causes, he was 84 years old. >>> let's get to our special guest joining us for the next two hours, jeffrey lackerning, president lacker. >> good morning, steve. >> let's talk about last week's decision. are you happy that the fed did it? >> i am quite happy. i think the time was right, tapering was the right decision. >> would you have thought the fed could've done more, should've done more? >> more what? >> more tapering. >> i was in favor of tapering last october. but i -- i think given the data, given the way the committee positioned itself with the program, it identified labor market conditions as the key criteria. this decision was, you know, kind of a slam dunk. >> were you surprised that the market was quite so surprised by this decision? >> a little bit. you know, the data swung one way over the summer, looked a little weaker than we thought going into the summer. and then firmed up in the fall pretty notably. i mean, that last report -- employment report should've sealed the case, i thought. >> we have, you know, this running argument here. the debate, discussion about is the fed at faul

again this will surprise viewers i think there's a number of officials at the fed charles plosser jeffrey lacker richard fisher who are in our film who are currently at the fed who don't like what fed policy has been portraying which i think has been support for the big banks support for the stock market ben bernanke has been very explicit about wanting stock prices to go up and recently with with their purchase of mortgage backed securities at five hundred billion dollars a year explicit support for the housing market and so there's a number of people at the fed who think this is a bad precedent this is a bad road they're going down and they would like the fed to get off that road and to unwind q e to stop talking about the stock market to stop talking about the housing market to stop buying mortgages and to go back to what a tradition treated the central bank more traditionally does because you could argue that their policies today are designed for you know massive crisis and right now we're not in a massive crisis so really it represents subsidies to certain groups in the economy and historic

looking at these comments from jeffrey lacker, and, you know, not a voting member certainly, but at the same time he said, basically, that he opposed any qe. let's take that down to the floor of the new york stock exchange. are we going to hear more of this rhetoric, do you think, and is a december taper possible, mark? [laughter] >> everybody's got different opinions. it's going to happen in december, january or potentially march, and it's tough. we know this, at least there's going to be discussion aboot the taper, i think, as of next week. the data does seem to be getting stronger. there are certain holes regarding inventory concerns, lack of consumer demand, but the bottom line is the economy's slowly but surely growing stronger. s&p is now set to join the nasdaq at new highs above november, we know that in the month of december going back over the last 60 years that a move to new highs in the s&p, the next 10, 20 and 30 days forward typically has been positive. so that's interesting. but, yeah, continue to be real signs of resilience, you know, despite the fact there areling oring

we have jeffrey lacker and james bullard and richard fisher. just a few earnings reports. pep boys and the ski resort operator vail resorts. made me think it's time to go skiing. >>> u.s. futures right now, they are predicting a slightly higher start. we snapped eight weeks of gains last week for the s&p and the dow. a strong finish on friday, the dow up 1.2%. the s&p up 1.8%. the dow is above 5 points. the nasdaq six points above fair value. it was just about positive on friday. >>> still to come, cleared for takeoff. american airlines and u.s. airways move one step closer to their megamerger. we'll look at what's soet to become the world's biggest carrier. hi honey, did you get the toaster cozy? yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. so i knit until it was full. you'd be crazy not to. is that nana? [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. every weekend worked, every idea sold... ♪ you deserve a cadillac, the fastest growing full-line luxury brand i

we heard from a third bank president, jeffrey lacker of richmond.e said, he also wants to, he is another inflation hawk. as opposed qe. he wants to start tapering as soon as possible as well. but he isn't a voting member for two years so, that is the latest. wait, we'll see if next week they start. tracy: certainly will. peter barnes, thank you so much for that. we'll have full coverage of the fed meeting next wednesday, right here, two p.m. this is big one this time. people are waiting to hear. adam: get ready for janet yellen. tracy: talk about taxing times? time is running out. you don't have much time left to make changes to your tax bill for 2013. gerri willis is here next with money-saving advice. adam: bloody riots between rival soccer fans in brazil resulted in people being airlifted from the stadium. that story is ahead in your fox news minute. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to americ bp supports nearly 250,000 bs here. through all of our energy operations,

we're going to welcome richmond fed chairman jeffrey lacker.t's mon, december 23rd, 2013 and "squawk box" starts now. ♪ ♪ >>> good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc two days before christmas. there's a live shot of the christmas tree in rock center. i'm andrew ross sorkin and joe concern than and steve weise man who's in for becky quick today. investors preparing to wrap up 2013. there are only six trading days left in the year. we'll see how it goes. it looks like it will be ending strong for the bulls. the dow and s&p closing at record levels on friday. there are four government economic reports slated for release this holiday shortened week. today you should look for personal income and spending. that comes at 8:30 eastern time. incomes seen rising .4%. we're keeping the consumer in focus with only two shopping days left before christmas. mixed reviews on the holiday shopping