. >> what i do know is going on inside the company is flannery, john flannery, doing a top-to-bottom's where i think investors missing the boat on this thing. he is looking at all scenarios including a major breakup of ge. what i understand flannery is looking at, one of the scenarios, if he does go there, this is the one thing i think analysts say is going to boost the stock, is to break up the company into various other companies. liz: he broke it. that was charlie gasparino, but in october, all the way back last year, breaking it right here on "countdown," the general electric was considering cracking up the company. new ceo john flannery confirming the breakup is on the table. but what's got to be happening under the table? charlie, palace intrigue like "game of thrones." >> this is the end of ge as we know it. and excuse me, a great guest to have on would be obviously jack welch to think about what he said about the legacy, when you talk to company insiders, they will tell you that mr. flannery, the ceo may have no other choice but to do this breakup, ending ge as we know it. wh

flannery that could put in place to remedy the situation at ge. and we should note i believe you have a sstock; i do. issues ge has been facing rd toda has been up to decades in the making. john flannery inherited this sort of on the right track in terms of trying to streamline the portfolio and trying to simplify it. but an outright bust up i think it's going to take a ong time. i don't thin there is a quick fix for ge or what ales it. they have go just work through their challenges, whether they in power or other issues as well. it's going to take a long time. >> some investors held it for the dividend. as you mentioned, they have slashed the dividend. do they need to eliminate the dividend completely. well, if you look at the cash flows and you referenced early whier in your piece the $15 billion of insurance. this is just one segment of ge capital that they are on the hook for. it's not clear that they do not have to continue to cut the dividend. ge is heavy hadly owned by retail investors. many of them watching the program tonld. i would tell

it better be lucky than good and i think flannery is prompting for the sale to raise cash to get thelue we should sell it piecemeal and get better prices, but the clock is ticking. someone or smomeones want to bu pieces of this and get a real bargain. i'm keeping it on a tight leash for my charitable trust and i've issued more mea culpas for owning this one than any other stock the truf has earned in 15 years, but i want to see what flannery lays out before i decide whether to bail into the newfound buying we've seen over the last couple of days. i can't believe that ge is truly as horrendous as the stock suggests, but i've been wrong all of the way down. a fresh start with a recognition of the errors committed will go a long way toward establishing the credibility that the company needs at least if it can stem the bleeding and solve the bigger issues like debt, like pension, like long-term care obligation, and of course, power, oil, and infrastructure that's a big to-do list. flannery needs to do it all to save the company and he's been dealt a bad hand by the previous ceo and he ha

john flannery saying he is seriously considering a breakup of the blue chip company >> as i look at thepany and continue to evolve along this continuum, i believel there could be different structures that can achieve all of those objectives, and that we need to examine those. so i don't -- you know, i would categorize it as an examination of options and it's the kind of thing that could result in, you know, many, many different permutations, including separately traded assetsings really in any one of our units if that's what made sense. >> while flannery has stressed every option is on the table, he has done that before, those comments mark the first time he has explicitly said that ge, including power, aviation and health care could be spun out into separately traded assets. flannery also saying that the quote real core approach here is to make sure these businesses are flourish in the decades ahead. all that said, a breakup has not been fully decided those sources say the company is likely seen as embracing the idea an update on this is likely in the spring meantime, q 4 earnings come

does flannery get a free pass here?mplain about a legacy issue and not have known about it already? taken proactive steps to get rid of it or taken charge, or selloff that part of the company? >> exactly. i think that has to be one of the most frustrating things. these assets, they divested the bulk of the stock in 2004, 2000 six. beyond that, they got rid of a lot of ge capital in 2015. this is a slow burn of bad news. i think you do have to be frustrated as an investor. john flannery's fault. he has only been in the job since august. in the time he has been there, we have had the bad news in october, the bad news in november, and this again. if you are an investor, you have to say, when is it going to end in terms of nasty surprises? shery: how bad is this particular bad news? we saw the church coming. brooke: -- we saw the charge coming. beoke: they said they would reviewing their insurances. i not think anyone was prepared for a charge this magnitude -- of this magnitude. withhold going to dividends from ge capital

its fourth quarter results of weakness and power division its cash flow is improving this is john flanneryn the conference call talking about some of the early challenges that the company has faced >> you heard a lot from us since i came ceo in august i recognize the news we share in that time, power and insurance have been tough. we have moved to tackle the issues our responsibility is to reshape this company and ensure that ge matters as much in the next century as it has in the past. >> they did say we expect more challenges to continue at least for power >> right, the relevance of ge is largely going to be aerospace and power is a disaster. sometimes you wonder whether what did they do to make you feel that power is good. you know who seems to be as interested as that as i am sec, investigation and how they book that revenue which i think some of us realize had to happen the sec is going to pursue individuals as well as the company. it is behind mr. flynn and had nothing to do with him >> tough is the least of the words of what he may have used for his tenure and, dealt with -- well, d

in terms of what john flannery walked into, this is the biggest mess since tycho international over 15 years ago and save the ticker symbol. >> since taking over, john flannery has already cut $1.5 billion of costs with plans to cut more this year. he has said repeatedly that everything is on the table, including a possible breakup. but investigators looking for more clarity on that long term strategy didn't get it today. >> we have a team dedicated to considering all the details, and looking at the options that will deliver the best value for your shareholders and the most attractive jobs for our employees. the truly enduring strength of ge lies in our people. there will be a ge in the future, but it will look different than it does today. >> other key takeaways, industrial cash flow for the quarter and the year were better than expected. and ge did reaffirm its 2018 earnings and free cash flow guidance. welcome news for analysts who were bracing for a vision lower. the health care and aviation segments grew, and baker hughes, the oil services firm in which ge is a major stake holder

on tuesday, ge quantified new after tax losses at ge capital at $6 billion, leaving flannery groping adjectives, he settled for deeply disappointing. from bad to worse. >> i spent so much time on the phone with so many people talking about this company yesterday that my battery died two times. stock ended the day down 3% despite these headlines and comments from ceo flannery that, you know, the potential for a breakup is on the table, including in the core industrial businesses of aviation, healthcare and power you would expect that to be welcomed news on the street. not so much. two things at play the first thing is they have pension obligations, more than $31 billion. they have all these other liabilities including a surprise $15 billion worth of reserves that need to be built up over the next seven years that was five times greater than the street was expecting everybody is going can they actually break this company apart? can they spin these core businesses out if so, how can they do that without being strapped down with all these liabilities and all of the debt you talk to analy

a lot of this happened pre-flannery. flannery was there in the ecosystem, but immelt was the ceo.immelt, i believe he's an honest guy. if something was done, it was my view it was a mistake. i don't think he'd do it on purpose but can you land yourself in trouble. what coffey is saying is immelt is likely to be under scrutiny like everybody else. liz: what about the board? you got to bring up the boards in these situations? >> remember boards get a lot of the information from the ceos who give the presentation and the sea suite executives, and it's been kind of -- the courts have been wishy-washy on the fiduciary responsibility. i don't remember the last board member sued by the sec because of a problem with the company. ceo's and c-suite executives do come under scrutiny. and if you think it is bad now, it could get worse given what's going on with the underfunded pension liabilities, this insurance liability. the sec's investigation into the insurance liability that came out last week on top of the class-action lawsuits which are pretty damaging. liz: very serious. charlie thank

john flannery had floated the idea before and said tuesday that g.e. is quote looking aggressively at many permutations the story is big if true and as they say we'll keep an eye on it but to give you a sense of how big it is archie's ashley banks joins us to explain what a breakup of this mega corporation would mean and how all these pieces of the puzzle could be put together or apart actually well barred wall street is now scrambling to evaluate the standalone value of g.e.'s visit says now over the last year the company's stock has been the worst performing on the dow jones industrial average according to fact set that's more than a forty percent decline g.e. owns a slew of businesses g.e. capital he capital evasions services g.e. energy financial services g.e. real estate g.e. oil and gas and many others although industrial analyst brian ilagan berg says the g.e.'s healthcare and aviation units are doing well in general electric will likely break up as a business as starting as early as the spring there's a porsche l. shareholder returns and the pa

john flannery talked about a reset, is this inevitable?> clearly disappointing a lot of investors, let's go to the chart. ge is under pressure as they announced the $6.2 billion surprise, the runoff from this portfolio of insurance related insurance care investment and it really was a turning point because now we have the ceos talking about weighing options for have to breakup, have spinning a part of the company, if you look at the bigger picture chart for ge, you can see that this has really been under and come down very hard in the recent months and of course, has the new ceo pledges to turn things around, he is saying ok, fresh start, now i will turn things around and there are some analysts warning that there may be more bad news ahead from ge and brace yourselves, we shall see. su keenan there. trade tensions between the u.s. and china have surfaced again but president from calling china's later to tell him a growing deficit is not sustainable, joining us now from washington is just subject. the tcu, the president express and that th

> my father had to go all over these people because no one wants to pay >> my first interview of flannerythey have not reviewed it the expectations of dividends would stop on capitals is not lost on investors. >> the good news is they think they can maintain that out of the rest of the ge i think power is the new black hole i feel better of the long-term care no one's really been able to get their arms around it sickly, that's because of mortality and the ability for state regulators, wait a minute, you are not covered enough i do feel better that they're not going to have to suspend their actual dividends of shareholders >> right >> lets be clear about that. almost all of it was dispersed but goes to the capital and to the parent the parents will be able to maintain the cut dividends >> well, not enough, they're saying fine, what do you think of the idea of oil and gas that's going up, could you change it? >> david faber, cnbc participant. what do you think of the idea about that now >> it cannot hurt. $70 oil cannot be hurting us now. >> it does help them >> now the stock has had a good

john flannery had floated the idea before and said tuesday that g.e. is quote looking aggressively at many permutations the story is big if true and as they say we'll keep an eye on it but to give you a sense of how big it is archie's ashley banks joins us to explain what a breakup of this mega corporation would mean and how all these pieces of the puzzle could be put together or apart actually well barred wall street is now scrambling to evaluate the standalone value of g.e.'s visit says now over the last year the company's stock has been the worst performing on the dow jones industrial average according to fact set that's more than a forty percent decline g.e. owns a slew of businesses g.e. capital capital levy a chanst services g.e. energy financial services g.e. real estate g.e. oil and gas and many others although industrial analyst brian ilagan berg says the g.e.'s healthcare and aviation units are doing well in general electric will likely break up as a business as starting as early as the spring is a portion of shareholder returns and the past

ceo john flannery is not ruling out a separation of the different units after disclosing a $6 billioner-tax charge with its legacy business. julia: what'd you miss? the white house press conference is going on. the president was examined last week, and the doctor is about to take the podium. he is being introduced by sarah huckabee sanders. ms. sanders: donald trump's first exam as president of the united states, having the opportunity to analyze the results and discuss with his patients, he will provide us with his considered assessment of the president's medical theess for duty now and for remainder of his term and for office. with regard to friday's examination, knowing the doctor, i am confident he practiced good medicine. however, it would be an error to view the exam and dr. jackson's isolated when it is an ongoing process. far more important to a meaningful assessment to the president's assessment is the doctors evaluation, , andvations, conversations more during the remaining 360 four days of the year. dr. jackson has been doing exactly that from the moment donald j. trump was

john flannery said we are looking aggressively as the best structure or structures for our portfolio to maximize the potential of our businesses the company is also expected to contribute fifteen billion dollars over the next seven years to shore up the portfolios reservoir reserves excuse me j.p. morgan comment it saying this to us is not about offensive value creation and more an acknowledgement that the problems for crude the company for moving forward as previously planned even a few months ago and cullen an alleged plot i'm confident that quote there is no quick fix for g.e. and the stock remains that biased to the downside and lag in bird says it would take g.e. c.e.o. philander eighty five years to turn the company around after cutting g.e.'s dividend and restructuring its units bart thank you ashley archie america correspondent actually banks and we'll have more on this coming up to the great big story thomas edison started this company so much to get to thank you actually wrote them. two weeks into the new year now it was about the time that people all around the country are

take a listen to chairman and ceo john flannery on that call earlier speaking specifically about the of breaking up ge >> as i look at the company and continue to evolve along this continuum, i believe there could be different structures that can achieve all of those objectives and that we need to examine those. i don't -- i would categorize it as an examination of options and it's kind of thing that could result in, you know, many, many different permtations including separately sprayed separately traded assets in any one of our units if that's what made sense >> you heard it there. any one of our units but really what i'm told by people familiar with this situation who are close to the company is this is begun the process that could culminate as soon as the spring with an announcement that ge will, in fact, pursue a split. how that will be done, what that will involve, of course, remains to be seen and certainly there are many technical issues, whether it relates to pension or taxes that will have to be dealt with but you could end up and in fact i'm told likely to end up with pote

the question is do you create value which at the -- is what flannery is focused on above all else no matter where it takes him. >> david, what do you hear from the three different divisions? >> i have not heard much >> the liability the question is, are there more liabilities of this ge capital legacy and assets. i hear no and this is a clean house. >> we heard it how many times. david, it is an i fog everywhere there are multiple buyers for some of these divisions but it won't matter if they cannot. when we look at some of the parts and you discussed in the past, estimates are all over the place and bank of america is up there and you got callan owen a very low number. when i talk to investors, they say listen, you are talking about a company that got consensus and you can make an argument that a third of that and signs are related, maybe you get a blended of multiples and aviation and healthcare and the question is what's power worth and if they can get to 2021 on some of the parts. the larger argument is we need focus and a management team that's focused you hear that a lot right

i agree they should have bought new blood in flannery was complicit in the decline of this company. >> let me say, cramer, to his credit, has been waving the flag for shareholders with those kind of questions >> well, i'm one of them, and i'm not finished i want my dollar i want to know what happened to it >> if you take a look at the health care business, i just reviewed the third quarter 2017, fourth quarter will be out the 24th, health care grew organically 4% that's not a high growth company. aeronautics, engines, have the same growth. >> is it a no touch? >> i think it's no touch it's irresponsible for this company to pay dividends they've got unfunded obligations. it's upside down in its financials everybody knows they're selling assets i'm not so sure they can get more -- when you're a fire sale seller, how do you get more for your assets? >> i'm not second-guessing nygren, brilliant guy. but i like microsoft a hundred times, a hundred out of a hundred times, i'll take microsoft and jettison -- which i mild a bad buy on, i bought ge at 20.50, luckily got out with most of my bac

flannery.t he had gotten a lot of it cleared up, and you can imagine a cfo says, there is a $5 billion charge. alix: taking a look at where the company was come you go from being a washing machine maker to a bank to an industrial company, and the shift was to become an oil services company at the end of next decade. comes into power and calls into question that deal with baker hughes. jason: software and intellectual property and moving the company from fairfield to boston. david: it was a company built under jack welch on buying things. they know how to buy things and it is not clear they know how to sell things. it is a whole different scope. alix: it brings the question, when you compare it to tech because tech is in the area of expanding. then you have the industrial , they need to ge now streamline and sell and spin off and become one business. i wonder how that dynamic will playoff. jason: one thing i always think about is the private equity business, you can never get too far away from i

conference call, to discuss what the future holds for these insurance assets, chairman and ceo john flannery said this. >> as i look at the company and continue to evolve, along this continuum, i believe there could be different structures that can achieve all of those objectives. and that we need to examine those. so i don't, you know, i would categorize it as an examination of options and it's the kind of thing that could result in many, many different permutations including separately trade d assets reall in any one of our units if that's what made sense >> talking really at this point about three units. of course they'll remain the troubled power unit. aviation and health care those are the three bulwarks of what ge is they have baker hughes in which they have 62.5%. that's already its publicly traded entity. what i'm hearing is that that was not of course just a sudden decision to discuss that it's part of a carefully laid out plan that very well could result in an announcement this spring that indicates the company's plan to break itself apart. now there's a lot of technical issues tha

what to do, and some of this grousing about immelt, you might see -- i think you've seen in what flannery is doing, including very, very, very drastic steps of cutting costs. one thing i think behind the scenes immelt was criticized from from the welch people, he did not take steps necessarily to cut costs and rein in the costs. remember, jack welch was known as neutron jack for a reason. he laid off tens of thousands of people in the 1980s to get the company in a more coherent way. that's where it is. interesting story. rarely do you see these things coming public. it's never come public, that's why you got me. >> charlie gasparino, thank you very much, appreciate it. you will be happy to know liz will be back here tomorrow with more highlights from her trip to las vegas to ces 2018, including a one-on-one matchup with boxing champion floyd mayweather. she's not going to go a couple rounds with him but going to test his new fitness app. don't miss the main event in las vegas, go lizclaman.com for all sorts of exclusive videos and follow liz on lizclaman.com and become her facebook friend

>> you want to wish flannery a happy new year >> i love him too. this is the year of love for me.t's the year of love, 2018. love, southwest air, luv, had too big a move >> with ge, you don't think -- >> not yet. >> when you say not yet, are you saying short term or -- >> no, i think 2018 not going to be able -- not going to have the cash flow -- i think their cash flow is lower than they think. but ge is incredibly optimistic. i don't like the $2 number jeff immelt used, that proved to be i guess that was over -- what do you think that's over -- that was exuberrant no i'm hopeful. i'm hopeful. i'm hopeful about cousins with three interceptions, we're always hopeful. >> why don't you worry about your own quarterback. >> i'm hopeful i'm hopeful. >> he didn't look that sharp. >> shut up when i want your opinion, i'll give it to you. >> you insult my guy, i'll come back at you. >> why not he dropped his value big. >> he's laughing all the way to the bank. >> he could. i don't know what bank, maybe bank of america, i like that stock. >> j.p. morgan. >> will break out to 110, pretty go

on health care, health care is flannery turned around.had run it for about a year and a half before he became ceo, got the growth rate a little better, got the margin better. david: the way things work, it is probably not a coincidence. karen: yes. david: that means it is a good thing. karen: let's hope he sees good things elsewhere. david: not sales but spinoffs, at some point, they need to look at it because it is just not working. karen: i think there are ways to working with power, they could probably sell over time. i am sure they are looking at it in a very deep way. it could go very quickly, and that will give them more money. what about baker hughes? they could sell that. what kind of discount what they take? karen: they have a two-year agreement that they cannot sell it before july 19. they would have to take a discount. i am assuming 10%, 20% pure the market is getting better. that will help them. they are in trouble. cash?? do they need the karen: they could use the cash. they are overleveraged. they have a pension problem. i t

ge's ceo john flannery said ge is looking aggressively at spinning off pieces of the company.lled it an examination of options. ge is already eliminating thousands of jobs and cutting $3.5 billion in costs. >>> the swiss candy maker nestle is selling its u.s. candy business to italy's ferrero for about $3 billion. ferrero, the maker of nutella will take over 20 nestle brands including butter finger, baby ruth, and crunch bars. they also own purina cat chow and nescafe. >>> mcdonald's wants to go totally green. it wants to have its packages coming from renewable and recyclable materials available. currently half of its packages comes from sustainable sources. anne-marie. >> sounds like a good idea when you consider what good business mcdonald's does. it could really make a difference. thank you so much, hena. >>> still ahead, the high-flying action. the drastic measure a father took in order to find his missing son. easure a father took in order to find his missing son. have time for a cracked windshield. that's why at safelite, we'll show you exactly when we'll be there. with

john flannery is weighing a possible breakup of the company after a $6.2 billion charge related to aanalysts, flannery pledge to separate ge's primary businesses of aviation, power generation, and health care into publicly traded companies. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. haidi: thank you for that. let's look at bats on a rising yen and a flattening u.s. yield curve. by the boj and fed support these trades? kathleen hays joins us now from new york. a sudden move by currency longrs going relentlessly on the yen come how does the boj turn this into a moneymaker? >> it better start tapering. it is hinting that is the direction they are leaning in. i would not bet on that yet. a terrific story you can find in the bloomberg lace this out so well. that last week on jenny where he nine, the boj cut its long bond purchases of 10-20 five year debt with maturity longer than 25 years with ¥10 billion for each category, a small allowed, but people are saying the fed is raising rates and the ecb is removi

john flannery had floated the idea before and said tuesday that g.e. is quote looking aggressively at many permutations this story is big if true and as they say we'll keep an eye on it but to give you a sense of how big it is archie's ashley banks joins us to explain what a breakup of this mega corporation would mean and how all these pieces of the puzzle could be put together or apart actually well bardot all three it is now scrambling to evaluate the standalone value of g.e.'s visit says now over the last year the company's stock has been the worst performing on the dow jones industrial average according to fact that that's more than a forty percent decline g.e. owns a slew of business as capital.

chief executive john flannery called the charge deeply disappointing.eneral motors has a surprise for wall street. the biggest automaker in the u.s. has forecast steady earnings for this year. what analysts predicted profit would fall. p two capital partners have -- which offers a broad range of gift cards and other prepaid products. the price three $.5 billion in cash. black hawk warned last year that competitive pressures in the u.s. would hurt sales. that's your latest bloomberg business flash. we are heading for the close of trading. here's a look at some of the big gainers and the big decliners in the stoxx 600 today. this is bloomberg. ♪ you will u.s.o sales after the diesel emissions scandal. they spoke to david westin at the north american international auto show in detroit. >> there's a big shift in the past year in the suv market. people keep forgetting that basically still there is a huge market for sedans in this country. loyale a very strong and -- younger generation that have a lot of positive emotions a in the nextt orientation is family

flannery is not without cards, ge's aerospace is strong i see buyers, the health care business is just fine. grand ambitions. am i ever a diplomat is the next hurdle, with a gigantic reserve i said claims because ge -- life expectancies than we have now and it is costing them a fortune. ge will take a big right down for pattern. just to give itself some breathing room thursday morning caterpillar reports, here is another company that put up extraordinary numbers, ala netflix dollar repatriation tax holiday and the booming global economy i am praying it sells off on an inline number so you can buy it into weakness. i think ceo will put to rest the notion that somehow his chips are so flawed that we need to fear use i like the stock very much we hear from starbucks with a stock that is once again trading above 60 i am telling you its stock will finally learn its premium stock luster reporting and i think you will get some information about the new honeywell, or two new honeywell will look after the break up i have been recommending this stock for ages i suggest buying part of your positi

vonnie: will john flannery be forced to take the decision to break up the company? is something i have been calling for for quite a long time. maybe it's not as unpalatable as you might think. we are in an environment where industrial companies are breaking up. we want simpler companies that have managementwe are in an enve industrial companies are breaking up. teams that can be more reactive to shift in market trend. company ak at ge as a lot of its problems have been in .il and gas markets to industries where they invested significantly through acquisitions but clearly in retrospect was misguided. the parts of the business that are doing ok our aerospace and health care and those are strong businesses with good profit margins that are growing. do you really need to be in all of those at once or do you want to stick to the good parts and see what you can do with the parts that are left desirable? mark: how much financial flexibility does ge have right now? >> not a lot. they had to cut their dividend because they had to admit their businesses do not generate enough

john flannery and the 20 billion-dollar cost-cutting mission could be about to get a whole lot biggerhe had anticipated or thought. charlie is breaking it next. building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral... ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. yes 2018 is just a few days but ge had been the top performing component in the first week of 2018 but now not so much. they are making news. charlie guess brain is breaking. so they are talking about selling $20 billion of assets over the next two years. but we are getting some bankers inside the company they are actually talking bigger numbers they are talking something about $25 billion over the next couple of years of assets. that will be three years of asset sales. i don't and there really come to terms with what they're doing there. over the next three years equaling something like $25 billion. it will surpass the number they believe it is going to surpass t

flannery went on to talk more broadly about ge and said this >> as i look at the company and continue to evolve along this continuum, i believe there could be different structures that can achieve all of those objectives. and that we need to examine those. so, i don't -- you know, i would categorize it as an examination of options and it's the kind of thing that could result in, you know, many, many different permutations, including different assets if that made sense. >> you don't i say that as ceo of ge off the cuff it wasn't off the cuff, it was in answer to a question. he had referenced this idea earlier in his prepared remarks earlier. you say it because it's something you're thinking clearly and hard about sources indicate that the company is likely to move ahead with a potential plan to separate itself into its constituent businesses of course, aviation, health care and theed struggling power unit are the key parts of what remains of ge. nbc universal once had been. ge capital once had been both of those had been dispatched, at these insurance assets of ge capital they wish the

. >> why should we have confidence in john flannery >> i don't think -- >> i'm not saying we shouldn't i don't know the man at all, but has there been anything you've seen. >> david faber did the great interview with flannery, a lot of people came away and said it didn't sound like he had answers. >> it's early days his first move was to put ed kbarder er gardner on the board you don't put him on the board unless you're going to make substantive changes. he fired half the board. there's been fairly meaningful layoffs. he's taking action. >> stock is 18 now, where is it in a year? >> i think in a year it's easy, 22, 23 i think if he can get visibility on a ramp back to the $1.50-ish earnings number, i think it's a high 20 stock again. >> all right, scott, thank you. >> thank you. >>> if you're flying in or out of the northeast today or trying, will you be able to get to where you're going? we're going to bring you the latest on how the airports are doing after the bomb cyclone. >>> plus michael wolff's fiery new book about the trump white house on sale today. but as the administration b

it looks like investors will give john flannery the benefit of the doubt and say that they will be ables situation around. the stock will likely climb higher. below that it could get pretty ugly. it will be very important to see what happens over the fourth quarter report. this sunday will mark the end of donald trump's first year as president and all week long bloomberg is going to be taking a look back at the issues confronting the administration. today it's foreign relations and ris.elcome bill fa let's start with foreign relations. at the top of the list now is north korea. including rex tillerson talking about people in a passenger airliner seeing a missile launch. >> north korea dominated president trump's foreign-policy innda like no other issue 2017. in 2018 it is still at the top of the pile. rex tillerson is at a meeting in vancouver with allied nations to talk about what more can be done to sanction north korea. he mentioned that late november in partt that was seen by passengers on a commercial airline flight from san francisco to hong kong. be a threat and priority for the

while flannery has stressed that every option is on the table, today's conference call comments, those mark the first time he's explicitly said that ge could be spun out into separately traded assets that could, according to sources, and as david faber has also reported, include pourer, aviation and health care flanly also saying he they will review, making sure the businesses can flourish in the decades ahead. a breakup has not fully decided. flannery saying expect an update on all of this in the spring meantime, next week, and the stocks that rallied now down about 4% back over to you. >> hey there, morgan, the stock is not moving very much. what are analysts saying >> i think that's been the bigger trend overall, is the idea that some of the parts are greater when they are broken up. we've seen this with honeywell and other companies, et cetera a lot of analysts after the meeting were disappointed that there wasn't a sort of more aggressive approach laid out for the remaking of ge, given the fact we did see such type revisions to the longer-term outlook numbers. so i suspect this ex

but definitely going to be a challenge for the future >> and john flannery on the call says there will in the future, but it will look different than today, they're considering all of the details and options for the company, that everything is on the table. what are your expectations are we going to see a full break up of ge >> seems to be increasingly likely every time he says that that's what's up in the air, that's what drives me crazy about the stock. we need at analysts to have direction. are they breaking up the company. he needs a strategy and stick to it when he first had restructuring announcement in november said we will sell off $20 billion in assets, seems like maybe power is on the table. hard to value a company when you don't know what direction it is going in. >> looking at shares of ge, they're down 3%. where do you stand on this >> evaluating industrial multiple, certainly below other conglomerate peers but what does it look like in a couple of years, how do they track on restructuring, hit financial targets and give investors confidence these are questions up in the a

. >> where does that for you -- >> you know, flannery o'connor, one of my favorite writer writers, she said a writer can choose what he writes, but he can't choose what he makes live. i teach as syracuse, we have 600 applications a year, and we pick six students to come study there. that o'connor quote is so important because most writer writers start out with a love, of course, for other books, for other writers. we tend to imagine ourselves in a lineage of writers, and we start out by imitating. that's one of the first things we do. but we soon find out that the thing we want to do might not be the thing we should do. so like if you -- i'm going to the write -- [inaudible] and whenever you wrote one, everyone fell asleep. but whenever you picked up an accordion, people danced. you're like, ah. [laughter] so for some reason i don't really know, i like ghosts. ghosts make my books come alive. i can justify it. it, you know, reminds me that this reality we're in right now is not the only one. i kind of like that idea. but really i just do it because i love it. and i think with all of us

this is not john flannery's fault, obviously, he has only been in this job since august, but we haves in october, the bad news in november, and if you are an investor you are saying, when is it going to end in terms of nasty surprises? >> apple will return hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas cash to the united states. in the statement out wednesday, the company says it will pay $38 billion in repatriation tax. they also claim that investing tens of billions in domestic jobs in data centers in the coming years and give employees a $2500 bonus. 20,000 jobs is quite good news from a political perspective, but given they have 84,000 employees already, that's a big bump. if you really look at the numbers, the big number they want everybody to talk about is $350 billion in the u.s. over the next five years. they were going to spend most of that money already. the new money is for tax, 30 billion spent on the u.s.. if you subtract that from the $252 billion they have offshore, they still have a huge pile of cash, and that is what shareholders will be excited about in terms of buybac

let's bring in laura coats, ken cuccinelli and john flannery. good to have all of you on. thanks so much. laura, you first. cnn is learning tonight that the president's personal attorney, michael cohen, has filed a defamation suit against buzzfeed for publishing the dossier. buzzfeed says, it's the subject of active investigations by congress and intelligence agencies. what, if any, impact could that have the investigation? >> this is a very strong claim. in the sense that donald trump is a public figure. and the reason they had an extensive citation about all the people who have quoted their work is because you have to show actual malice and uncorroborated statements and the reckless disregard for the truth if it's published. and if you had some reason to believe it was not truthful, you you have to pay the piper. here with all the corroboration, and the mention of other intense agencies, really helps their argument, they had a first amendment right to write this. in terms of the investigation, you are seeing a pattern here where the president of the united states is tryi

flannery had the opportunity to take the kitchen sink on the fourth quarter, and six weeks before theuarter ended, and he missed the number. which is almost inexcusable. what it suggests is one of two things it suggests he's, himself, either overly confident or overly hopeful, the wrong person to be in charge of the company at this point, or he's fed information from the people below him who are overly confident or don't understand the business, in which case, he has more business problems than he expected, neerither are positive >> okay. scott, you're the bull must be lonely right now >> it is >> but i guess you argue everything's down so much, you can only look higher here, so -- >> it's a great american company, 50% on sale, right? the stock has been terrible. every piece of bad news you can possib possibly imagine today's miss was relatively material, but the sec investigation out of nowhere, it's one bad thing after another. but 16 times earnings with a lot of upside to fix it, i don't see any better risk-return out there anywhere >> down 88%. >> can it get worse. >> we would hav

form counsel to assistant attorney general for national security and john flannery aba former federalcutor for the southern district of new york. thank you for coming on. john, multiple sources tell cnn tonight that close friends and advisers of president trump are warning him against sitting down for of an interview with the special counsel. what are they afraid of. >> they're afraid of a man, trump tourettes, i suppose and mixture of admissions and fancy and him stumbling over himself. but this is a bad game. i mean seneca said fate leads you to destiny or drags to you it. he is going to end up invoking the fifth amendment. starr served clinton with a subpoena. that's what i imagine mueller will do when he needs that information. it's going to be a disaster for trump. >> carrie, a source from the legal team says trump got a little ahead of himself in his comments yesterday in he had yesterday's news conference about whether he would meet with the special counsel team in the russia investigation. who is the has the upper hand, trump or mueller? >> well i think the special counsel has

ceo john flannery said it are moving quickly to address their problems.h is the number one focus, and they see more opportunities for cost reduction in their power unit so this is where things get interesting because we looked at the revenue coming from power some of which is the number one source of revenue that has been declining in the fourth quarter versus the fourth quarter the previous year, but then the aviation unit, which is the number two source of revenue, has been steady at about $7.2 billion so they are in the middle of that $20 billion divest your and looking for areas that can cut costs. vonnie: we have the $6.2 billion one-time charge and an sec investigation. taylor: here is what we know so far. the shares did. there gains in losing territory a limit. they will take a $6.2 billion charge related to an old insurance business that they are fully cooperating with the probe. to be fair, the cfo jimmy miller on the call said she is not overly concerned about the issues currently under scrutiny. vonnie: she would say that. she is the cfo. taylo

legal commentator ken cuccinelli and john flannery. thank you both for being here except for phil mudd. i'm paying you back for what you said on the break, phil. steve bannon has struck a deal with special counsel robert mueller and will not be testifying before a grand jury. instead he'll be voluntarily speaking to mueller's investigators. from a practical standpoint, ken, what is the difference here? >> from a practical standpoint, there is very little difference. this is not at all surprising. you know, if they have fbi agents present and steve bannon were to lie, that's a felony. if you're in front of a grand jury and you were to lie, that's a felony. one of the ways it can play out in person is more conversational. it's a little more stilted in front of a grand jury, and if you are taking the deposition, if you're interviewing the witness, you want to be in a conversation. you want to engage in back and forth. so there is some utility to this format on mueller's side. on bannon's side, frankly, it's just more comfortable. you don'

. >> this is a report and you have to wait to see what john flannery says.has got the tailwind because it's become a bit of an oil company, oil company with a healthcare kicker. >> for now, until they sell baker hughes. >> okay. >> and then you have power gen and unless you see 4%, 5% gdp growth next year, if you see, that power gen will come back. if you do not see that kind of growth in gdp power gen will not come back and at 75% of their ebitda big >> right now here ge, is it a buy yet or no? jim, you made the argument no. >> i want to see what he says. i just want to see what he says because tuce is saying the cash flow is far worse. really, i wrote it down because i believed what jim immelt said. we all know as portfolio managers, if the ceo says it's great that means nothing if you think it's great it's on you. i got it wrong but i do want to see what he says about the break-up. >> pete? >> the one thing that stood out about all these notes and i'll get back to ge every single one of them mentioned one thing, tax reform not being prices in and revision

let's bring in laura coats, ken cuccinelli and john flannery. good to have all of you on. much. laura, you