Stephanie ruhle. I was out sick yesterday. I would say that Brendan Greeley and lisa a berlitz filled in greatly. Carts thanks for all the twitter love yesterday. Think for all the twitter love yesterday. You were so nice yesterday. Im going to step it up today. Here is the bulletin with the top business stories of the morning. It is a showdown in brussels between greece and germany. European Prime Ministers are meeting right now to discuss the greeks request to extend financial grade for six months. The government has art economized on many issues. Here, just an hour ago, we had this. I trust that we are going to have one. The greek government has gone the extra mile and we are expecting parliament to meet us halfway or 1 5 of the way. I have no doubt that this will be a very cordial discussion and , hopefully, at the end of this, we come out with some white smoke. Thank you. White smoke. Post out. Germany is willing to let greece leaves the euro unless it continues austerity. Bcg partners has won its fight to acquire gfi groups. The price tag is about 780 million. Let nick won a bidding war. And brokers handle large trades among large banks. He is also the ceo of campell that stale. A Womens Clothing store and taylor is looking to sell. And taylor is working with jpmorgan and has reached substantial potential buyers and also owns the loft. For months now, hackers have had access to the unclassified portions of the state departments email system. Officials familiar with the matter say that government and private Security Specialists are trying to get rid of the hackers. One official says that it may have originated in russia. Let me take you back to the story back in greece. Our International Correspondent is in brussels. Hans, you have the greek Prime Minister saying hes optimistic. Others are saying that germany is ready to watch its hands of the whole thing and send greece packing. What is really happening right now . Is it even possible to know . No. Because the meeting is just starting. The finance ministers are going in. What we have is a great deal of optimism. The question is will he be isolated in that optimism when he looks around the table and sees 18 other finance ministers . We have talked to a lot of them and it seems like the german position is dominating. That is greece needs to make a substantial reform and they need to stay in their bailout proposal. There has not been a whole lot of give on that. Eric and stephanie, if you are hoping for a split between anglais Margaret Angela merkel in the finance minister that does not appear to be the case. She said that she wanted to see significant moves from greece. Greece says that they have gone 4 5 of the way and they need germany to come the extra 1 5. That is not like with it will happen, at least from the public roster. When they say get ready, we are going to see white smoke. Is he being overly optimistic . Potentially, yeah. He is struggling a lot of things. He has the banking crisis in his own country. He wants to appear as if he is driving a hard bargain for his domestic argument audience and he does not want to be blamed if the entire deal ends up blowing up. Throughout all of this this is the third meeting in 10 days, he has been remarkably optimistic. Maybe that optimism is warranted. What you are hearing from the germans is consistency. The consistent view is that greece is going to have to implement their a lot program and completed. In the latest newspaper interview, he said that they think it is inhumane. Im not quite certain how you square the circle. They are there now and they are going to try and i will expect they will be there for a few more hours. What is to stop the germans and the rest of the europeans for that matter to hold the line and see how far the greeks go . We just got encoded a moment ago saying that gone 10 miles. Will they make it all from marathon he has another 18 miles to cover . Why not see how far they will go . Because the original marathoner collapsed and died. Greece collapsed and died at the end of these negotiations. There is nothing forcing germany to botch. If anything, germany has put a lot of pressure domestically where the bailout has always been a popular. If there is a third bailout it would have to go through parliament. Theres nothing forcing germany to budge. If anything, they will be punished or feel pressure if they do compress. Hans, what happens on monday or tuesday in greece if no agreement is reached . Well, we see the outlooks. There have been various reports. I saw something earlier that there were two close. Where are the greeks greek banks going to be raising capital . They are raising about 60 billion euros. It is a question of will greece the fact oh be enforced to put capital controls ain . That is the better control for the green bay. It has to be done by the government. That will be the decision and that will be the lines outside of the banks if indeed there are long lines. Hans, thank you very much or he is our International Correspondent live in russell in brussels monitoring those talks. Now time for a real a little deal chatter. It would combine two of the largest brokerages outside of new york. Financial is in talks to buy sterne agee. Bloombergs only sell abramowitz is following the story. First of all lay it out for us. What is happening . Steeple is a st. Louis based brokerage. Stifel is a st. Louis they grow grace. It stems from a 1901 for for. It is a time where it is very difficult to be a brokerage. Really, it is very difficult. It is really fair to say that this is a merger or this is an acquisition . Last year, stearns agee got into a time of trouble. The ceo got forced to step down. This privately owned company is now being run out of birmingham, alabama and in control of new york last you. To me, this smells like a rescue. What im hearing is i think that is a fair point. Its not so much the former ceo that jim holbrook was basically accused of using the banks they count a credit card. He was going out and buying close and using it and buying condominiums preferred and not with his own money. There have been federal investigations into his actions. The question is how does the firm distance itself from that . Was he the only one who got in trouble . I also think his son is being looked at. It is not the firm as a whole from what i am understanding and what is being told to me. The question is how do you distance yourself from that and go for it . To your point, yes. How do you move beyond that . A brokerage is a tough business. The question is how much room is there for competitors beyond Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley . Merrill lynch and Morgan Stanley arent doing so hot frankly. They have to cut back their bond dealing business in a major way. On the brokerage side on the brokerage side two. 26 pretax margin is pretty good on the business deal. Hold on the. Stearns agee has a print jim a legitimate business. What these big banks have done is shifted their business to be more brokerage like and to act as agent and not as personal. One would think that if you are in the brokerage bids this, not the principal paying business you on the good side. [laughter] this is why. Welcome back stephanie. I think that is a fair point. A lot of these smaller firms are saying that if you have the Merrill Lynchs and the city groups and the jpmorgans scaling back their wrong on brokerages in their trading businesses, they cannot use of much capital as they once did. At a certain time the speculation is that volatility will pick up in the right way, if not in this range back way that we have been experiencing recently. There will be an opportunity to step in and traders are willing to work hard and salespeople are out there. Itll be plumbing the ground for investors looking to make a deal and they will get some ground because the biggest dealers do not have the capacity to cater to what they used to be able to cater to. I know it. [laughter] it is all about lipstick on a friday morning here. Congratulations erik. Has stearns agee looked at potential biters buyers . Kuester was a lot of rumor going on. I do not feel equipped to speculate on all of the various rumors. I just had heard that a deal could be announced within days between people at stearns agee. There you go. Exciting stuff. Our own Lisa Abramowicz giving us the latest in the brokerage world. Coming up it may not be a greek tragedy for investors overall. Well tell you what impact the greek crisis is having on potential markets. Plus, the rise of the activist ceo. I sat down with ciscos ceo John Chambers. That is what he says he is. I am Erik Schatzker. This is Market Makers on bloomberg television. Bringing you some of the top headlines in the hour. They have won a vote of confidence on economic reforms. It would make it easier for companies to fire workers. France will still have a 35 hour work week. The u. S. Is planning a spring offensive in iraq. It calls for iraqi troops to capture the secondlargest city from the Islamic State. U. S. Central command official say as many as 25,000 iraqi troops will be sent to capture the city. First though, u. S. Advisors will have to train these iraqi soldiers. It is estimated that there are many as many as 2000 islamic fighters. Two cyclones and australia have been downgraded. The cyclones were a category five the most powerful storm with winds blowing at 55 miles per hour. No deaths have been reported. Australian newspapers essay a number of towns have been extensively hit the damage. Time and money are running out for greece. At this hour, eurozone finance ministers are holding a meeting in brussels. For a closer look at the crisis there an impact in the markers, i want to bring in jack risk in. He is the chief executive officer and has two half billion dollars in management. What you make of the situation . Everything is happening behind closed doors except for the noise which is happening in the media. This is a case of lettuce do something now and then do not have to do it again in six months. They are trying to do something now. If they do not do something now and i think we have some real tour more than i think we will have some real turmoil in the markets. Why . Is the greeks if the greeks and the germans cannot negotiate a deal and greece runs out of money and little more than a week the bailout money runs out and greece is forced to do something likely the euro, what happens then . First, it will take them a wild to leave the euro. If there is no agreement today there will be continued chaos. Odds are that people think that greece will leave busy leave the euro, the euro will actually increase in value against the dollar. That is what a lot of people are right now. Youre going to have chaos. Youre going to have some element of slowing down what appears to be a modest improvement. Willoughby like what we saw in cyprus a few years ago will it be like what we saw in cyprus a few years ago . Greece is a little bigger than cyprus. There will be noise. Having the noise today versus having the noise three or six months from now. Isnt that what europe specializes in kicking the can . Six months from now, everybody keeps on trucking. As long as they get the euro down to basically par or below zero, in the course of kicking the can, that happens. Then, there is the hope of the eurozone to operate successfully. What i still do not understand is why everybody is so afraid of this potential exit from greece of greece from the euro. It is a domino effect. Do you believe that spain is next with that portugal is next or that italy as soon as they do the possibility is there that somebody could leave the euro. It raises the level of uncertainty. It is not so much that it will happen. In the long run, we will end up with two euros. Maybe things will work out fine. What makes things work out fine not of greece leaves the euro it wont work out fine. Maybe it is ok. They take care of problems like this. If the currency is weak enough you can have some good things happen within the you connie. Economy. Greece is not the number one thing on your mind. For you, minimum wage. I think the most interesting thing that has happened economically, vertically and the u. S. This week, walmart was effectively raising the minimum wage for the u. S. As effectively what it amounts to. Walmart is paying nine dollars an hour. That is the clearing price. Because everybody else says geewhiz. If im going to retain my employees, im going to have to pay even more because walmarts pay more. Walmart, in addition to not just paying the more, walmart is saying which is sort of surprising, walmart is not the most enterprising country in the world. They are also saying that they are going to increase training. We were talking about people making 75,000 a year 125,000 a year, even when under 40,000 a year. What is a company like walmart get from nine dollars an hour 49 anfor 9 an hour. . They are going to get more attention appeared theyre going to get less turnover and they are going to get more training. That is what companies are going to have to do. Theyre going to have to make up for default in the u. S. Educational system. This is effectively raising the minimum wage for the country. It is a good idea. What about the adverse affects . Whether it is a good idea or not, is indication an inverse indication of the labor market. Why is walmart doing this . Basically, they must be having problems with turnovers. Could this hurt manufacturing across the country . Walmart is the biggest kid they have tons of dough. If im another company that heisman wage employees or the manufacturers here, could i start to save, if walmart is paying nine dollars an hour, i cannot pay nine dollars an hour and im going to move my operations from here to mexico . I doubt that they will do that. What is really going on is that there are 5 million open jobs in the latest jobs report. That is the highest it has been in more than 10 years. The labor market is tight. Yes, companies can decide it is time for me to move someplace else if they want to deal with all the chaos and the rest of the world. What it is definitely saying is that the productivity improvements are fine, im prepared to pay these. Let us that you are right. Let us say nine dollars an hour or 10 an hour in next february does not make the clearing price for labor. Hourly wage and target follows and everybody isnt paying that much follows. Then, walmart has to take they have to like do it again. If the labor market is tight, they will have to do it again. Is in a race to the top . Hold on. We are having a race to the bottom for these retailers on cheaper and cheaper prices. If i want to play pay less in terms of target, is it now a race to the top in terms of labor . Question if you cannot get people to actually man your business, you have to pay them to get them. That is what is going on here. The labor market is tightening. The fed is trying to decide if it is tightening or if it is not tightening. What we know and what do we not know . Heres the thing the labor market is getting tight if you we have to go to commercial. What are we doing after the break . Producers, are you listening . I do not want jack to leave. Jack rifkin is the chief investment officer. Market makers back in a moment. Jekyll rest can jack rifkin on the investment and walmart. Final thoughts. s wages go up, ultimately prices go up. The labor market is tight. You have to raise wages. If you want to keep workers, you are going to have to raise prices or find some big element of activity. It puts us in this good cycle. Wages go up. Prices go up. Inflation shows up in the fed raises rates. That is what we want right . So walmart could be the First Step Towards a normal environment. We have got to go. What a treat. Live from bloomberg headquarters in new york. This is Market Makers, with Erik Schatzker and stephanie ruhle. Good morning once again. It is a friday here in new york city. I am Erik Schatzker. And im stephanie ruhle. Let us take you to the bolton with the top of the stories of the morning. Creditors are cranking up the pressure. The eu finance ministers are meeting in brussels as we speak to discuss greases request to ask the end the bailout. The greek finance minister has said he is arty given in on all sorts of things, but is optimistic about a deal. His german counterpart does not sound as confident. At the Conference Goes this morning, german chancellor Angela Merkel and the french president both said that they do want greece to stay in the euro. Apple appears to be ramping up those plans to build an electric car. People familiar with the matter said that apple is pushing its team to begin production by early 2020. That could set the stage for a battle with tesla and of course, general motors. By 2017, they want to build an electric car that can go 200 miles on a single charge and costs less than 40,000. Another change. Chief economist Paul Mccauley is stepping down. Mccauley has reamed joe and have rejoined pimco and last may. He accepted the job to work with bill who is basically priced out of the firm that he founded last year. Now, he says that his mission with pimco is officially complete. And somebody will be driving around like a billionaire. An anonymous bidder has paid agreed to pay more than 122,000 for Warren Buffett catlike. He autographed the car and will give the keys over in person. The money will go to a charity that advocates for girls. The bond market is broken. You can thank doddfrank in the fed stability board for that. Two of the smartest gods guys from blackrock are here to tell us how. He is head of trading and liquid of these strategies. Gentlemen, welcome. Let us start with what is wrong picture what is wrong. Richie . I do not think it is wrong it is the reality of what it is. When i say six, it means that it is not working as well as it did or it should. The bond market has gone from five and half trillion outstanding to 11. I do not think there is a shortage of capital. It is really how does the capital move around when the time the banks itself are under capital pressure . The traditional Principal Market making activity that is really what is that question. Is more of a plumbing issue and we are in the middle of a transformation from what was solely a principlebased so is the secondary market . Companies hav