andrew ross sorkin is out today. he'll be back tomorrow. president obama and speaker boehner are not commenting about their meeting yesterday, but me members of the parties are continuing the public debate about taxes, spending and the fiscal cliff. republicans want a melt on xwiemtment and tax reform from the president. democrats insist this will not happen until the gop agrees on a tax hike. senator dick durbin saying no deal on the debt without a tax hike of the wealthy. >> i can't tell you, i don't want to do it, the president doesn't want to do it, but we need to solve the problem been we cannot allow the reckless position to drive this economy into another recession. >> some suggesting that it might be better to cave to the president now on taxes and keep up the fight on spending. >> if we were to pass, for instance, raising the top two rate and that's it, all of a sudden we do have the leverage of the debt ceiling and we haven't given that up. >> meantime, one influential

and from cnbc headquarters, co-host of cnbc's "squawk box" andrew ross-sorkin. >> do i need to make a joke about school being out? >> we're kind of tired of that. >> you've grown up. you went from being a little kid to an old man. >> he's a grizzled old vet. >> the gray hair is coming in. >> there's no in between. and from washington nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" the lovely andrea mitchell. and "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart. thank you so much for being with us. why don't we just start really quickly with this story of the mere, mika, and that, of course, barack obama wins, the republicans lose, in a way that perhaps is more telling than just what one election result might suggest. >> well, i think it certainly does and it gives him a certain platform and credibility that perhaps he didn't have before. but watching as these fiscal cliff negotiations have gone through the holidays, it certainly is perhaps a little bit more of a bully pulpit for the president and for his position on taxes. but i think t

i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin.oe kernen is joining us from washington, d.c. this morning along with john harwood. joe, i know you have a huge lineup there. and i know you were up a little late last night, too, right? >> yes, becky, very late. you and andrew, i hope you guys are ready for the heavy lifting. can i ask you a question? are they over the cliff in new zealand, do you know? >> yeah, i guess that's it. >> the sequester would have gone into effect. >> no, that's probably only affecting us here, but that shows you how close it is. we are -- i guess something could happen at 11:00. we'll see, beck. andrew, good to see you, as well. >> good to see you. >> we've switched. i've got the jacket on, you've got the jacket off. how does that capital building look? >> it looks great behind you. you look very statesman like, absolutely. you have your rise above pin on for this final day. >> he looks like a senator. >> you do have a senatorial look. >> i'm going to retire to the rise above when we start talking about th

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. let's take a look at our lineup today. first off, bob doll will be giving us his lineup for stocks. that's coming up at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. at 8:00 eastern, a cnbc exclusive. david tepper, one of the world's top performing hedge fund managers will join us to give us some of his wisdom in a kaerc t can't-miss interview. a lot to talk about with him. in the meantime, why don't we get to some of today's top stories. we could see some movement in the fiscal cliff negotiations. house speaker boehner offering to raise the top tax rates on those making over $1 million a year as well as other measures amounting to $1 trillion in new revenue. that's in exchange for an equal amount in spending cuts. the white house has not yet accepted the proposal. >>> also, apple says it has sold more than 2 million in iphone 5s in china just over the last three days. that's the best ever debut for the iphone line in china. apple is china's second biggest market, although it did lose a lot of market share

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin.one step closer to the cliff and still no deal. you could say we've taken a huge step backwards at this point. we will be joined to talk about why plan b, that bill didn't make it to the house and what the next step is. coming at 6:40 eastern time, red hat has been red hot. that company reporting quarterly results and we have the ceo. at 7:00 a.m. eastern time, we will welcome our guest host, roger altman and barry knapp. we have thorsten heins joining us, as well. >> our big story of the morning, it could be a tense days for the markets as the resolution to the physical cliff appears less likely. we can see the futures opening at least 150 off if things keep up the way they are. house speaker john boehner failing to mount enough support for his plan b that would raise taxes only on families earning more than $1 million. the president vowing he will press ahead with congress to get a deal done. >> he wasn't going to do it, anyway. what does he mean it will press ahead? >> i don't know.

i'm joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin.ecky quick is enjoying some time off today, making headlines the threat of imminent labor unrest at these ports. there are four pacific northwest ports. it's been averted. the dock workers union says its workers will stay on the on job despite substandard controls. both sides are leaving the door open to further negotiations. meanti meantime, about 15 container cargo ports on the atlanta and gulf coast are bracing for a strike by nearly 15,000 union dock workers on december 30th unless shippers extend their contract. and commerce on a key stretch of the mississippi could be halted earlier than expected next week due to low water levels. this could disrupt shipment of grain and other goods and it could do it for months. shippers have been watching a street of the mississippi between st. louis and cairo. and you never know if you were pronouncing it right, some of these others like bagoda or lima, ohio, or versailles. you never know but i think it is cairo, illinois, due to concerns abou

becky is off, andrew association inwill report -- andrew sorkin will report coming up. a heck of -- >> no 13th month. did someone not think that through or something? >> you're right. we'll never see it again is what you're saying. maybe 1,000 years? >> i need to think about it. i need to think about it. i need to think about it. depends on who wrote it. if it was contino it's probably wrong. >> poor ross. >>> all right. power players coming up. >> no 13th month? >> in the world of investing. carlisle's david rubenstein, steve shoresman blackstone, venture capital's marc andreesson, and jamie dimon. look at that -- >> in addition we have jerry webb. make us all -- the rest of us feel -- >> we have one -- >> you're an economist or something? you play on to have -- you can think about the 12-12-12 thing in the meantime because you're good at math. >> yeah. all that stuff. >> all right. >>> as we move closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff, every move is being magnified by the markets. president obama and house speaker john boehner spoke by phone on tuesday, exchanging new

i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen and becky quick is off today. our guest host this hour, ed kehone. he's the management associate portfolio manager and we are thrilled to have ed aboard for -- i think you'll be here for longer than an hour. you'll be here for the whole broadcast. >> as long as you need me. >> you're like -- how long were you at -- you were at prudential. >> it's owned by prudential, so i've been at peru don'tal for almost 15 years now. >> widely quoted. you know who has made a comeback is ralph -- >> akampora. >> i've seen him around. do you remember his nickname? >> i don't. >> whatever you think of him, he's a great guy. >> he's a good guy. >> ed is going to try to make us slightly -- >> be a little sensitive. let's get you some some of the morning headlines. the biggest one being president obama planning to meet with congressional leaders at 3:00 p.m. eastern time today in a last ditch effort to avoid the fiscal cliff. the house majority leader eric cantor is now telling members to be prepared to work through january 2nd. both

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. our guest host this hour is julia sed. fiscal cliff negotiations, our top story. now president obama is proposing leaving lower tax rates in place for everyone except those earning $400,000 and above. that's above the $250,000 threshold that the president has been demanding for months, but it is still far from speaker john boehner's request of $1 million. a source familiar with the talk says this is by no means the final offer for the white house. the move by the president was welcomed, albeit with some reservations. we will talk about the latest developments in just a few minutes. in the meantime, the global markets seem to be taking note of the optimism. you can see right now that those dow futures are up by 54 points. this comes after a decent rally for the markets yesterday. s&p futures at this point are up by better than seven points and the nasdaq futures up, as well, by about 17. european shares rising. germany is up, the ftse is up, the france, the cac in france has turned sli

i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky quick is out today. our guest host this hour, rebecca patterson and peter. check out today's lineup. it is a biggie. we have an exclusive interview with dallas fed pet jrichard fibber. and the interview of the morning you do not want to miss. it is a crazy story we've been talking about for the past two weeks. john mcafee will be joining us live on camera at 8:40 a.m. eastern. we're going to get the latest chapter in this mystery that has murder, mayhem and suspension. his life is the movie of the week, if you will, and we will have it live right here at 8:40. please, do not miss that. let's get you caught up on some of the other headlines this morning. house speaker john boehner and president obama met for the second time this week. both parties are trying to avoid the fiscal cliff. the men had a frank discussion and the lines of communication remain open, although no specific details were released. the meeting came after frustration in washington. this was house speaker boehner earlier in the day. >> r

andrew ross sorkin is off today.ng headlines, john mcafee has been arrested for illegally entering guatemala. authorities say they'll seek to expel him to neighboring belize. mcafee fled belize after being sought for questioning about his neighbor's murder. and he had sought political asylum, but not happening for him. >> weird story. the more you read about this on the internet, the stranger you find out. >> he's a weird looking guy. probably under a lot of investigation. >> yes. he was hiding on the beach outside under the -- >> hell of a mug shot. you know how mug shots make you look -- they wouldn't even need a trial. >> also we've been talking a little bit about the sec today. the sec charging wells fargo investment banker and nine others with fraud. this comes in connection with their alleged role in an insider trading ring that earned more than $11 million by trading on tips aboutimpending mergers. and the front page of the "new york times" looks at the trail to a hedge fund. federal investigators have charged

andrew ross sorkin is off today.bably not awake i would say right now. i can tell you he's in the same time zone. but probably not up. definitely not watching. he may have someone watching for him, though, because he has a lot of people -- >> he tivos. >> but he's not at home. the place where he is like a staff, and he may have someone just watching cnbc that's their only job. they probably don't understand because they don't speak english, but they're probably watching us hopefully with spanish subtitles. let's check out the economic calendar. two key reports both due at 10: 10:00, october construction spending and ism manufacturing index. also today, the nation's automakers will report on november vehicle sales. and it's also the first week of december. do you know what that means? jobs friday seems to be less important than it used to be. just around the corner. here to give us his take on the jobs picture and the economy is anthony chan at chase wealth management and barry knapp and richard bernstein. have you ra

andrew ross sorkin is out today. we hope he's feeling better soon. >>> as we've been talk being the fiscal cliff this week, president obama and speaker boehner appear to be inching toward a deal. last night republicans announced plan b in case talks fail. they'll be moving to pass their own tax bill as a backup plan to avert the tax hikes. and the automatic budget cuts set to happen next month. it would extend low tax rates except on those with incomes of $1 million and above. president obama's latest position puts that threshold at $400,000. >> at this point, having a backup plan to make sure that as few american taxpayers are affected by this increase as possible. >> now no one expects that the gop bill will pass the democratic-controlled senate. in fact, harry reid said forget it, they're not going to be passing any of these things. but this is another option out this. and it does change the dynamics in terms of who's going to be blamed for raising taxes. we'll see how this plays out. >>> among our guests on the t

lloyd blankfein, head of goldman sachs on with andrew ross sorkin.i've been saying for a few weeks. austerity will cause economic headwinds. higher taxes are a medicine we can't turn away. i'm not in favor of higher taxes, but there are a lot of people down here who are arguing this is going to be a serious headwind for the stock market. here we are, by the way, on intraday. don't be too impressed with this downturn. this is a very small amplitude. it's 40 points. it's not statistically significant. we're drifting around right now, trying to figure out what the fiscal cliff is going to do. let me show you, we're getting projections for 2013 coming in. it's bulls and bears here. here's the bearish argument. it's what blankfein essentially was alluding to. although blankfein is bearish. the bears have been arguing american austerity is beginning at this point. higher taxes and less spending is a headwind. it's not a tailwind for stocks in 2013. on top of that, we're going to have slower growth in the u.s., or slow growth, i should say, and a recession

i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky quick is off today.est host this hour, alexander ladenthal. we have a lot to cover with her this morning. here we are, christmas eve. it's a shortened trading session for christmas eve. u.s. equity markets will close at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. bond currency and commodity trading they're going to end early. in japan, indonesia, the philippines, they were all closed in europe. only the uk, french, dutch and spanish stock markets are open and they're going to be closing early. there are now only five trading sessions left in 2012. get your act together. stocks and bonds, solid gains so far this year. the dow has advanced 8% in total. the s&p 500 up almost 14%. the nasdaq has jumped 16%. it's been a good year. the end of the year also means we are just days away from the fiscal cliff, however, and that's the bad news. and looming tax hikes, spending cuts, all of that. both sides warning a very big deal becoming a bit more unlikely. >> and my one bit of advice to speaker boehner is this. you cannot pass a bil

i'm joe kernen along with becky quick, andrew ross sorkin is off this week.some distinguished governor of texas. why do people say great state of texas every time you say it? >> because you don't want to mess with texas basically. >> much more to come from the governor. >>> the white house is rejecting a republican proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff. the ten-year, $2.2 trillion plan keeps bush-era tax cuts in place for all taxpayers. the white house has maintained the tax rates on the wealthy have to rise before they would sign off on any deal. the gop offer would raise $800 billion in new revenue and it would seeks $600 billion in health savings and revive cost of living increases for social security. >>> half a dozen governors are headed to the white house to talk about the fiscal cliff. they will tell the president that failing to come to an agreement will leave the states with the bill. after that they'll be going on to meet with some of the leaders in congress to make their same points there and we'll see what happens out of this. the markets have been w

tausche joins us with the details, kind of a continuation of what you did for us this morning with sorkin, right, kayla? >> exactly, joe. a study at stanford last year found people who were introduced to a future version of themselves saved more money. bank of america took that research pretty literally, creating a tool called face retirement, which we were able to check out this week. it's a digital aging app that envisions retirement age for you and its costs. you can see it ain't pretty. it is not a sight that you want to see but foreseeing those costs has been problematic. in twice two third of early boomers came up short with their retirement funds. we know brokers always go to press one of two buttons, fear or greed and some critic say this is clearly fear mongering. many young people say it would encourage them to save, if for nothing else plastic surgery. joe, we wanted to show you the real probablies. we had to start from the young cahuna back on "squawk box." this is 107, in 2063. you just don't look very happy. >> i look like i'm on the walking dead. you know what you did? you

back to you. >> i can't wait to see how aaron sorkin models this film.zz about what the structure of the film will be. >>> i have another story. hova hoop? a clip from jay-z's documentary called "where i'm from." an older lady chats him up, has no idea who he is. check it out. >> so jay z was on his way to the last of eight performances at the new barclay's center in brooklyn. is that not the funniest thing ever. >> to be on a subway is the best way to get to the barclay's center. that is so cool. the stars leaning left? no, it's leaning right. the tree, house speaker boehner lighting the capital christmas tree on an unusually warm december night in washington, d.c. it is unclear if any lightbulbs have gone off over democrats and republicans on the fiscal cliff, however. >>> a giraffe was spooked at a christmas tree lighting ceremony. this is downtown charleston, south carolina. the giraffe freaked when a confetti cannon went off. oh, my goodness. well, that 2-year-old giraffe is okay. >> oh. come on, don't shoot off a cannon in front of a little giraffe

i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky is off today. dino kosof, he's going to have a lot to talk about when it comes to what mr. bernanke just said. later in the program, we'll talk to pimco's kneneal ashkari. >>> a surprise from ben bernanke, linking unemployment to monetary policy. rates will be staying where they are right now, which is close to zero, of course. until at the very least the jobless rate falls to 6.5%. we can only cross our fingers wherefore when that might be. ben bernanke says these changes will make the central bank more transparent adding they can only help the markets. the central bank ramped up its asset purchase program adding $40 billion to its $40 billion a month purchases of mortgage-backed bonds. he spoke about the objectives during wednesday's news conference. >> the asset purchases and the rate increases have different objectives. the asset purchases are about creating near term momentum in the economy, trying to strengthen growth and job creation in the near term. and the increases in the federal funds r

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. andrew, welcome back. i hope you're feeling better. >> thank you. i had a little bit of a stomach bug. >> we're all a little sick around the table here. >> i know. it's a little -- i feel like weak, you know when your bones feel a little something? you had that, joe, two weeks ago, right? >> exactly what you had. you didn't -- you remember -- i remember bridesmaids, right? i'm not sure what all that came out of. i had both going. you didn't have both going? you are the just -- you were hurling. >> i was, i was. in the middle of the night. i had to send an e-mail to the producers. >> it's very weird. it's not even a 24-hour thing. >> no, i will say it was going by when the show was still going on. >> we have a pro gun advocate on. >> you didn't throw up when -- okay. >> by the way, a viewer has offered to take me shooting in new jersey at a shooting club. >> i saw a lot of stuff. >> i'm taking him up on it. but we have news to get him up to. >> some people hold that second amendment th

conference after the election when this re-elected president said basically, you know, channeling aaron sorkinaid to mccain and graham, don't come after me. if you want -- don't go after her, come after me if you want to attack me. don't go after my u.n. ambassador. and it was right out of, you know, michael douglas and "the american president" as we all noted at the time. and you're a film guy, you know what was going on there. he made it very clear he wanted her. again, in a cabinet meeting he led the applause of susan rice. he signaled in every way possible, but she was twisting in the wind. she wasn't a nominee. she didn't have the armor of a nominee. >> what stopped him from once he stuck his neck out for her in personal terms at that press conference, what stopped the president from then doubling down and saying, this is my appointment here? this is it. she will be my next secretary of state. >> the fact some of the people he's closest to, as chuck knows, the reporting that people were advising the president you do not need this fight, and it is going to be a fight. you don't need to exp

conference after the election when this re-elected president said basically, you know, channelling aaron sorkins saying don't go after me. come after me. and it was right after michael douglas and the american president, as we all know at the time. you're a film guy. you know what's going on there. he made it very clear. he signalled it every way possible. she was twisting in the wing. she was left in nowhere's land. she didn't have all the armor of the nominee. >> here's my question. what stopped him? >> the fact that some of the people he is closest to, as chuck knows better than anyone, the people that were advising the president, you do not need this fight. and it is going to be a fight. we don't need to spend all of this political capital on what is going to be an intermble invest gags. he was going to lead the way. >> let me get back to you, chuck. let's get this from chuck, as well. do you think secretary clinton or former president clinton, they've done this, i know, in private, said what they felt about this. they were for kerry. did they ever lobby for kerry? >> hillary clinton underst

like sorkin have the wildfire delivery that make the difference. when you guys finish that, did you know, have any idea what impact it would have? >> when we finished goodwill hunting? >> rose: yeah did you know it was so good like manager good is going to come out of it? >> we didn't have much to compare it to. we knew we like it and we felt each scene went exactly the way we wanted it to go. that's the way we felt on this. at the end of each day, gus would upload the footage to a web site we could get on our computers and look at what we shot and say that is exactly what we intended or in a lot of cases it was even better. i was lucky because i had prepared this as a director, so this gave me the chance to, you know, and obviously i never told gus what i was going to do a shot here, but i got to see what gus did and all the choices he made were exactly like i was going to make them and many cases where he did things that were different than were just brilliant that i hadn't thought of. >> rose: congratulations. >> thank you. >> rose: great to hav

i'm joe concern non along with andrew ross sorkin.y and our guest host is dan greenhouse with the beroni tie and cnbc contributor. just a slip. more frin a minute. first andrew has your good morning headlines. >>> no surprise, the fiscal cliff, both aides or parties saying a partial patch is the most to be expected before january 1st. the session of the senate set for tomorrow. the house, nothing on its schedule for the week but have been told they could be called back with 48 hours notice. meantime, the white house they already got the notice. they say the president is flying back from vacation from hawaii today. let's take a quick look at u.s. equity features. dow jones looks like it will open up 20 points higher, and s&p 500 over three points. and dow jones, almost 23 points. the new pro business government preparing to assume leadership, the new prime minister shinzo has been putting pressure to raise the inflation target in hopes of extricating the country for two decades of inflation. >> and closed two days for the boxing holida

right now, let's bring in our coworkers, joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. thank you. good to see you. >> good to see you, too. >> it wag something to see when we -- well, i'm not going to go into it. but we hugged it out. >> a big bro man. >> the only thing is, you weren't here, which made it bittersweet. >> we'll have her back tomorrow. >> we will. >> we'll see you tomorrow. we hope you had a good trip down on the amtrak. >> i did. >> hopefully you had the bison chili. >> no. there was no bison chili this time. it was steak or a shrimp pasta or -- >> really? >> yeah. >> i've had the shrimp pasta. >> i had the salad. >> i won't eat bison anywhere but on the amtrak. >> sound policy. >> we'll have more from becky and jim cramer will join her in d.c. for now, let's get up on the morning's top stories. the fed is hold ago two-day meeting in washington and a news conference by bernanke is set for tomorrow afternoon. operation twist expires at the end of this month. the central bank is expected to maintain its purchase of bonds with longer maturities. and we'll talk more ab

andrew ross sorkin as a piece on how all the major companies have a tie to wall street.that was used in the mass occur. they announced that they will sell their investment. they're shocked and deeply saddened by the events that took place. >> i would argue they should have stopped before they did that. i think people that invest in tobacco stocks that are going to kill a billion people this century where the companies target their product at every single doctor will tell you kills people, will target it to the poor, the uneducated and children, you should know that and you should knnot own stocksn gun companies. i don't have a problem with the second amendment that gives them the protection, but the second amendment has some reasonable restricts as the supreme court has ruled. and if you listen to the nra, there is the u.s. army has a rifle. they call it a rifle. it's what i would call a cannon, it's attached to the front of a tank or a moving vehicle. it shoots a nuclear warhead. the nra would say, oh, that's a gun and people have a right to have that. where is the limi

i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and steve liesman and andrew ross sorkin is off for one more dayt, founder of quicken loans and owner of the cleveland cavaliers. we'll talk about a lot this hour but the big 50 is the november jobs report. it comes out at 8ky there. the dow jones news wire poll of forecasters, we thought this was so interesting we wanted to get a reaction shot of you. did you see how long you were on? we wanted you to -- we wanted a lot -- we wanted angst, we wanted suspense and disappointment. >> how did i do? >> i don't know. we were waiting for something. >> i didn't know i was on. >> you were. the button was stuck. the economy likely added 80,000 jobs last month, reuters consensus is higher at 93,000. the unemployment rate ispected to hold steady. mark zandi and jared bernstein will join us in a moment with predicti predections. >>> a strong earthquake off the coast of northeasten japan a couple hours ago triggered a tsunami warning. the 7.3 quake shook buildings as far away as tokyo. no problems have been detected at the region's nuclear power plant. the tsun

andrew ross sorkin is off this week, he's on vacation. our guest, greg. >> great to be here. >> you're very pleased that you're with us here for an hour because we do have a lot to talk about. >> has a lot of experience. >> yes, he does. >> we've got a lot of stories that we'll be talking through this morning, but let's start with that big story that joe was just talking about. president obama speaking to the business round table today, attending to the group's quarterly meeting of ceos. jim mcnerny says including meaningful and comprehensive tax and entitlement reforms. this is the number one story that we've been talking about every morning here since the election. fiscal cliff, big, big issue. there are now, it seems, growing numbers of people on both the right and the left who would like to see us just go over that fiscal cliff. how big of a problem would that be? >> that would be a big problem. i actually still believe that those -- the democrats, the administration, republicans in the final analysis don't want to see that happen. th