wilbur ross chairman and ceo of wilbur ross & company.ood morning. >> hi, ace. >> you can chime in whenever you want. overall sometimes i ask you stuff like this and you go, what do i know. we have to because you know a lot. the economy, better than a year ago. no doubt about it. does it justify the move we've seen in the financial markets? >> i think so. you know, we're still a long way for 14,000, which is where we were a year ago october. i think so. a definite trend is up, i think. i think the government has done a very good job. some people say they have made mistakes. on the other hand if you don't do anything, you won't make a mistake. people that do things make mistakes. i think they certainly have tried and they have been successful and i think we're going the right direction. >> i guess people can argue with how they did it. maybe not all the programs were necessary. but in total here we are. the abyss was avoided. when you look back on it, was it about something other than confidence? >> the toxic assets are still around. >> i

>> i like invesco, ivr, that's actually got wilbur ross involved as well. we'll see a dividend announcement out of them soon. i own comara. very healthy, doing very, very well. i think not only are companies throwing up hefty dividends, the assets they own are appreciating as well. >> two creative ideas from antoine and you have his views. our traders mostly agree with you. thank you very much. with your trade on the top headlines of the day. >>> let's talk more about the issue that's so inflaming many of you because it may seem silly to some. british prime minister gordon brown joining nicolas sarkozy in support of a tax that could work like this. 0.1% tax on every trade you do. you heard the unions on this show saying they thought that could raise $100 billion a year. should the u.s. support the tobin tax? we have the associate director for markets policy at the center for american policy. good to have both of you with us. >> david, 0.1% sounds small but $100 billion sounds big. is it a good idea. >> i will say obviously it's going to be -- it's hard to t

working for wilbur ross as well. set talk all things housing and the economy when we come back. >> your. >>> you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. fithe same tools the pros use, so you can be a disciplined trader. by selecting from eight advanced triggers, your order gets executed, even when you're busy. and with trailing stops to help you lock in profits and minimize risk, you can be confident in your strategy, no matter which way the market moves. find out why more and more active traders are turning to fidelity for a smarter way to trade online. trade like a pro. trade with fidelity. yet a lot of natural gas has impurities like co2 in it. controlled freeze zone is a new technology... being developed by exxonmobil... to remove the co2 from the natural gas... so we can safely store it... where it won't get into the atmosphere. exxonmobil is spending more than 100 million dollars... to build a plant that will demonstrate this process. i'm very optimistic about it... because this technolog

from public to private, citizen james lockhart, former director of the fhfa is now working for wilbur ross. it's a vice chairman now at wl ross and company. and it's r glenn hubbard as opposed to l. ron hubbard. because if we had the other guy, you can imagine. oh, my god. anyway, he is going to talk to us, mr. lockhart is. also making the right call on the credit crisis. shawn eegan is going to tell us if anything has changed, when the next storm is crewing and you can comment on that blockbuster court ruling affecting the ratings agency, as well. gold hitting 1,000 and president obama's big health care speech, "squawk box" will start at the top of the hour. back to you. >> joe, thanks for that. we'll see you in a bit. >> okay. >> and it's been so long, joe needs a haircut. some think the markets need a haircut and as the u.s. futures show a positive surge, will we see progress in this market rally? he's not going to like that, i know. we'll look ahead to the wall street open when we come right back. welcome to the now network. population: 49 million. right now 1.2 million people are on s

we have two legends on today, billionaire invest every wilbur ross. going to find out where the turn around specialist has been circling lately for the best opportunities to make money. also, former bear stearns chief allan ace greenberg. we'll get his reaction to the wall street crisis a year later. he's going to sound off on the compensation industry surrounding the financial industry. also, we have consumers on the ropes. spending is down. holidays are just around the corner. find out which consumer stocks are ready to move higher, potential hi pop we'll give you some names that might surprise you. not your ordinary consumer staples. and we'll spark up the health care debate. republican congressman mike pence and democratic congresswoman, allison pence. back to you. >> fantastic, joe. we look forward to it. thanks. >>> robert pavlesh is still with us. robert, we're tight on time. let's get right to it. we have case shiller consumer price confidence numbers. what do you expect? >> home prices probably decline a little bit month over month. but i thi