four, five, six wreerz from now, it could have an impact, but not the next couple of wreerz. >> what about your growth? the established home builders or realty companies we're used to how they perform in certain cycle sxdz what the earnings look like. you guys are completely predicate odd growth, new inventory, new cities. what happens if that stalls? >> so i'm very bullish. we're going to continue to expand. the -- there has been a slight dip, sailed i, 10%, maybe 20% over the last three months in terms of vkz volume. all that said, you know, we were very excited about the market. >> is there a city that you are studying right now that you are waiting to jump into? >> wrau. san francisco. san francisco is a very fortunate city. it's been a bull market for almost 13, 14 years. that's the one major luxury market which hasn't seen a dip at all over the last four months. >> we hear a lot from our viewers sfr are from our guest bz the san francisco real estate market, and it is hot. >> yeah. it really is. >> depending where you stand. rob, good to see you. loo good to see you. thank you.

to be a disconnect from some of the policy or the theory, i should say, that i remember learning wreerz ago in economics that normally when you have increases in productivity that productivity translates into higher wage levels. we have not seen that. in fact, in recent years we've seen -- significantly more than wage levels. if you are looking at formulating monetary policy, you are looking aggregate demand and -- >> fed chair yellen making headlines regarding the affect of terrorism on the economy. even commenting a tad on the dollar, which we'll get to a moment. in the meantime, we are waiting for the president to make a statement at the white house regarding the shooting in san bernardino yesterday. john harwood has some headlines first, though. >> we're waiting for that tape. the president has been talking to our colleagues in the pool inside the oval office, and the reports we've gotten from our colleagues say he has said he spoke to the mayor. thoughts and prayers to the victims. we yet do not know the motive for this attack. mentioned that the fbi is involved. he spoke with his

the older one i have an account i haven't been on in two wreerz. wrunger one says i have no desire to have a twitter account. how do you bring younger people on to twitter, and how do you compete with what's becoming a very effective market for distribution of information? >> i mean, if you were to -- let's game it out like you said a couple of moments ago where the growth is lackluster compared to rivals. what takes their place? is it a snap chat world that we graduate to or what? >> it's really some different things. if you think about what twitter has become for most people, it's a source of news, and we are really seeing, you know, apple, google try to integrate news directly into their device. for example, if you have wall street journal or cnbc on your phone, you automatically get news alerts, right? you know, if you follow a sports team and they make a trade, you get a news alert. the question is how many people really need the volume of information that twitter provides versus the snip et that makes you want to read the longer article. then

in a short four to five wreerz. whatever isis's numbers are now, they're going to triple it. worse many of those one day will be able to apply for visas and join others that have already been infiltrating even the mi grant or other processes. what i see right now happening is extremely dangerous. >> as you talk about -- it includes israel. it includes lebanon. it is a broader area than we normally think of. wills a lot of discussion, john hannah, about whether it should be isis or isil. the fact is the islamic state calls itself the islam iblg state. we have a president that says they're not islamic at all. we are playing extraordinary mind games and word games, but the fact is this president has not moved one iota for achieving his goal that he said to the american people 14 months ago. he would destroy the islamic state. is it beyond his ability? >> it's increasingly looking so. he has launched us into a war, and it's clear. it's not his highest priority to actually complete that war. he is not willing to set aside the rest of his presidency to rout out the islamic state ou

in a short four to five wreerz. whatever isis's numbers are now, they're going to triple it. many of those one day will be able to apply for visas and join others that have already been infiltrating even the mi grant or other processes. what i see right now happening is extremely dangerous. >> as you talk about -- it includes israel. it includes lebanon. it is a broader area than we normally think of. wills a lot of discussion, john hannah, about whether it should be isis or isil. the fact is the islamic state calls itself the islam iblg state. we have a president that says they're not islamic at all. we are playing extraordinary mind games and word games, but the fact is this president has not moved one iota for achieving his goal that he said to the american people 14 months ago. he would destroy the islamic state. is it beyond his ability? >> it's increasingly looking so. he has launched us into a war, and it's clear. it's not his highest priority to actually complete that war. he is not willing to set aside the rest of his presidency to rout out the islamic state out of i

opportunities to find the cash that's going to get the returns we all need over the next three to five wreerz. >> is that how you see it? a consensus is typically wrong. everybody is going in run direction. you typically see something else happen. i don't hear vech very many people other than, what was it, tony the other day come on the show and say that the market will be great next year. >> well, a lot of that is based on the lower dollar. that's where the consensus would have to be wrong because at that point you have profit margins to ebbing up and down, which are continually contracting, and as john pointed out, the top theme in the s&p 500 this year is returned close to 8% is high revenue growth s&p companies. the market is paying that premium for growth, but are you going to have to see the u.s. dollar have some form of a correction to get the margin expansion and to get a little bit of a better year than the muted anticipation we have right now. >> one of the reasons we like non-u.s. more than u.s. is europe, for example, is not at a peak of its earnings cycle. one of the reasons that

for four wreerz.t's a real third rail issue. >> a top vc on his investments in fin tech and how the fed's rate hike will affect his industry. plus, coming up later today on closing bell, you won't want to miss this. an interview with short seller swrim chanos here on cnbc. surprise!!!!! we heard you got a job as a developer! its official, i work for ge!! what? wow... yeah! okay... guys, i'll be writing a new language for machines so planes, trains, even hospitals can work better. oh! sorry, i was trying to put it away... got it on the cake. so you're going to work on a train? not on a train...on "trains"! you're not gonna develop stuff anymore? no i am... do you know what ge is? come happy birthday. i just had a heart attack... and now i have a choice. for her. for them. and him. a choice to take brilinta. a prescription for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin ...no more than 100 mg. as it affects how well it works. it's such an important thing to do

they're limiting the sales over the first three wreerz to $1 billion a we're.his is not going to be an interim stock. we can simply look at it as an act of tremendous swren roft, from somebody who i think has a very steep learning curve. he is not the first person to commit to giving away money this way. you know, he has a model in the gates foundation. i think a thing we should expect, there are going to be success and failures. mark has already had a failure in his attempt to help the school system in newark. you know, he learned from that. he is doing a much smarter thing in the bay area. i'm really optimistic about what they can do here. i believe that priscilla's expertise as a physician is going to give them things in public health that will be incredibly valuable, but i think we should also remember that while it's a really cool idea to see billionaires giving this kind of money away, it's also a bit of an indictment of society today because the reason that they have to do this is the government institutions around the world are failing us. >> henry, he

i believe some of the things weave talked about the last handful of wreerz.many things that are subtle changes that could make it out sized difference even in the environment of a stronger dollar and gets stronger as the fed normalizes. the long and the short of it is, i think investors are going to be watching the pulse. a great way to take business away from the rest of the globe. back to you. >> thank you. rick santelli in chicago. up next, real insight into how -- we'll talk to a company powering self-driving tech for google. >> david hall is a ceo and co-founder of -- he joins us this morning. david, good morning. good to have you with us. >> good morning. >> we got this news -- reports i would say this morning of this partnership between google and ford, which has some people thinking that we're about to make a big turn in this evolution. how do you read it? is. >> well, isn't that a rumor? unfounded rumor at this point? >> we're going to find out. if you read yahoo autos. >> i can wait until then. so -- >> how do you then -- how do you characterize the

we've both done every swrob in the business over the wreerz. we've both grown up in the business.y similar to our situations. it's awesome. he can do everything well or better than i can and so it's just amazing to have that band width and firepower. >> you're not going to counter and say no, he does it better? >> he does everything -- he does everything, and i take all the credit. that's how it works. >> a lot of people still feel like you fwot to be in sell convalley. you did if in australia. you technically moved the head waters to london, but still, a lot of people feel like this is an australian company. do you need to grow in the u.s. going forward? do companies largely need to start there? are you an exception to the rule, or have things changed? >> i think starting in australia, we've taken a different perspective on events and built a unique company as a result of being outside of the silicon valley eco chamber. i think in australia we take a long-term view of things, and it's been a strategic advantage of us. we're the number one place to work in all of australia, so we

over the wreerz they decayed. ♪ >> for crying out loud. >> the only part that is not original is thatthere. i never thought i would get the opportunity to own these dolls. i wish i could get ahold of any kind of a prop, even a twig from rudolph the red nosed reindeer. owning something from the show represented my childhood, and it took me back to a very happy time in my life. ♪ rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history ♪ >> awesome. i want to take you outside one more time to new york central park because it is unnaturally warm outside. people are ice skating, though, and it's in the 60s right now. central park officially broke a record at midnight. hit 66 degrees. i checked out the weather in san diego, california. you know the place that's supposed to have perfect weather? it's 52 degrees there this morning. sorry, california. new york has it going on this christmas day. merry christmas, and thank you so much for joining me on this special day. i'm carol cost elwroe. at this hour burman and baldwin after a break. checking out the listing on zillyeah, i like it. this

incrementally every now and again, but it reminds me of the accusation level of the banks for many wreerzthe shareholders got zip, but everybody else inside was paid incredibly well for an awfully long time. >> it's true. you know what's interesting about these companies is they pay big cash dividends. they're variable, and they're based on how they're harvesting their gains. steve schwartzman has a huge payday because he owns a lot of the common stock, and he gets paid the cash dividend that shareholders do. the problem is the market is not willing to capitalize that cash flow at a high multiple. that's why they look -- you have a lot of folks pointing to, for example, oak tree, which is more of a distressed manager, is publicly traded as well, as perhaps being in a sweet spot because there's a lot more opportunity when high yield is falling apart. >> they had a terrible we're. down 44%. their asset level stayed more or less the same, right? >> all of them actually have done okay gathering assets. it's really just a matter of the performance and the idea that the hedge fund asset class i