >> three-quarters there. >> i think that's about right. there's till big issues to resolve. >> the one thing i love is math. two things i love. tacos and math. let's talk math. >> i'd like to talk about how they are connected. >> i want to talk about tacos. >> every time we go up the income skalt on what's defined as wealthy, you point out to viewers, there's not a lot of people that make a lot of money, 3, 4,000, couple million. you get above 500, fewer households, how can they do a deal meaningful to the deficit. >> depends what else you throw in. that's the key. if you do that with cap gains tax at 20%, $400,000. look, the republicans want to do it at a million. now what we know is that the obama administration, which previously had this $250,000 being imutable, 2340u something we can do,

again, good evening, eamon. >> good evening, larry. we're told the meeting at the white house was in the oval office. it was about 50 minutes long. boehner and obama were joined by a couple key players, including tim geithner and rob neighbors, the white house's liaison to capitol hill. he's the go-to guy who's been shuttling the paper back and forth throughout this. boehner was also joined by an aide that boehner sources have not named. i don't want to read too much into this larry. but you can get a sense from the amount of people in the room that they're getting into at least some level of detail here. if it was just the two principals, you'd expect a more general conversation. with that number of people in the room, maybe some more details getting hashed out. both sides describing the meeting as a frank one. saying as they have been throughout this that the lines of communication are open, but no major announcement here after the meeting. no news here so far on what was actually traded in terms of offers and counteroffers here in t

eamon javers on capitol hill has the very latest details for us. eamon. >> reporter: hi, bill. that letter does call for the speaker to negotiate, including all options on the table. it is a bipartisan letter. we should be a little bit careful on this because the letter habit actually been sent yet, we're told by congressman mike simpson's office. he's the congressman circulating the letter. he's gathering signatures from other members of congress, as we speak. they expect to send this letter. i've talked to some conservative republicans today here on capitol hill who say their minds are not changed, and that's going to be the group that's most difficult for the speaker to negotiate. nonetheless, the fact there's such a letter being circulated probably gives speaker boehner more elbow room in his negotiations and might help him beat back a little brush fire he saw on the right wing yesterday for being criticized after offering up $800 billion in tax increases. meanwhile, the white house confirming it has directed the office of management and budget to prepare plans for these ma

eamon javers is in washington with the details on that part of the story. sharon epperson is at the nymex with the pit reaction to that. eamon, we'll start with you. >> reporter: the president's been getting clobbered out on the campaign trail by republicans who blame him for the spike in gas prices at the pump. that might have had a little something to do with why the president came out today and he really came out swinging hard against market manipulation in the oil markets. take a listen. >> we can't afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of a shortage and driving prices higher. only to flip the oil for a quick profit. >> reporter: here's what the president wants to do. he laid out a five-point plan. the key points, he wants more funding from congress for more cops on the beat at the cftc. tech upgrades for regulators so they can keep up with the pace of high-speed trading computers. he'd like to boost civil and criminal penalties for market manipulation up to $10 million a day per v

eamon? >> brian, we're getting a trial balloon here just within the past couple of minutes from mitch mcconnell. he's the senate republican leader responding now to the president's proposal of yesterday. mcconnell telling the "wall street journal" just within the past few minutes what he had's like to see are changes to ensitelement programs, he's floating the idea of means testing medicare and social security. that means that the rich would not be able to receive the same level of benefits that the poor would from those programs. that would save some money. he would also like to see some retirement age extension. obviously both very controversial in democratic circles. but mcconnell saying that is the price that republicans are going to demand if they're going to talk about new tax revenue. now speaking of new tax revenue, we just saw president obama in pennsylvania at a campaign style rally touring a toy factory, and then making a speech. president obama saying that this is all about the r

eamon javers a nut if ever there was one is here as well.ic one today on high frequency trading. he's been reporting on why individual investors should not trade between 9:58 a.m. and 10:02 a.m. trading analytics firm nanex says that's when they see an increase in a hit and run type of trading before major economic releases. so, eamon, is this, number one, ammunition for regulators to clamp down on precisely this kind of trading? and is it yet more evidence that the little guy doesn't stand a chance? >> look, the expert who gave me this tip is a guy named eric hundr hunsitter. he say this is a rule of them. there's so much activity before the major economic news events you want to stay out of there. you could get a quote very different from the price you end up buying at by the time you actually just physically execute your trade during that period of time. the answer is he would say that regulators in washington need to pay attention to what's going on in this hft space and watch out for the little guy a little bit. if you don't have 100 mi

and from washington, cnbc's eamon javers. john, i want to go to you first. you were in charlotte, i was there yesterday. there was a lot of expectation of course on the president's shoulders as far as what he could and would deliver. the word i think that has been most touted in the hours since he's delivered his speech is workmanlike in terms of the characterization of his speech. i thought it was very effective insofar as he seemed like he was speaking to that middle, those independent voters who haven't been following this campaign very closely and he really needed to have an elegant argument made as to why they should re-elect him. what was your assessment? >> i guess, alex, i'm sort of in the workman wilike category. one of the kind of cliches in the immediate aftermath, some of the reporters and cynics in our business have been harsher on the speech than i would be, but the notion that it sounded at least in the first two thirds of it kind of like a state of the union, and kind of familiar in that way, like it sounded like a lot of barack obama's state

eamon javers back at headquarters to break down all the numbers. eamon? >> hi, melissa.r a four-year stay at the white house has an enormous price tag. so far the candidates' campaigns have spent more than $1.7 billion just since january of last year. now break it down for each side. starting with the obama campaign, the obama campaign alone on this sideburned through over $553 million. another $263 million came from the democratic national committee. and the top three superpacs on the obama side dumped in another $58 million. that's all according to the center for responsive politics. that's up more than $4 million just since last month. now team obama comes in with more than $874 million in spending. now walk with me over to the channeler's side. and you look at the romney campaign. they spent more than $360 million. the republican national committee piled on another $284 million. and the top three romney superpacs added a whopping $200 million. according to the center for responsive politics. that's up about $43 million from last month. total spent more than $844 mill

eamon javers is in washington to explain why.amon. >> so far this election year it's been front and center in the political debate. you might think that the teamsters hate private equity. why would you hate that? look at this quote from teamsters president back on may 7th. hoffa saying mitt romney represents everything that's wrong with our financial system. he made his money as ceo of bain capital while destroying u.s. businesses, sending good paying american jobs overseas and filling his pockets with millions while putting workers out on the street. so what does the teamsters organization do with its money? in part it invests a lot of its money in private equity. in fact, up to or more than $1 billion worth of teamsters private equity investments made by individual teamsters regional funds around the country, they're operated separately from the teamsters national, but nonetheless i spoke to one of the people in charge of making those investments. take a look at what rome said the head of the western conference teamsters pensio

eamon javers in d.c. with the latest volleys in this match. >> i'm going to try not to do anyany spinning here for you, tyler. but another day of kind of dueling press conferences here in washington. difference today is we have a little bit of a campaign style theme as the president took his act on the road to pennsylvania where he tore this toy factory up there. basically making the case for his tax cuts but he had a chance to make a toy factory joke as presidents are want to do. he said he's got a naughty and nice list back in washington. he's got certain congressmen in mind to be on that naughty and nice list. but take a listen to what the president said making the case that this is all about tax cuts for the rich and republicans wanting to preserve those. >> what's riding on this debate. this is too important to our economy. it is too important for our families to not get it done. it's not acceptable to me and i don't think it is acceptable to you for just a handful of republicans in congress to hold

eamon, stick around, right?p. >> the personal stuff is one things, now we know nothing cannot be excessed by somebody on the internet. bill daily, senior vice president at control risk group, a consulting firm. eamon is still there bill, many twice read the story, first, cybersecurity, not talking about incorrected national security database talking about presumably an online web mail-type system what can our viewers take away from this other than don't ever put anything into an e-mail or a draft? >> well, you said it all. that's pretty much what it's about. what it comes down to it the issue any time you type something, you know exwhen you think you're not sending it, not going to be identified, you know, that's not true. any time you think you had something on your computer and you erased it and you thought it's gone forever, that's not true. that's why you always have to be very, very careful and think very clearly what you're going to commit any type of document, whether in a business place or personal life

this is somebody as eamon tweetded with temporary credentials. we don't know how he came by the credentials. we have seen in various events from when the chinese leader came here a couple of years ago that you have some people with events and nothing the white house can do about it. >> thank you very much for wrapping that up. >> all right. >>> well, we have talked politics here. now let's talk politics there. coming up after the br i know it's complicated but you saw the passion with michelle around it. we're going to make sense of the greek vote. tell you the major players, the possible outcomes and more important, what they mean for your money. >> we have a star lineup. bill gross is here and later on in the show dow stocks with the most exposure to europe. should you avoid them? should you buy them? can they weather the storm? lots of excitement coming your way. stay with us on "street signs." ♪ ♪ here we are, me and you ♪ on the road ♪ and we know that it goes on and on ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of making

eamon javers joins us now with the details. good evening, eamon. >> reporter: good evening, larry. as you say, we're getting news tonight we're going to get dueling appearances tomorrow between speaker john boehner and president barack obama. the speaker will address a crowd of reporters at 11:00 in the morning. he will take questions from the press. we're told obama will speak at 1:00 in the east room of the white house and will not take questions from reporters. there will be an audience there, but he will not be taking questions. meanwhile, we're getting this report out today from the cbo, which is laying out the scenario of just how bad things would be if we go over the fiscal cliff. let me give you a couple of the key bullet points here. the cbo saying if we go over the cliff the gdp would drop by 0.5% in 2013. it could decline in the first half of the year, but then renewed growth later in the year. and the unemployment rate would rise to 9.1% if we go over the fiscal cliff, but ultimately the cbo saying unemployment would decline to 5.5% by 2018. so, larry, this sets the bac

let me send it now to my great colleague, eamon javers.s in tampa with the cnbc special report. >> thank you, larry. good evening, everybody. we have seen a hard fought and bitter campaign here in the republican presidential primary in the state of florida. we are now down to the last seconds here before polls close across the state of fla.

eamon javers has the latest. eamon. >> hey, tyler. it's another tough day for the gsa on capitol hill. three days in a row of hearings and we're seeing pictures of gsa officials cavorting in hot tubs in las vegas. we're seeing videos of gsa officials apparently bragging about spending government money. that was the picture you just saw there. a picture of jeffrey neally. the other glass of wine in that picture was for his wife. his wife accompanied him on some of these trips to las vegas. and apparently spent taxpayer money. this video's been very embarrassing to the gsa for the past week or so. all of this provoking outrage on capitol hill. take a listen. >> and it makes me cringe for the good people at gsa who work so hard every day and have been humiliated by a few bad actors. to those who betrayed the public trust, let me be clear, the party's over. >> tyler, the party may be over, but the scandal definitely is not. this is one of those scandals that kind of drips, drips, drips. each day we're getting new revelatio revelations, ne

. >> all right, eamon. thanks so much. >> you bet. >>> as negotiations continue on washington, that is a bit of an overstatement, check wall street, the fear index is spiking as the markets drop. we're back above 20 for the first time in fact in five months. up 14% in the past week. let's get trading action here at the nysc. mary thompson joins us on the floor. this is a vulnerable point for the markets. traders have been saying they're going to make a lot of noise and it will get made up. >> suddenly it isn't. so we're having a bit of a reality check. the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq all negative. it's the lowest now of the month. the vix is spiking. moving above the 20 level for the first time in five months. we want to point out the last time we had this angst over what was happening in washington was in august of 2011 when we had the debt crisis and the subsequent downgrade. at that point the vix was well above where it is, more than twice where it is. so while the fear index is high, up 31% in the last

and our own eamon javers joining us from washington.s may say par for the course. companies pay bribes in nations like mexico and others that are developing, right? but others say no. >> yeah, look, brian -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> well, look, that's a reaction from a lot of people saying that the u.s. law here is just simply naive in terms of doing business around the world. but we're here at this conference by trace international, it's one of the leading nonprofit groups advising u.s. companies on how to deal with that foreign corrupt practices act and stay out of trouble, stay on the right side of the law. we've heard from germans, nigeria nigerians, mexicans, they've got representatives from over 130 different companies here all sort of walking through what the implications of the law are. one of the experts who's speaking here is a lawyer from mexico city who told me that in terms of the walmart story, he first got an indication that walmart had at least special access to lawyer makers in mexico in terms of zoning when he saw w

eamon. >> hi, tyler. this could have a devastating impact on iran's banking sector as swift, the belgium consortium is set to turn off the financial switch that allows international money transfers in and out of iranian banks including the iranian central bank. that is an action that the u.s. has long-hoped would take place. that's now set to take place tomorrow. but a lot of people who are not familiar with the geofinancial world might say what the heck is swift and how is it possible that you can flip one switch and turn off an entire country? let's give you a quick primer on swift. what is it? well, as we say, it is the world's largest electronic payment system. officially known as the society for worldwide interbank financial telecommunication. it's a belgian cooperative set up in 1973. 17 million messages are sent daily on its secure global system. trillions of dollars in cash trades hands electronically. so what happens next for the iranians? that's a good question. i talked to a financial expert in