former republican senator judd gregg joins us as the u.s. house prepares to vote on the republican plan "b" for avoiding the fiscal cliff. >> susie: and investors gobble up shares of blackberry maker research in motion as the smart phone maker posts better than expected quarterly results. >> tom: that and more tonight on nbr! >> susie: here at the new york stock exchange, the big trade of the day was the big board itself. the n.y.s.e.-euronext has agreed to sell itself to the intercontinental exchange, an acquisition that would reshape wall street. it's an $8.2 billion deal that values the n.y.s.e. at $33 a share, a 38% premium to wednesday's close. so what are the implications of an upstart exchange buying the venerable big board? erika miller reports. >> reporter: the new york stock exchange has been the symbol of capitalism for nearly two centuries, but now it wants to give up its independence and be bought by a little-known rival in atlanta. the intercontinental exchange, or "ice" for short, was started 12 years ago as an energy trading

. >> susie: we turn now to judd gregg for his perspective. he's a former republican senator from new hampshire, and currently senior advisor at new mountain capital, a private equity firm. senator, great to you have back on nightly business report. let me begin by just asking that if you were in the senate today would you be voting for plan b? >> well, yes, but i don't think plan b is going to be the final option here. i general binly believe that it's in the interest, both of the speaker and the president and both party to its reach an agreement before we go over the fiscal cliff. and that because it is in both their political interests to do that and because when you look at the numbers that they are debating over right now they are reasonably close, especially in the context of ten year numbers, i just think you're going to get an agreement here probably on the thursday, friday after christmas. >> susie: so you think there will be a deal? some people were saying that they are hoping that this going it to put political pressure, this vote o

with me now, former new hampshire republican senator judd gregg. he's currently co-chairman of the campaign to fix the debt. senator, let's -- i want to start 50,000 feet, and we'll move down closer to ground level, but as a former member of the senate, we've now had two grand bargains, one around the debt ceiling, one around the fiscal cliff, seemingly, well, on the debt ceiling definitely, and on this one, seemingly fall apart. now that you're on the outside, are people right to be skeptical that congress can do anything? i hesitate to say big. even medium in terms of addressing our debt and spending problems? >> oh, they're absolutely correct in being skeptical, but congress can act. it has acted in the past. regrettably, it usually acts in crisis. for example, during the financial meltdown, when the entire banking system of our nation would have collapsed, congress did act. and we've acted in other situations such as right after 9/11. so, maybe we'll have to have a crisis to get the big things done here. remember, this comes back -- these are a

joining me now is judd gregg, co-chair of the campaign to fix the debt and former republican senatorrom new hampshire and jeanne shaheen democratic senator from the state of new hampshire, and they both join us today. good to see you both. >> nice to be with you. >> senator gregg, you released a statement saying you're encouraged by the negotiations but your fear is that there's going to be so much compromising that it will be a watered down bill. is that still your feeling right now after what you're hearing today? >> well, actually, we think there's been significant and important progress, but the problem is that the debt still goes up. the purpose here is to get the debt and the deficit simpson/bowles, the commission i served on, said you need to reduce the debt and deficit over ten years and if you take the place where the president and speaker are, they both made a lot of movement here, in my opinion. they are around 2 trillion and throw in the 900 billion from a year and a half ago, you're up to about 3 trillion. you're still $1 trillion short, so we're concerned that the air m

>> you said judd gregg. >> he's one of the judds. >> it is judd gregg. >> thank you. >> he's totally both of your -- >> i've been having such a hard morning i believed you for about a second. >> you've got to say it's epstein like frankenstein. >> i'm good with whatever you're good with. >> my view has been all along that these folks are going to reach an agreement. unfortunately it doesn't look that way right now. they do have this meeting and i think if the president comes to the meeting with a very specific proposal versus opening the meeting up for discussion that they can discuss in the meeting specific proposals that they can debate the merits of and decide whether they can pass. but you might still get an agreement here. the meeting this afternoon is going to be a little different than prior meetings because it will have both mitch mcconnell and harry reid in the room. in a very substantive way. up until now it's been the speaker and the president. so i think that changed the dynamic of that room, and you might get a little more movement. there's an opportunity for the senate

former senator, co-chair of the campaign to fix the debt judd gregg is here with his take on that.ce the favorite name apple, shares rebounding back to 547. is this finally the opportunity to get in? alex gauna is an analyst with jmp securities. good to have you with us. >> good morning, thank you. >> a lot of discussion how technically some defenders say apple is exacting exactly as it should. do you see it that way? >> technically i think the dangerous thing is this stock forms a head and shoulders and i don't know where the support comes in, somewhere in the 400s. that's a key risk to the stock. i focus on the fundamentals. it's worrisome in the near term for apple. when there's a lot behind that, the relationship with samsung the frenemy relationship has gone to enemy. also the closing competitive gap between apple and rival products out there, so many of those that have subsidized business models and have zero margin devices. we're neutral on the name and i think at this juncture we'd be cautioning against calling this up overnight. >> does any of your neutral thesis incorpora

. >> i want to bring in former senator judd gregg, also former governor from new hampshire, republican. senator, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> i guess i would like your take on this, with what happened last night and how this move forward, is it as the speaker just said, is the ball in the senate's court? >> well, i actually think the ball is back in the president's court in the sense that he has to come up with a proposal that addresses this issue that the speaker needs to have addressed in order to produce a bill that can pass the house which is this one for one, one spending dollar restraint for every dollar of revenues, and it has to be credible enough so the speaker can take it to his caucus. i think if that happens that the speaker can probably pass that. remember, we're talking a majority of the majority in the sense that the speaker has to get the 218 in republicans and he has to get a majority of the republicans to vote for it, and then i presume speaker and leader pelosi will produce the democratic votes necessary if the president signed on. i still th

these are important issues. >> as judd gregg pointed out, we're not that far apart.'s maybe $200 billion separating them on the spending cut sides. $4 must know billion depending on the tax increases they're looking at. and i think they can at least come up with a framework. that wouldn't take all that much time. that would be another couple of visits from john boehner up to the white house to put something together to get a framework and then they can work on the details after that. >> we'll see. >> you don't think that's going to happen? >> look, why hasn't it happened? >> because they set a deadline on december 31st and that deadline is over there. it's not here. they still have all that time to go. that's how it works in washington. you know that. >> i guess so. i guess so. >> did you ever turn in a term paper before it was due? >> no. >> i didn't, either. no. >> that's how we roll. >> you are an optimist, though. i just worry that the market has so much room for error. >> well, and you know what? i think that's very interesting, too. michael giad, his point, the

judd gregg welcome to the dome. two of the most violent gangs in u.s. history. is just all model kill or be killed with colors matching the national flag. but this country uses violence when it reaches and then it legitimizes the violence they all made in america on the odyssey. palmer had been satisfied and as i rode back towards the twenty first century it was finally time to read a message i've been passed at the darts. james i'd like to invite you to join me at the first russian viennese ball in montrose switzerland it should be a memorable event if you like to attend please join me at the imperial tailoring company in moscow next monday at noon you'll need to pick out something elegant hope to see you there victor. there was no way i could pass up a chance like this viennese ball is renowned as the best event of the season and i knew the picture was one of the men in charge. now it might be a traditional ball but i don't think the eight hundred fifty look is going to cut it in switzerland so i'm here to meet up with victor and hopefully pick up something a

and that's what judd gregg and kent conrad patterned their legislation. there will be a commission reported. they will report back to us. no amendments, no filibusters. i thought it was a novel, great idea. legislation was drafted. i brought it to the senate floor. seven republicans who cosponsored the legislation wouldn't vote for it. we couldn't get 60 votes to bring it to the floor. so a number of us asked president obama if he would do a commission, and he did. it's the bowles-simpson commission. madam president, the bowles-simpson commission was -- didn't have the potential that the judd gregg-kent conrad work had because they sent us something here, we could amendment it, we can -- we can amend it, filibuster it, but we didn't have to worry about that because they couldn't get enough votes from the commissioner to do that. so that was a failure. then president obama entered into negotiations with the speaker, and they had talks that went on for weeks. they failed. and then they had another round of talks. that failed. joe biden, the vice president o

senator conrad and judd gregg came up with a proposal to pattern what they wanted to do after the base closing commission. commission would be appointed and they would appoint back to us, no flust years, no amendment, yes or no like we did with the base closings and we did a great job, closed bases over two different cycles, saving the country hundreds of billions of dollars so we brought that up here. i brought it up. we had plenty of votes to do it, except republican co-sponsored walk away and wouldn't vote it. that's wheres simpson came in. people talk with what don't we do bowles/simpson and then we went through the months and months of talks between the president and boehner and boehner could not deliver because they refused because of grover norquist not to allow any tax revenues whatsoever. meetings with vice president biden and cantor. cantor walked out of those meetings. he's the majority leader in the house. the gang of six, the gang of eight. we had this super committee, and they were doing good things, good things, dealing with entitlements and revenues, and a week before t

. >> senator judd gregg, thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> and in today's amr moment, well rg3,it again this time against the defending champs, redskins quarterback robert griffin iii was a triple threat in the air, on the ground, and even fumbling the football, a rare mistake. it ended up in the arms of teammate josh morgan and put six points on the board. the redskins avenged the early season loss to new york with a 17-16 victory, completing a thr three-game sweep of divisional opponents. the battle for the belt way is around the corner. ravens arriving at fedex field on sunday. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. is bigger than we think ... sometimelike the flu.fer from with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-

former republican senator judd gregg joins us as the u.s.on the republican plan "b" for avoiding the fiscal cliff. >> susie: and investors gobble up shares of blackberry maker research in motion as the smart phone maker posts better than expected quarterly results. >> tom: that and more tonight on nbr! >> susie: here at the new york stock exchange, the big trade of the day was the big board itself.

former republican senator judd gregg joins us as the u.s. house prepares to vote on the republican plan "b" for avoiding the fiscal cliff. >> susie: and investors gobble up shares of blackberry maker research in motion as the smart phone maker posts better than expected quarterly results. >> tom: that and more tonight on nbr! >> susie: here at the new york stock exchange, the big trade of the day was the big board itself.

that was kent conrad and judd gregg's idea.well, as we know, the problem was the republicans who supported the legislation, cosponsored it, wouldn't let us get it on the floor. six or seven of them voted against that. the simpson-bowles commission, the obama-boehner talks, two rounds of those, biden, cantor. he was involved in every one of those. the gang of six, the gang of eight. and even though he wasn't personally one of the three people on the super committee, chairman murray, chairperson murray was leaning on him all the time for information. he has been terrific. as chairman of the budget committee, no one could do more than he did. i can remember here he managed the bills we had on getting budgets. he was here, my seat was there, and he wanted me to help him. why? because he didn't have time to deal with procedure. he was dealing with substance. i still joke with him about this. he was so intense, you could see that mind of his working. so he was happy that i was here working with him to get the budgets through. he has

four years along with senator egg sessions he's done a great job and along with his predecessor, judd gregg, they did an even greater job to see we broad brought forward budgets and principals of spending money. kent is one of those rare leaders who finds the sweet spot. looks for the place people can find common ground. he understands the importance of our job a is the future for our children and grandchildren whether this north dakota or georgia, pennsylvania or ohio. kent conrad is a senator for all of america. he's done a tremendous job in the united states senate. i wish he and lucy and today coata the very best. lastly i want to turn to football coaches which might seem to be a quick turn when you talk about united states senators but in georgia we're having a retirement that was just announced. retirement of bill curry, the head coach of the georgia state panthers. he is a legend in our state not of his time but all time in terms of football. he played football at college park, georgia in high school and went to georgia tech when they were in the southeastern conference. he was a sma

senator conrad and judd gregg came up with a proposal to pattern what they wanted to do after the base closing commission. the commission would be appointed. they would report back to us. no filibusters, no amendments. yes or no like we did with base closing. and we did a great job there. we closed bases over two different cycles, saving the country hundreds of billions of dollars. so we brought that up here, i brought it up. they have plenty of votes to do it, except republican cosponsors walked away and wouldn't vote for it. that's where simpson-bowles came from. again, people talked about why don't we do bowles-simpson. one problem. the republicans appointed there wouldn't vote for it, generally speaking. then we went through the months and months of talks between the president and boehner. both times, boehner could not deliver because they refused because of grover norquist to allow any tax revenues whatsoever. we had meetings with the vice president, biden and cantor. cantor walked out of those meetings. he is the majority leader in the house. we had the gang of six, the gang of e

senator conrad and judd gregg came up with a proposal to pattern what they wanted to do after the base closing commission. the commission would be appointed. they would report back to us. no filibusters, no amendments. yes or no like we did with base closing. and we did a great job there. we closed bases over two different cycles, saving the country hundreds of billions of dollars. so we brought that up here, i brought it up. they have plenty of votes to do it, except republican cosponsors walked away and wouldn't vote for it. that's where simpson-bowles came from. again, people talked about why don't we do bowles-simpson. one problem. the republicans appointed there wouldn't vote for it, generally speaking. then we went through the months and months of talks between the president and boehner. both times, boehner could not deliver because they refused because of grover norquist to allow any tax revenues whatsoever. we had meetings with the vice president, biden and cantor. cantor walked out of those meetings. he is the majority leader in the house. we had the gang of six, the gang of e