david stuart, george stuart's son, has been decoding maya glyphs since he was a boy. today, he is one of the world's leading epigraphers, scholars who decipher ancient texts. stuart: the decipherment process may begin with a single inscription or a single glyph in an inscription that will provide a really telling clue about what the phonetic value for the sign might be. to look at an example, there's an inscription from a site in northern yucatan that has a glyph that makes use of this sign that no one can read or could read before. and it's one of two signs in the spelling. the first one is one we actually know from landa's original alphabet, "ma." and here is our unknown sign. and we know from the glyphs around it that it's talking about a certain individual who is an artist. keach: together, these two glyphs form a word that describes an individual. it begins with the glyph on the left, "ma." in a mayan-spanish dictionary, stuart looks for mayan words that begin with "ma." stuart: and it turns out that "mats" means one who is knowledgeable or wise. and so "mats" se

i am david asman. stuart is back tomorrow, by the way. making executive decisions involving our economy and national security. let's throw an answer out there. what if he has given up on governing? one of his sole object is for the next two years is setting the table for the next 20 years. it is going to be a bumpy ride. >> sharpton has a very checkered history. huge sounds on his taxes. i think he is politically this. i do not understand what the president would link himself so closely to this guide. >> charlie gasparino is here. i have had cordial relationships with him. i will say that he is not radio act if with a sizable amount of the population. he is not radio active with the liberal base. >> sitting next to the vice president. >> i have mixed feelings without sharpton in this sense. not everything he has done is that. there was an incident up in harlem. a clothing store where he stood on the corner. the guys store got turned down right after that. i will just take it in the context of ferguson. he made -- >> , the times has he don

david asman is in for stuart. adam: 2015 is the year for the cost for obamacare will be direct. if you cannot afford insurance for your employees you will pay a lot more. the burden of government is growing. not shrinking. a big issue for that campaign, you bet. a big issue for businesses, did so. fashion your seatbelts. "varney & company" starts right now. ♪ i am david asman and for stuart. that fema quoit is with us. what does all of this mean for individual filers and businesses. >> trouble. they will have to prove that they are applied to the group. >> how much time and effort will that take? >> this will take a lot of time. 90% of people will ultimately qualify. for many, it will be back and forth with a lot of paperwork. the fines are not small. 2% of your adjusted gross income. more penalties for each of your uninsured children. adam: what happened if i decide not to pay? aren't those penalties dependent on whether or not i get a refund? >> that is right. you would be building up a debt with the irs. >> what if i never get a refund. >> you are outsmarting them. the employ

stuart: david asman is here, formerly wall street journal, currently fox business. sanctions on them, if we establish normal relations with them, does that set cuba free? dave: of course not. the president was talking china still has a communist government but has a free market economic system which is basically true although i wouldn't call the free-market, cuba is not china. roll castro her person and be used to kill capitalists for that reason, he would literally take his pistol out and shoot people in the head because they were accused, it was a crime, of being capitalists under the communist regime. he is still in charge. he does not allow economic progress to take place. every time an individual tries to excel in the private sector they shutdown that part of the private-sector. they release it all little bit here and there, but when the private sector begins to grow they shut it down. there is economic apartheid in cuba. you don't have that in china. stuart: you were listening to the whole thing. what did we get? we gave this, what did we get? dave: we are the

up next the late show with david letterman tonight's guest steve carell and marsha stuart. reat night. we'll see you tomorrow. ( band playing "late show" theme ) >> from the heart of broadway, across the nation and around the world, it's the "late show" with david letterman. tonight... plus paul shaffer and the cbs orchestra. i'm alan kalter. and now, fortified with nine essential vitamins, david letterman! captioning sponsored by worldwide pants and cbs

. >> i am david asman. in for stuart. here is the big story. our friends, the saudis, they only wish us well. that is what they claim. they want to give our economy a boost. they only have our interests at heart, or do they. domestic fracking stocks limp out of the wreckage. varney and company is about to begin. ♪ >> check the big board right now. the dow is off from its lows from earlier. voting down the gold standard over the weekend. oil is still near a four-year low. touching 63 earlier. there is a bounce in oil today. gas still dropping about a penny per day. $2.76. let's bring in eric boling. he knows a thing or two about the oil market. it looks like the saudis are taking direct aim. is that true? >> yes. yes. they want to come off and think we will not cut production. reducing about 90 billion barrels a day. they will not cut production because they want to give the u.s. economy a boost. they are our friends. that has nothing to do with what this is about. how quickly can we scale back production to meet the decline? maybe not the deman

david nelson later on the show. barnes & noble. shall we queue the organ music? [laughter] stuart: help me out here. we legitimately putting them on deathwatch? >> i do not know. we hear the music. the stock is a winner this year. microsoft is our best performer on the dow today. they had a weak quarterly number. they were below the estimates. they say that it provides a clearer path as they decide to spinoff band split up their business. not a good day for the shareholders. it is the number one best performer on the dow jones industrial average today. stuart: that was the headline. you buried the real news here. you have to talk to me about microsoft hitting a new high almost. give me microsoft next time around. then we have china. the world's largest economy. based on something called purchasing power. it means $1 trillion in china buys you a whole lot more than $1 trillion here. therefore, china is bigger than us. monica crowley has something to say about that. >> it is hard to argue with that particular statistic. i think that is the key. the key to political stability is a stable middle class.

tom: don't anybody tell stuart varney on this day we were singing the praise. >> david, i agree with your point, but the turning point for the economy started in 2011 when you took nancy pelosi, who was such a negative on the economy and you put a break treating the economy. no john boehner gets beat up a lot by conservatives but a budget deal he negotiated the spending caps and the sequester to change the direction. by the way whether republicans now in charge of congress will stick to those budget gaps. sometimes i wonder. tom: this mcconnell things everybody was singing the praises of mitch mcconnell over the weekend. that had me worried because a great deal maker be it i don't want him to make any deals. tom: the stock market is open, up all but seven points right now. not much going on. oil prices right on the penny $55 per barrel this morning up a little bit as well. national average $2.28, price of regular gas down $1 per gallon. since this time last year. in oklahoma join missouri in the $1 club, state average for regular gasoline $1.93 in missouri $1.98 in oklahoma so hopefu

we are joined by stuart hoffman, chief economist for the pnc financial services group. stu, you heard what davidof jobless rates below 300,000. we have the revision of 5% handle, that's something to watch, what do you think? >> i agree with david. the number of weeks we've been p below 300,000, weekly claims, four week average is dialled down to 290,000, low as it's been. no holiday distortion in this one, but will be next week, of course. this week includes the holiday. yes, that rise in gdp of 5%, and for the right reasons. good consumer spending. so what we've seen since is the fird quarter, the data showed that november and october consumer spending was very strong, and i think it's no coincidence that the drop in gasoline prices is coinciding with the rapid increase in consumer spending, and anybody who doesn't see the drop in gasoline prices is at least a net positive for the u.s. economy, and i call them brain dead, at least economically speaking. >> harsh there, stuart. >> they didn't go to penn state like you, stuart. [ laughter ] >> yeah, well -- >> stuart, listen to me, these numbers,