also note that mr. weiss' friends at was art are giving him a golden parachute valued at about $20 million as he goes into government service. just one span of the revolving door too many. enough is enough. the response to these concerns has been let's say, loud. his supporters say,, on. he is an investment banker. he should be qualified to oversee collocated financial work at treasury. showns defenders have not that his actual experience qualifies him for this job at treasury. professor adam levinsohn, a law professor who teaches at georgetown, wrote a really good piece about this last week. he looked at each of the functions of the undersecretary it,tion and, as he put almost none of that relates to the work of an investment banker doing international m&a. professor simon johnson, former chief economist at the imf, now teaches at m.i.t., agrees. he noted last week that this third most the senior official in the executive branch with regard to fiscal decision-making. , it is goes on to say hard to think of a

mr. weiss has been nominated is one that would put him at the head of the treasury's decision making on issues of domestic finance, fiscal policy, government liabilities and other related domestic matters. he would oversee critical issues such as wall street reform, financing the national debt, housing finance reform, and small business credit. i have serious doubts that mr. weiss has the right experience to take on such a role. it is clear that as the global head of investment banking at lazard, mr. weiss is very talented and experienced in working in financial markets and economic institutions. but as an investment banker on wall street, he does not have the experience for this particular oversight position. he has dealt most -- almost entirely with european investment banking matters, not domestic finance or community banking or regulatory issues of any kind, all of which falls under the jurisdiction of this important position. and besides, not having this right background for the job, the f

"it is hard to think of any senior fiscal official from thea serious country as we get those of mr. weisshese professors are right. i worked at treasury and i know how critical this position is to financial regulation issues. despite what some of weiss's supporters have said, the job isn't just to handle the u.s. treasuries to foreign investors, and even if it were, weiss is a corporate dealmaker not a bond trader. one professor makes another good point. "the shock of mr.ln$֖ weiss's supporters that anyone would dare question his suitability reflects an unspoken assumption that anyone from wall street is of course expert in all things financial." that is hooey. i agree. we would all scratch our heads isf the president nominated a theoretical physicist to be the surgeon general because she had a background in science. it is no less puzzling for the president to nominate a national merger specialist to handle largely domestic economic issues at treasury because he has a background in finance. second, weiss's supporters say that burger king isn't a 4

also note that mr. weiss' friends at lazard are giving him a golden parachute valued at about $20 million as he goes into government service. for me, this is just one spin of the revolving door too many. enough is enough. the response to these concerns has been, let's say, loud. first, his supporters say, come on. he is an investment banker, so of course he should be qualified to oversee complicated financial work at treasury. but his defenders haven't shown that his actual experience qualifies him for this job. professor adam leviton, a law professor who teaches financial regulation at georgetown wrote a good piece about this last week. he looked at each of the functions of the under-secretary's position, and as he put it, "almost none event -- none of that relates to the work of an investment banker doing international m&a." theessor simon johnson, former chief economist of the imf who now teaches at m.i.t., agrees. he noticed that this position is "the third most senior official in the executive branch wit

doreference to mr. weiss, i not know the guy personally. cannot speak to is he a good person or not. i'm sure he is a very good person. the point is, we have a history of horrible regulation. .e have regulators many of these people were the brightest students at the best liberal arts colleges. the fact was, the best and brightest ailed us. -- failed us. all those people were there during the housing bubble years. we need people who have their first priority focus on the public. other mr. weiss fits that bill, i do not know. baker -- dean baker. we will be back. ♪ >> welcome back to "market makers." erik schatzker is off. we brought in a special cohost, bill cohen. before we get into more time together -- >> special holiday time. >> the top global business stories of the morning. a huge read on gdp as we head into the new year. third-quarter growth was revised up to 5%. that was higher than the top economist estimate and is the fastest growth we have seen since 2003. one economist tells us the fed probably will not make too much out of this

mr. weiss should be confirmed with bipartisan support is that he is somebody who has spent some time thinking about some of the issues that president believes are critically important. for example, in 2012, mr. weiss co-authored a report called "reforming our tax system and reducing our deficit." mr. weiss shares the president's view that we would benefit significantly from reforming and simplifying our tax code and implementing policies that help boost economic growth while supporting our middle class. that includes, by the way, eliminating the inversion loophole that allows some large corporations to renounce -- essentially renounce its citizenship just so they can get away without paying their fair share of taxes. mr. weiss has a lot of experience, has knowledge that would be critically important to the successful conduct of the responsibilities of somebody who's going to serve as the undersecretary of the treasury for domestic finance. that's why we're counting on the congress to take quick

mr. weiss's boss, if he is confirmed, and she will be driving the regulatory train. that makes me feel a little better about. this >> here is one thing, jerry, my impression from afar watching elizabeth warren in this, also interested in making a statement and having the democratic party make a statement that a democratic party that's had such a close relationship with wall street and wall street that caused so much pain in people's lives the last decade, using this as an opportunity to tell people, you know what, we are looking away from wall street for a change. suspect there an argument to be made for doing it symbolically? >> it is a great argument. half of my article was completely underscoring that argument. let me tell you something from the inside that i think is very important and really isn't part of that argument. when i worked for the obama administration as an economist and we were trying to craft dodd frank and dealing with the recession and recovery act, the folks on the other side of my progressive/warn/lenore kind of arguments were not necessarily pe

i agree with mr. weiss on small caps. last week i flagged this technical breakout above 1200 on the russell which really was about a year in the making, brian. this was an index that bumped up against 1200 three times over the prior 12 months, could not get through, momentum building. these stocks basically sat the year out, consolidated after as massive 2013 and look like they want to take the baton. it would make perfect sense if that were to be the case heading into 2015. seasonally speaking the russell tends to do better than large caps also. i like that idea of his and believe european valuations are worth the buy. i know all the bad news, i understand greece, but i think the market understands that as well. these stocks are cheap, these stocks should do much better going forward. >> yeah. mike, you and i are journalists not market analysts. nobody cares about our opinion but let's give it anyway. one of my predictions, i'm going to do it on the 2:00 p.m. eastern time show, the dow up next year. i think the economy w

firestorm in washington with elizabeth warren, leaving the charge saying, the white house claims mr. weissersonally opposed to inversions. and he's the count against tax inversion? meanwhile, a just passed -- a win for a company who wanted to move theseas very joining me is president and ceo of international and. inversions. let me start with you. there was a slight win for companies in this and in no very they will move their headquarters overseas. what do you think it would be like for them in 2000 13 with congress? >> good morning and thank you for having me on. latest.ns are the what is critically important is that the political rhetoric over the burger king deal and others like it, and the potential for legislation and read -- as a response to it, have got the global community broadly concerned. my organization represents the u.s. subsidiaries of foreign michelin,like nestlÉ, and these companies are concerned they will be collateral damage. areign investments important to our economy. these are companies that have decided to invest outside their home market, in source investments and

mr. smith, come back in six months. >> reporter: philadelphia lawyer sal weiss is suing the airbag maker takata to change that m. replacement parts should be available now to fix what's moved to be a deadly problem. we know people have been killed. you call it a ticking time bomb. >> it is a time bomb. >> reporter: he represents nearly a dozen drivers and passengers who were either maimed or had family members killed when a takata-made airbag deployed and shot metal fragments into passengers. takata refused to accept the national highway transportation administration's call for a nationwide recall citing a lack of data. some carmakers such as honda, bmw, and toyota issued national recalls but are sending replacement parts to places with high humidity first. takata says humidity contributes to the malfunctioning airbags though some malfunctions have occurred in low-humidity areas. >> i couldn't possibly put anybody in the front seat. >> reporter: phil took his bmw to a southern california dealer when the government recalled his airbag. he said the dealer told him it would be months before his airbag could be repl

mr. gross. we've been talking to ana navarro, our cnn political analyst for some time this morning. you just got a call from the weisse monitoring the news and watching cnn. they tell me that it is not a prisoner swap for the three spies and alan gross, that it was a swap of the three cuban spies for a high level u.s. intel asset that had been held in cuba for over 20 years who they are not going to name. and then the humanitarian release, the good act by the cuban government of doing a humanitarian release of alan gross who had been held for over five years. obviously as i speak to bob menendez, i just read his statement he put out. ma r co-rubio and all the other cuban american members of congress, i don't think anybody's buying that. it's a stretch but that's what the white house was saying. it was not a swap of three spies for an american being held in prison, it was a swan of three cuban spies for a high level u.s. intel asset. >> so a u.s. spy in cuba was being held for the past 20 years. had you heard about that? do you know anything about this other -- this american spy that was being held in cuba that the wh