roger. we've been speaking with roch. >> jeff: altman. f coming up tomorrow, we'll talk with one top c.e.o. for his views on the fiscal cliff and what higher taxes and spending cuts mean for his business. stephen roell of johnson controls joins us. >> reporter: pfizer took a big hit this year when its blockbuster cholesterol drug lipitor came off patent. still ahead, the outlook for the generic drug business in 2013. >> susie: on wall street today, another triple-digit gain in blue chip stocks on hopes that a fiscal cliff deal is in the works. investors were also reassured by another positive report from the housing sector. homebuilder confidence hit its highest level since the spring of 2006. but the housing recovery still has a ways to go: index readings above 50 reflect a positive outlook. some encouraging news on europe's economic crisis: standard and poor's gave greece a better grade. it got upgraded to a "b-minus" from "selective default" thanks to reassurances that greece will stay in the eurozone. on wall street, the dow rose 115

we get an insider's perspective on those talks from roger altman. he was a key adviser in the clinton administration and now, as head of investment firm evercore, he's plugged in to corporate america and wall street. and are apple's hot-selling products cooling off? is the competition winning over even apple's loyal fans? that and more tonight on "n.b.r." john boehner is pushing for his "plan b." this is the latest twist in those crucial fiscal cliff negotiations. the house speaker offered a back-up plan today to avoid falling off the cliff. he promised to bring a bill to the house floor this week that would raise income tax rates for people earning more than $1 million a year and no new spending cuts, for now. the white house immediately rejected it. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner says the president is asking for about half a trillion dollars more in taxes than he is willing to cut from spending. that means the two sides have narrowed their differences, but the speaker says not enough progress has been made to call it

our guest hosts barry snap and roger altman are here, as well.l we went over this plan "b" not being brought to the house floor last night. how did that change the dynamic? >> you know, i think barry had it right. it's less of a fiscal cliff than a fiscal drag. i think that's the right way to describe it. i think the interesting thing as far as the currency market goes, as far as the euro goes, is i think we're starting to correlate back to the dow. as i was looking at the screen, the euro is trading 132. the dow is 13,100. i think if we slice another 100 points off the dow, probably going to slice another 100 points off the euro, as well. the reason why, i think the correlation is back is if the market perceives the fact that the u.s. economy slows down because they can't get a deal done in the fiscal cliff, that's going to affect global economics. europe's r is contingent on very healthy u.s. demand. if we don't have that, we take everybody else down with us. >> let me ask you, i've been trying to figure that out with regard to bonds and how it

roger altman is former treasury official under president clinton. he says he's optimistic that a deal is coming. the question, of course, is when. joining me from new york is roger altman. always nice to have you on the program. let welcome back. >> hi, how are you? >> you think a chance of getting a deal will increase and harry reid says he's pessimistic that had t will get done before christmas. what do you think? >> the financial markets themselves are becoming more optimistic, and i think that's a strong signal. second, i think the atmospherics, and senator reid's statement is just part of that, are suggesting that there's some movement and some progress, and thirdly, i'm particularly impressed with what the business community has been doing. it's really engaged and rolled its sleeves up and got involved in this. you might have seen the statement about an hour ago that the business roundtable released, and the business community wants a solution. they want a balanced solution and increasing towards the president's approach. >> what kind of a dea

. >> up next, former treasury official roger altman who says he has the fix for the cliff. playing a larger role soon? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. with the spark miles card from capital one, thor gets great rewards for his small business! your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics. put it on my spark card. ow. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve great rewards. [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applause ] you'll also care about our new offer. you get access to nurses who can help with your questions. and your loved one can get exelon patch free for 30 days. if the doctor feels it's right for them. it cannot change how the disease progresses. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects

we get an insider's perspective on those talks from roger altman. he was a key adviser in the clinton administration and now, as head of investment firm evercore, he's plugged in to corporate america and wall street. and are apple's hot-selling products cooling off? is the competitwi

we'll ask roger altman, former assistant treasurer from the clinton administration. and finally tonight, christmas is just a week away, and it looks like many of you still have a lot of holiday shopping to do. visa surveyed over a thousand consumers and found 73% have yet to finish their holiday shopping. 16% haven't bought a single gift, and those last minute shoppers will spend an average of $304 in the final days leading up to christmas. and visa says, with this many americans still desperate to buy gifts, we are officially in the danger zone for 'panic shopping'. i'm happy to tell you tom, i'm not in that zone. that's "nightly business report" for monday, december 17. have a great evening everyone, and you too tom. >> tom: goodnight susie, we'll see you online at: www.nbr.com and back here tomorrow night. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org (♪ theme music ) (♪) matt elmore: welcome to imagemakers a weekly showcase featuring the best short films from around the world. stay tuned and enjoy the filmmakers of tomorrow

roger altman, former deputy treasury secretary under esident bill clinton. die an further got roth. and steve hays is a senior righter at "the weekly standard" and fox news contributor. welcome to all of you. roger, you think this is the real deal? >> well, i think the chances for an agreement, a serious agreement, a major agreement are impositiving as we see these additional details. this taking the pattern, familiar pattern that one often sees in washington in terms of grudging progress. the two sides each laid out aggressive positions initially from the pointf view what they want and now 're seeing some hetating progress but pogress towards a middle ground. and it's a difficult thing. the politics of this are very hard. but i think the chances for an agreement are improving. i think there will be agreement and likely to be before the deadline but we don't know that yet. melissa: we don't know that. diana, still seems like there a lot of distance in the middle between the two sides at this point? >> there really does and dana has gone very far in that tax increase,hat tax rate incr

tomorrow on the show maria cantwell and roger altman joining us.us online and on twitter @mitchellreports. hi, tamron. >> grae to see you. in the next hour we follow developing news. president obama has new words of speaker boehner and the republicans in his first tv interview since the election and since the fiscal cliff stalemate started. no deal until republicans drop the opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthy. that's the president's message. we'll play the interview for you, parts of it, and also hear from democratic congressman adam schiff. from the president shooting down speaker boehner proposal to now conservative groups going aafter him, who are boehner's allies at this point. where is governor jan brewer. the mystery about the out of state business trip and why his own spokesperson says he can't disclose where she is. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also c

roger altman, former treasury official, larry fink, be erskine bowles. this what is alan simpson, erskine bowles' partner in the deficit commission, had to say about that possibility last week on the show. >> he said he would be very pleased to do that. he shared that with me personally, as long as they move the treasury department to north carolina, to charlotte. i don't think -- >> he's worked so hard on this. you don't think he could be persuaded? >> never. because he wouldn't want to serve in a dysfunctional government. >> and no argument that it is dysfunctional. one of the key players here who is leaving government was mentioning -- i was asking, why is jack lew so disliked, let's say, by the republicans with whom he negotiates? and the answer that i was given was that he knows the budget. he knows the baseline and the baseline is really what mandates how much in cuts really will be cut and that he ran circles around the house negotiators last summer durings the super committee because he knew what he was talking about. which, you know, arguably th

thing is even though we feel like we are constantly hearing from bob rubin and larry somers and roger altmanttle bit of a bad penny -- >> you have heard this before. >> on the other hand, they were absolutely right. even bill krystal agrees with them. the economy boomed during the middle of the clinton two administrations when the high tax rate was at 39.6%. we had a huge expansion of productivity and everybody was feeling quite prosperous as i recall. and so the question is why not seriously go back to something like that again? i think we can stipulate that nobody wants to pay more taxes. i don't want to pay any more taxes, you don't, but we've just come through this period where we've funded two huge, expensive wars and didn't pay for it, and now the bill is coming due. what a surprise. we've got to get around to paying for it. >> what about this idea of killing this carried interest notion and also increasing the amount charged against dividends. of course, warren buffett has suggested if you're earning over $1 million in terms of your capital benefits, then you should be tacked at a min

. >> former deputy treasury secretary roger altman weighs in on that coming up. us online tod. happy. sales go up... i'm happy. it went out today... i'm happy. what if she's not home? (together) she won't be happy. use ups! she can get a text alert, reroute... even reschedule her package. it's ups my choice. are you happy? i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. (together) happy. i love logistics. i have obligations. cute tobligations, but obligations.g. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. >>> is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. >> are you okay with that? >> the president is prepared to h

we get an insider's perspective on those talks from roger altman. he was a key adviser in the clinton administration and now, as head of investment firm evercore, he's plugged in to corporate america and wall street. and are apple's hot-selling products cooling off? is the competition winning over even apple's loyal fans? that and more tonight on "n.b.r."

host: roger altman writes in "the financial times" -- "why the fiscal cliff will be averted.": there is something to what he says. there is nothing like a 1000 point drop in the stock market, and whether you think you are using it, or not, you are. jobs are tied up. people have investments without realizing it. i would agree with what he has to say, oh why do we have to wait? we are about one or two big deals away from reigniting economic growth in this country. i do not care what side of the political divide you are on, we are all better off when the economy is growing. if we could make a good deal, a smart deal that calls for compromise on each side, i think we could help the economy by showing the political system from cit at host: gerald rights -- how about getting rid of subsidies for farmers, corporations and big oil? guest: if you look to the republican farm bill, it gets rid of direct payments for farmers and it asks for reforms on the other side. food stamp use is up 47% or 40% in the middle of what is supposed to be a recovery -- 48% in what is supposed to be a recov

i would probably put roger altman in the treasury mix too. but those are the same names that i'm hearing too. and the interesting new one which s a story that hans and julianna brohis week was ken chin all which would be an interesting choice if he were chosen for anything. >> rose: i want to close with this. >> charlie, let me say one thing. they're out on a limb with hagel right now. if they back down on hagel bhaus at the floated his name. if they back down on hagel after they backed down on susan rice, maybe that was the wise thing to do, but when dow it twice in a row, that suggests weakness. >> rose: so they can't back down. >> i think they would have problems if they backed down. >> rose: and the question comes from what, his attitude about israel. >> the theyo cons don't like him in geral, some is israel, some iran, some other stuff. >> rose: i want to close this with this question. so the president won this election. it looked like a brilliant campaign run by his team. he comes to washington knowing that he will not run for public of

we get an insider's perspective on those talks from roger altman. he was a key adviser in the clinton administration and now, as head of investment firm evercore, he's plugged in to corporate america and wall street. and are apple's hot-selling products cooling off? is the competition winning over even apple's loyal fans? that and more tonight on "n.b.r."

roger altman, the list goes on. bill daily, the chief of staff to president obama. and they have enormous expertise. they also represent you know, really the folks who balanced the budget last time and who gave us the great economy of the '90s. these are people we should listen to. >> bill: and john pedesto former chief of staff. so question... can the republicans -- the republicans assert we can get all of the revenue we need by simply closing loopholes and getting rid of some deductions. they won't tell us exactly which ones they're talking about right? >> right. >> bill: we can get there. we don't have to raise tax rates. is that -- any truth to that? >> look, there is money to be had in reforming the code and getting rid of some of the deductions and credits and reforming them. no question about it. but if you just do that, and actually if you do that and lower the rates as the republicans proposed, what you end up doing is cutting taxes for people at the top and raising taxes for people in the middle and the bottom and that -- we don't think that's a good appro