we'll talk with steve liesman and rick santelli. the dow is near the highs of the day. the nasdaq is up 18 plus points. the gain in technology i referred to, or it's a 2778 on the nasdaq and s&p is up to 1285. >> i hope you don't miss my interview with bill clinton, sitting down with me a little bit ago. the last president to tackle the budget, talking about the economy and elections and the european debt crisis. why he thinks president obama has a better strategy to deal with the deficit than mitt romney. it's all ahead on this edition of the "closing bell." he did discuss europe. this was one of his most important issues. >> the weakness in stocks is attributable to what is going on in europe. is it something to be bought or do you avoid it? we have one strategist going all in here. plus, the emergency talks on europe as concerns grow that the debt crisis could spiral quickly out of control. one official was quoted today assaying it's not a matter of weeks on the spanish bank issue. it's a matter of days that they come up for a solution for that. the market is holding

contrary to what steve liesman just said, we're not safing enough. buying treasuries doesn't count as savings. the government just spends that money. we need real savings in the banks so capital formation can occur so we can produce the things the chinese are making. >> it would be a really painful process, can't do it in a fast manner, peter. paul, would you like to counter what peter said for dollar proofing your portfolio? >> we have seen china slowing down here and slowing down faster than the officials expected it to. if you see and appreciation of chinese currency and they're much less advantageous than other places in the world. we are already seeing other manufacturing coming to the u.s. we already have oil as pickens was saying, cheaper in the u.s. and oil manufacturing is cheaper in the u.s. relative to europe, the u.s. has a lot of debt here. at least we have the currency we can adjust and we have -- we don't have the regulations that europe has. i tend to disagree with the fact the u.s. is much worse off than the rest of the world. >> pet

. >>> rick santelli and steve liesman react to my interview with charles evans next. they will disagree on anything. and then find out what mega investor sam zell says about these hard times. we'll get into that and a lot more, how he is allocated capital today. and later, the super rich, they are not that rich anymore. stay with us. cnbc, first in business worldwide. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 there are atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the most dreaded fees of all, hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, you won't pay fees on top of fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no monthly account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and we rebate every atm fee. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because when it comes to talking, there is no fee. how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother bo

getting fast and i'm starting to feel a little dizzy myself. >> time is literally flying with steve liesmane, thanks. >> my pleasure, thanks. >>> most people seem to agree there's more reason to be negative than positive these days, right? yet the s&p 500 is still up more than 3% this year and the nasdaq if you haven't kept score is up more than 10% year-to-date. so does mr. market know something that we don't? joining us, ken mercadan and cnbc contributor dan greenhaus. dan, as a news guy we admit negativity tends to dominate the headlines, that's the basis of news. the nasdaq is up 10% this year. is there something we don't know about what's happening in the u.s. or the world? >> well, at the very outset it's a question of alternatives, where can you going to put your money, warehouse it for basically no return? individual investors, not necessarily institutions but individual investors for the most part have already come out of the market over the last year to the point where they could sleep at night so they're not really running for the doors on all these news events, and when you run

senior economics reporter, steve liesman, joins us, and deutsche bank chief economist and cnbc contributor is with us. steve, is there anything in these numbers that cast a positive light on the u.s. economy right now? >> no. this was pretty dismal from top to bottom, tyler. i don't think there was a single economist who made an argument that inside this number there was some silver lining. in fact, bob wrote a piece said a lot of clouds, no silver lining, i think was the best way to characterize it. i think the only upbeat ideas you can have for the u.s. economy at this point would be if europe were to take dramatic actions to get its act together. and then you have at least two tailwinds here, which is lower gasoline prices and lower interest rates right now. of course those two go up against the headwinds of fiscal cliff and europe. >> very interesting points. joe, let me turn to you. you had predicted earlier this month that the may numbers would come in around consensus at about 150,000 new payroll jobs. what did you miss? and right now i believe you're predicting that the second quar

senior economics reporter steve liesman contestant number one on the roof of the federal reserve. steve, we try to have fun, serious, talking about the fed, but the options are real, contestant number one, mr. liesman, do you pick any doors on what the fed will or won't do today. >> my mom told me never to play the game unless you know what the prize is. what are you offering? that's an important part of it. >> continued cheap monetary policy, flooding the global system with liquidity. >> right, right. there are pluses and minuses to every single option you put up there. more qe would probably be the most effective thing out there. research shows operation twist the least effective programs the fed has run. twist would be the easiest for the federal reserve to get consensus fomc consensus around it would buy time although fed chairman bernanke is not one to show easy options or mediocre options. the question around awful it is what would be the end of fed policy here and the cost and benefit analysis here, brian, in the sense if they were to do something right here, what kind of ef

on the roster, steve liesman, trader dan fitzpatrick, ubs chief equities strategist in the u.s. jonathan galob and bruce kazman. at 8:30 a.m. this morning on "squawk box" our senior economics reporter steve liesman was making his case about why the u.s. must be focused on europe's financial crisis and why we must be ready with u.s. dollars to make sure the old continent remains solvent. >> you guys create x, we will give you y and solve this problem. >> you should give them money? >> yes. >> you should give them money? the european union has enough money. >> are you happy now? is this working for you? it ain't working for me. it ain't working for markets. and it's not working for anybody. this is not the way civilized people should be living. >> you want us to go lighten europe, who's going to lighten us? >> let me finish. let me finish one second. you know what? all of them still want to be re-elected. what they have to learn from latin america in the '80s is none of them are surviving. >> all right, bruce. you heard it first right here. what do you think? is the u.s. responsib

>> one more question for you, steve liesman. the fed meets the 19th and the 20th.do you think they do? >> i think they may tweak the language a little bit. it depends on the data now and then and what happens in europe. >> you have the greek elections on the 17th. >> i just don't think you have a rationale right now because interest rates are so slow. it's very hard for the chairman to come forward and say we're doing something to make interest rates lower. i feel like it's about 50/50 right now. if i had to decide what the right thing was to do, i would say it would be additional quantatative easing. >> it seems like it's the last tool in the box. >> technically i'm talking, they could extend operation twist. they do have additional. they are running out. they have additional short-term securities they could sell in return for long-term securities. they could buy more treasuries or buy more mortgages. that would be a step before they would do additional quantatative easing. >> thank you, everybody. bill? >> hanging on to gains with a dow up 25 points, maria. >> wi

and i'm joined now by cnbc senior economics reporter steve liesman. collapse of the housing market the main culprit responsible for this nose dive? and for so many american families, that has been the nest egg that people have relied on, where the largest value has been. or are there other factors involved in this? >> you know, there are other ack force. but clearly, housing is the primary factor. as you noted, middle class families took it on the chin. much worse than low-income or the wealthy. and it's not because they were middle class. it's because the middle class have so much of their nest egg and their net worth in housing. i think e lesson here for individuals is the value of diversity that maybe too many people were too housing rich, an asset that declined sharply in value from this housing crisis. the wealthy, they're homes went down in value, but they also have big chunks of their net worth in assets like stocks and bonds. >> all right. so just from the street level, are we seeing any effect that these numbers are having? as i looked at the

and also bff, steve liesman. rick, i'll begin with you. the crux of your argument would be this. not only is more qe 3 not prudent, but what would it do any way if rates are already at the levels that they are? >> well, yeah, i probably would say that. i don't know that i agree with mitt romney. i think he agrees with me. i've been screaming this for 3 1/2 years now. i would take it from a different vantage point. i live in chicago. the cubs haven't won a world series since 1908. the famous saying is wait until next year. i don't like hearing it from the president or certainly anybody in the federal reserve. if something is working, it needs to work. okay? we are now many years into this. the big stimulus was in the early part of 2009. at that point when it was presented, three-quarters of a trillion dollars, the notion of time or qualifiers was never put on it. this will fix the problem. today the president said, i let people know that we needed time. not true. not a factual statement and there doesn't seem to be any reason to think that federal interest rates are going to cure

steve liesman joins me right now because the backdrop is politicking in europe of a new plan, a european plan to address the issues. what are you hearing? >> if it's thursday, they're talking about a plan, sue. there's talk and cross talk. there's claim and counter claim of whether the europeans are discussing a plan for capital in that their banks along the lines of a t.a.r.p. program in the united states. you can see by looking at the 10-year, that's the german benchmark treasury note or finance note what some say is an increasing note to pick up a big part of an increasing tab for the european bailout. there's the yields rising. three elements of what's being discussed with a big question being the details inside each one. the first is banking union. more about that in a second. support for rates for countries with reform and the issue of a shift towards growth. delaying the austerity measures that michelle was just talking about. look at the banking union and people are focused. use of this big $500 billion euro esm. that's discussed and debated and whether the money goes to the bank

and steve liesman with the fed an outlook awaiting ben bernanke. steve? >> thanks very much, brian. the members lowering the outlook for growth and inflation and raising the unemployment outlook for this year and indeed the next three years. six fmoc members reducing the forecast for the average funds rate of 2014 to 1.1% principally because six members see the first rate hike in 2015. up from april and looks like the addition of the two fmoc board members made the board a little bit more dovish here. here's the outlook. see they shave half a point off growth for this year. they shave a .4 off the growth outlook for 2014 and above trend growth for 2014. unemployment rate outlook, 12.4% for the fed and that is a probably aggressive given that we are now still above that. we would have to end up below that for the remainder 06 this year. you can see for all two subsequent years after this year, fed looking now for higher unemployment. the inflation forecast, this is top line inflation, not the core eninflation rate. this includes food and energy and you can see there they shaved about

. >>> steve liesman takes on dimon's comments on the volcker rule and didn't know what it is.wer is back in two. >>> all right. let's get a check of the action here on the floor of the new york stock exchange. the dow up about 15 points on the trading session, 12,589. bob pisani joins me. everyone was watching mr. dimon's testimony. it seems like the market is treading waertd a little bit here. >> no. most traders feel he put on a stellar performance. if we close here we're at the highest levels of 11 days, the highest close of 11 days and persistent talk the fed will make an announcement next week, qe-3, the pathetic pace creates the action for fed action next week. a lot of speculation helping that. speaking of financials. gosh, jp morgan stock moving up. twice normal volume for them. elsewhere, the important thing is risk-on trades out there i'm seeing some signs of stabilization in the last couple of days. energy stocks and brent have stopped dropping. the australian dollar looks like it's trying the find a be the tom here and even copper has stabilize a little bit. little

we asked bob pisani and david kelly, steve liesman joins us as well and rick santelli as well. steve, why did this blouailout l to impress? >> subordination is part of it. >> explain that. >> the idea as a private investor i would come in behind the european governments who would be helping out spain. so it doesn't really present a clear path here. which is that what we know now if you give money to spain, spanish banks, spanish banks can buy government debt. who else will buy government debt and come in behind the european assistance out there? i think that's a big part of the problem. plus, i think it is failure to follow up there is no bigger talk of a larger coming together in europe. what i have -- said for a long time, every time they stabilize the situation, you see the stabilize at a lower level from where they were. which just -- goes to show you they remain continuously behind the market. >> rick santelli. i mean, we knew the subordination issue was there. why did we even bother to rally to the open this morning? what happened here? >> i think the subordination issue i

steve liesman and larry meyer raised the idea the fed might be nothing.om has been they would extend twags twist. what's your thought on, a, what the fed should do and, b, what the effectiveness of any of these measures might be? >> i agree with them. i'd like to see the fed stand pat. i think they're more likely to do an operation twist but i think they should sit still here. if you go back and look at what bernanke said in february and his testimony then, he expected the u.s. economy to slow down in the first half of this year compared to the second half of last year and it did. he expected the labor market would give back some of its gains, that they were one off improvement and not likely to be sustained and that's exactly what happened. he expected inflation to come down a little bit. it's just what's happened. he actually deserves a a little bit of a victory lap in terms of their forecasting and now they should stand pat but keep the balance sheet the same same size. i think they're likely to do a little twist. >> if that's the situation, though, ho

steve liesman joins us to break it all down. steve, tell us what we know right now. >> here today there was a story from reuters about 3:05 saying there was going to be coordinated central bank action. that was followed by a series of comments from finance officials suggesting, for example, from japan, that they would act if it was -- if the yen needed action from other countries, for example, from canada, an official saying that the minister there was suggesting that they should act to counter the effects of whatever happens on the greek election. i have skepticism about this story, melissa, because the only central banker who talked is mervyn king. he's talked about there will be additional monetary easing coming from england and for england and only for england. the idea of global coordinated action, melissa, at this moment is not corroborated by any other central bank officials. the ecb declined to comment. we've not heard anything from the federal reserve yet, melissa. >> let's be clear, steve, the reuters carl citing many s

steve liesman on "squawk" yesterday on what needs to be done in europe and who should save the day. >> you guys create x we'll give you y and we'll solve this problem. >> we have no money. >> are you happy now? this working for you? because it ain't work forge me. it ain't work forge markets. it's not working for anybody. this is not the way civilized people should be living. >> you want us to go to europe and lighten it up. who will lighten us up. >> let me finish one second. you know what? all of them still want to be re-elected. what they have to learn from latin america in the '80s none of them are surviving. >> cnbc silvia wadhwa joins us from frankfurt. steve, i don't know, we're 12,000 on the dow and he's really despondent in life in america based on what's happening in europe and he wants us to pony up big money to the imf to save you guys. do you need us to save you guys? >> reporter: well, we all need each other these days. i think that's the bottom line. americans are still not used to the fact that they are dependent on what happens in another part of the world. but aside

steve liesman joining us with this piece of the all america survey. >> what do you call it?book debacle. >> we call it the face plant. >> okay. we think we have some of the first national results after the face plant, as brian would say, and whether or not it's effected people's attitudes towards investment. the first thing we do when we ask something like this, we want to know did people hear about it. so let's look at the greek crisis first. six of ten americans have heard of it. one out of three has not. how about facebook? 72%. so pretty good recognition of what happened. they were probably tuned into cnbc. who knows what. what kind of effect did it have? move that over and look over here. did the facebook ipo and what you know about it make you less likely to invest in stocks? it wasn't a plus for wall street. that's for sure. look at investors stocks, one out of five, but look at that number. 72% of the public said no effect either way on investing in stocks. also happening by the way around the same time as the jpmorgan scandal. really no effect on stock. okay. what a

. >> first to steve liesman here with the details of the fed's beige book. >> i like that facebook but the beige book being the thing right now. i want to give you my take right away. this is not a recessionary beige book, it's a 2% where we've been growth. saying economic overall growing at a moderate space. anecdotes from the 12 federal reserve districts about the economy. manufacturing they say continue to expand in most districts but soft in philly, richmond and st. louis. consumer spending is unchanged. that's probably the weakest part of the beige book. auto sales are said to be strong and inventory's tight. construction picking up in many areas. that's an upside comment. and seeing both residential and commercial on the upside. wage pressure is modest. hiring steady or up slightly. price inflation, a key thing the federal reserve watches every month is modest across most districts. capital spending plans also are mostly positive. little micro from the macro here. rising new york rents are making buying more attractive. some of our viewers thought might with tech and energy secto

steve liesman joins us on the set this morning. we're doing more than twisting or the possibility. >> big debate. the out come of the greek election means the need for global central bank kirs is off the table. still leaves a big debate what individual central banks will do. so in the wake of the election there remains this debate over fed policy. let me show you what's out there. fhe saying we remain skeptical that further fed asset purchases are imminent. however we fear a significant correction in the market after an announcement of no change in federal policy. >> don't think the fed will disappointment the market. >> you don't think the markets direct that way? >> i don't think the fed -- >> the fed will do something >> yeah. i just wanted to go through the range of opinions because these are like lou alexander who spent some time. we see them skipping on additional easing at least for now. meanwhile we still see more cons than pros on twist extension. then there's han who said our baseline is a new asset purchase program that

>> steve liesman joins us. he's been digging into this reuters story about central banks ready for action in case the outcome in greece turns nasty. the economy improves globally or we make it improve? >> let me start off with what we know. mare draghi making clear what i think the market knew. in the event of a make other market disruption created by the greek election, he and the ecb stand ready to act. >> the ecb has the crucial role of providing the sound bank in return for collateral. this is what we have done throughout the crisis, faithful to our mandate of maintaining price stability over the medium term. >> draghi adding that liquidity will be provided to solvent banks. this a day after the governor of the bank of england announced extraordinary measures to pump loans into the economy. central bankers i spoke with downplayed a reuters report that they were prepared for coordinated action. they say they almost never announce actions ahead of an event, especially a political one like an election, and cit

. >> steve liesman, cnbc. mr. chairman, looking back on the last four years of fed policy, i think it's probably fair to say it's been bold and yet at the same time halting. you did qe1 and then stopped and did qe2, operation twist and told us it was going to end in june and now you've extended it. how would you respond several years from now a young. i.t. graduate student came and said the problem with the fed policy during this period was it was too incremental and the economy under performed was because of that incrementalism and what do you think the dangers are right now that today's action is also too incremental? >> well, of course, you know, we cut the federal funds rate in a continuous fashion until december of 2008 and since then we've been operating with nonstandard monetary tools including asset purchases and extension of maturities. by their nature, these tend to be lumpy. we haven't done them in a continuous way. but our view of the affects of these programs on the economy is that the total stock of

the federal bank stands ready to take more economy-boosting steps of steps if necessary and steve liesmanmorning. >> thanks, andrew. question was the fed talking like a lion but easing like a lamb? the fedex tending operation twist, when it sells short-term securities and buys long-term ones to drive down long-term rates but downgrading the economy may be more seriously than the market expected. here is some of the language that changed. employment said to be experiencing slower growth, household spending rising at a slower pace. the only good news is that inflation was said to be declining and growth will pick up very gradually. take a look at the forecast here, the fed shaved a half a point off of the growth outlook for 2012, 0.4 for 13 remains above trend at 2014 but really the fed is saying for the rest of this year what we see at 2% is about what we're going to get. erin burnett calling the move of extending operation twist substantive and not shy about suggesting if the economy deteriorates further the fed could do more. >> we've taken a step today which is a substantive step which

although this story is far from over here, steve liesman. >> i think that's right, bill.nd i have to say, i'm starting to be skeptical again of this story. i know i started off that way and changed my mind when i heard from the bank of england. but we've looked into this speech by mervyn king, bill, a planned speech i think happens every year. and there was a lot of talk, rick, correct me if i'm wrong here, that england needed to do something. and this may be completely separate from any coordinated action. i would just say, bill, one thing i think i know about central banks is that finance officials don't speak for them and so far we have the bank of england talking on the one hand and finance officials on the other. so i have my doubts. look, we could come in tomorrow morning. there could be a coordinated statement. maybe this g-20 official picked up on the chatter among them. so far the central banks have shown through the crisis -- >> to you thido you think geith aware this would happen when he made the comments about europe? >> i can never, ever speak about what geit

steve liesman has been spanning the globe and joins us with the results, but mr.a too hot joke for us. >> andrew, i thought you were the last guy who was going to put me on the hot seat for that. >> because yours, you have to have one and you have to try to be funny but it has to be really bad. >> so here we go, quickly, it's so hot that ben bernanke raised interest rates to try to cool things off. >> oh. man. >> it's not funny! >> not like you joe i didn't go online and look up "it's so hot" jokes. >> i didn't go online, people are sending it in. >> i know, it's so hot that this tie was blue when i put it on this morning. >> there you go. >> do your report. do your report. >> let's talk about worldwide weakness because what's happened is the outlook for not just the united states but the whole globe has slowed in the past two months. what i did here, i could have done it in a complicated way, i did it the easy way. i looked at jpmorgan, bruce cashman, looked at the change for how the outlook of the street has changed for global growth. let's start off with the ea

steve liesman is listening to what the fed has to say. is clearly disappointing. >> he was not explicit about quantitative easing. he said during the break, we still think there's value to additional policy measures but, then again, there may be some diminishing return, taking that in account. i think he's very much in the middle here. there's the possibility of additional qe but he's not explicit, not really leaning in that direction. >> okay. let's get back to what bernanke is saying. >> europe has not, for example, asked for additional imf funds, for example. i think the main things that congress would do is to help strengthen our own economy. the more momentum, the stronger our economy, the better able we would be to withstand the financial spillover from problems in europe. and so that goes back to my earlier points about getting our fiscal situation clarified, taking appropriate steps to help troubled parts of our economy from the employment market to the housing market to whatever else you would be looking at. but, again, i think m

breaking news now, let's get right to steve liesman at headquarters for that. over to you, steve. >> thanks, maria. u.s. treasury releasing a statement saying european leaders seem to be moving with a heightened sense of urgency but also saying they hope to see more accelerated european action over the next several weeks, especially in the lead-up to the g20 meeting later this month and other european leaders meeting and saying the strengthening of the european banking system is of particular importance. secretary of treasury is 0e6r there and making first comment publicly that it made about the situation in europe the past several weeks. >> interesting. so what do you think the u.s. knows about howy yeurope will handle this. >> europe and in particular spain, has the financial capability to sofrl its banking problem. the only question being, what is the price of solving it? is it through the european facility or through pain getting funds on its own? they also want to see a special deal or they expect a special deal for spain that looks and feels different from

steve liesman's got this story. >> hey, melissa, thanks very much.t week there has been talk about a eurowide plan, tim geithner giving it a sense of reality with an interview with andrea mitchell. >> fourth major escalation, not just in the crisis but in their response. this is different from the way it's felt before, in the sense that they're not minimizing the risks, and they're not telling us they feel they are a whole bunch of time to way. >> there is no sense a plan has been agreed to, but there are efforts centered around three key parts. let's go through them. commitment to banks, and supporting rates for countries undertaking reform. geithner and others say that countries can't undertake reform if interest rates are too high. a slight or modest shift towards growth. that means perhaps extending austerity plans, not cancelling them out. the big area of contention is use of the esm in europe, their bailout fund, to recapitalize the banks. the french want this to happen, according to this morning's "financial times." the germans have indicated

now, central bankers have been talked to steve liesman saying they're not coordinating necessarily, but this is what central bankers do. they sit around and have plans for any sort of chaos. we've seen it happen before and that g20 meeting really has people thinking there is going to be some kind of coordinated approach between nations if nothing else. it's been kind of surprising just watching over the last 24 hours or so as things play out. right now, people are still optimistic and that's playing out in the markets. >> people are addicted to trading rather than just waiting. be thank you much. up next, it's the race that i think says a lot about the current climate in the senate, perhaps in the republican p primary, the republican senate candidate who's in real trouble simply because he's been labeled a moderate. he is facing a run off against an insurgent favorite there. he joins me next. plus, a big development in the gabbie giffords campaign. her former district sends republicans scrambling, but first, look ahead at the president's schedule. we will celebrate gay pride month at th

let's bring in steve liesman with more on greece and the impact it's having on the european crisis and global markets from beijing to zurich. people taking positions. >> one of the interesting things that i'm watching, simon, is what's happening to the ten-year bund. it's worth looking at what's happened the past several days and overlaying that, the chatter on a wider european plan that's been out there in the market. we've been following it. we've been reporting it in the background. if you notice the creeping up of rates, there's two ways to look at it. you can see that's in the past four or five days. now relative to the ten-year u.s. i guess today is the one day we've had a bit of a spike but in general it's kind of the spread of the ten year to the u.s. treasury. it has widened out a bit and that's because of greater expectation. there it is there. greater expectation that is germany may be asked or even may be thinking about a broader role in a you'european wide bailout. fundamentally there is a disagreement between the french and the germans where the frienh are really pushing

. >> steve liesman does a survey and talks to many investors, market participants, et cetera. 40% ofeople he spoke with thinks the market is rigged against them. you have the jpmorgan situation. facebook situation. many other situations that we could cite. how do we get confidence back in these markets? >> it's an unfortunate series of events an enthe way to get it back, in my view, is mistakes are going to happen. people are going to react to them. it's how you stand up in the wake of that and that's really what the industry's asking for in this situation. i think. that's what we should all be asking for because we represent a lot of people we'll never meet. we represent all the individual investors that want to trance act in these markets and until we make it clear to them, yes, from time to time, things happen and this is what we're doing about it. i don't blame them for being nervous and anxious. right? you and i would be too. right? >> talk about your business. spoke with rich repetto. the headwinds you're facing and the competitors face are dramatic. equity trading volumes are

our senior economics reporter, steve liesman, and rick santelli, to get their perspectives on mr. bernanke. and basically on what you just said. steve, mr. lutnick says the fed doesn't really have many effective tools left. the big one, the big gun, interest rate policy's played out. >> i think that's largely right. i think the fed at this point especially where the 10-year is right now and interest rates in the real economy are, i think the fed could only have a very marginal effect. but it's not, it's why interest rates are where they are right now. and that's because of a serious risk-off trade. you may call it capital flight out of europe. if that were to stop, where would interest rates be right now? and could the fed have an effect on that interest rate? i think it may have more effect there. but bernanke did emphasize the cost and benefits of additional policy. my take was he left the door open but didn't promise to walk through it. >> he certainly didn't it. rick santelli, you said something earlier about an hour ago that struck me. and it was almost that you were sympathic

. >> let's go to steve liesman with reaction. this was the consensus view, not the home run others thought. what are some of your observations here? >> i think it's more than the consensus view. there was no actual, you know, to a decimal point consensus. i heard guys talking about extending through september. we got an extension through the end of the year and in fact maintain about the same average pace of twist as they've been doing. about $50 million a year. they buy long-term securities to drive down longer term interest rates and writing $44.5 billion a month and keeping that pace. this is backing up what bob is saying and not all the way where he is. employment was changed to slower growth. household spending rising at a slower pace. the only good thing in it is inflation decleaned and growth it says will pick up very garage quully. so that's like a step back. they definitely downgraded the economy. enough for qe3? i think two things, bob. they have to back off a little bit in terms of more downgrade of the economy. we're

also our senior economics reporter, steve liesman. welcome to you both. senator, let me start with you. what do you intend to ask mr. bernanke tomorrow? and second question is, do you think that the economy, given the jobs number we had last week, is in need of some kind of monetary stimulus? >> well, as to the former question, i haven't finalized what i'm going to ask fed chairman bernanke. but i will tell you my concern continues to be that we're using the wrong tool to solve the problem that we have. the problems that are afflicting our economy are driven by excessive and very inprudent and unwise regulation, a threat of massive tax increase and complete unwillingness to deal with a completely unsustainable fiscal policy. the monetary solution is not the right solution to that. i'm worried that inflation could get out of control, could get away from the fed. we see that the current cpi level is already above their target. they've got unprecedented easing. and i'm worried, frankly, that they're willing to throw more at this. i do think the economy is we

steve liesman is here now. you've been looking at growth across the eurozone. why is today's plan and that 1% figure so important? >> i think it shows that it's small but it's an important reversal of policy. if you think about the european economy, sue, they've been in recession essentially since december and if you look at what's happened over the past several months, the economic outlook, the forecasts have gone down so people think it's going to get worse with no particular optimism on the continent, and the problem has always been how do you get out of these problems, a debt spiral. if you're going to do austerity in the middle of that it will make things worse for the national government. the issue has become they've reversed policy, sue, and they thought austerity was the way back to growth and they're in a limited way -- remember, this is a fraction of what our stimulus plan was here and they're going to do a small part of that, and it's going in the right direction according to some economists. >> that's the way the market seems to be taking it as well

steve liesman and rick santelli go toe-to-toe. it proves to be another epic match upcoming up. rates as low as they are, larry summer says the government should be buying more, not less. is he right? or would that speed up the nation's fall off the fiscal cliff we've been talking about? and the senate votes tomorrow on a bill aimed at closing the gender pay gap. we will hear from one woman that says this is actually bad for both business and female workers. maria and i will see you at the top of the hour for "closing bell" as we turn positive here. anything's possible during that last hour. we'll see you then, mandy. >> sure is. i'll join you at the top of the hour as well. the sharp pullback in stocks recently has investors seeing red. should you be hanging your money on the wall instead? last month you might remember "the scream" sold for a record breaking $120 million. our next guest says the market is outperforming the s&p 500 so far this year. joining us is professor at the nyu school. based on history, am i better off putting my money in art right now than the stock marke

. >>> and steve liesman gives you his odds on more stimlouse coming from the fed. welcome to the "halftime money report." lots to trade today. we'll hear from governor romney later on in the show. that's going to be a big interview to hear the governor's thoughts, not only on the jobs picture and the upcoming presidential election, but he'll be asked about what the stock market is doing today and what kind of message that sends as well. what do you do on a day like this when we have such a disappointing jobs number? june is not starting off well. >> right. and you just wonder what the jobs numbers, we'll have liesman on later to discuss more further with him in some of the depth, but the number, how far off could they possibly be? absolutely an extraordinary miss. the market was down and the reaction pushed it further. ever since may 3rd when we broke above the 50-day moving average, it's been on a steady pace. now trading above the 200 day on the volatility index. on days like today, you do what we talked about yesterday, looking for some of the opportunities in t

steve liesman and rick santelli battle it out.hould preserving capital be your top priority right now? or is this the perfect time to go bargain hunting? and will gloomy jobs and the picture there derail the housing recovery? or will record low rates lure more buyers into the market? first, more "street signs" with mandy. >> absolutely. thanks very much for that, scotty. despite today's down market, there are upbeat news. look where we are now. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500, yes, they are down sharply, but they're not down as much as they were earlier on today. also let's look at oil. this is hopefully a good thing despite the fact that it is obviously down on disappointing economic data. but crude has fallen more than 8% on the week. it's now down nearly 25% since march. in other words, officially bear market territory. and that's also been sending prices at the pump lower. again, this is the bright spot that we're trying to find for you. well, talking about the pump, automakers reporting a strong may thanks in part to pickup in in

let's go to steve liesman and joshua fineman. >> i kind of disagree with rick on the markets.be impressed. we were hoping it was going to start ticking down to the 350 range. we were on the way there, that was aborted or otherwise diverted, and we've ticked back up to 377, entrenching into this 380 range. i would not be too concerned by the single digits, more by the rounding. i think 380 is about where we are right now. that's okay. could you still do 100 k jobs. we should be ticking down to 350 and falling from there. >> joshua, what do you think? >> i agree with steve. things look a little better for a while and then they stall out and partially reverse. it's hard for the economy to sustain momentum, to kind of shift into a higher gear and stay there. >> becky, i want to talk about bernanke on the hill today. we know we have those comments from williams, yellen, all pointing us toward additional qe. bernanke has to give his comments to a whole bunch of republicans in the house who don't some to be in favor of it. what he wrote is that there's no rule that deeply held -- i c

back to steve liesman at hq with details on the torrent of numbers we have seen, not just today but allas bad as the jobs number. spending was up 0.3% in line with expectations. income falling a bit short. the construction spending numbers were okay. you had the public specter sector declining but the private sector up 1.2%. and the isms were down 53.50, but the employment number was not too bad. carl, going into this point of where we have seen weaker data, data that has come in below expectations, but not data falling off the cliff, at least not yet. now i'm hearing stories like, stall speed in terms of the jobs report and other sort of bad commentary or negative commentary around the economy. raising the question about the federal reserve. i like what michelle said in the last segment, i don't think it is a june story, i think it is more of an august or september story. >> even with the sensitivities to the elections cycle. that does not wave you off of that possible move? >> i really think the fed is going to do what the fed feels it has to do. and if it feels like -- and i think ma

rick santelli has joined us, steve liesman is with us as well.th us in addition to diane swank we have the good economists on the bad and the bad economists -- you guys look alike. zandy, you were way too optimistic again, right? >> yeah. yeah. i'm very disappointed, yeah. there's nowhere to hide on this one. i was wrong all the way around. the only thing i can hang my hat on is the big declines in construction which doesn't seem consistent with much and anything. maybe there's some weather pay back. it looks like the economy has throttled back, i was just wrong. >> austen, i waited till you left government to start being right about everything. this is incredible. >> i was right all along. whatever i said i stand by it. >> this is not a good time to be right. >> exactly, this is not a good time to be right but what we got is the economy has slowed down. you saw that in the numbers. and if the economy's growing slower than productivity, nobody has to hire anybody to grow that fast. they can get that from their existing workers. so the stuff in eu

for the number, steve liesman will join us with more results from the all america economic survey.tle political, steve, right? we're going to go deep into the politics here. both sides haven't started trying the way they really are going to. apologies to bill murray, a friend of "squawk box" but we're going to ask this question -- quien es mas moderate? so let's see the youobvious numbers. what per think obama is liberal? the conservative side, great symmetry. we happened to come up with these numbers in our poll of 800 around the country. and now obama has a very slight lead, 6%. 22% of the public say they're not sure how to label romney and 14%, we'll talk about that in a second, say they don't know how to label president obama, which is interesting in and of itself. let's move on. is obama thought to be very liberal? take a look at the gop and democrats. not surprising, 65% of republican respondents say obama is very liberal. and this group says we don't occupy wall street or the tea party, we call them the neithers. this group skews democratic, leaving the total 31%. let's take

cnbc's senior economics reporter steve liesman joins us now with the results of his exclusive cnbc fedssing, steve, the questions were asked just after the jobs report? >> exactly. we did it from noon till about 6:00 last night. kept it open. 16 responses. the survey shows the market looking keenly to fed chairman ben bernanke and the fed to come in with more easing to boost a sagging economy. in the wake of that weak jobs report friday, 58% now believe the fed will conduct additional asset purchases to try and lower interest rates in the next 12 months. that compares with just 33% who thought so in our april survey. among the comments from the 60 economists, strategists, fund managers who answered our survey, dean baker writing in -- from the center of economic and policy research -- the prolonged period of high unemployment is by far the worst crisis the fed has faced in the last 60 years. it should be acting more aggressively to counter pit former fed prosecute lee hoskins saying from pacific research institute, qe-3 is a loser. does nothing for employment and raises the risk of a c

in our very own cnbc summit, michelle caruso cabrera, steve liesman and simon hobbs set out to find thatnswer. take a listen. >> they consolidate the process underneath the imf and this allows for a cover for leadership. >> you have eurobonds. that has to be the end game. >> the ultimate way to stabilize the debt market is for these countries to prove they can grow. >> what makes me crazy, we've been through this in the united states. the idea of a big bazooka will stabilize markets and allow for the things you want to happen to occur. >> michelle caruso-cabrera will be tapping in during the next hour. >> let's take a look at the markets. we missed yesterday's -- now i think you have something to hide. you don't want people to -- that used to know you -- what happened? you have a bad trade or something? what's with the facial hair? >> are you talking about the beard again? >> i am. >> no one's mentioned your hair in a long time. it's all focused on my beard. it's real. it's real. >> i know it's real. yesterday we finally succumbed to the european pressure, i guess. >> yes. >> we have gre

steve liesman will pull us through the whole process. he's live from d.c., what are we thinking?d the height of insip i hadness? >> simon, a lot of doubt about that. a lot of people don't think bernanke does the least of anything. i would describe it as a squirrely consensus of the market for this operation twist extension, but widespread disagreement on how far the fed -- we've got to walk you through the explanation. there's extending operations. remember, under twist, the fed sells short-term securities like three years and under, and buys long-term once that's scheduled to expire in june. this is the squirrely consensus that the fed could extend that. there's a more powerful quantitative ease. no offset here, treasurieses or mortgagesing with no offsetting sale. finally one other idea is tech extend the guidance. it will keep interest rates exceptionally low -- something could extend that tomorrow into 2015. that is a minority view. >>> several economists who say the fed will do nothing today. steven stanley, larry meyer, former fed governor, they say the fed may prefer to wa

steve liesman is digging into the story. >>> and you can buy the world a coke in every country but two friday, june 15, 2012, "squawk box" begin s right now. >>>d

for more on the data, let's get to steve liesman. >> the band is the moon cuffs. >> i'm sorry. >> you'rehat's not true. >> and the good thing about me i've learned, took about ten years to understand when you're mocking me. >> tomorrow i'll have another. moon custard -- >> didn't they call you joker man. put it together, joker man. >> does anyone call you lies man. >> all the time. >> your name spells lies. >> all the people writing in do that. can we talk about permits in housing now? >> please. >> thank you. rick has it right in terms of how the permits were the opposite of starts. multifamily dropped, 244,000, at an annual rate, good number in april, revised upward. single family came up 500,000 to 516. want to show you three looks at housing. the good, the bad and the holy beep. if you look at just on a one-year does not include the recent numbers, but it's what's going on. from the bottom of around 540, 520 come up now into the 700 ranges. that looks pretty good, right? rick even said it looks pretty good. take a look back. let's go back in time here take a look at like a ten-year l

steve liesman is on the set.rick. >> when it comes to treasuries, we're up a couple of basis points, and 154, 1 55. we closed in the low 150s, up a couple on the 30-year bond. once given as potential hope springs eternal in europe, we'll continue to see this. one of the guests this morning on the show referred that europe will continue to slip away and does believe there's going to be change. let's concentrate on something more important. we continue to see virtually zero interest rate on two-year shots. and if you look at what is going on in the australian dollar as many banks are trying to fend off the influx of capital or outflow of europe, we see how they're trying to deal with some of those issues. >> steve, it's been one of those mornings already. one news source saying spain can go directly to the bailout fund to the banks and then a german comes out and goes oh, no. this is going to go on like this for months. >> and it is time for a change. i'm pounding the table. it's time for the united states to step