The record. What a great record to beat. It is fairly amazing that there was so much legislation for show , like repealing obamacare, which had no chance, but they voted over and over on it. A new gallup poll out says that only eight percent of americans think congress are very high in ethical standards. Thatists are the only ones rank worse than them, and just above car salesman. Just above tv anchors. [laughter] and is one that we have heard for a long time. When you put the numbers of their work, or lack there of, it really shows. Lets stay in washington. There are more than a dozen tech executives, including tim cook and orissa meyer, headed to the white house to meet with president obama. Julianna goldman is with us right now. Some frank talk from the tech executives . Originally, the white house aboutd these guys to talk the administrations efforts to fix the healthcare. Gov website, but a pervert person the millionaire said that familiar said that they would not meet unless they put the nsa surveillance issue on the agenda. Are under fire overseas and here at home for participating with a government program. They are facing billions in lost business, tighter regulations, and a general loss of trust from the public and consumer. I would expect some frank talk in that meeting. Ways theynow in what will bring this up with the president . Of the they are asking president is essentially to take the lead in terms of changing International Surveillance programs. Last week, a group of Tech Companies including apple and yahoo sent a letter to obama and the congress were they called for greater oversight, limits to the governments ability to force this companies to provide information for the metadata we are talking about. The white house may have wanted to focus on health care by the timing is right for a discussion on this nsa program. The white house looking to rein in the program, balancing National Security interests. Stay with us for a moment. You think has the most sway right now among these tech ceos . First of all, president obama is always going to Silicon Valley to raise money. It is those people that have supported the president for many years, eric schmidt among them, we will see if they have some there. But it is clear the white house has control of the situation. How many of these have you done where you see these ceos out at the white house for one issue, taxes, immigration, and then nothing gets done after. There are supporters of the Democratic Party and the president but the president is under fire from not only the Tech Industry and business in general, but from democrats in his own party about this program. Originally, they said they wanted to come up with their recommendations on how to rein in the program, restore some trust with the public, but they wanted to do this before christmas. Now it does not look like it will happen until next year, when they will release the declassified version of the report that obama got this week. They will be putting out some proposals. In some ways, having the input of business could give them some cover with privacy advocates when they do come out with their list. Thank you. Could be of borrowing higher tomorrow, or lower, or he could not change at all. It could not change at all. Fed beginning their twoday meeting. We really do not know what they will do. A few weeks ago, the consensus was that they would stay pat, but we guts surprisingly strong we got surprisingly strong job creation in november. The feds criteria for starting to taper is significant and sustained job creation. Look at the retail Sales Numbers we have gotten so far or the last couple of months. They have been inching up. People seem to be spending. Better isn numbers for manufacturing. It looks like maybe this recovery will take hold. Does the fed go now . That is the open question. People say there is a 50 50 chance. What is more likely . Could begin to taper, but the problem with that is inflation is still low. The other thing they could do is change the threshold to say we are not looking and 6. 5 unemployment anymore. They could put in an inflation floor threshold. The third option is cutting the Interest Rate they pay banks to keep their money at the fed, the excess reserves they have. Maybe that would force the banks to make loans in order to make money. What is the consensus at wall street . If you put their bonuses on the line, they would probably say the fed would do nothing, but we will see. Ben bernanke could stay on the fed until 2020, but with janet , possibly being confirmed at the end of the week, it could have two chairman. Some are talking about ben bernanke resigning early and letting her handle the january meeting. Thank you, mike mckee. Billionaire Warren Buffetts couldire hathaway and 3g be looking to purchase campbell. Combineld be able to heinzs foodd contracts. Buffett, as usual, is not commenting. General motors yesterday announced a plan to spend 1. 3 1. 3 billion dollars to upgrade three factories. The news comes after the u. S. Treasury sold its final shares of gm, freeing them of government ownership. Dan ackerson spoke about the automaker paying a dividend next mary barrall as becoming their first woman ceo next month. Mary was picked purely on her talent, success, not because of her gender. I am proud of the history the General Motors has in terms of promoting qualified minority and female employees. Us now is turnaround expert harry wilson. He helped to oversee the restructuring of General Motors when it declared bankruptcy in 2009. Chairman of ans advisory group. Great to have you here this morning, harry. You and i have talked before. You have expressed pleasure at a rapid pace that gm has recovered from bankruptcy. Are they ready to pay a dividend . I think they are. One of the things they have improve upon is their capital allocation. Huge amount of cash flow, Going Forward. There is still plenty of room for Share Repurchase or dividend. When you look at the turnaround, what do you see, looking back, and what made it possible . Two things. The company had to have an improved product suite. That was in the works before we showed up. It was always identified as one of the problems. That is a critical part of the success of gm. The other part was dramatically changing the cost structure so that you could compete effectively in a more competitive world. That is what we did with the management team. Those were the two things. Better products and better cost truck sure that they can better compete on price. What was it about the cost structure that you see now which was not clear before the turnaround started . Everyone was aware of the problem but no one was willing to make changes. Precrisis, they broke even at a ceos at seasonally annually adjusted rate of sales. Now post crisis, they are closer to 10 million. Like any cyclical business, they should be able to break even at the trough and make money at the peak. Those are the kinds of adjustment that were made. It was suggested at his press conference by one of the reporters that the treasury did lose money on the gm bailout. With all of this extra cash, so to speak, that gm is now generating, should some of that be paid back to the u. S. Treasury . Basically, the breakeven point of the u. S. Treasury 43 a share. As of yesterday, it was at 41 a share. Losteason the treasury money, they effectively sold early. And they left 10 billion on the table. Decisionas a conscious by the government to get out. They were looking to get out as soon as possible is this stabilized. When you compare the loss on the investment versus the benefit to the industry and the economy as a whole, it ended up being a successful intervention. When you look across the landscape, i wonder if you see that competitive threshold remaining where it is with gm, as it competes with other carmakers around the world . Is the competition really staying the same, or is that evolving . Industry isl auto the most competitive it has been, probably in my lifetime. Almost every major player producing tremendous products. Were long time, the u. S. Seen to produce inferior products, the europeans, mixed quality, but now you have every including hyundai, making great products and being a great competitor. It is amazing. Ford will have a record lineup for next year. It is amazing how they have all bounced back and are producing so many different brands out there. Barra, name the first woman ceo of any company in the u. S. , car company in the did you know her, did you work with her . Spent a little bit of time with her in 2009, certainly knew that she was wellregarded internally. A good appointment. One of the good things about her appointment, which has been lost in the discussion around her, she has a deep background of manufacturing and product development. She understands the business side of the car business in a very good and important way. That is important as gm needs to improve its product portfolio. She is a car girl. Thank you, harry wilson. The fed, the budget deal, the outlook for next year. We will talk about that with pimcos mohamed elerian. Two things are happening in washington. The senate is about to vote on the budget passed by the house, itsthe equity considering movement on stimulus. So who is crazier these days, lawmakers or investors . Us aset carlson is with well as an advisor. When we say who is crazier, washington cannot get a deal done, they finally got something done. There is time dysfunction, the market does good. Up in new york, nobody is thrilled. Says,hington, everyone they know how to do it . As a reporter, we like trouble and turmoil and conflict because we do not cover the donna does not get run over. That does not get run over. I think even us reporters have had enough of crisis after crisis. Was aonder if this week signal change, the ability to get something done. Does that matter to the street . Actually, it is a positive for consumers. The Government Shutdown impacted more negatively than anything else Consumer Sentiment. Now that we have a legislative body that can work together, that should be good for Consumer Sentiment, which could filter down. The spot to put you on as representing the investors, but then the market went down after this deal was passed. Probably, part of what the fed was thinking when it decided to postpone tapering in september, was concerned over a possible Government Shutdown, debt ceiling debate. We knew that was in the offing when they made the deal in september. It makes sense that the street would selloff on a day like the past few days, and then the news came that the deal had been struck. That removed one of the headwind that the fed was concerned about. We were putting up some showed old numbers that jell showed jello poll numbers that showed gallop poll numbers that show that congress was not held in high regard. Nobody really cares about Consumer Sentiment because they do not like the people in congress anyway. Senator mccain visited the the only and he said, people that you still like us are blood relatives, and now they are gone. Is this the worst you have seen . Yes, bar none. They used to be fake fights, real fights over some things like wars, but now they do not speak to each other the way they used to. Tea party people do not like the clubbiness. Heard that they do not spend time socializing, and they are not there over the weekends. There is a famous series called alpha house where four congressman live together. They also fund raise constantly, which you must see here. So they are not there in the evenings. Margaret carlson, great to see you. Christina, thank you very much. We will be back in two minutes. You are watching in the loop. You can also watch us streaming on your tablet, phone, and on bloomberg. Com. I am betty liu. On cory johnson. Is 26 minutes past the hour which means it is time to go on the markets. Fedhave the start of the policy meeting. Certainly, investors eyeing what they say about tapering. Of course, they will be announcing that tomorrow. On the markets again in 30 minutes. Selling its connecticut wireline operations to Frontier Communications for 2 billion. The company is based in connecticut and will be able to provide services to residents in its home state. Rolling out a new advertising system. Selling videot ads to advertisers beginning this week. The videos will play automatically. One of them will be a short tease specifically made for facebook for the new movie divergent. 90 4. 5 Million People will be traveling over the holidays this year, reaching a record high. 94. 5 Million People will be traveling over the holidays this year, reaching a record high. The number of people on the road will increase and those by airplane will decrease. Amc expected to post today after the close. The Movie Theater has plenty of competition these days. They have been redesigning their theaters to attract more customers. Theaters long as movie have been around, they have been threatened. It was the bcr and then the internet, but then the movies strike back with things like 3d and imax, and now this. Big old seats. C is renovating its theaters and is prepping on these older, smaller seats, reducing capacity by 54 , but in those theaters where they have renovated, attendance is up. That has a lot to do with these bad boys. Recline, you have a drink holder. And if you are here with a friend, hanging out, get cozy. This . Is amc doing all of to make money, and it is working. Today, aided by company or seats revenueer snap ours, numbers have doubled. There is an irony to what they are doing. In order to compete with your home set up, maybe now you have a 60 inch television, surround sound, in order to get you out of your house and into a theater, they need to make their theaters more like your home. The movies,t Cristina Alesci is covering the ipo. Potential investors waiting to hear what they come up with. An interesting story about the man behind the company. A chinese man. Tell me about him. He made his fortune mostly in property development. He has a property conglomerate. He had all of his assets centered in china and decided he needed to diversify, so he bought amc. He has a lot of money and he needed a place to park it. That is something that you run into with billionaires. He has also been public about how he wants to control 20 of the movie industry globally. That would maybe give him leverage with the content providers. If you own so many distribution centers, theaters, maybe you can get leverage and force hollywood to do with you, maybe bring hollywood to you. He had that starstudded event earlier this year where wantedad he said he to start a hollywood in china. Tell us about the ipo. They are looking to raise predominantly to pay down debt. Pricing would be between 18 and 20 a share. One concern for investors is that debt. It is more than some of the other rivals out there. Not to mention the fact that the Movie Theater business is somewhat challenged because the window between the release date and a theater and the athome streaming option is getting result, so as a theaters have to do more to get evil in the to get people in the seats. They want to make it an experience. They are experimenting with ind ining theaters. It used to be that you went to dinner, and then you went to the movie. Now you go on the date and you eat and drink at the theater. They have done this in a couple of theaters, and will do more in the next few years. Now you gothey are hoping theye more and you can make money more money per person. When i saw that the deal was being offered to amcs preferred customers, i thought it was a pretty cold deal. What is the reaction on wall street . Investors are getting a steady dividend. That is what they are signing up for. The company says they will pay a dividend. Are not necessarily looking for a huge growth story. Why is he so fascinated with the movie business . Often liken property the lure of entertainment. People in china, he wants to get a bit of control over that industry. Talking about content providers and Movie Theaters. There is some speculation that he was trying to take over the u. S. Hollywood and Entertainment Industry for the chinese government. That is obviously not true, but you have to remember, real estate and Movie Theaters have a lot to do with each other. Speaking of pricey real estate, amc has a large concentration of its theaters in very expensive markets. Are not necessarily looking for a huge growth story. Their margins are smaller when you compare them to rivals because they have to pay the higher rents. Alesci, you, cristina as well as matt g. Miller. Julie hyman has been looking at some of the other Big Companies in china. What are some of the other chinese owned companies coming to america . Brandse are not many that are wellknown in the u. S. Owned by Chinese Companies. Ibmvo, when they bought the inbusiness several years ago 2005, initially branded the ibm thinkpad, and then they recently changed over the branding. In the pork business, midfield being bought for 4. 7 billion smithfield being bought for 4. 7 billion. Volvo was also bought in the summer of 2010. These are the three most prominent. You have Chinese Companies making inroads here, but those are the existing brands that have been acquired by Chinese Companies. What has the deal flow been like . Over the past 10 years, 700 deals planned. Some of them did not go through. An attempt tos buy unical. There were some concerns about china controlling the oil and gas business in the u. S. Then there was that regulatory business with smithfield. Eal scuttling of the unical d stopped demand for a while, but now we are seeing it come back. We could begin to see an acceleration of these types of deals. Julie hyman, thank you. Coming up, a look at what congress has not done this year. Why this is the least Productive Congress ever, because they have hardly been in their offices. And what toys r us is doing to lure more shoppers shoppers in