walter isaacson and jon meacham remain with us. i keep thinking of presidents who have exhorted presidents for whom that has been their fallback. that's all they know how to do, cheered us on, urged us to accomplish great things, and never had a dark view of america. >> henry adams said the president has a course to steer and a port to seek, and you want a president thinks big and thinks brightly. jefferson was a master of talking about how the son of progress was going to go over the continent, and no one would know when it set. president reagan improved on jesus when he talked about a shining hill on a hill, but reagan's visual imagination made that even more vivid. so walter used a good phrase a moment ago. it's unchartered waters. it's odd and disconcerting moment to say the least. my own hope is when we look back on this it will simply have been a waste of americans' time and not the beginning of a serious cataclysm. >> put it that way, sounds a little dark. walter you're at the aspen institute at this annual gathering of the

our guest hose is walter isaacson. the futures have been in the red.ttle bit worse in recent moments. down about 17 on the dow. down 2.5 on the s&p. down 3 on the nasdaq. check out oil, several arab nations including saudi arabia, egypt and yemen cut diplomatic ties with qatar accusing the country of supporting terrorism. earlier, they boosted the price of the complex. but now actually down on wti crude and ice brent. >> mark grant said he wouldn't be surprised to see cheating among the opec nations at this point. it does show some splintering. >> for qatar that's going to happen. >> yeah, that was his point with this. we are seeing it down once again. uk prime minister theresa may resuming her election campaign after the deadly terror attacks that killed seven over the weekend. wilfred frost is live in london. pi fred what can you tell us now? >> yes, becky. speaking earlier today prime minister theresa may addressed the ongoing battle against islamist terrorism. >> without our efforts to defeat them overseas are ever more successful, they're increasi

some good seats and work with amazing people >> one of those people, before we get into this, is walter isaacsonis last aspen ideas festival >> that's right. walter's been the leader of the aspen super for 14 years and done an amazing job. because of walter's leadership the organization has really gone to new heights and higher and higher and walter's done an amazing job. he wants to retire and focus on writing a few books. he's moving back to his hometown of new orleans so it's good for walter, and it will be an opportunity for us at the institute. >> okay. let's talk business. what are you seeing out there right now? is this good or bad? even out here, among let's say the well-heeled, there seems to be a sort of strange sense of anxiety yesterday during some of the sessions >> you know, i think we started the ideas festival focusing on health care, so that does preview the idea of an area that's got a lot of questions. >> right tom price was here yesterday >> yeah, secretary price was here and i thought what i took away from him is that -- that what you're seeing is kind of a starting point, a

walter isaacson, john meacham remain with us.n, i keep thinking of presidents who have exhorted, presidents for whom that has been their fallback, all they know how to do. cheered us on, urged us to accomplish great things and never had a dark view of america. >> yeah, henry adams once said the president has a course to steer and a port to seek. and you want a president who thinks big and thinks brightly. jefferson was a master of talking about how the son of progress was going to go over the continent, and no one knew when it would ever set. president reagan improved on jesus, when he talked about a shining city on a hill, and the sermon on the mount was just a city on the hill. but reagan's imagination made it even more vivid. it's uncharted waters, an odd and disconcerting moment to say the least. my own hope is when we look back on it, it will simply have been a waste of america's time and not the beginning of a serious c cataclysm. >> you put it that way it sounds a little dark. wall walter, you're out there with some of the

. >> joining us now for more is walter isaacson on, president and ceo of the aspen institute i don't rn know where to begin, walter. maybe with sessions' testimony in lilt tght of the mueller comt this afternoon how juicy do you think they will be >> well, i think jeff sessions will be very news worthy he's a former senator, so he will get a little bit deference, but i think he will come out swinging i think we saw with that weird cabinet meeting that trump did the dear leader sin drop where he wants everybody to keep praising him, he's always felt -- not always, but the past month felt that jeff sessions has not been as worth coming in praising him so i think sessions will come out and be very strong and say that the meetings with can i see kislyak were above board and the third meeting was simply where he ran into him at an event and that i think he will try to turn the tables and attack or at least denigrate comey for having let the memo out about his conversation with trump. i also think sessions will decline to answer any questions about his own conversations with trump. >> a lot

walter isaacson. for the latest episode of binge we sat down with alan alda from "m.a.s.h."and louis c.k. he has a new book about communication and we talked about his biggest hit and network television. if you were shopping "m.a.s.h." today would you take it to the networks, cable, the web? >> that's a good question. probably would only be shown on the web because then you could do it with the real language that people would use and people really torn to pieces. when we first did the first episode they said don't go into the operating room, keep it funny. we had to put a red light in torthe operating room so you couldn't see blood in the first episode. after that we had more power. >> my next question was what would "m.a.s.h." on cable be like. the notion of it having wider rules, language -- >> yeah. it would have more -- a little bit more. there was a lot of reality, but it would have a little more space to get some of the grittier reality. it was amazing we got some in the old days but you would have more now. >> what an illustration of how streaming and cable, for hbo b

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. >> thank you walter isaacson, president of the aspen institute joins me here the ideas festival has been going on for a couple days now a big theme and topic is article efficient artificial intelligence whether you're talking to siri, an android phone and talking to google you wrote the biography of steve jobs did he foresee this? >> one of the interesting things is ten years ago when he does the iphone, he had first resisted the notion of apps from third parties or outside companies being put on and it was around i think middle of 2008 that he finally gets pushed because somebody -- steve was a very stubborn person but he listened. everyone around is saying you have to allow apps onest major revolutions wheef is this notion that an uber or an air b & b or anybody can put an app or an iphone and there have been two things driving. that one is artificial intelligence where sort of the apple learns what you want or talk to it via siri or amazon echo the other sthing this notion that we can connect peer to peer as opposed to having to go through a big corporation. that's what uber is a

. >> we talked to walter isaacson in the last hour f you go back decades how the pend lum has swung fromation coming out of dod of course, the birth of the internet swung to the private sector. and whether or not there could be some movement back to the middle here, kara. what do you think? >> yeah. i don't know you can't solve government problems by an app one speech obama made torld the end of his thing is that government doesn't lend itself to disruption and easy tech solutions. and so i think the question is to me the real topic should be where are jobs going in the future it's obviously one of my obsessions right now what happens under ai, automation, training, education? those are the top thaics that t ceos should be talking about tech sfloelg important and could probably save some money but to me, the question for a lot of the tech ceos and the government should be how do we get ready for what's coming next and the stuff that these ceos are working on like self driving cars that to me would be a real topic. and it's a serious topic but nobody wants to touch that one that easily. t

what larry robins just told us a few moments ago what else is coming up >> we're going to have walter isaacsonming up. we also have tom wilson, the ceo of all state and nut chair for the past year of the u.s. chamber of commerce. going to talk the economy, talk about artificial intelligence and some of those big issues that are being discussed here at the aspen ideas festival >> all right thank you very much. we'll be with you. as we head to a quick break, let's take a look at what stocks are doing this hour. sitting on small losses. dow down about 30 points financials are the standout to the upside they remain the leading group. we also have wti crude above $45 a barrel and energy is catching a bit. there the s&p 500 not quite .3% down and nasdaq is actually again the underperformer, down 54 points 6179 >>> rite aid canceled a deal under which walgreen was buy rite aid they are paying $5.2 billion for the stores the deal also cancels a planned sale of rooid rite aid stores to pharmacy chain freds or overall company freds. the focus of investors and the reason why rite aid shares ro r. losing

. >> yeah, walter isaacson on the air said he thinks it's time for something big.hould come in hardware. having made some inroads in services in software. >> services is one of the things that it's at scale. we could just kind of have that thrive and grow on its own. the idea of something big i do think it's been kind of forestalled in terms of the urgency about -- on wall street's side because the stock has done so well. that they almost have bought themselves some time in saying never mind about a car. something else. >> it's also a remind their just tech has been -- reminder that tech has been a star performer. tech stocks are up, david, 20% and tech is 23% of the index. the nasdaq coming off another week it outperformed. >> we pointed out so many times the biggest -- the biggest beneficiaries whether it's google or amazon, facebook or the aforemenomonietiontioned apg tens of millions in market value. up 26%. that's google. everything inin the 30s that i mentioned. alibaba a name we don't mention, but up 41% this year. so it's not just here in the states. >> gol

walter isaacson will talk about president trump and the gop's agenda when it comes to the economy.'s ceo and ul that coming up and more "on squawk alley." >>> it is the latest move in the fast food breakfast wars which are still going strong. taco bell introducing a new item to its menu. jane wells of course joins us now to tell us what that is. >> reporter: it is salsanity. is breakfast salsa somehow different? i have in front of me taco bell's new breakfast salsa along with its traditional mild salsa. what's the difference? also here, mcdonald's salsa, jack in the box, del taco. we are going to do a taste and tell. first some data. taco bell has been killing it thanks in large part to breakfast. same story sales last quarter jumped 8%. 54% of the customers surveyed east breakfast at non-traditional times. 43% want breakfast served all day. breakfast is the only meal time at restaurants which is showing growth, thanks in large part to taco bell, mcdonald's and going out to lunch is quote, a dying tradition. okay. taco bell came out with this breakfast salsa and it confused the int

programming note, check out what's coming up on "squawk box," walter isaacson, plus the ceo of lowe'sner of the new york giants and arne sorenson will be our special guest. "squawk" returns in just a moment. i need someone that understands my unique needs. my dell small business advisor has gotten to know our business so well, that it feels like he's a part of our team. with one phone call, he sets me up with tailored products and services. and when my advisor is focused on my tech, i can focus on my small business. ♪ >>> stocks to watch this morning, vm ware reported four cents above estimates. however, the maker of virtualization software is seeing stock fall this morning as investors focus on smaller profit margins. five below beat estimates by a penny, also raised full-year guidance. >>> when we return this morning, we have much more to talk about. it is the big jobs report coming up at 8:30 eastern time. we're going to line you up with what to expect ahead of that in just a few moments. countdown right now, 33 minutes, 38 seconds to that report. in the meantime, futures are closi