evercore's founding partner, roger altman. >>> in the headlines this morning, royalty pharma is makingn $11 a share bid to acquire elon. it hasn't received a formal response, but acknowledges it has been unsuccessful so far in its efforts to engage with the drugmaker since making that offer. shares rising this morning. take a look. also today, voluntarily recalls all lots of anemia treatment in the u.s. by royalty pharma. the drug is used to treat anemia. shares of affy defendant's exhibit madz down sharply in early trading this morning. >>> and hewlett packard announcing it's making a tablet that uses google's operating system. the hp7 will be in a similar size to the amazon fire. hp had a failed attempt back in 2011 with a device based on palm's web os software when it bought that for a nice sum -- actually, it paid way too much. there it is. joe. >> i don't know what amantis is. but anemia is dialysis patients, i don't know how this competes, but i want to mention lowe's, which is reporting results this morning. lowe's reported 26 cents a share at 3 cents above estimates. same-store

blair ephron, roger altman. and honeywell chief david cody y. these guys?ll three have been sitting in on regular conference calls with the white house. they're among the leaders the obama administration is turning to for advice on everything from the deficit to taxes to the broader economy. >>> then, after we talk to them, they're going to paint a picture for us, we're going to turn to two powerful investors for insight into what the conversation in washington means for the broader markets. cowen and company ceo jeff solomon will join us, and the bond king, bill gross. first, steve will bring us up to speed on the morning's top stories. steve? >> thank you, michelle. disney posting better than expected earnings and revenues after the bell. the company says it expects the next few quarters to be better on a stronger lineup of films and growing attendance at its theme parks. ceo bob iegory was on cnbc's "closing bell." >> you had a lot of ins and outs. basically, the trendser good. we had strong results at our domestic parks. the bookings have been pretty so

let me begin with roger altman in boston. we're taking this before the state of the union address but the economy's not going to change that much between now and then. and i assume you have an idea of what the president is going to say. was it important for the president to say? >> well, i have not seen the speech charlie, but i would like to see a pathway to agreement on the tax and spending issues which have preoccupied washington now for the ug long es period in the past three months and facing us with the sequester of the continuing resolution and so forth. do i expect to see that pathway in other words in the real world? i don't. i think the presidencies himself as riding high. he won the election decisively. he got a deal on his terms as the whitehouse sees it on the fiscal cliff. he got the republicans to retreat on the debt limit. i don't think the republicans are going to play with government shut down either and so the presidencies himself riding high it seems to me and he sees the republicans in a disorganized and

i think roger altman is correct on this. simpson-bowles recommended, as well, as you recall. and domenici rudman. all the bipartisan commissions have said look the economy is still trying to get going, it's going, but not fast enough, we need to create more jobs, grow the economy more, so don't tamp it down in the short-term. but in the long-term get us to a fiscally balanced position. i think that will give confidence to the market so i think that recommendation is a good one. in fact, joe, as you know, chris van hollen on our behalf has offered that two weeks in a row. we weren't here last week, we weren't working last week, notwithstanding the specter of this deep across-the-board cut that's being proposed. the fact of the matter is we have nothing on the floor to do that. i think altman is correct. what we ought to do and what we've proposed and what we're going to propose again this week is to make cuts, to have revenues, to make cuts, balanced package, about $100 billion over ten years, do it in a way that will not har

roger altman is the one that has to find the alternative deal. if he can find the alternative deal, he'll do well. >> and his pay scale is structured in such a way that he gets paid a lot more money if he finds an alternative deal. >> he's a capitalist, right? >> he is a capitalist. >> he was here last week. he said it last week and you weren't here. it was me, myself and i. there were three democrats on the set last week. the fourth one called in sick. >> the broad definition. >> brod broad, yeah. let's get a quick check on the markets. skol scott joins us now from the cme. good morning. good to see you, scott. what do you think here as we head into the week compared to last week? >> well, i guess you have to close your eyes and say full steam ahead. ultimately, we haven't had a blow up in asia. i'm not quite sure what these numbers are going to show us this week in asia. we have big numbers on the docket. it hasn't fallen apart like everybody want thad to. here we sit in the u.s. with everybody is buying hand over fist. i've been doing it a lon

blair ephron, evercore partner roger altman, avenue capital ceo marc hasry and honeywell chairman andcontributions and the future of america. a one-hour special presentation at 7:00 eastern and it's only, only i tell you on "squawk box." >>> the dow pulling back from the mile stone 14,000 level. can bulls shake off european fears and get the rally back on track? >> times of market uncertainty we turn to our squawk market masters. ron baron and find out where they're putting billions of dollars to work. >> it's tuesday, february 5th. the third hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" everyone. we're here on cnbc, first in business worldwide i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin and steve liesman. we've been watching u.s. futures as the equity futures at this hour and you're going to see after the big pullback yesterday you are starting to see some big gains today. dow futures up by 90 points. s&p up by over 9 points. of course this is all coming after yesterday's pullbacks where stocks had their worst day of the year. earlier today we spoke to jim

roger altman on "squawk" this morning, i mean, everybody knows that it has to be dealt with at some point. the real question is, when, if it's ever going to happen. >> the president has a plan on the table, which is to cut some very important medicare, raise some rates for the various parks, including park -- you know, the drug giveaway. my dad's a veteran, okay? if you go to the va, you get the drugs much cheaper than -- the government pays full boat in medicare. the government wants to change that. he also wants to do a change in the inflation formula for social security. these are not idle. people want to know the president wants to tax, tax, tax. we could also do this carry interest. when i was a hedge fund manager, i was not able to convert ordinary income into capital gains. that's the new way to do it. ronald reagan felt that was one of the worst things you could ever do is be able to convert ordinary income into capital gains. if you believed in reagan, of which i did, you would change it. >> it should be changed. i firmly believe, some of my friends in private equity disagree. >>