Latest on what is going on. Press effectively what we have right now is a standoff between antigovernment protesters on the one side and riot police on the other. What divides them is a smoldering fire 30 feet wide. That is what that is. A 30 foot wide gap that in some cases has a kneedeep amount of coals. On the far side of that picture, across from the protesters, you see the police. They are not china move over that at the moment. That is independent square at the moment. 7000. Many have come more armed than they have in the past. Almost all of them are armed with clubs. We also have other room other weaponry. This all began when the president ordered the riot police, telling them to clear the square. Injured. 350 people we stopped short of that. See this kicked off at any time this could kick off at any time again. Class is there a possibility we could see an outbreak civil war . Say, no, we want to reject that and move toward. He European Union one is against a popular government and the other could turn into a civil war. There is a geographic divide in the ukraine between west and east and were seeing that with antigovernment protesters. Ultimately, i do not think it is that yet. What we have here is the president on the one hand and the worldfamous heavyweight boxing champion on the other. Unable to come to any kind of about replacing the government. That is effectively the situation. The president was told they needed a truce. We got nowhere. There is no sign these guys will sit down any time soon. Thank you for keeping us up to date on the situation on the ground. U. S. Pair back to the the debate over the minimum wage. Increasing that wage may left about 900,000 americans out of poverty. Loss ofld lead to the as many as one million jobs. The cbo of the Congressional Budget Office. That will likely harden the line of democrats versus republicans. The cbo has done it again. Class another bombshell from the Congressional Budget Office. Class give us the details. Just like the healthcare numbers we got a few weeks ago, there is something in this report for both sides. Numberts seized on their and the republican saw the headline number that people would lose their jobs, the exact argument they were making for a long time against minimum wage. Andpresident gets his way instant Campaign Fodder in this election year. It is an easy at any kills any chances for an increase in minimum wage. Class i was going to say what are the prospects. To some extent, democrats are pushing this because they believe it is a potent political issue this year. Senate democrats will bring this to the floor anyway when they come back next week. The chances for it to ever pass report the house this does a lot to bolster republican arguments. We do not want to do anything to damage job creation. Have you seen republicans already latch onto the numbers . It was almost instantaneous. Speaker boehners office right away. I will also say the democrats saw the potential damage coming from this and they were almost the first to respond. House, just aste they did with obamacare numbers, had a special briefing for reporters. A blog post, the president posses chief economist tried to shoot this down and earthly challenging the cbo, very unusual. Can point republicans to this and say, we are right on this, it doesnt benefit them politically to to be that upfront about the issue. Class that raises a good issue. The public and surveys indicate most americans are in favor of increasing the minimum wage. It is a good ad, a compelling argument for democrats to make that this is something theyre fighting for. Those struggling to make ends a risk for republicans, but they believe economics are with them and maybe politics will be as well. Thank you. Our chief washington correspondent. Musk. This hour, elon shares of tesla closed about 200 for the first time after a report about a meeting between elon musk and apple. The San Francisco chronicle. Eported he met early last year Neither Company has said anything about that meeting since their since then. He said one of the possible outcomes of his company he said a potential buyer would have to have a lot of cash to buy his company. We will hear directly from the man. Me a littlell join later today. At 6 30 pmk with him eastern time exclusively right here. Interview. For that a Great Program for you this morning, including another exclusive interview with hank greenberg. Aboutt the outspoken ceo what he thinks about the new government report on raising the minimum wage. To all introduce you killer sound system with implications totally out of this world. Stay in the loop. Were just Getting Started on this wednesday. Lex you are watching in the loop here loop. Investment, and insurance powerhouse headed by greenberg, partnered with switzerland, partnered to buy this company. Four point 4 billion. The news came out over the the weekend. On the phone with us now is the chairman and ceo of cv starr. What the emphasis was impetus was to buy this company. It is a great company. Ive known the ceo for many years. He used to work with me. At a Prior Company iran. Iran that i ran. I think it is the best. From my point of view, it was a great opportunity since we knew each other. He is a great manager. Adds versification, an outstanding company. In some of the articles that ,ave come out analyzing this people are saying, hank thatberg is now betting obamacare will work. Millions of people have signed onto the exchange. What do you say to that . That shows they do not understand very much about it. A hugepany has got with millions of subscribers. Obamacare does not have a thing to do with it. It was great before and it will be great after with or without obamacare. Will you see a group with more and more people signing on to the exchanges . No. What we see is opportunities adding products to the vast. Opulation they do serve we see opportunities internationally. Not got a thing to do and did not enter into our thinking whatsoever. The start of your Company Branching out into youerent areas and are looking at more acquisitions now . No. You know. This fits into what we were doing. We had a separate Investment Group apart from the insurance headed byinvestments a great team. They are doing very well and had been. So, this was another opportunity that came down. The most important thing about it that made it happen quickly was we knew each other for a long time and work together. It was a great opportunity. I want to turn over to your role on the Business Roundtable and dialogue with ceos. Thee is a report out from Congressional Budget Office that said raising the minimum wage to 10 and . 10 an hour is going to lift almost one Million People out of poverty. But it could also cost up to one million jobs in the next two ears. Where do you stand on this . It is a very difficult question. Obviously, you want to lift people out of poverty. You do notr hand, want a vast increase in unemployment. The numbers i heard was 500,000. I did not hear one million. Up to one million. You have got humanitarian the economic realistic issue. What happens is people lose their jobs and they will go on Unemployment Insurance and it will cost the same thing. , a longer line, it is a tough decision. Frome republicans kill it, a political point of view, it will be very difficult. What does your gut tell you . It says yes, we should raise the min wage . Yes. Because . Because, the republicans have as thenot be viewed party that killed it. If they do that, they will have the forthcoming elections. So i think from a practical point of view, i would hope they go along and get it done. Just on a final note, over the weekend, the president before he left on his holiday lifting of law the the debt ceiling into march of 2015. As a member and a leader at the Business Roundtable, you finally say, it looks like gridlock is being taken care of in washington. I would not say it is taken care of, but i think getting this out of the way was the right thing to do. You cannot have the Republican Party having this image all of the time of being disruptive. Be very negative to the party and we have elections coming up and that was the right thing to do not to have another gridlock in washington. All right. Great to have you with us. Thank you for joining us. The chairman and ceo on the acquisition. Heres a look at other top headlines this morning. The Unemployment Rate unexpectedly rose in the fourth quarter. Improvement may have lost some momentum. The jobless rate rose, the first increase since last february, from 7. 1 in the three months to november. A slight increase. In january, jobless craze jobless claims fell more than economists forecast. An acquisition worth 1. 4 billion. It represents about a 41 . Remium the Golden Gate Capital holds a 22 stake and is backing that deal. Billionaire john malone says he is giving the ceos of discovery key medication and Liberty Global the right to buy his stake should he decide to sell them. He said in an email statement nothing is changing right now with him. Engineers at the European Space agencys created a killer sound system. It is literally so loud, no human being could survive direct exposure to the noise. It is in an effort to test whether the agency satellites can withstand auditory assault. Sam has more on this. This might get loud. The European Space agency created something extraordinary. A large european acoustic facility, which is basically one of the worlds loudest boomboxes. Forget your splitting. It can create sound so powerful, it could kill you. Four massive nitrogen gas talled into a 50 foot chamber, reaching volumes of 154 decimals, about 100 times louder than a jet plane taking off. Europeans use this to test whether satellites can survive intense sound waves from a rocket launch. Toned down the acoustic assault of liftoff by spring 100 hundreds of thousands of water on the launch pad. Be allowed, but european rocket scientists have competition. Decimal a subculture of decibel drag racing in which they compete to create the loudest. The volumes could reach 180 decimals, making rocket launchers sound down and let downright polite in comparison. Very cool. Coming up, apple is known for creating great products. Some argue the tech giant is not create where is the is connect and why is that . Love and marriage may be good for your health but the divorce is good for the economy. Some say, we want to see more divorces if we want a growing economy. And coming up, lifestyles of the rich and richer. We will show you how the states stacked up when it comes to the wealthy, where they live and how they spend. Good morning. The market. Equity futures this morning are just a little bit lower. The s p rally the last three straight trading dray trading days. We are seeing some declines after the Economic Data yesterday came in a little lower than expected. We will get cpi and Housing Starts in just a few moments. Again with yields on the 10 year following to the lowest level in a week ahead of that. Ben, the fed chairman bernankes last month. Rise. Fouryear high more than half of the u. S. Homes in the United States fell. Extremely cold weather we have been confronted with around the country has sent gas prices up by 40 so far this year. We are on the markets again in 30 minutes. We need to heat our homes from the cold. I want to do take a look at one piece of the puzzle. Americas divorce lawyers have been a lot bigger since the economy started to client climbing out of the recession. Pace ince has picked up the last years, there is a stimulus affect. Peter cook is on the job now. I am on the divorce be. Tell us, is it a positive for the economy . We know it is. Ofing forces are indicator economic strength. The number has been rising. It got us thinking about the divorce. Is divorce a net plus for the economy even though it may be difficult for families and painful for them to go through. The logic is that all of a sudden, you have two households, someone going back to the workforce, more spending and ultimately a boost to the economy. The notion we got back from a lot of them is that it is probably a wash and not really a net plus. With more jobs and lower unemployment, unhappy couples delay divorce because they cannot afford to go forward with it. Everyone is in worse financial shape after a a divorce. Then before. Divorces leave individuals with less Discretionary Spending capabilities. Rather than sharing a house and car, each have to rent and purchase their own. Nethere has got to be a positive for lawyers. Is a plus for lawyers. What about housing . If you have two separate households, the needed place tuesday. Logic would suggest we need two roofs over people said at this point. We ran it over test analysts. People look at homebuilders and for example, we spoke with raymond james. I suspect the reality is we are losing other recent divorce is into the absorption of other households. It is probably a wash relative to other information. They call Improvement Stores head, he does not see those companies factoring into their model. Home depot and lowes are counting on more details, it will not end well. Would not be terrible that was part of your Business Strategy at the class you have got to look at all the factors. Logic will tell you, maybe would leave us more spending, but, the pros have looked of the looked at this and said, it is basically a wash. Tough on families and not necessarily a net plus. Question anyone talk to about the local areas, the geographic components of what areas get divorce more than others . I am sure there is more out there. We did not get into that yet. That would be round two as we continue on divorce week. You are an entertainment reporter yesterday and now a divorce correspondent. What about tomorrow . A food critic . I am ready to go. We will challenge you. Thank you. Our chief washington correspondent. A slew of economic numbers are just coming out now. Sterns has more on the breaking news. Lets start with housing numbers. Exit price. To 880,000. 6 we expected them to fall by about five percent but they have fallen by about 16 to 880,000. We are also hearing from the Commerce Department that Housing Starts in the midwest, to the lowest number on record. The reason seems to be the terribly cold weather we are having. The list january in the u. S. And 9094. Building permits are also out and they fell by 5. 4 in january to 937,000. That is shy of estimates economists we surveyed had. It wouldve been a fall of about 1. 5 . Housing starts and Building Permits were really disappointed disappointing. See the median forecast rising 1 10 of one percent. It gained by about 1 10 of one percent. That is pretty much in line with estimates. It comes intoime effect with new changes. Still a key measure of inflation. The ppi pretty much looks like a match, whereas Building Permits fall well short of estimates. Another time as momentum is coming out of the recovery in the Housing Market area right. You mentioned seasonal factors here with winter weather. Im looking at futures now. We are returning back to the lows of the session and equity futures, particularly for s p. You saw a sharp dip right after the numbers came out. Lets turn to technology. We we just talked about divorces. Last month, we told you about google. Because made sense google uses household data generated. Specifically, was google tempted ,y the founder and apple alumni tony, who developed the ipod at apple in an effort to beef up googles management spending. Are these tech giants after tech leaders . Did apple create tech leaders as well as Tech Products . Editor who bloomberg counsels companies on growth and development. Your answer to that is . Not really. Most of these guys coming out of apple are onehit wonders. When youre looking for good talent, you want people who have done it many times. Big Companies Like google and other companies we have an around the world are much like hospitals. They go around killing viruses. They take wipes and wipe out anything that might not look ike the mothership. To have someone who comes in to change all that, that is not what they want. Typically, they want somebody who will add something and not change something. He think about someone like jack, who was able to create ceos for other companies. He had a great management system. People who rose up were considered the cream of the crop. You could not say that about apple. It is not with a due. Jack did that and he did a great job. Look at all the things they have given the rest of the world and mostly corporate america. When you look at apple, they are really good at making these products and that is what they do. Job by a very good putting their heads down and getting it done and sticking to the system and that is what they do. It is not just apple were talking about. We are talking about google and other Tech Companies. Will that eventually backfire that they are not focused as much on leadership and creating aand system . They have got a great culture. There is no doubt about the people who have been there for a long time. I know many of the executives who have been there. They love that place. You do things you cannot do in other places but it benefits them. Time, apple is not going away. Remember when they did not have leadership at the top, they suffered. Even despite the culture. They also need the leadership. Steve jobs gave them that. Whether or not present leadership can do that has yet to be seen. So far, they just adding things to the product, nothing groundbreaking. Google came out of apple. Tony is the one we mentioned here at ron johnson. Genius. Another example. Became theinstein ceo. Why did they all bomb . They did a really good job at what they did. Cultu