la la land before. this team can actually go to la la land and win. they haven't swept the lakers in a season like this in ten years. so thank you, chris for derailing my show, now i'm late in the highlight. that's john wall, he was the biggest star in hollywood last night. he had 28 points, monster dunk there. meantime, former wizard nick young. young pushes gooden. look at him. this is my favorite. him and jordan hill going at it. he's getting a big hug right there. gooden was ejected, hill was ejected and young was hit with a technical. and after the dust settled, the wizards pick up the win. >> 117 to 107. so yes trk lakers are not the best team but still the fact they got the season sweep means something. the natts, 6-5 winners over the marlins today. >> amelia's >>> on this saturday night, debris spotted. a new satellite image today of an unusual large object triggers a massive search off the coast of australia. >>> plus, we're on board a military flight as it combs the ocean for clues to missing malaysia

they are living in la-la land down there. >> sasha, what do you say about that? >> again, this is really about indexing a law that already exists with wages. so if this threshold, we are talking about this thresh had, it's basically, who can be exempt from overtime. you are saying someone who makes $25,000 ought to be -- the idea is that you raise that higher, because that person is not a white collar worker. whether or not you agree or disagree with overtime, that's a different conversation. but if you are going to have overtime, it ought to stay at the same rate of inflation. >> john, wouldn't this make workers make more, fewer managers, take them out of the white collar ranks and bring them down? which is not the the way to incentivize people? >> no, it's not. brenda, there is what happens when a bunch of ideologues that have never ran a business, they love what to do. it sounds good politically. but the billions and becomes of dollars that will be passed down to the workers who made that money. >> that sounds wonderful. >> that helps in a mid-term election. >

in a situation where frankly the european union house for a long time beating the economics of la la land they're not talking about multiple billions of euros but they're tricky trying to copy a cop because of course they are to fight hard can it possibly reasonably all for it. essentially a domestic policy within the european union across twenty countries that leaves behind fifty percent to three teeth on employed the past thirty plus percent of the stylish unemployed. this is not nor can i say shooting had also economically the euro currency doesn't work it doesn't have the ability of the flexibility to de value in the same way our nation doesn't fight russia house with a readable so therefore it is frankly political hope to see if the first order what is going on recently secondly no one in europe is in a position where they want to give their money to ukraine because all of the european nations ha farm at far too many problems going forward and therefore also hard to make possibly turned wrong to say that suddenly we're not going to be able to build their boss claims because of the la

and the only thing rise nothing his la la land is the russian empire.ably being to hard on the president, after all who could have seen this coming? you know that 2010 election victrow that swept you in to power. you department build that. the te part did. your head line. 230 people on a maylasia flight when it vanerbed. now several nations including our own aiding in the searchment and also at this hour russia is building a military presence in ukraine. the ships are unloading 200 vehicles in the oastern part of the peninsula. russia denotices armed forces are active. >> and an 11 year old maryland child missing since her mom was found dead is now safe. that father is charged with first-degree murder in the mom's death. nhalfway across the world from here, it is it day time now, fully daytime. it was day time when we started and now the search crews are looking for the missing plane. that is how fox reports on saturday march 8th. i am harris faulkner and if you are in a part of country and are the pas of arizona don't, and if you observe day light savi

. >> the only thing rising in his la la land is the russian empire. i'm sorry, but, really, i would probably be too hard on the president. after all, who could have seen this coming? [cheers and applause] >> the land of the free and the home of the brave, don't just let those words roll off your tongue. we must remember that we cannot be free if we are not brave. >> i do not like this uncle sam. i do not like his healthcare scam. i do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. [ laughter ] i do not like when congress steals, i do not like their crony deals. i do not like this spying man, i do not like "oh yes we can." i do not like this spend spree. we're smart, we know there's nothing free. i do not like reporters' smug replies when i complain about their lies. i do not like this kind of hope, and we won't take it, nope, nope, nope. >> joining us our political panel julie pace, john mccormick and byron york. governor, still looks like she enjoyed it up there. >> still a effective figure with a significant part are the republican

and the only thing rising in his la-la land is the russian emempire.ot, i'm sorry, really, i'm probably being too hard on the president. after all, who could have seen this coming? >> tonight i'll have excerpts from her fiery and comical closing key note address to the conservative political action conference and we'll analyze senator rand paul's overwhelming victory in tonight's cpac straw poll. up front, the tragic destruction the multinational effort under way right now to locate that malaysian airliner that suddenly disappeared from radar screens about 31 hours ago with 239 passengers and crew on board. because aircraft like this 777 rarely encounter problems witness they hit cruising altitude. over an hour into this flight, it was in cruising altitude, experts believe it was the victim of either a mechanical catastrophe or a criminal act like a him bo that happened so suddenly, it prevented the veteran crew from sending a distress calling. on that question of terrorism, potential terrorism, i'm have the latest on the two passengers on that aircraf

obama. [ laughter ] and the only thing rising in his la la land is the russian empire.y being too hard on the president. after all, who could have seen this coming? [ laughter ] well after that speech governor palin was called a moron among other things by left-wing media people. with us is monica crowley and alan colmes. colmes, i don't understand why this continues to happen do you understand it. >> i don't favor calling her a moron. i don't think that accomplishes anything. i think some of this criticism is justified. she quit her job as governor. if she were a serious policy person and serious about running for office oshe would have studied the issues. >> why don't you criticize her on that basis. i want to get the behind calling the woman names which is done by the left all the time. do you understand that? >> yes. i mean, do i -- no, i don't favor it. i'm not going to favor. >> do you understand it? >> i think what i'm trying to explain to you is because she seems to be one thing and does something else. she doesn't seem to -- she says things that are not true. s

in a situation where frankly the european union house for a long time been in the economics of la la land they're not talking about multiple billions of euros but they're quickly trying to kaviak because of course they're terrified hard can you possibly reasonably operate a sensually a domestic policy within the european union across twenty eight countries that leaves behind fifty percent of greek youth on employed that has thirty plus percent of the spanish and employed this is an organization in k.l. second normally the euro currency doesn't work it doesn't have the ability the flexibility to devalue in the same way per nation as in fact russia has with the ruble so therefore it is frankly political hypocrisy of the first order what is going on recently because certainly no one in europe is in a position where they want to give their money to ukraine because all of the european nations how far meant far too many problems going forward and therefore also how can they possibly turn around and say that suddenly we're not going to be able to build their bus planes because of a lack of to te

la la land they're not talking about multiple billions of euros but they're quickly trying to kaviak because of course they're terrified hard can you possibly reasonably operate a sensually a domestic policy within the european union across twenty eight countries that leaves behind fifty percent of greek youth on employed that has thirty plus percent of the spanish and employed this is an organization in chaos economically the euro currency doesn't work it doesn't have the ability the flexibility to devalue in the same way per nation as in fact russia has with the ruble so therefore it is frankly political hypocrisy of the first order what is going on recently because certainly no one in europe is in a position where they want to give their money to ukraine because all of the european nations how far meant far too many problems going forward and therefore also how can they possibly turn around and say that suddenly we're not going to be able to build their bus planes because of a lack of to tell me and or indeed that we're going to stop exporting one hundred billion euros worth of cars just from germany of the united kingdom that end up on the streets of moscow and round russia ultimately the european union is playing with fire and it's playing with fire two months ahead of very important elections to the european parliament where we're likely to see an incredible growth in extremis and why those extremists coming along because they've given up hope in the modeless of the brussels operators that says that it's going to give money what he nearly to the ukrainians but isn't going to deal with the problems at home that frankly is a huge economic impasse and very worrying. the referendum in crimea and government protests in eastern ukraine have triggered a backlash from ultra nationalists in kiev the leader of the right sector who's running for president has suggested blowing up natural gas pipelines linking russia to europe and that's just the latest in a string of threats against moscow coming from people who have significant authority in kiev as archie's you've got a few skin off reports. with tensions between moscow and kiev ukraine's right wing radicals have been pouring even more fuel on the fire russia is making money by supplying oil and gas to the west through our pipeline so we'll destroy it dimitri yarosh is the leader of ukraine's older nationalist movement the right sector which was among the main engines that drove february's violence in kiev only on white and i would say it's not enough even right now like a cable something else the new authorities are viewed as a legitimate government by the west that's despite all the firearms. molotov cocktails. deaths and the fact that the uprising brought a wave of far right extremist power in kiev. and weeks conversation also suggest that someone from the new government was behind the snipers or fired on both protesters and police in the capital that must have all looked rather thrilling in western chancery is unless they had read the novel frankenstein because if they had they had no. dr frankenstein created quickly got out of control and this monstrous threat by the right sector is a very grave one for people in europe because at least a third of the european union's gas supply is coming from russia even before threatening to blow up the pipeline yet it should already been placed on an international wanted list by moscow for making another menacing statement publicly called on chechen terrorists have to launch attacks on russia after if used to recognize kids knew or thought the islamist leader or model for also known as the russian bin laden took responsibility for various attacks on our thoughts and civil unions including the two thousand and ten moscow metro and the two thousand and eleven the much interaction airport bombings over seventy people were killed in these two attacks but cutting off europe from energy supplies and calling on terrorists to attack russia. there was enough once we restore our nuclear arsenal it will be a very different conversation rather deputy from the sub or the port he said it would take you have less than a year to build up our nuclear arsenal we need to see responsibility from the leading world powers now to look at what's happening in ukraine to look at the changes that went on and to really focus on the seriousness of the of the problem now with this nationalists in power in the ukraine and the dangers that they pose to the not just to the region but to europe as a whole it's hard to predict what sort of threats may come from the new right wing political elite in ukraine but what's clear so far neither their words nor their needs are very any impact on the foreign political support in the worst you go to school or to moscow. so the threat from ukrainian politicians may sound alarming but just how realistic is it we've been putting together some thoughts on the country's nuclear potential and here's what we found in the house of ukraine's energy comes from nuclear power so it's certainly god know how unfortunately for kyo of all of its fuel is brought from russia and it has no way of enriching uranium to weapons upgrade now on the other hand if it really wanted to could he use reactor ways to make a dirty bomb but by doing this ukraine would not only be breaking its international commitments but its own constitution which forbids nuclear weapons as a delivery vehicles a nuclear payload can be placed in a simpler tillery shell or rocket can it all be done in three to six months the answer unfortunately is a yes a low tech bomb could be put together in that timeframe now ukraine's interim prime minister has vowed to hunt down separatists and make them pay. that grade will find those responsible for instigating separatism we will find them in a year or two and place the movie on trial the very ground will burn beneath their feet there will be no place on earth where they will feel safe and the russians will not protect them. and he's also planning to beef up the ukrainian military increasing its budget by nearly seven hundred million dollars in order to do that ukraine which is close to bankruptcy would have to slash social spending qip admits it needs thirty five billion dollars to plug in budget and the fifteen billion dollars promised by the e.u. still a long way off. now the crimean referendum may not be getting the thumbs up from the west but it's certainly been well we seemed by the russian public. to percent want the peninsula to be welcomed back into the fold at the story and all of the updates on the situation on our website at archie dot com stay with us i'll be back with more to this. funding social groups or organizations that are the same thing as funding a revolution well of course if they're tossing molotov cocktails and not having a peaceful and and what i would say i intellectually dialogue you know using communications and paper and creating you know what i would say you know town halls and having discussions you know that is funding a revolution if you're a inciting violence and. basically the money's going to organizations that may incite violence against the standing government you know that is inside of your evolution and i think it's illegal. i marinates join me. in that impartial and financial reporting commentary interviews and much much. only on bombast and on. the news. most women news is work. most of the things that i have a duty to obama is to have to draw on. drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. for the most part they have been very precise six flights. on this small body on the ground is a little girl and just next to her is a little boy of eight. we do some of her service. which was a concrete. steps all the one that i can confirm that we are operating them in. afghanistan is the only other country. i guess is still country. quite often countries rich in natural resources are the poorest africa's a colony it's a colony of the big corporations it's a colony of someone's home leaders who are under the thumbs of the big corporations so they have to beg from the world bank's development of social programs goes to pay back debts poor country is drowning under the amount of debt that they should and so every year they would borrow money. and they would use that same of their own has money to pay back oh this can all that money really help. the wages of debts. here because we have a moment say for more international news of a nation republic had a long and rich history and could soon reappear on the world map the referendum is now underway in the province of benito back to buy local four days on whether to break away from its citizens can log onto a dedicated website sell or vote by foden say whether they want to form an independent state artie's are going to go to school finds out what is the motivation for the venetians that you say. by tomorrow people here believe that they have an absolute right for independence and they say they don't want to have a role as a bureaucratic entity ruling over them they believe it's simply unfair because their earnings are going over to rome in order to make up for the country italy's financial woes as matter of fact if does secede from italy they're also looking to leave the euro to the e.u. and leave nato as well i came here to because i want to see. their money do not come back any more money goes in his way and he will remain. it's looks like nobody in europe seems to have any idea about the independence referendum happening in venice at the moment but it's not something that has just suddenly cropped up as a matter of fact the movement and the idea of the referendum for independence has been floating around in the region for several decades at this point and has been actively in the works for the last several years yet people in brussels and officials in europe believe that this referendum is not legitimate and therefore they choose to disregard it as something unimportant and there is hardly any news about it unlike of course the idea of referendum in crimea the option in crimea yes i've heard that. have you heard about the referendum in italy. in you know night referendum is it today you haven't heard and what happens there in italy. if you know what kind of referendum is there in italy. now i know i've only heard about crimea i watched news about it. again some believe that if this does indeed happen and does become independent at least in its own right it will actually change the face of europe as we see it right now in venice. when it has one of the most populous regions. of italy with eight percent of the population living there it's also one of the richest provinces accounting for ten percent of the city's country's g.d.p. now its main city venice is the number one tourist attraction with fourteen million visitors every year opinion polls suggest that the majority of locals are in favor of breaking away from italy and one of those behind the movement things rome will eventually have to agree. there's absolute majority of people that will vote yes this will that it will be legitimized the delegates will be elected by this service for a bill to take immediate action i've seen already that draft all of the generation of independence scholars working on and it's almost on what we presented at the end of the month also will a draft of the constitution do they are just waiting to be cheating writing by a popular vote to stop paying taxes because they need to be able to look forward. and we've got plenty of news online for you including mystery and speculation surrounding the missing malaysian airlines plane as it emerges the jet might have been hijacked and flown to a taliban base in afghanistan a parking stun get the full story of what happened to that pain at r.t. dot com. the mayors of new york and boston refused to take part in parades markings and patrick's day in this the team's head online to find out what they object to. sleep right seem to believe her story. and i think the truth. on our reporters would. instantly. be in the field. fact that. they're going to do the job the price is the only industry specifically mentioned because there's and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy back office. rule. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our crowd cynical we've been a hydrogen why handful of friends dash all corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers one still just my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identify the problem try rational debate real discussion critical issues things are defined for you ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture. here's a look at some more headlines around the world a bomb blast outside a military academy in the libyan city of benghazi has killed nine soldiers over a dozen were also wounded officer cars loaded with explosives went off at the gates and says troops were leaving and mean operational ceremony for new offices and ghazi which is one of the birthplace of the uprising against the late colonel gadhafi has seen a surge of violence targeting security forces in recent months. the death toll from the unrest in venezuela has reached at least twenty nine after a wounded national guard captain died in hospital he was shot in the head late on sunday during clashes in the country's north riots have also taken place in the capital caracas after police had tried to storm the central square to clear and t. government camp called. the past six weeks students and opposition members have been staging a massive rally over the deep problems facing the economy. two rockets have been fired into lebanon from syria but no casualties were reported the incident follows a suicide car bomb assault on the lebanese side of the border that killed four people including a local leader of the showed militants movement hizbullah fighters from the jihad is a loser front which is of course the right thing in syria said the attack was a revenge for hizbollah support for the assad government in. so she has given the winter paralympics a sending off to remember now with fireworks and grand closing ceremonies it was a time of celebration for the russian team who won a record eighty medals in the france was the forty. this is the combination of the festivities here and saatchi and what week and more of festivities it's been the home team has broken a very important record it was a record set back in one thousand nine hundred four by austria which took home seventy medals what team russia is taking home eighty that's thirty gold twenty eight silver and twenty two bronze and it's also worth mentioning that as of today . to russia skier romantic to scoff has officially taken home six paralympic gold medals he now holds the title for that everything has gone off very well here in saatchi from the weather holding nice and bright to the organizational facilities surrounding all of the competitions and the festivities of course i'll take my word for it let's listen to the athletes and the spectators . musician was phenomenal everything was great i'm out by ski racer in the racing was extremely low condition. i don't follow our lead. here we have a lot of mean there's an overhead imagery here because it's just amazing to live for is. to have such an immersion during that time takes very little. security and all the people are very off the to be here. so this isn't just about taking home the medals this is also about a legacy that the paralympics are leaving here in russia and it's that of beating out for a city and ending up on top. up next. i don't want to beat a dead horse i try to varieties opinion pieces but you created melt out hits really close to my heart and affects people i know when i see obama gleefully talking to self elected new ukrainian prime minister just burns the inside of my brain he's throwing hypocrisy gasoline on my fire of contempt not only did the leak phone call from the estonian defense minister claim that the kiev opposition used against both sides but now the former ukrainian chief of security confirmed that the sniper fire came from a building under the control of the protesters at that time also the alliance currently in power in kiev glorified out see germany and you slogans like putting jews and russians to the knife so america's first black president a nobel peace prize winner who was elected by waves of tolerant optimistic lefty liberals is smiling and chatting with a leader who is supported by white power right winger groups that use the murder of their own members to oust a democratically elected government there william nightmare is now my friends but that's just my opinion. quite often countries rich in natural resources are the poorest africa's a colony it's a colony of the big corporations it's a colony of some of its own leaders who are under the thumbs of the big corporations so they have to beg from the world bank's development of social programs goes to pay back debts country is drowning under the amount of debt that they had and so every year they would borrow money. and they would use that same amount of money to pay back oh this. and all that money. the wages of debt. the population of crimea votes to decide its legal right of self-determination how did it come to this is it because of the western backed coup that is brought fascist to power or nato zwiebel and pushed by beasts because all this is a sideshow to undermine russia's legitimate security. welcome to go home sophie shevardnadze but years in a rush to sign the long awaited association deal with ukraine while the new leaders in kiev are turning to washington for advice those interests were at stake in ukraine's revolution while our guest today is former heroes intelligence officer scott rickard. before war of the streets of ukraine's capital the elected president forced into exile. all too familiar scenes of a bloody revolution cheered by western politicians but what's in it for them is the will of the people behind my duns victory in kiev or rather strings attached to the revolutionary euphoria. by scott rickard former u.s. intelligence officer is with us today it's great to have you with us now i know that you have said the united states government has been preparing the revolution in ukraine for arrears it's invested five billion dollars so far in the after rising where are you getting this information gee do you have a proof that that's the case. well it's public information you have the folks at the national endowment of democracy who have been doing this the unfortunate overthrow of your grandfather you know the rose revolution there were thousands at least a thousand n.g.o.s operating in georgia at the time in the early two thousand that were you know very responsible for the opposition movements that happened in georgia and this is been a color revolutions that started pretty much alongside of george soros and all of the other folks that have been involved along the way it's something that's become sort of status quo with american manipulation of foreign governments but it's not something that comes as a surprise to me. right but so so you mentioned georgia and they were originally ssion in kiev ten years ago approximately and back then that seriously there was a lot of talk about america and george soros in particular funding them and he didn't deny actually doing that but what about now would you say to exactly the same thing is taking place because many people now argue with that it's not the case this time. oh it's absolutely the same thing us aid is implicated here are all . implicated you've got the national endowment for democracy has over fifty and geos operating there now. you also have the ties into the machine and you know the the tories bosses of bosses mogul levitch who has been a sidekick for the american government you know since the preceding the the wars against russia and afghanistan. was a huge. supplier of weapons that was huge supporter of american aggression against russia in afghanistan in the eighty's so he had mentioned pierre omidyar is the founder of e-bay and also george soros so when we talk about the big cap itself and be capsule players or talk about private business who are so spending their money on revolution as you put it what's in it for them. well most of the money is coming from usaid and n.g.o.s and the n.g.o.s are actually funded by the government the u.s. government actually funds the national endowment for democracy and a lot of these folks are really closely tied to. work for nixon back in the late sixty's and who created this organization and cushman now who heads the national endowment for democracy is you know yet another protege of that old shack issues and you don't have to look very far into crane the most powerful most well known foreigner in the ukraine today is yak off like a rabbi bleich is the the number one guy that they go to to get information the state department about what's going on with the government in the ukraine he's been there for fifteen years and even john kerry on his last visit had a proper private meeting with the rabbi and the rabbis tied directly into these sort of national endowment for democracy organizations. funding social groups or organizations that i same thing us funding arrival lucian. well of course if they're tossing molotov cocktails and not having a peaceful and and what i would say intellectual dialogue you know using communications and paper and creating you know what i would say town halls and having discussions you know that is funding a revolution if you're citing violence and basically the money's going to organizations that may incite violence against the standing government you know that is inside of your evolution and i think it's illegal by international crimes by by far it's what we've done it the u.s. has done it in half a dozen nations in the last ten years these are thing the revolutions that you mentioned the rose revolution in georgia the orange revolution in ukraine the revolution that took place are taking place right now in ukraine and many would tell you that there was are also besides everything else result of acute social protest i mean surely you can't deny popular discontent even russian presidents at the grievances of the people on my gun are justified to an extent. you know the popular discontent is one thing you know but you know throwing thousands of moloch bills is a completely different thing you know put yourself in the united states if we had a foreign government funding five billion dollars to canada or mexico and then maybe a former state that seceded and then those people in those protests you know were throwing molotov cocktails at government facilities i can guarantee you they would not show near as much constraint as the ukrainian government and the russian governments have shown it's got the violence of broke out of here saying that was also planned or get things just simply get out of control. well you know it's saying things are planned or gotten out of control you know it's a fine line you know there are individuals who are very well trained. these n.g.o.s operate on every level they operate on the peaceful side and they also operate on the violent side i mean it's pretty clear that the americans have been wildly successful around militarizing jihad and violence and then he kind of operations you know even graham fuller who was very instrumental in overthrowing. the governments in the former some of the former soviet states prior to the two thousand timeframe at this with you and the really the demise of the former soviet states these guys were very calculated about working with violent organizations to create and you know israel was meddling also in georgia and you know the u.s. almost went to war because of you know senators like john mccain and that's these are situations that continue and you know nobody's really held accountable because the kind of rhetoric that's played out in the news is pretty much propaganda and that's not that's not that's putting it lightly. what cantor has on his hands right now as a burgeoning black market of firearms in kiev is do you see that as becoming do you see that becoming serious problem. well of course i mean any time that you have. police society and you begin the chaos it's much easier because the patrols are less likely it's much easier for people to smuggle things in and out of places i mean just look for the last three years in syria how successful that the foreign intelligence operatives and the mercenaries that have been operating there have basically destroyed syria. by the hands of foreigners and this is what will be in store for ukraine if the russians don't protect the sovereignty of that nation from the foreign interventionists but if you look at things generally do you think all these other protests going on right now in the world because there are many of them there is a civil unrest in turkey there is a lot going on in thailand and bosnia-herzegovina is there a force behind them is it the same forest or are they different players involved. well you know obviously the times that we're going through now and the kinds of austerity that the european union's gone through specifically greece which is you know they've had probably the worst of the worst and then you have the you know what's happening in the ukraine with austerity measures you know people start suffering from an economic explosion that really is in the opposite direction we're looking at you know times like leading up to world war one world war two there was a lot of economic. despair and these are the kinds of things we're seeing today because the immensely inflated economic environment that's been created by the world bank and the i.m.f. and all the regular suspects that have you know created a false market a false narrative around you know they do products in one country versus the domestic products and the other and that's why you've got countries like ukraine where the. income in ukraine is just the disparity comparatively to the united states is almost ten to one so that's the kind of thing that people are dealing with in developed nations and i think that's the kind of thing that they're uprising against their governments because some of the governments are corrupt and you know the people are noticing it now is it induced obviously it is induced when it's in the best interest of the united states and it's very clear that the united states as spend billions of dollars on this over the past. say least two to three decades. then take a short break now when we're back we'll talk more about ukraine's nato and the e.u. press pact with scott we turned for him our u.s. intelligence officer stay with us. i i. i . place right on the same place the first st luke and i putting pictures. on our recorders twitter. and instagram claimed to be in the play on mom gets the population of crimea votes to decide its legal right of self-determination how did it come to this is it because of the western backed coup that has brought fascist power or nato sweetland pushed by beasts because all of this is a sideshow to undermine russia's with gym and security. dramas that can't be ignored. stories others refuse to notice. the faces. lights now. so picture of today's leaves. from around the globe. up to. fifty. two goals. science technology innovation all the list i'm elements from around russia we've got the future covered. i. i. i i. i we were atlas scott re-occurrence u.s. intelligence officer it's good to have you back with us on the show now apart from establishing and nato presence in ukraine d.c. any other reasons for the u.s. involvement in that country well it's also economic and it's militarily strategic can you imagine if the americans took over the ports in crimea and also can you imagine the kinds of revenue that they would be able to generate from the gas and the pipelines just as they've done through. georgia as well as in. chechnya these are these are you know these are business individuals who understand the economics of doing business just like they did with the oligarchy under under gorbachev many people made money during that period and they stole a lot of the wealth from russia during that period one gorbachev and your grandfather you were working closely with the west so there was a time at which obviously some oligarchy came to power and some were more honest than others and you have that same sort of effect that will happen in ukraine because ukraine has a lot of great resources as well it has a good it is the transit lines for a lot of the fuel going to europe and that is the main income that's helped russia bounce back you know three times russia has had to bounce back recently from the kinds of impact that the west has ganged up on russia and that. supplied times if you include world war one and. too and actually the bolshevik knew that movement as well so the russians have really had to play come back many times to it when they've been ganged up by sort of the nato alliance because that alliance has been there for quite some time well there's a that's going on right now crane ins are saying the interim government say kenny blame us for wanting to be a part of nato what about you do you understand why they want to be part of nato of course i mean you look at the way that ukraine is broken up today there's really only about fifteen to twenty percent russians in major ukraine and about probably sixty percent maybe seventy percent in crimea as predominately crane in you have a lot of folks there who you know were very anti russian because of the terrible things that stalin did and then you obviously you have the folks that were taken out of the area during world war two because they sided with adolf hitler's third reich so there's a lot of different factions and on the west side you know it's mostly agriculture and on the side it's mostly industrial so most of them most of the actual financial gains will come from the east and most of the agricultural gains that come from the west and that the same time you know that's a much predominantly craney in society and there is a form of nationality that i can understand you know why they might want to have a but i think what you're what you run into is that they fall into the trap you know the european union can't handle another boat anchor you know they don't need another failed economy you know they're failing already and it certainly is strategically from a military perspective and from nato as perspective they've been peeling off former soviet state after former soviet state after they promised not to do so so i think it's not in a safe that means that you know that as well if european union can't give them anything as you're saying what can nato give them that's as. what nato gives every country they gave them they gave a massive amounts of financing they got a lot of it financing infrastructure behind it and you know they'll they'll create a lot of jobs around just the administration of you know that kind of activity i mean look at the announcement in january making lithuania one of the leadership roles in the strategic alliance in nato so you know they're moving you know closer and closer to the cusp of and there's a lot of money that comes with that you know there's a lot of maintenance of military infrastructure air bases so you're saying. if you cranes with i mean price tag that we're saying it will absolutely nato doesn't just expect you to invest your money i bet they nato is very complimentary when it comes to helping their their allied partners and their and their infrastructure needs and that you know includes everything from you know roads everything from you know fuel lines you know it is a strategic military initiative so. if what you're saying is the case then it will really be hundred percent positive development for ukraine to be part of nato i'm not saying for russia i'm saying for ukraine. well i wouldn't say that either i mean so let's say that nato does want to come in and be you know they're also going to have to pay debts to their their their masters so they'll bring the banking system with them and you know it's very evident that very few of the the the new as well as the existing european union economies because nato won't come in you know as a as a state run only european union will have to come alongside it and so you don't really have you will have some financial gain but it won't be the kind of financial gain that will satisfy all your craniums it will satisfy a fortune of the ukrainians that are siding with the with the nato alliance the new interim prime minister as it's a new has been saying obama in a white house lately do you think you can count on unconditional help from the united states. sadly i think the americans are going to have to foot this bill there is no way that the european union is going to be calle to come up with that kind of funding you know the russians had already offered thirty billion and that was probably the best deal that they were going to get and they are claiming they're back at only even john holzman said in the last weeks interview that you did you know that the that they were playing. honestly or they were just or being a serious enough but the fact is that they just can't afford it in the european union so the americans will end up footing the bill with an economy that's totally busted anyway it's the only reason it's still alive is because the they were granted global currency rights by the british empire when the after the bretton woods conference but it's it's a total farce at this point because it's all basically paper money that doesn't really exist in this world so you know it's just they're just adding another piece of debt to the american. fallacy of an economy and i'd be honest with you i would think ukraine should be able to see through this and work through this that actually use their industry and create their own economy and stay away from it i think the western economy is poison well you keep saying that the e.u. can't afford ukraine but the e.u. is now saying that they will sign an association agreement with ukraine at the end of may. your membership a prospect do you think. oh for sure i mean if they can do that i mean that's that's a coup de gras for them i mean they're they're obviously looking for that you know it's the sort of the nato expansion mode i mean it's the north atlantic treaty alliance and last time i looked i didn't think that ukraine was very close to the north atlantic so you know that's the problem that i have with this it's it's you know you talk about hedging me the growth in the imperialistic nature of the west there's no need to keep adopting nations into this this alliance there is i don't think there's any threat from russia and certainly no threat from the crane to the nato alliance what about the sanctions that the united states and the european union are promising how serious can they be against russia because i mean sanctions are nothing new to russia but they really represent a new serious threat to its economy what exactly is united states trying to do with their sanctions. well sadly the americans have been you know sanctioning iran and other countries illegally i think it's an act of war and you know obviously it wouldn't cripple the russian economy but it would certainly and have it their success i mean they're they would slow down the amount of success that they're having those kinds of the kinds of sanctions that they'll go after will probably be looking for alternative fuel supplies for europe and then going after any kind of freezing of international accounts i mean they've already stolen quite a bit of assets from the russian. investors and russian bankers who were banking in cyprus i mean that was that was a theft of assets in the cyprus banking infrastructure by the european union that many russians who banked offshore in cyprus took a big hit but exactly how far can the united states go how far can it afford to go in confrontation with russia over ukraine. well you know won't be easy for them to do it to russia as they did to iran and i don't think they'll be able to go anywhere near as far as what they have the damage that they've done tyron but at the same time you know there is also you know they're looking at a scenario whereby that kind of pressure that they do put on russia you know it will cripple you know some of the the outlying industry that is associated with that you know throughout turkey and throughout europe so they'll be shooting themselves in the foot and also having to look to other markets now that being said you know the americans are looking at developing other resources but that will take time and what about europe we didn't follow up on that part of the question here it is under pressure from the united states but it says it isn't ready for serious sanctions against russia despite all will it ever be you think. well i mean merkel's kind of basically. ruffling feathers you know with her commentary and obviously germany and russia have very good ties on a lot of different products. the petrochemical industry but the i would say that that would a lot of the germans would rise up against a merkel for that because i think a lot of germans see through the fallacy of the of the end of the nato alliance is and they're not they're probably one of the more wiser and i'm obviously one of the most successful. nation states because the germans are very industrious and extremely successful at their endeavors so i don't think that it would last very long and certainly in and germany and other successful european union states like germany is the strongest economy in europe it's probably only economy that's actually on the rise everything else is sort of hanging on germany england england claims to be on the rise well it is kind of on the rise but it's it's really just floating floating but the camera place promising thirty five billion dollars to ukraine i mean can you save europe is broke germany's de only country that takes care of all the other european countries how can they afford to give thirty five billion dollars to ukraine which isn't even a member of the union. i really don't think they can i can't wait to see. commentary on this you know he's one of my favorite guys who speaks at the european union i think he'll just terrible part because he knows the truth is that they don't have the money and i guarantee the german people will not be happy about footing the bill for ukraine but if they don't have the money then what's the point of promising it. i think the americans are basically going to float a blank check to you know play their cards and hopefully the ukrainian people wise up and realize that they're basically taking funny money all right it was really nice to talk to you scott rickard former us intelligence officer we're talking about what can happen to ukraine in the future whether it's going to be part of the union or a nato thanks very interesting inside that's it for this edition of sophie and call see you next time. thank you so big. we wanted to create a realistic global that would represent life to preach life is it really is. six. people wonderful the whole thing is a. hall of fame. the markets are serious time. to build a new. mission to teach music. this is why you should. only. recognize crimea as an independent state following a referendum and. voted for the region breaking away from ukraine and secure with russia. the crimean vote. here which is. the country should go. and to washington and brussels sanctions on russia and crimean officials but critics one measures would come at a heavy cost. this is r t international you live with me tom would say to our top story this hour russia's the president has signed a decree officially recognize in crimea as a soviet and independent country that follows the referendum on the peninsula which showed overwhelming support for breaking away from ukraine artie's river joins us live now with details marina so the decision all russia's president doesn't automatically imply that crimea will join russia does it. no it doesn't it simply means that russia is acknowledging the decision that the people made in crimea and what's next is that they will actually have to ask russia officially in order for it to incorporate it and we do know that harman authorities are in moscow to do just that so what happens after they officially ask for auschwitz incorporated well the russian president will have to have consultations and inform the parliament the federation council as well as the government after that they'll have to check with the russian constitutional court if the agreement follows the constitution next we know that the parliament will review the region status within russia and then the constitution will be amended if need be to accommodate the new region so this is how the procedure goes and we're expecting this to start in the next few days. details of that to decrease from russia's president now of course let's take a more detailed look at the outcome of the referendum in crimea over ninety six percent said they wanted crimea to be part of russia less than three percent favor staying with ukraine whose party's coup government is not recognized by the local authorities and the remaining one percent of ballots were discounted now they're here and i'm so when i'm president to turn out of more than eighty three percent and international observers reported that to know you think you have it in violation where in the voting artie's policy if in crimea for us. well it's a very cheerful and faced of mood here in the service to poll as you walk down the streets people are waving the russian flag many people actually have the flag draped over their bodies they are also cars honking their horns and driving down with the flag out of their windows the same mood is being experienced in some for our poll and other cities and regions across crimea where the overwhelming majority have voted to rejoin russia i was speaking to a man who summed up the mood when he said we feel like we're going home another woman telling me that people here have always been russian in the soul and they've been waiting for this day to come the mood is also experienced by the international observers who are giving a positive critique of this referendum they say that everything went according to plan that there were no reports of hiccups or at least no major hiccups and that everything went smoothly the crimean authorities have officially declared independence from ukraine this is something that they say they would do prior to this referendum and a delegation from the crimean parliament is currently on their way to moscow. the main issue there crimea is financial system the russians then there's the coordinate the use of both russian and ukrainian currencies and the energy in terms of security in the republic i can say that we have no problems with providing the force and agencies. of the crimean parliament has issued a formal request to the russian parliament to take them in the russian state duma is scheduled to hold a session on friday to discuss this the russian president vladimir putin will also need to sign off on it but certainly a festive mood here in crimea where as another person summed it up this is the best day of his life. and across eastern ukraine many regions unhappy with the hear of authorities are taking inspiration from crimea internet's got major industrial hard people have been railing for referendum for more than a week crowds are also demanding the release of the so-called people's governor a protest leader who was arrested earlier this month on sunday activists on the prosecutor's general's office and to the headquarters of the company belonging to the new billionaire governor appointed by king. and not far away in. massive protests have been taking place on a daily basis despite a court order banning demonstrations a thousand strong gathering there demanded a popular vote on the region status locals also broke into the office of the ultra nationalist right sector group blamed for the deaths of two people in a recent shoot. so really in the defense volunteers are say they've intercepted and stopped a ukrainian army convoy the vehicles were heading east towards the border with russia as ryan o'neal reports now. attentions of taken a sinister turn here in donetsk following sunday's referendum after reports of emerged that activists stopped military movements of soldiers and the quitman from ukraine moving towards the russian border here activists from the self-defense groups apparently blocked about twenty trucks that were carrying soldiers as well as military equipment including regular and add on military vehicles. he said should really sore about fifteen to twenty armored vehicles we stopped them in the commanders told us they were on their way to military drills but we realized that they were heading towards the russian border lightly ask them to turn back there were a couple of hours of negotiations with the agreed and lands to. help also in neighboring lugansk locals blocked railway lines with scrap metal and carriages to stop the transportation on the train of a large military equipment including tanks now the locals here have been told that all of this equipment is part of some military training exercises but there are still reports circulating that there are other military vehicles that have in fact made their way through the russian border there is also a growing suspicion amongst the locals here that these military movements and private key have is trying to provoke the population here rather than trying to come what is already a very tense situation in the region so with these suspicions along with plan demonstrations across the region that will take part throughout the week i say only adding to what is a very intense situation here in the east of ukraine. the u.n. the u.s. have imposed sanctions on a number of russian and crimean officials over their support of the referendum president obama has warned of as more to come from moscow if it doesn't listen to the opinion of the u.s. and its allies and associates or can i has a story. certainly the latest measures the second set of sanctions the first one having taken two weeks ago basically is no surprise and u.s. officials have warned it is a list of sanctions against seven russian officials among them the head of russia's federation council a deputy prime minister and an aide to russian president vladimir putin crimean officials and the ousted ukrainian president viktor unocal bridge what these sanctions include are certain asset freezes and travel bans curiously and visa bans and we've we've heard some comments being made from certain russian officials saying what if we don't have any assets to freeze and so certainly this comes as something quite expected in moscow now this list is bound to grow according to analysts we've also seen from the european union similar sanctions imposed on twenty one russian officials from a wider list so it's important to keep in mind that these sanctions seem to be only in the first stages and we are expecting the list of russian officials to be included in these sanctions to grow now we've heard from u.s. president barack obama speaking on the crimean referendum where he basically said there's still room for dialogue unless provocation for from russia and we do know that the position of the u.s. has largely been really blaming russia for everything that's been unraveling on the ground in ukraine he'll be traveling to the next week where likely the sanctions between the u.s. and e.u. will be on the table. despite hawkish rhetoric from politicians european businesses are taking a more cautious approach warning that the e.u. itself has plenty to lose from sanctions and russia is a european union third largest trade partner nearly half of the cars made in the e.u. end up in russia as eighteen percent of chemical production plus european consumers get one third of their natural gas supplies from gazprom and then there's the huge profits from food exports to moscow but that's not the only part of the story russia's contribution to the global economy as a whole is not to be understatement now take metals for instance twenty percent of the world's titanium comes from russia a metal used in industries from aviation to jewelry nearly half of the world's palladium which makes your car greener is mined in russia then there's russia's massive contribution in terms of platinum diamonds and many other minerals so any disruption in the supply of those commodities is a bound to prevent the rate across the global economy financial markets expert patrick young told us that by imposing sanctions on russia and pledging generous financial aid to ukraine the e.u. is taking on more than it can handle. we're in a situation where frankly the european union house for a long time been in the economics of la la land they're not talking about multiple billions of euros but they're quickly trying to catch up because of course they're terrified hard can you possibly reasonably operate a sensually a domestic policy within the european union across twenty eight countries that leaves behind fifty percent of greek youth on employed that has thirty plus percent of the spanish and employed this is an organization in chaos economically the euro currency doesn't work it doesn't have the ability the flexibility to devalue in the same way per nation as in fact russia has with the ruble so therefore it is frankly political hypocrisy of the first order what has been going on recently because certainly no one in europe is in a position where they want to give their money to ukraine because all of the european nations have farm and far too many problems going forward and therefore also how can they possibly turn around and say that suddenly we're not going to be able to build their bus planes because of a

barbara county and clearly jerry brown and the rest of the gang and sacraments are of living in la-la land and doing a botched job of governing. there has been a proposition recently to decentralize the california government and split it up into six different states. what is your take on that idea? >> it's very interesting and it's a good question. that was on a radio show in redding california. it's way up north. it's lovely. it's near mt. shasta but they have had a lot of economic depression up there. i was on for one hour and there was a call in. there's a movement in northern california called jefferson because they want to start a state that would be -- and it's been going on for a few years. the southern part of oregon and the northern part of california. we were talking about subbot in and talking about how bad the taxes are an slowly the callers took over the radio program and it became a program about jefferson. they were so interested in the book to justify seceding in creating their own states that even the guy running the radio program said i'm not going to take any more calls

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. >> the only thing rising in his la-la land is the russian empire i'm sorry.er all, who could have seen this coming? >> if you have a cell phone, you were under surveillance. i believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business. >> all right. and donald, i know you were speaking there without a teleprompter. i imagine there is a little symbolism behind that, letting everybody know. but who are your picks about the stars from cpac? rand paul taking 31% of the straw poll, winning that. does that say something about the libertarian future of the party. >> i got to know him last weekend. we actually were together. he really is a nice guy. he's a good guy. i really know pretty much all of them. it was a lot of good talent in that room. i don't think the media gives it a lot of credit, but there was a lot of good talent in that room. there was a tremendous job. they put on a fantastic conference, cpac. they really did a good job. al cardonas, the whole group really did a fantastic job. if you saw the way it was run, the way it was managed, how pro

la-la land or something, right? >> i guess these are comments that she ahead in a conversation with president obama suggesting that he's not living in reality. >> i don't know. for putin, within 2,000 square miles of russia, i wouldn't argue with him while i was over there. standing by in kiev with the late latest, steve sedgwick. >> hey, joe. we've heard the foreign minister from ukraine saying -- they're calling it ultra nationalist, saying we should refrain from supporting this group because they are infringing the human rights of native russians within crimea and the ukraine. the response locally here is is robust. and i want to play a little bit of sound from an mp i just spoke to who is on the secretary of foreign affairs committee. listen very carefully to what she says. >> anyone said that russia is an empire without ukraine. ambitions. and in the world will excuse him such an advance and it would betray ukraine and you will have a new -- heading for europe and heading for world domination. you can stop him. you can stop him here in crimea, in ukraine. we have to unite all these goals. >> the rhetoric on both sides, joe, is absolutely immense, calling mr. putin the new hitler of the 21st century. john kerry has been pretty aggressive. he's due to touch down in kiev this evening. the aurm here is on full military alert. but in is the key. they have told the military personnel throughout the country in the crimea and in the east of the country especially with a lot of major russians not to engage the russians, not ta fall for -- that georgia made in 2008. do not engage the russians. at the same time, of course, the government is trying to shore up both military support internationally, which there seems to away distinct lack of appetite for and economic health. there's an economic crisis here, as well. back to you. >> that's what we focus on now to -- maybe we're lucky just to be focusing on the economic crisis at this point and it doesn't escalate to -- i don't know. people don't use the "h" word very much, steve. so hitler? that's what i thought i understood that it was kind of -- you know, i couldn't understand everything she said, but i thought i picked that up. that's something. >> yeah. the russians have been using hitler analogies, as well. we were the start of the war in the first world war. we were the cause of the start of the second world war. both sides have been using western analogies. the kremlin have accused the pro western government of the exact same kind of treatment. i came into kiev thinking i was going be talking about a huge, huge economic crisis after decades of mismanagement. of course, events have overtaken. this new government here, this is incredible. had government had two days of peace before we had the russian invasion of that crimea region. behind me, let's take a look at this. in is the headquarters of the protesters who were trying to get rid of yanukovych. just to me left here, as well, 97 people lost their lives in that 1250ud studio. >> just hitler, world war three, words that -- they're just staggering. i guess we have to at least admit, steve, thanks, i guess the possibility of a cold war coming back to some extent. it's already here, i guess. we're going to be monitoring the markets throughout the morning. let's get back to becky now with warren. world war three? i mean, you know, becky, really. it would go home on friday -- there was a hockey game last night and now i'm hearing the this. it's staggering to me. i guess the cold war, at least, we have to think at least as a cold skirmish at this point. >> yeah. again, joe, you point d out, the ruble is at an all-time low versus the dollar. it fell drastically today, not only versus the dollar, but against the euro. investors are sitting up and taking notice. the micex index in russia is under quite a bit of pressure, as well. but there are some major moves happening as investors trying to figure this out. >> we are here in omaha because berkshire hathaway went out saturday morning. so a very hefty annual letter that gives people a lot to think about. as you do every year, you laid out a lot about your stocks about investing in general. i would ask you for your mac roy row view in the markets. in your letter, you pointed out you don't give much credence to people offering macro views. >> no. i've been buying stocks and businesses for a lot of years. i've never bite becaused on macro figures. the first business i bought was in the spring of on '92. the macro factors were not looking good. we were -- it was right up at pearl harbor and we were getting clobbered in the south pacific and the war does not look good. i think almost every american thought we were going to win the war. but when i bought my fist stock, i spent all my $120. i was not doing it based on headlines. i did it for what i was get forth my money. >> when you bought into it, you say you haven't looked at macros. i can think of times when you have looked add macros. >> stocks are demonstratablely cheap. i remember an early in 1974 -- or i did an interview with forbes and in 2008 i wrote an article for the times. occasionally when they're ridiculously cheap. but most of the time, they're good value. but there have been a few times when i -- i thought they were so cheap that i -- i should b say something. >> people have pointed out obviously stocks have come a long way since then. people have been annualizing your report and realizing that you didn't say anything like you said in years past, you said one time a few ago that stocks were a much better value than gold. this time, what people have been focusing on were on roadway. one that you bought here in nebras nebraska, another you invested from nyu, new york university. that has people speculating. >> no, that's -- they're speculating wrong. i use those illustrations because i don't know that much about real estate or farms. and yet it was still possible to successfully invest in them. you can have a great lifelong experience in stocks and not know the ins and on outs of capital structures. i was probably more ignorant of the realities of farming, the realities of that building in new york than most people are of stocks. yet it was perfectly reasonable to come to an intelligence decision that you were probably going to make quite a bit of money. >> i wonder because there have been a lot of people recently who have raised questions about the stock market, who have worried that it is a fool's game to try to get involved. i heard people like bill o'reiley say this recently, he doesn't trust the stock market and think it's rigged. what do you tell people? >> it isn't rigged at all. it's pretty hard to rig 20 plus trillion. and the -- maybe we should forget about calling it the stock market. it's american business. for some reason, you think american business over the next 50 years is likely to do well in its production than it has been in the past, then you can come to that solution that it was likely to do more pop so whether you're buying a productive asset, you don't want to categorize it by some name and read in the paper that this or that is going to go up or down. you want to look at the business. if you bought the house next to you to rent somebody, you would look at the rent you were going to get, what you thought the neighborhood would do over a long period om time and measure that against the purchase price. the stock market offers so many opportunities, thousands and thousands of different businesses. you don't ever to be an expert on every one of them. you have to have some conviction that either a given company or a group of companies -- and i would suggest for most people it should be a group of companies -- that those companies are likely to earn 5% to 10% earnings from what they're learning now. >> i read something about the terms of your will. what you set aside for your life. >> i didn't lay out my whole will. but i did explain because i -- i laid out what i thought the average person was not an expert on stocks should do. and my widow would not be an expert on stocks. i want to be sure she gets a decent result. since all my berkshire share res going to philanthropy, the question becomes what does she do with the cash that's left to her? part of it goes outright, part of it goes to a trustee. they're invested 10% in re -- she'll do fine with that. anybody will do fine with that. it's low cost, it's in a bunch of wonderful businesses, and, you know, that takes care of itself. >> you specifically said a vanguard index. >> right. it's a very, very low cost index fund. and there are others. there are others that aren't so low cost. and keeping costs to a minimum is enormously important in investing, whether it's farms or buildings in new york or -- but particularly in stocks. it is -- if you're in effect paying out 1% or 2% annually of your portfolio, that's a big, big tax that you don't have to pay. >> and people who are at home listening to this, they need to look at the suspension ratio. you could probably get one for 20 to 25 points. >> yes, i think that's -- actually, 25 points. now, if they've traded around like crazy, they pay people to tell them what to do with it and everything, their returns become our returns with expenses. so you should look for very, very low expense way of participating and incidentally, at berkshire, our expenses are very, very low in relation to the 100 plus billion of investments that we had. >> we do have the opportunity for viewers to write in and ask you their questions. one viewer did write in the question asking about whether did you lay out that you had said he set this mon aside for your wife instead of being put back into berk share shares. >> berkshire would be fine. but i wouldn't want to be doubting berkshire to people generally. i have no problem touting the s&p 500 at the low cost. >> let's talk a little bit about what you see in the economy rite now. because through your businesses, you have an incredibly good idea about what's happening. you have not only the big five that are doing things, you have massive investments, retail operations, just in general, where do you think the american economy is headed right now? >> it's -- from what i see, and i do see figures on at least 80 some companies or so, and i like to get them and i get them fast. exactly what's been going on ever since the fall of 2009 and '10, we've had this moderate but consistent growth now for 4 1/2 years. every once in a while, we worry about it spiking up and double dipping. it's been remarkably consistent. and the gdp figures bounce around a little been in terms of what we see, i would say that it's been almost a straight line, but not the kind of slope that people would like, but not flat, either. and that's exactly what i see to this point. >> so were we overly optimistic in the fourth quarter and now we're overly pessimistic in the first quarter? >> probably. we'll know for sure, later on. but it's been that waves of -- we haven't been wildly optimistic and gotten wildly pessimistic. over that period, it's the small wave of optimism and pessimism. it's been pret darn steadily improving. >> how much has weather played a role? in fact, the numbers we've gotten over the last few months have been lousy. >> yeah. >> the markets have been writing it off saying don't worry about it, it's been bad around the country. >> our rail road doesn't who whether it's cold. those things compound on themselves. so there's no question, it's just been some factor. >> every time we brick up weather as an excuse, somebody will point out, yes, but if you look at housing numbers and the housing market in california, that's been slower and it hasn't been because of weather there. what do you tell people? >> i can't tell you for sure. we have a couple of large real estate properties, for instance, in california. the largest one in the lower three counties. we're buying another one in san jose. it's okay. and the prices, the prices have really been quite strong. but you always in the winter have less activity and real estate. we bought several real estate brokerage firms last year. we've bought one this year. we'll keep buying them. i like the business. >> we're going to continue this conversation with warren buffett. we have him for the next three hours. joe, i'll send it back to you in the studio. i know we have a break we have to get to, too. >> yes, we do. i have often thought about warren's wealth. how do you spell your name again, joe? >> i mean, saying that -- i think of you as a father figure or calling you dad is probably too much, but, you know, in the past, you've given me -- you gave me a couple of bottles of ketchup. you gave me a brick. you gave me a little card, a net jet card that was absolutely useless. it had no money on it. and i'm just thinking, are you -- you're sort of waiting for the big surprise, aren't you? am i going to find my name in there, got forbid, when -- >> absolutely. no, i've been testing you, joe. what you'll see in my will, it will say to joe who wanted to be mentioned in my will, hi, joe. >> you know, dad, that would be enough for me. i'd just like to say that. that would -- i'm not looking for anything else. that would be -- >> i'm going to make that on the record. >> you're on page 6 today. i think maybe i'll talk about that little bit later since i'll use my will -- >> uh-oh. >> yeah, he's on page 6. he's liable to do anything at any time. so it's on the gossip column. let's save that for later, beck. >> there is a good tease. >> coming up, a special osbourn edition. i've just asked him to include me in his will. and taking a look at the futures, what would it matter, really? 60 billion? really, is it that big of a deal? anyway, "squawk box" with warren buffett will return in a moment. >>> welcome back, everybody. right now, it is time for the executive edge. this is a person edition of the executive edge. this is the ask warren edition. we are joined this morning by legendary investor warren buffett. he is answering some of your questions. we have a lot of questions coming in from people. i'd like to focus on some that take a look at berkshire and some of the on things you pointed out in the letter. one thing is from ron rogers in ridgewood, new jersey. he says in the fall 2013 news came out that you were ever so close to a major multibillion dollar acquisition of what would have never been another elephant. would you tell us what industry group it's in? >> yeah, i better not even say what industry it was in. because there aren't that many companies in the industry. and by the size of it, you would probably narrow it down to two or three companies. it didn't happen. but there's -- we're always seeing the leaves russelling if nothing else. there has to be something behind those leaves. we will -- there's nothing hot at the moment, but we have things we're working on. >> you said in the annual letter to shareholders that when it comes to taking a look at what happened with heinz, that this is a temporary plate for things that berkshire might do in the future. have you spoken with 3g about doing another type of acquisition like heinz? >> we've talked about generally -- we don't have a name, but both georgia power lemon who is my partner in that and i would love to do another one. and they have an appetite for making acquisitions. >> and so do you. >> yeah. we're is a good pair that way. everything that's happened with heinz, everything has been satisfactory and i look forward to working with lemann again. >> we've got to zero based budgeting. as i said in my report, i would expect the earnings of heinz to be significantly better this year than any year in history. >> you pointed out that you're not somebody -- the difference between this and a private equity deal is that speshg shire plans on holding this for a long, long time. >> forever. >> forever. would you be surprised, though, to see a heinz ipo sometime in the next five to seven years. >> that could happen because the 3g people did that with burger king. they have a number of investors. i don't know how many. the primary investors i know. but they -- no, i just don't know the number. but some of those people undoubtsedly will want to get out. they might have a chance to get out under a significant profit. when they do, we have no obligation to -- they have no obligation to sell their shares to us and we -- so it would be totally voluntary on their part. but if they were going to sell their shares, and i pound the price acceptable, i would buy the share for them. >> and we would find equal partners even if the shares were somewhat different. but i would like overtime to increase its share. it's forever. it's -- it will be a profitable business. it will be a worldwide business. and it is a worldwide business. it just fits into berkshire. our problem is putting money to work. we're not looking to take money out of things. we're looking to put more money to work. >> did it create a problem to have the guys still on the board at burger king selling ketchup to places like mcdonald's? >> i'm not sure if the customer of mcdonald's felt that way, but certain of the providesees, as i understand it, sort of objected to the fact that the guy across the street was selling hamburgers against them was also the ceo of berger king. i believe he's still cries chairman. >> traes a big account, though, correct? >> it's a big account. berkshire is going to have a lot of cross lives. there will be times when -- that the actions of one area take the competitors of another subsidiary. that's just going to happen. >> all right. we're going to continue this conversation. let's get back to joe in the studio right now, though. >> all right. becky, a big night in hollywood. one of the big winners last night at the acatmy award. "12 years a slave," best picture and best adapted screenplay but it was "gravity" that took ohm the most statues. seven in all, including best director. and it's in reference to this, warren, that you're on page 6. i'll just let you know that your story is in between a picture of kim kardashian in a low-cut dress where the thing says she's got her own version of the golden globes. this is, you know, the new york post. and then -- ridiculous. and then on the right is a picture of brangelana. and then you're in the middle. and it says that -- yeah, go ahead. >> they probably asked for that placement, joe. >> yeah, they asked for that placement. and it says that harvey wi winestein invited you to his pre-oscars party. and it says that you were snippy to him, that you appreciated it, but you weren't going to go to the oscars because you weren't nominated this year. >> i'm a sore loser. >> you are. and i looked you up on imbd. this movie debate, warren buffett was born as warren edward buffett. he is an actor known for wall street -- it says this right here. you are an actor known for wall street money never sleeps and das something, some german thing. and then it has all your appearances. and it does include "squawk box" as some of your best annances. appearances. you have been offered roles, haven't you? i'm sure constantly and you turn them down. it's just not the right role for you? >> actually, i may have a small one in consideration right now. but i have told my agent to feature the "squawk box" appearances at the top of my resume. that's most likely to get attention in hollywood. >> but i'm trying to think, you could be different things. you could break out of character, you could be a bond villain. i would think about it at this point. it's not your fort, but i mean, i'm sure you get a lot of offers. you would have been on breaking bad. >> joe, i'm thinking more glamour roles. that may be why they haven't stepped up yet. >> leading man type. that's an idea, too. >>> coming up, we'll be back with warren and becky in a minute, but first, a big impact on the markets want more questions for mr. about it. think about more movie roles for him. about business internet? ok, how about thirty seconds? at comcast business our internet is fast. up to 5x faster than slow dsl from the phone company. and our phone's better too. sign up for internet and voice and find out how to get four weeks of internet for free. time to make the call. 800-501-6000 comcast business. built for business. so i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multi-car, paperless. you make a mighty fine missus, m'lady. i'm not saying mark's thrifty. let's just say, i saved him $519, and it certainly didn't go toward that ring. am i right? [ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive.com today. i call this one "the robox." and it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. ask your gastroenterologist about humira today. remission is possible. >>> watching the developments coming out of russia and ukraine this morning. western leaders, almost universally condemning the actions and vowing to use economic and diplomatic measures to pressure russia to withdraw. futures are down sharply this morning. european markets are taking a hit. those were down over 150 now and the dow, there are the european markets down across the board. russian markets are already lower at this hour. as you can see, down -- it's a significant number. 12%. and so the dollar with a quick look, you can see against the yen, the euro, especially the russian ruble, which hit a new all-time low. gold has been in a mini bull market on its own. and it's up another $23. you can see that since the december lows, quite a move. let's get back to becky and warren buffett in omaha. you've got warren there. the ukraine is front and center. >> that's right. warren talked earlier, it's difficult to look at these markets. you wouldn't sell anything today base odd that? >> no. stocks are cheaper. we were buying i think one stock on friday. they're selling lower today and that's terrific. >> was it wells fargo? >> good try. >> in fact, a lot of the questions that have come in from viewers and from berk share shareholders have been related to your investments. you did detail quite a bit of your big holdings and what you thought about these. frank alame writes in, coca-cola, american express and wells fargo for 20 plus years. if you didn't sell those stakes down during the great bubble of the late '90s or during the last financial crisis, is it fair to say that you will never sell these stocks? can you envision a skan know that would make you sell any of those portions? >> it's fair to say we wouldn't sell them in any given year, probably any five-year period. we need 340e7b to operate businesses. we could sell only one of those stocks owe or maybe a group of them. would like ownering equities. we'll make money in the equities as an alternative. but in terms of building berkshire for the long-term, we just like adding earning power, big chunks of earning power for businesses which we are going to keep forever. none of the stocks are forever, but they're generally for very long terms. >> there have been a lot of questions that ever come in regarding ibm. from hong kong, a gentleman named rajesh writing ibm has underperformed the s&p 500 since you've adivide a stake in it approximately while you have clearlily mentioned in an earlier interview that you'd prefer the share price does not do well so the company can buy back at a lower price, has the company's financial performance, especially revenue trend, disappointed you? >> well, the revenue trends have been less than anticipated. although not dramatically less than anticipated. there is a transition going on in the business. particularly in terms of the cloud. and so i would say it's fair to say that i know less about the future of ibm than i might know about the future of wells fargo about wells fargo or coca-cola or the businesses i've november. in terms of the price action, that doesn't make any difference to me. ibm bought in a lot of stock last year and if the stock had been even lower, they would have gotten more shares. a few of the shares outstanding, the better i like it. they continue to buy shares. they buy them at a good club. i like that. i would like to see the revenues pick up. >> i think she got into the company at a good time in the business. her record -- i feel fine with her at this point, but her record will be judged five years from now. there's a lot going on in that business and i think they're doing well. but the final score will be five years or ten years from now. >> are you buying more shares? >> we bought a few more shares last year, not very much. and i think we bought a few shares this year. >> okay. let me also ask you a question that came in, this is number 32, folks. it's dan youngberg who writes in, are you still positive on rails? which besides yours is good and what about the rail car companies? >> well, there's four big railroads in the united states. and two in the east, two in the west. and the rail business over time will be a very decent business. it's an enormous asset to the company. there won't be more -- maybe more revenues, some high speed passenger and all that, but in terms of basic freight railroads, you've got the configuration in this country that's going to do this for a long time. and rail does move heavy goods very cheaply moves over long distances. and it's also viermally friendly compared to highway traffic. so the future of railroads is very good. and i will say that that's true of all the roads and -- >> a question came in from someone named curtis carter who says, do you have any plans to use burlington manner and santa fe to move electricity from east to west and are you considering electrifying the railroad? >> well, the answer to both is no. >> okay. it's a question i've heard from others before. >> if anybody can figure out a way we haven't made a lot of money off the right of way that we haven't thought of, let you know. but i haven't thought of in. >> burlington northern has already about theed from the shale boom that we've seen in parts of the country. >> it's benefited and but all of the rails have done well. so it's a bit that -- has real economic advantages. if you look at fuel costs, if you look at drivers wages on the highway, as long as more goods move from place to place in this country, rails are going to get their share and it should be a very profitable business. >> what about the keystone pipeline? that question was raised by shareholders and by others saying wait a second, do you really want the keystone pipeline to come because it would be a direct competitor -- >> it's not that it would be a competitor. it's moving crude down from canada and that -- i think probably the keystone pipeline is a good idea for the country. >> do you expect that the president might actually pass it? >> i have no idea. >> i see seen a study that came out from the state department that suggested if the keystone pipeline was put in, it would end up saving lives versus moving -- >> both sides are going to come up with that sort of thing. >> that was from the state department. it wasn't from -- >> and they may well be right. but there are leaks on pipelines and, you know, the occasional exposure. that is very, very, very, very rare. but if you measure moving millions of barrels for a hundred years, i'm not sure how it would come out. they're going to change rail cars specifically. it's turned out to be more volatile than people anticipated and that's going to require the one thing we've lowered the speeds. >> burlington just said it was buying 5,000 new tank cars. they're not on the shelf, so it's been ordered. we're in the tank car manufacturing business. and there will be changes made and there should be changes made. it's fair to say that we have found in the last year or so that it's more dangerous to move certain types of crude, certainly, than we thought previously. and there is no question about it. burlington was going to be in the market for buying more of these things. >> buying them is a big backlog of not only the subsidiary and others that make cars. our back lot runs into the middle of 2015. those aren't all for krudz oil at that particular cars. most tank cars don't carry crude oil. when you see a tank with a lot of crude oil on it, most of that is not crude oil. you can't just flip and switch and get those cars. there will be retrofitting. it's more important to get it done immediately. but the tank car probe is a problem. and it should be addressed as being addressed. but you can't change the whole tank car fleet overnight. >> we're going to continue this conversation with warren. joe, we'll send it back to you right now. >> becky, is buffett a crayton fan, hoops in omaha. >> i don't know. >> you bet. providence next -- saturday, is our final game. i'm going to be there to watch mcdermott score about 60 points. >> oh, yeah? i guess you missed what happened over the weekend against my xavier -- >> oh, no, no, let's not hear about that, joe. >> nope. >> number nine? not any longer, my friend. it's tough to go into the center. that was fun to watch. anyway, i figured you were a hoops -- yeah, two good judgment schools, right, against each other. i like that. >> you bet. we had a cinderella team back in 1942 when i was a kid and i've been waiting for a return. >> wow. i don't even remember that. >>> come up, apple and microsoft in the news this morning. the futures are right now down last i saw about 150. not quite as bad now to 146. more "squawk box" with warren buffett, next. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. phone: your account is already paid in full. oh, well in that case, back to vacation mode. ♪boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who? seriously, you met her like three times. who? geico. >>> u.s. equity futures are sharply lower. europe is lower. there we are, 144. we did close at a new high on the s&p. at 1859. at least we're up for the year. at least a couple of days. apple is hoping meanwhile to become more prominent in the your car. automakers are rolling out apple's car play technology today. lets iphone users make calls, use maps, lizzen to music or access messages. while you're in your car, ferrari, mercedes and volvo will be the first to include car play in their vehicles. sounds almost like cold play but it's not. it's car play. two microsoft executives are leaving the company. tony bates who ran the motel -- no, not the motel. the business development and tammy reller are departing. microsoft employees were informed of the change friday by new ceo nadella and another executive vice president mark penn becomes chief strategy officer, a familiar name. determining which markets are appropriate for the company. all right. coming up, more of your questions for the oracle of omaha, warren buffett. still submit them by e-mail to askwarren@cnbc.com, on facebook or twitter. twitter me or e-mail me and i'll ask a question of warren. we'll be right back. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer, worsening prostate symptoms, decreased sperm count, ankle, feet or body swelling, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing while sleeping and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron. >>> and coming up, the big market reaction to russia's push into ukraine. the futures are down sharply. the global market are also lower. we'll have more of your questions for legendary investor warren buffett. "squawk box" will return after another quick break. stay with us. wealth management to one ofp firms in the country. ♪ for a team of financial professionals who provide customized solutions. for all of your wealth management and retirement goals, discover how pnc wealth management can help you achieve. visit pnc.com/wealthsolutions to find out more. anbe a name and not a number?tor scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office. they're nearby and ready to help. so when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade. announcer: ranked highest in investor satisfaction with self-directed services by j.d. power and associates. >>> welcome to a special edition of "squawk box," ask warren. legendary investor warren buffett answering your questions during the entire show. >> you have to have a conviction that those companies are likely to earn more money 5, 10, 20 years from now than they are earning now. that is not a difficult decision to come to. >> tweet, e-mail, get to facebook. and get those questions in. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning and welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. actually, i'm all alone. there's no one here to mind me. i'll do the eddie murphy from shrek in a minute. maybe we can play some of that ♪ all by myself >> they keep saying that we're together, becky. we are obviously not together. >> we are together. i hear everything you say. >> mack is with me, so is warren. >> missing you is one thing but missing mack is a deep, deep hole in -- >> i know how to hurt a guy, don't i. >> becky is in omaha with warren buffett. we'll get more of your questions for the legendary investor. >>> what's happening to our markets with the news coming out of ukraine. russian forces have seized the southern area of crimea after russian president vladimir putin secured permission from his parliament -- gosh, i wonder how he did that -- to use military force to protect russian citizens. western governments are promising to isolate and punish russia's economy, demanding that putin withdraw his forces. it will be interesting to watch how this plays out, how he is able to play the west once again. this weekend's developments are playing out in the markets this morning. you can see the futures are down about 150 points. let's get to michelle caruso-cabrera. with more on the situation in ukraine. don't unpack your bags, girl. >> i'm well aware of that. i want you to think about what i'm about to say and tell me what you think about it. we're talking about whether or not the west can do anything to punish vladimir putin. and i would argue that the capital markets are stepping in in a way that diplomacy has thus far failed. yes, global markets are lower when you talk about stocks. but not nearly as bad as in russia. and by the way, treasuries are rallying as people seek safety. contrast that to what is happening in russia. there is strong capital flight happening there today where investors are saying you want to do this to ukraine, fine, but not on my dime. first of all, the central bank had to raise interest rates 1.5%. 1.5%. we talk about a central bank move of a quarter percent as a big deal. take a look at the russian ruble. these charts show the strength of the dollar. it's been getting hammered. the one-week chart shows the dramatic move that's happened as well. take a look at the rtfs, the russian stock market. down 10%. one week down 16%. remember, this is a market that traded with a multiple of between 4 and 6. because there's so little investor confidence. i wonder, i mean, maybe this is too much to hope, but if there's enough capital flight, if this is the thing that actually forces putin's hands. because us saying that we're not going to attend the g8 is hardly going to convince him and already the eu is saying they don't want sanctions, they wand to do remediation instead. the capital markets are certainly acting in a way, very, very rapidly. it reminds me, remember, when bill clinton said wait a minute, i have to wonder what a bunch of bond guys think about my health care plan? maybe one of those similar moments. we have to wait and see. joe in. >> all right, michelle. it affects his people, not him as much. he'll still be worth $100 billion. that's a very good question to bring up. we'll get back out now to becky. we can continue to talk to warren about ukraine or -- what was last night? i didn't see anything. did you get to watch? how did tina fey and oamy poehlr do? >> it was ellen last night. i didn't watch either but i think it was ellen. >> oh, okay. tina fey and amy poehler were not that -- it was ellen? i love ellen. i didn't know that. i was at a hockey -- >> it was a late night. i was busy getting ready for this. >> ellen degeneres? i feel silly. i feel -- wow. that's embarrassing. >> i'm really glad i read the story this morning so i knew that you were pulling my leg on this, because it may have gone over my head pretty easily. oh, yeah, they were fantastic. i thought they were great. >> they're always funny. that's my way of getting an nbc plug in, even though i don't think it was -- i definitely would not be making fun of it if it had been. go ahead, beck. >> we'll continue our questions for warren buffett this morning. we've been taking questions from viewers, we have been getting more this morning that have been coming in. one of the things that happened over the last several months, warren, there was a story out that suggested that the committee that looks at systemically important financial institutions said it was considering berkshire. this was a story, lightly sourced, that went through. i wonder if you've heard from them and second of all, there's a question that came in from salem, oregon, given berkshire's policy to maintain a large surplus of capital, would berkshire being declared too big to fail concern you? would the increased regulation that could come with that designation be worth it? >> we've heard nothing. i've checked with the lawyers. i would not think we would be under -- our derivatives as a -- "a," they're winding down to begin with. and the a nominal value, they're -- well, let's see, deutsche bank has 60 trillion. so they're less than one-tenth of 1% of a deutsche bank, for example. we have loads liquidity and streams of earning power. it's very unlikely. >> those derivatives will wind down on average around 2020. >> the credit ones all did wind down. and we have very minor collateral requirements. we have no condition. we never have any significant short-term debt. we always have bundles of cash. we always have cash coming in every month. it would seem very unlikely that we get categorized. we're large but exxonmobil is large, apple is large. there's other large companies. it's not based on size. it's based on whether you're likely to get into trouble. >> let's continue the focus on washington. the president is coming out with his budget tomorrow, president obama. the early reed we've gotten on this is that is going to be one that is less inviting to republicans, that he feels like he's made his outreaches in the past and that they haven't been effective. what do you think that does to the environment in washington? >> it's hard to imagine the environment getting much worse. you know, it's more or less a stalemate in washington, because there's a little loosening up, perhaps. you have a significant portion of the republican party that can hold the entire republican party hostage. if the republican party can hold the legislative process hostage. unless there's a real change in attitudes, it's hard to see much happening. >> one of the ones that came in under the ask warren twitter hash tag, i know you are concerned about the wealth gap. are you supportive of raising the minimum wage and tieing it to inflation? >> i thought about the minimum wage for 60 years. i used to work at minimum wage. that got my attention first when i was getting 75 cents an hour. it really cuts both ways. you like to have people being paid more but you also want to have as many people employed as possible. that cuts both ways. i can argue either side of that. the one thing that does make sense is to increase the earned income tax credit. that does increase the income of people who are working. and there's no question that the market system, which is the greatest system ever seen for producing goods and services also leaves more and more people behind as it gets more and more specialized. we've seen that. that's something that a very rich country should address. i think the earned income tax credit is a better way. >> meaning -- when i've asked people like peter orzag that question, he'd like to see both of those thing, a higher earned income tax credit and higher minimum wage. >> i wouldn't fight him on the minimum wage but i think you can accomplish more with the higher earned income tax credit. if you could have a minimum wage of $15 and it didn't hurt anything else, i would love it. but clearly, that isn't the case. so there's tradeoffs on the minimum wage. it's very hard to kwan the phi those tradeoffs. people come out with exact studies. they don't know. >> the cbo recently came out with a study that suggested 500,000 jobs would be lost, if the government were to go to $10.10 an hour by the year 2016. they said it could be zero or a million jobs that were lost. where do you think the likely -- >> i agree with them. they don't know. i don't know. you know directionally that it goes -- it's a situation. otherwise, we'd have a $15 minimum wage if it wasn't going to affect employment, i'd be 100% for it. but it would. i don't know -- it's very hard to quantify the tradeoffs. usually you get proponents of either sides pulling out the figures that substantiate their position. the earned income tax credit is much clearer. that puts more money in the pockets of people working for low wages. that's what i'd like to see. it doesn't distort the market system in any great way. but you know, that's the way i would go. >> berkshire employs 330,000 employees? >> 330,000. >> how many of them make minimum wage? >> very, very few. i can't give you the answer. it would be very, very few. >> let's ask a related question that comes in from ian m. what's the greatest thing the obama administration could do to accelerate job growth? >> well, i think that -- obviously further fiscal stimulus would increase job growth. but you pay a price for that. i think -- i think the market system will grow jobs over time as it has been the last four years. it's just we had such a shock to the system five years ago. we really were in the emergency room. and the recovery has been slow. i think most people expected that but they're still disappointed with it as it happens. >> we had sam zell on "squawk box" on friday. he came up with an interesting analogy. he almost put some of the blame on the federal reserve at this point saying when you have zero interest rates it's like not having a shot clock in a basketball game. there's no severe incentive to get money into investments, people think they have time. >> i disagree with that. if i'm at zero interest rate, i want to get it out. we invested over $11 billion last year. that was a record for us. any project that comes to me that has a reasonable payout, whether it's wind farms in iowa, whatever it may be, i love building more freight cars, whatever it may be. zero interest rate pushes me. if interest rates were 15%, i would be sitting there with a 15% alternative and it would be much tougher for capital projects to catch my eye. i would argue the reverse. >> let me ask you one more on the political front. stan writes in, he says how do you compare of the president of the united states' performance with brian moynihan's performance over the last five years? obviously you own a big stake in the bank of america. >> they both had very, very tough jobs and both settled down to do them. you do things one thing at a time. brian moynihan took something that was a big, big mess, which he inherited, and the size was almost overwhelming. they just methodically worked on one problem after another. but he did not have to get the united states congress to agree with him. >> we'll continue this conversation, again, warren buffett is with us for the remainder of the show. joe, right know, we send it back over to you. >>> markets continue under pressure this morning as you know, we'll have an update on the futures action. and many more questions for the legendary investor warren buffett when we return. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. >>> that's pretty cool. the three ts coming up all to comment on that right there. down 160 points, finally got to new highs in the s&p. after treading water, almost for two whole months after closing at a new high december 31st. and we have a busy day for economic news even as investors keep watch on the situation in ukraine. i don't know how this thing is going to play out quickly. ukraine, i mean. january personal income and spending figures will be out at 8:30 eastern. the ism's monthly manufacturing index is set for 10:00 eastern and u.s. automakers will be releasing sales figures for last month throughout the morning. >>> joseph a. bank and men's warehouse entered into a agreement. last week, jos. a. banks said it would be willing to talk about a higher offer after last week's rejection offer. >>> and "12 years a slave" took best picture. "gravity" did not win that contest but it did take home seven other oscars. the most of any film. when i think "gravity," becky, i think what a great country that we're in and i have no issue with sandra bullock and her payday there. her up front was 20 million and she got a percentage of how the film did, which was 50. she made 70 million. i say, you go, girl. >> you go, girl. that's right. >> maybe someday a ceo that's really good, who is in charge of 200,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of shareholders and is a great corporate citizen, maybe someday he'll be worth a tenth of sandra bullock or a guy with a good fastball, a good lefty with a fastball. >> you know who i thought was really cool who i got to talk to recently? may jemison, the first african-american woman to go into space. she saw "gravity" and said it was great having a woman up there. although she said she was put off by this astronaut up there dreaming about george clooney coming back to help her. that was interesting from somebody who's been in space. >> you start talking about the will again. that's all i can think about now. take it away, becky. >> to joe kernen, who wanted to be mentioned in my will, hi, joe. >> he did ask how to spell it, too. speaking of, if you're wondering how big the numbers are that he'd be talking about, the "forbes" 2014 world's billionaire list is out. we happen to have one of the gentlemen on the top of the list. bill gates is number one with 76 billion. carlos liam has 72 billion, or taking go 64 billion, warren buffett, number four, $52.8 billion. how much have you given away over the last few years. >> 160,000 "a" shares. >> which would be. >> 27 billion or so. >> even after that you have $38.2 billion on the list. you're number four. here's the list. >> don't take it too seriously. >> i want to ask some questions that have continued to come in from viewers. part of what you talk about every year in the annual letter is you lay out how each of the insurance companies have done, how each of the businesses have done. another question, how has the latest rise of extreme weather events changed the calculus faced by ajit jain in reinsurance? >> events of the last ten years from an assured standpoint and climate have been unusual. the answer is they haven't. you read about these events but you were reading about events 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. we've been remarkably free of hurricanes in the united states in the last five years. so if you were writing hurricane insurance it's been all profit. there have been some more tornadoes than normal but it's not had any effect in terms, so far, the effects of climate change, if anybody, have not affected our -- they have not affected the insurance market. >> they haven't? >> no. >> that's not something at all that you have changed your calculus? >> i made no difference. i calculate the probabilities in terms of catastrophes. no differently than a few years ago. that may change in ten years. >> i think it's been 3,000 days since something like a category 2 hit landfall. that's the longest in history for a hurricane. you mentioned tornadoes. last year it was well below. i don't know about if you add up all the recent years. i watched you after al gore's big year. it was a horrible year. the one he said it will be repeated year after year, the one where he had -- we went through the whole greek alphabet and started again with hurricanes. i watched you. you knew, you knew, you knew, you knew that that would be an opportunity to raise premiums and not have any events and it played out exactly like you thought. i don't know how you do it. >> i love apocalyptic predictions on it. you're right, it probably does affects rates. the truth is, writing u.s. hurricane insurance has been very profitable in the last five or six years. now the rates have come down significantly. we aren't writing much, if anything, in the u.s. our biggest single cat risk would be earthquakes in new zealand. >> what do you think of the perception right now, i think it's from the mainstream media. we are under the impression that adverse weather events are happening every couple of days and it's never been like this before in history. for some reason, that's what people tell me. it's nice to be able to include them all into one thing. >> yes. >> when you include droughts, floods, too much snow, too little snow. when you can include it all into one big thing, it makes it look like you're pretty smart. >> it hasn't been true so far, joe. >> i know. i know. >> it was cold 50 years ago. >> the great lakes, i think they're almost totally frozen over. i don't know if we've ever seen that. i think we have one more to go. that's a little weird. >> we don't insure against that. >> jim cramer has been watching this morning as well. he writes in a question, too. he says in your shareholder's letter you always speak positively about fabulous ways to transport goods. do you think that keystone should be approved? i think we talked about this earlier but i didn't put you on the line. do you think keystone should be approved? >> i would vote yes. >> he always wonders about creations of jobs, too. energy and jobs, pipeline and renaissance is what jim is pointing out. >> i don't believe in the keystone pipeline because of the jobs. i believe -- i just believe it's a useful pipeline. >> you do? great. we'll continue this conversation, again, joe, we have warren buffett here. he's with us for the rest of the program. >>> okay, becky, sound goods. coming up, how the unrest in ukraine is having an impact. more "squawk box" coming up next. >>> get a leg up on the trading day with the morning "squawk" newsletter. go to our show page. go to squawk.cnbc.com. it's a snapshot of the top stories, next. sign up and get morning "squawk" delivered in your inbox every weekday. "squawk box" on cnbc. profit from it. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm joe kernen. the obama administration is calling russia's advance in ukraine a brazen act of aggression. also threatening sanctions against the country. secretary of state john kerry is on his way to kiev to show support for the new leadership there in the face of russian military intervention. we'll have more on this in the next half hour. >>> and california governor jerry brown signed a $687 million drought relief package to deal with the water shortage that he called the worst in the state's modern history. the largest share of relief package, 549 million comes from accelerated spending of some bond money that voters previously approved in two ballot propositions. >>> and the drama "12 years a slave" won the academy award for best picture. it's the first movie from a black director to win the film industry's highest honor in the 86 years of the oscars. i think we're going to look at the futures. yes, let's take a quick look. we'll keep checking these all morning long. 152 points, sharply lower but stable. that's since i first got in in the morning. that's been approximately what we've been looking at. you can see the s&p which closed at a new high on friday. it closed up at 1859.40, about 10 points above the december 31st, 2013 close. we did get 10 points above that. we'll give back 20 today which would put us 10 points below there, becky. but we were in the promise land, at least for a couple of days. i'm going to try to have fond memories. >> nice while it lasted. >> fond memories of that. back to you. >> well, joe, i can't think of a better day to have warren buffett sitting right next to us. the chairman and ceo of berkshire hathaway, to talk about what's happening. i know you're a long-term investor. when people wake up and look at the futures and see down 150 and see what's happening in ukraine and questions about the economy at this point and whether what happens there spreads here, what do you tell them? >> when i got up this morning i looked at a stock on the computer in the trades in london that were buying. it's down and i felt good. >> what was the stock? >> it was an english stock. >> so you look at this -- would you have done that anyway, or not the futures were down, would you still be buying? >> i had a price limit on it and we were buying it on friday. but it's cheaper this morning. that's good news. >> so you buy more as a result? >> absolutely. >> when people start to think this could be the beginning of something really bad, it could be even a world war iii situation, a return to the cold war. does any of that ever go through your mined? >> well, if you tell me all of that's going to happen, i will still be buying the stock. you're going to invest your money in something over time. the one thing you could be quite sure of is that we went into major war, the value of money would go down. that's happened in virtually ever war that i'm aware of. so the last thing you'd want to do is hold money during a war. you might want to own a farm, own an apartment house. you might want to own securities. but during world war ii, you know, the stock market advanced. the stock market is going to advance over time. american businesses are going to be be worth more money. dollars will be worth less. so that money won't buy you quite as much. but you're going to be a lot better off owning productive assets over the next 50 years than you will be owning pieces of paper or, i might throw in, bitcoins. >> i've been meaning to ask your opinion of bitcoin. what do you think of it? >> it's out of currency. it does not meet the test of a currency. i wouldn't be surprised if it's not around in 10 or 20 years. >> why does it not meet the definition of a currency? >> people say i'll sell you goods and bitcoins but they change the price of those every time the price of the dollar changes in relation to bitcoin. they're pricing off the dollar. i'll sell it to you in barrels of oil. every time the price of oil changes, they change the price of barrel of oil. >> the chinese yuan does that. >> it is not a currency. it is not a durable means of exchange. it's not a store of value. >> you said yourself you wouldn't be surprised if it's not around in ten years. >> i would not be surprised. i don't know that. but it's interesting to me. it's been a speculative, a very speculative kind of buck rogers type thing. people buy and sell them because they hope they go up or down, just like they did with tulip bulbs a long time ago. >> the situation in the ukraine you said you're not that worried about. in the letter to shareholders you did lay out something on the horizon that you are worried about. question came in saying what impact will unfunded government pension and benefits have on economic health in 10 to 20 years? >> well, the government pensions aren't the problem. the private pensions are. the government has the power to tax. and it has the power to print money. we are not in a dangerous u.s. fiscal situation. we have to quit having our debt grow as a percentage of gdp. it made sense to have it happen during -- when things were terrible five years ago. but we can have a deficit which creates more debt but not at a rate that this grows faster than gdp grows. if gdp is going to grow at 2% in real terms, but the fed has a policy that they're shooting for 2% inflation on top of that, that would mean 4% in terms of nominal gdp and you literally could have debt grow at 4% and it would maintain the same relationship to no, ma'amal gdp as it does now. the trend is wrong. there is a danger of that goes wrong. i don't like seeing it go up as a percentage of gdp. this country is in wonderful shape. >> if you say government pensions aren't the problem because the government has the power to tax, what do you say to somebody who has a private pension? should they be worried about it? should they think they are still going to get it when they retire. >> it's protected by the pension benefit guarantee corps. that has come into play in many pension plans. the state municipal pension plans, the one right here in omaha, is in terrible shape. and almost out of resources. it's a healthy commune and all that. we can work our way out of it but people, both who have made the promises and the electorate generally have not understood what they were doing when they were making pension promises. there's a long tail to the problem. we are starting to reap the problems that were sewn in pension problems. in detroit they'll have to scale back the promises. >> what do you think about the decision in detroit, where, at this point, it looks like everyone will take a haircut but the bond holders will take a much bigger haircut. that prompted a question from gary gambino. >> some muni bonds are safe, some aren't. just like some corporate bonds are safe and some aren't. it depends on debt paying capacity of the entity that owes you money. and if you take the omaha public power district which runs the electric operation here, those bonds are safe. they've got enough debt paying capacity that they can take care of things. if you take a city like stockton, california or something, they borrowed too much money. >> but in the situation in detroit, it looks at this point like the municipal bond holders will take a much bigger haircut than those in the pensions. they're not going to be treated equally. >> the pain inflicted, my guess is the pension problems will take -- pension holders are going to take -- >> feel it more? >> absolutely. if somebody is getting $1,500 a month and it's cut to $750 a month, that is huge. the bond holders will take a big cut. the debt just got way, way, way out of proportion to the taxable base. the problem with the city or state, is that if the math gets kind of overwhelmingly bad, you set a sike until motion where people leave and go some place else that doesn't have the trouble. there are plenty of problems ahead in municipal finance. >> we'll continue this conversation but joe, we'll send it back to you right now. >>> all right, becky, as you say, we'll be back with warren buffett in just a couple of minutes. tyco selling tyco fire and security services korea. that division to the carlyle group for approximately $1.9 billion. the transaction is expected to close in tyco's fiscal third quarter. plus, we're keeping an eye on the ukraine situation -- the situation in ukraine this morning. russia threatening military action. it's already begun to some extent. western nations are warning moscow of economic sanctions. markets around the global are reacting negatively to russia's move. we'll have more on the situation in just a bit. "squawk box" is coming right back. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪ when emerson takes up the challenge, "it's never been done before" simply becomes consider it solved. emerson. ♪ >>> in just about 15 minutes we'll be introducing our viewers to the three ts at berkshire hathaway. ted weschler, todd combs and tracy britt cool. this is the first time three of them will be sitting down together and talking on camera. we do have a lot coming up we're back with warren buffett in omaha. let's talk about how you chose the three ts, how you came up with these three individuals. >> when i'm not around, my job will be broken into two pieces, running the business, ceo and the investment end will be run by others. it became important to bring on the right kind of investment people. so charlie and i talked about that. the first time we took a trip, i think i had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applications that i was reading on the trip to china. and we found two terrific managers. they're not only terrific in terms of their investment ability, which has been proven over time, been proven to me, but they're really the right kind of individuals. they want to be with berkshire, they'll be with berkshire forever. and they're the kind of fellows that you'd want to have marry your daughter, basically. charlie and i care about that. and in tracy, i've tried with assistance once or twice in the past. she came along and she's done a perfect job. there are all kinds of things at berkshire that i should do that i don't want to do. i hand those off to her. the three of them, they've been worth a very, very substantial amount to berkshire. it's demonstrable in terms of the financial performance of the two that manage investments. it's been very clear in terms of tracy's performance with the subsidiaries that have been turned over to her. >> todd and ted are each managing about $7 billion. >> $7 billion. >> $7 billion apiece. >> right. >> they started out on a lower base, $2 billion or $3 billion. you built up more over time. >> less than 3 billion originally, yes. >> what is it that you see in each of them that made you think they think like you do in terms of investments? >> i talked to both of them. it isn't just the investment record impresses me, it's how that investment record was achieved. they are people who are in tune with the kinds of markets and when the market changes they can't adacan adapt. they look at stocks, not as stocks. they look at them as pieces of businesses. they evaluate businesses. they're business analysts when you get right down to it. they translate that into investment decisions. they both have a fundamental soundness to them. there's a combination of soundness and brilliance. you want both. and they think about things that haven't happened yet. in terms of problems. not in terms of dreaming about great projects that are pie in the sky but they're always thinking about the down side. and they've made berkshire billions of dollars already that we wouldn't have otherwise made. they'll make us many billions more. tracy has done into a variety of situations, usually the smaller companies, for one reason or another we needed something done, sometimes a management change. she's done a lot better job than i could do. and she's done such a good job, that when one woman took over a year or two ago, she asked that tracy be made the chairman of the board. the chairman of the board of our subsidiaries is an overseer from berkshire's standpoint. they represent the shareholder in a sense. she's taken on four of those and she'll take on more as time goes along. she also will be a great repository of knowledge about all these companies for my successor. >> let's talk about some of the succession notes that you made in the annual letter. you always do talk about this, not only with the shareholders but with the board. you say the board, something struck me this time around, you said the board knows who your choices would be if there was an immediate need for a successor when it comes to the ceo position. you said those people were either working at berkshire right now or were available to berkshire. that made me question. you're looking outside the company potentially for successors? >> no, no, the successors will be from the company. all the candidates have been over the years. the successor will come from inside berkshire. we have so many businesses we have a shot at evaluating a lot of talent. there is a lot of talent there. and some of them would have the talent to run the place overall. others wouldn't. they're more specialists in their own business. but particularly then when combined with todd and ted who bring an investment perspective, which is useful in acquisitions, analyzing acquisitions. i think we're as well equipped for the next century as anybody. >> you mention both todd and ted. i assume you look at the potential cio part of your job, that someone could take on as a handler. >> those two could. there could be a third person but i'm not looking for one. >> as ceo, would it be a woman. >> not at present. none of the candidates, no. the top candidates now are men. >> and those candidates, has that been a list that's changed over the last year? >> doesn't change very much. it's very slow to change. they shouldn't be on the list if it's quite changeable. >> right. let's talk about some other issues that people have written in about as well. in fact, concerning todd and ted, we have a letter that came in from bora costic. in the mert you mentioned todd and ted created significant values in matters unrelated to portfolio activities can you give some examples? >> in making an acquisition related to media general, where we acquired a bunch of newspapers and also made an investment in the company, ted did all that. in terms of working in the res cap bankruptcy, ted did that. he wasn't getting paid for these at all. this was extraneous work. we recently completed a deal in the last week or so, where we exchanged our phillips 66 stock for a combination of cash plus a specially chemical operation. you know, that was todd. i mean, i may have partially conceive of the idea but i just turned it over to him. and those sort of things might not have gotten done if i had to do them myself. there's some threshold to say the heck with it. and having them has been invaluable on that. we're talking things that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in addition to the billions of dollars they made us on portfolio. >> you talked a lot about their compensation. both of them were managing their own hedge funds before. the compensation structure is different than the 2 and 20 you would get if you were a hedge fund manager. >> last year they started with $5 billion each. if they put it under the mattress under the standard hedge fund arrangement, they both would have made $100 million by sticking it under the mattress. if they put it in an index fund they gotten the 2 and 20 they each would have made over $300 million. all they had to do was buy the vanguard index fund. imagine -- i mean, you can retire forever on $300 million. it just shows that the huge amounts you get by asset gathering rather than asset managing. even though a great many hedge funds in recent years have not delivered high performance, they've delivered high fees. our arrangement is that they get a salary and then they get -- which most hedge fund guys would look like nothing. and then they get paid on the excess. they get 10% of the excess over the s&p performance but it's done over a three-year staggered period. that's the same arrangement i had with lou simpson for 30 years. it seems to me that's quite logical but it's not something that the hedge fund community is out there pushing harder for. >> they both beat your performance last year, didn't they? >> i'm sorry you brought that up. they not only beat my performance, they smashed my performance. >> all right. up next, we'll talk about the markets reacting to the situation in ukraine. plus, some stocks you need to watch at the open. and at the top of the hour, a behind the scenes look at what makes berkshire hathaway tick. we'll have tracy britt cool, ted weschler and todd combs, all with us on set. "squawk" will be right back. horsehide, bullet. right where it needs to be. coach calls it logistics. he's a great passer. dependable. a winning team has to have one. somebody you can count on. somebody like my dad. this is my dad. somebody like my mom. my grandfather. i'm very pround of him. her. them. so i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multi-car, paperless. you make a mighty fine missus, m'lady. i'm not saying mark's thrifty. let's just say, i saved him $519, and it certainly didn't go toward that ring. am i right? 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"ask warren." legendary investor warren buffett answering your questions during the entire show, the oracle on the economy, the markets and much, much more. tweet, e-mail, get to facebook and get those questions in. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen. becky quick is in omaha with warren buffett. we've been speaking to him all morning long. he's been answering your e-mails, tweets and facebook questions. you still have an hour to submit your questions to warren. tweet us usie ining #askwarren. e-mail askwarren@cnbc.com. or paste on our facebook page. >>> the tension between ukraine and russia ramps up. jim maceda is in moscow. a lot of the things we talked about last week, that we thought was a long shot, is sort of happening before our eyes, isn't it? >> reporter: hi, joe. it is playing out before our eyes, though, of course, we don't know whether it will continue playing out or not or whether putin will decide that he's made the west blink and then step back from the brink. russia, however, is how firmly in control of crimea. its forces have either occupied or surrounded all government buildings, ukrainian military bases, posts, ports, telecom towers. they are firmly in russia's hands. putin now has the russian crown jewel. it gives putin, as we talked about before, an essential warm water port, a base for his fleet and it counters what must be in putin's mind the nightmare scenario. that is that what he sees as this ultranationalist government in kiev suddenly cancels russia's lease on the black sea fleet base. then, according to the nightmare, kiev takes over control of crimea and then joins nato down the line, bringing putin's enemy right up to russia's door. so putin has made that calculus, unfortunately, it looks unclear at best what the west can do about it. back to you, joe. >> yes. i'm a simpleton at this, jim. does this become crimea, does it become ukraine as a whole. we've seen this move before in terms of regional influence, being split in georgia and other former soviet states. that's what scares me. crimea is pro-russian anyway. they still have those bases there. is it possible the whole country could be in his crosshairs? >> i think that is highly unlikely. it's not just me speaking. every single analyst i have spoken to over the past week or two now believes that that is a step too far. because that would be shooting putin in his own foot. putin and russia depend on a functioning ukraine. they do a lot of business in ukraine. they've got those pipelines running through ukraine and that's how they get their money, through tax and then, of course, the gas that is purchased by europe. so there has to be a modicum of normalcy. crimea is one thing, crimea was russian for many, many years before it was handed back over to ukraine. the rest of ukraine would be certainly, according to the analyst, one step too far. just to keep the pressure on, he does have the right to take that step, according to the russian parliament. he has the use of force in his back pocket if he needs it. back to you. >> i thought that was kind of like kidding us that he can do it. we need to get congressional approval. i can't imagine it's the same thing. would they ever say no to vladimir putin? i've asked the parliament. >> no, you're right. it's a formality. it's a rubber stamp parliament. it's just his way of sugar coating things. ae and covering up what's really going on. back to you. >> thank you, jim maceda. he knows how expensive, becky, it would be if russia needs to take all of ukraine's problems and maybe money is the one thing we can count on, you know, if these leaders aren't reasonable and absolute power corrupts, absolutely but it would be easier to have the west and europe and the united states sort of pitching in to help this huge region's economy. >> yes, i guess that was michelle's point earlier this morning, maybe the markets can step in and take pressure. i note earlier coverage that noted ukraine, the guys in charge in ukraine now, instead of sending in the military are sending in the oligarchs, the wealthy, influential people, to make the argument of why this should be done from a peaceful perspective. that might make a difference, too. >> i think of buffett as an oligarch. i guess that's probably a stretch to some extent but i don't know, he's just -- actually, you know what, i don't think he's rich enough to be an oligarch in these eastern countries. >> right. some of these guys have built up incredible stores of wealth. but you're right. it is a special morning here on "squawk box." we have warren buffett answering all of your questions. he's been doing that throughout the morning. we have a rare interview with berkshire hathaway investment managers todd combs and ted weschler, plus, tracy britt cool, warren buffett's assistant. this is a rare moment. i don't think you've all sat down together for an interview. >> no. >> we talked in the last "squawk" about why warren chose each of you. he explained about what he finds so interesting in each of you. what i'd love to hear from you three is why you chose berkshire hathaway and maybe how you found your way to berkshire. each of you had a very different path. todd, let's talk about when you first talked to buffett. when did that happen to warren? >> i reached out to charlie. we had a series of conversations over the course of several months before one day i was out visiting in l.a. and he said, just out of the blue after a three or four-hour breakfast, in classic charlie style that warren would really like to meet me. then he went on for five or ten minutes about how much warren would like to meet me and so forth. i came out to omaha and warren and i spent the day together, talking everything from baseball to business and insurance. and it was very interesting. >> you've moved your whole family to omaha. when did you move? >> that's right. after i joined, the kids finished out the year in school back in connecticut and we moved the entire family out, right after i joined. so we've been out here, i guess, coming up on three years now. it's been wonderful. >> it's been wonderful. you love omaha? >> absolutely. my wife and kids all love it. it's been an absolutely wonderful experience. omaha is a great town. and the people really make it there. it's just been an excellent experience. >> todd, i love your story, too, for how you came here. over the course of two years, you paid $5.2 million for two lunches with warren. >> donated. >> i like your version. >> becky, i've been reading warren's letters probably since 1979 when i started college. and i was kind of a bucket list thing for me, that i always wanted to meet the guy. i think as you know, glide f foundation, terrific charity does an auction. i spent a day with glide. this is a terrific charity. they help the otherwise helpless. i bid on the auction and ended up winning. >> did you keep hitting the button at the last minute? >> not quite, not quite. i ended up getting it. and came out to -- my only condition on it that i asked for i wanted to do it anonymously. we were set up at smith and wollens wollensky. we opted to do it in omaha. i came out and visited with warren. and it was just fun. we really hit it off. i was expecting a stiff hour or so meeting and it ended up being this long meeting at the office and terrific dinner where we had a lot of just common interests and thought about things very similarly. and that was that. and i was pretty happy to have it checked off. the following year, i said, you know, i really don't want to see the price of this go down. mentally i said, if it's going to go for the same price or less i want to make the donation again and help out glide. and that happened. came out the second time. again, we really just had a terrific visit. and toward the end of the evening, i had my little yellow legal pad of questions i was asking warren. i wanted to make sure i hit all of them. i said you can ask me anything you want with be too. out of the blue, he said i think you might be a good fit at berkshire. would you have any interest? it was the last thing on my mind. i really completely threw me off. >> did it floor you to hear it? >> totally. really, totally threw me out. i didn't want to be dismissive. this guy is a hero. you can't say no way. i started thinking about it and, you know, it was right at that point i had run my own fund for 12 years. the regulations on hedge funds were changing. i had a staff of two people and me that ran my fund. i would have to bring a compliance person in and life would get complicated. wow, this was actually a way to simplify things and do what i love to do and be an anist. >> tracy, your path to berkshire, when students come out and meet with warren, how did tracy do that? and should i change my name to start with "t"? how did you find your way to berkshire. >> meeting warren was on my bucket list. i didn't have $5.3 million. i had to take another path. i came out with one of the student groups, an organization i was involved with, smart women securities. it was a great opportunity to meet warren. i really enjoyed that experience. like i said it was once in a lifetime. and a couple years later, i decided to write a letter to warren and just say, can i come out and spend a day, a week, a month, i'll do anything if you let me spend some time with you, fully assuming he would say no, i'd say i tried and we'd go about our way. fortunately he said yes. i came out that summer, worked on a small project for him, thought, this is a once in a lifetime experience. >> what was the project. >> i was looking at the lehman bankruptcy. it was a daunting task. one where i don't think i had too much value to add. it was interesting. it allowed warren and i an opportunity to have discussions about business management investing. those were all great for me. my guess, a good opportunity to are him as well to learn more about me. >> you have to get letters all the time from people who want to come to work here. you must meet people all the time. what about these three in particular jumped out at you. >> thing jumped out at you. same thing when we bought escar. it was a one and a quarter-page letter. i've had thousands of letters from people who wanted to manage money for us. they send along their record and everything. it's more than having had a good five years or something of the sort. i've seen a lot of investment managers come and go. so it's a judgment about their intellect but also just as much a judgment about their character. and we've got the right three here. they don't come along every day. >> they don't. in fact, there's been a lot of interest in all three of you. we've gotten a lot of questions that have come in from our viewers and we've been posing some of those questions to warren this morning. if you three don't mind i'd like to ask you three the questions that have been coming in, too. part of what's come up is just todd and ted, i'll ask you this first. how you invest and how you see the world. todd earhart writes in, when you identify a company, for example, that seems worth a deeper look, what does your investment process generally look like? what do you like to read and how much time is typically spent before you're ready to actually make an investment? i'll start with you two on this. >> go ahead, ted. >> okay. well, i'd say that it's investing, turning over a lot of stones. the way that i spend my day is just reading. annual reports, transcripts, delta reports, regulatory filings, channel checks, anything i can get my hands on, really, trade magazines, et cetera. 99% of what you look at you candice miss within five minutes. >> what's the magic thing that tells you there's no way this is something. >> there's kind of a -- charlie talks about mental models and so forth. you think about a gating analysis or flow chart. there's a lot of things that come along, obviously valuation being one, being able to understand the business, technology is an area that, sector, that i traditionally haven't done much in. it's very hard to know what a lot of those businesses will look like five years from now. there's a lot of things that completely eliminate it. if you don't know you can't get comfortable with it, you don't need to spend any more time on it. it's the 1% of ideas, a needle in a haystack. you know when there's something there. that's exciting. if you love investing that's what you can spend the next 500 to 1,000 hours on. >> 500 to 1,000 hours. >> somewhere in that ballpark. >> didn't warren tell you reading is the most important thing you should be doing. >> yes, when i spoke to the business school, late '01 or early '02, the last question posed to him is what his secret was. never forget it. he had a giant stack of paper, it was a hodgepodge. he said he reads 500 pages a week. that's where i started, reading 500, sometimes more pages a week. that's where the reports quarterback regulatory filings come in. >> there's no easy way to it. it's building up knowledge over years and years and years. >> that's right. that's right. as wants has said before, it is compound knowledge. you get better and better at spotting those factors. i can look at a bank or certain companies in certain sectors much faster than i would five, ten years ago. >> warren, that reminds me of something you said when you made that bank of america investment. you built that up over decades. >> i read that probably 55 years ago i read a book called "biography of a bank." i probably read their annual report every year for 50 years. the same thing happens many times. the beauty of it is, knowledge is cumulative. even what you're learning about company "a" will help you thinking about company "b." >> ted, how about you? how does your approach differ or is it the same? >> very similar. i think things are distinguishing, i do them quirky. i typically don't meet management and talk to management. >> why? >> historically, i was in private equity for 15 years, generally if you become a ceo of a company you're a good salesman one way or the other and you'll probably spin people. i made a couple big mistakes where i got involved in situations where i liked people too much. i generally like people. the way to avoid that is put the filter on that rely on reading transcripts, 10ks, 10qs. know the situation, wait for the right price. you're always reading about things but, most of the time the price won't be right. but be ready. >> be ready. tracy, people have a lot of interest into what you've been doing with the companies you've parachuted in on. warren talked earlier when he has a company that's in a little bit of trouble, he's asked you for help. tom from new jersey says what are your plans for benjamin moore going forward? i'm interested in that and i'm interested in what it is you do when you parachute in. >> benjamin moore, we have a tremendous quality of brand as well as a great company with great people. we need to give a little bit more attention to our dealers. over the last ten years or so we've underinvested in our dealer network. what we're trying to do is reinvigorate them with trust and helping them understand that we're here for them for the long haul. we're not going to make commitments in other directions. but really for them. i would say when i go into i accompany, it's helping the management team identify the direction in which we need to move. and in situations that i've involved typically there's been an industry change, business shift, somewhere where we've lost our way a little bit. we can use resources within other companies, berkshire companies are the first place i look to for knowledge and experience. i ask, can you come in and help, how do you manage your warehouse, how you went to market with a specific brand, how you approached an issue that was of specific interest to you. >> another question that has come in, this is directed to ted and todd, both compensations are tied to each other in a 80/20 split. if you could pick any investment manager besides the one you're sitting with to have a similar split, who would you pick? warren is sitting here, too, you can't pick him. >> 99/1 they might go for. >> we can't pick charlie either? >> no. i'm going to take him out of the running. you both have long careers. both worked with a lot of people over the years. is there somebody else who impressed you along the way? i think that's what they're trying to get it. >> i have names that i've recommended people to. i'm not 100% sure they would necessarily want to be recommended. lou simpson at geico, he was there for a very long time and at berkshire. there's a fellow named tom bancroft that runs a fund out in laerful. i've referred people over to him before. >> laurie pigeon, died unfortunately but he managed money very well after he left us. >> merrill whitmore joined our board. i don't think she takes outside money. i've known her for probably 10, 12 years. she has a wonderful long-term track record as does tom. >> what do you think, ted? >> i've never met him but david teppers. he has a good track record. he's proven able to do well in tough markets an rising markets. >> that's a great point. >> i always respected that. >> do you own berkshire hathaway shares personally? if you were still running your hedge funds would you buy it for your funds? if you do own shares, do you think it would be better off if it were broken up? >> i do own some berkshire. owned it when i joined. probably would not have it in the fund. i typically when i manage my own fund, a lot of what i do at berkshire, i like to become the largest share holder in a given company. it's kind of hard to do with berkshire. and

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