Good friday morning. John forte is out today but kayla and myself are holding down the fort so to speak. Joining us from washington re codes executive editor kara swisher. Does she have politics in her future . But first up the spt calling on the sec to open up the market for cable boxes. Heres his explanation in an interview with yahoo finance. Its been tied to the provider and you rent it and consumers spend billions of dollars on this every single year and there hasnt been much innovation. Its a great issue. Its a great consumer issue and there hahn been look at those, theyre ugly and second of all theyre expensive. Third of all you don have a choice. I have a lot of boxes i plug into the boxes like an apple tv but it just makes sense. Its like when we used to have to buy the telephone the Telephone Company wanted and it came in white or then it came in white or black or Something Like that. So its a similar situation and a great topic for him. Its perfect for him actually. The blog post from the white house says this is just the mascot for the initiative that they plan to launch asking pretty much every agency to think about how they can get the companies that are in there to innovate more. Is this a new frontier for antitrust . Its a suggestion. Its a forceful suggestion. Were going to do it for you if you dont do it. Theyren the Airline Space of opening up more airlines and things that youre forced to buy and cable box is something that everybody can understand very easily and they pay too much and so its a perfect example of where innovation is and on the other side the Cable Companies will say the googles or the apples and the others in the world or your firemens in tech and the set top box is the control panel for the future and those are one of the reasons its going to be an issue of contention. We see this akined to pharma. Theyll argue the money it takes to create these products, design them and distribute them. How long is the period by which you get to return that investment. Thats going to be the question, right . They do provide the service. The question is should they also provide a box thats substandard . And we can all agree theres been no innovation. They will say its been innovation. But its at their pace. They have done things like voice search. Thats interesting. The guides are better but why should it be one company that decides this . Thats the concept and its clear that Barrack Obama is no friend to the Cable Companies at this point. How much does this add to the cord during cord cutting . Well, you know, thats the question. So many statistics showing millennials dont buy cable at all but they could access these boxes and if they had more innovation in them and apps and gadgets and things they use you could make an argument that they wouldnt do that necessarily but they vn had any innovation. Its pretty much you plug it in and you get television. Theres so much more with a smart tv. And its changed rather dramatically and its everything in the home and thats where the action is right now is the home and thats alarms to your television and entertainment so its an interesting area to do this. Next up, microsoft suing the doj for challenging its use of secrecy orders that prevent them from telling them when they get a warrant to read at the mails. 3600 orders. Yeah. More i think it was like 5,000. The numbers are really quite astonishing. It looks like the government comes in and asks for whatever it wants and a lot of these Tech Companies now after the apple situation are pushing back and were hurrying our consumers, youre searching for things in an open ended way. We need to tell consumers theyre being searched and the argument on the government side or the fbi side for example they know theyre being searched and we want do our searching in quite and its an issue around all of the devices and i dont think facebook is going to get dragged into this in some manner. And by the thousands. I was surprised by the number. I dont know if you were. Im curious whether you raise this issue in a lawsuit until that number reached a Critical Mass or if you think that the relationship between Silicon Valley more broadly is afraid to appoint it. Everybody has been watching that very carefully and before they were looking back around the nsa stuff about two years ago so they tried to join together and there was a lot of disorganization around it and all of them feel like all of these government requests have gotten super for them and theyre becoming random and not clear and they have to tell consumers, who is more porn . Your Internet Company or the government or your Digital Company and the government . Who do you trust more . Its a really interesting situation Going Forward because everything is on digital. All of your information is on digital and now theres going to be a tussle over getting access to it. A lot of people wonder if this is going to reach the fever pitch that am versus fbi reached. Is it going to get that hot . I dont think so. You had a terrorism case and its dramatic and this is more complicated and complex to understand but i think it depends on how microsoft pushes it. If they say look, twitter has the same opinion. Twitter has been very out front and it will be interesting if it sparks public imagination but in general the topic of this, the government and the Internet Companies and access today at a is just a riveting one on all levels. Democracy levels and business levels, government levels, privacy levels. Its going to go on for awhile. Do you think well look back at 2016 as the year that washington and tech finally fell out . I dont know if they fell out. Theres a lot of people in washington that actually do agree with it. I did an interview with ash carter the defense secretary thats for strong encryption and protections so theres even a debate within the government over how this should play out depending on how youre sitting in the government. S going to go on for a long time as we move more and more into digital everything. The internet of everything. Health care and driving. Every single thing. Ive said it a lot. People dont Pay Attention for me and i said it at a gathering the other day again. Ive said it at this event. No one believes me but suddenly everyone believes me and its actually true. Its true carl. I do. I do want to run for mayor. How do you think you would do . I think i would do fantastically. Look if trump can run, come on, tell it like it is. I have the brand that i dont, you know, im not going to insult everyone. Everyone is a winner in the kara swisher administration. Not a loser. And i really do believe in civic duty. You might find it strange but i think its really whats happening in politics now is exciting. No matter what side youre on and i think its really important for citizens to get involved in their government. You cant sit around and complain about government and say everything is wrong. This is wrong and not involve yourself. Theres an old saying my grandma used to say it a lot. If you always do what you always did you always get what you always got. If you continue to sit around and complain youre not going to be the change you want to see in the world. There you have it. 2023 is a ways off. Why not before then . Because the ceo of fox wont let me. No i had breakfast with him this morning. He said we have 8 more years. We have a great business were building in San Francisco where i am an employer and its exciting what were doing right now and well see. I have always wanted to run for Political Office and why not start at the top i say. President was taken. But, you know id be the worst president. What were some of the issues that pushed you to the edge to say this is something that i want to and im going to do. I think reporting on a lot of these economic inequality that we have been doing in re code around tech and the city as we grow between the rich and the poor and especially with tech as the most innovative sector in the country and the city. The fact that theres so much disputing going on among all of the companies which are bringing very exciting innovation at the same time can be very tone daef to the rest of the city and where it is. Thats something that really struck. If anywhere it works it should work in San Francisco. They have to come up with solutions or everybody has to come up with a solution to solve you have been to San Francisco. Theres glaring in equities. You have the street which is are the infrastructure is decaying and our subways and Everything Else and you have the Sales Force Tower going up and linkedin tower going up and there should be Smart Solutions to bring this issue. When youre in San Francisco, it should be to that and then theres fighting almost continually and theres a lot of fresh ideas. It play not be me obviously but a lot of people have to get engaged to figure out the persistent problems that plague lots of cities including San Francisco. Are you able to do any work in advance . Are you able to start well, im hiring you. No, its a long way away. I do find it interesting how fundraising has changed, what Bernie Sanders has done. Theres a real change in how you reach citizens and how you inspire people and im going to be looking at that and study it but im not fundraising tomorrow. Thats Hillary Clinton in San Francisco tonight. She is doing a big fundraiser but no, its quite early, carl, but i know that youre one in the Kitchen Cabinet of course. This is after the yahoo bid. Yeah after we buy yahoo or fix yahoo i could either be ceo of yahoo or do this and i felt this was more attractive. You have some time kara. Kara were going to be watching no matter what. Im going to wear the glasses. Do you know what i mean . Thats the brand. Making San Francisco cool again. Kara, we cant wait to see you again. Thank you for coming on every friday as you do. And quite an auspicious live shot from washington there. Meanwhile, the markets just turned positive for the dow and the s p is down by a fraction of one point and we did see some stabilization out of china and gdp. Consumer sentiment did hit a 7 month low but were trading at a fairly narrow range today. The dow above the flat line. Down to 5 decimal points there. S p up a fraction of a point and nasdaq is up by a fraction of 1 as well. Citi chairs we have been watching them all morning after the earnings beat on the top and the bottom line. They were up more than that but they think the First Quarter will be the worst in that department and shares rallying after going public today of course they tried to go public two years ago stopped by a software glitch. The stock is up nearly 20 . When we come back the most contentious democratic debate so far. What you need to know about hilary versus bernie. Plus its now clear that pretty much no one needs an apple watch. Thats the headline. The author is going to join us live and facebook making a big push on live video as you know at that Developers Conference this week. 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The fed has for those with assets has driven up prices and asset values but thats not built on anything real. Its not built on an increase in the value of those assets. Its just based on playing games with money which means a crash will be coming. Meantime, cruzs challenger john kasich took a not so direct swipe at senator cruz during an interview with larry kudlow last night. Motorists think if a politicians lips are moving theyre lying. So i can show evidence that what i say i have already done and i can accomplish it again. I move this system down there. And your inferring strongly that senator cruz does not have the leadership skills. He didnt accomplish anything the whole time hes been in. I didnt do this all this time but now all of a sudden, i can do it . Come on. What can we expect come tuesday . Cnbc contributor joins us from washington. 95 delegates at stake. Obviously the rhetoric is getting amped up. How do you think it plays out . Im he has tansitant to say e may need another republican debate. These guys are really going at it. Starting to get personal and i tell you i would love to see like another republican talking about someone like the new its been awhile since we had one and some of the issues that were hearing whether its the living wills or the banks not passing muster. Whether its the great tech issues or encryption or microsoft and the justice department. Theres real issues id love to see debated. Were not going to have that before the New York Primary and as far as the primary goes if it keeps going as it is going which all the candidates keep muddling through, if someone should break out at all then maybe we dont but thats where were headed. Do you think that those issues that you just mentioned mean enough to folks in buffalo, in rochester, and not just the people sitting at desks like these in new york city . Im not sure those are huge new york city but certainly the issue about the banks is a big issue but we still have the big california primary in june where the Technology Issues might be more important and theyre still debating. I would love to see things on the republican side. Jim i was going to ask how you would evaluate or characterize the responses from Corporate America to some of these criticisms . Im thinking mcadam and in terms of what specifically senator sanders has said about executive pay. Listen i know theres a lot of frustration particularly on the ceos that i talk to where its not only about solving problems and not only are they not solving problems in washington, whether its immigration or Corporate Tax reform or other issues but then we have a candidate either directly attacking very successful american corporations or really not talking about any issues. I sense a lot of frustration. Then when you add the tax into it i think that its with what youre hearing from verizon and ge and mark zuckerberg. Well it does seem like nuisance detracks from a candidates popularity. The deeper they go into the weeds the less people on main street like them. Wouldnt you say . I dont like to believe that because i love policy and the battle of ideas but i like to think that ultimately if you have good ideas and you have to explain them to people in ways relationship vanlt and me relevant and meaningful to them that they still have a lot of evidence. And also Foreign Policy and running for president. Whether or not theres immediate impact. Just in the past week they had a lot of big issues from finance technology that they should be addressing in a meaningful way. Explain that whether you agree with Donald Trumps claim that were headed for a massive, massive recession but that he could fix it quickly and then as of this morning senator ted cruzs claim that were about to see a huge crash. I would not listen to republicans when they talk about two issues, one, Monetary Policy or whether or not theres a financial crisis around the corner. Republicans are talking about another financial crisis since 2009 its always like a year away. 18 months away. I dont thk these candidates have any special insights into whether the u. S. Economy is about the class effect. They continue to muddle on at 2 growth. Creating jobs. Still the best advanced economy in the world right now. Donald trump says, you know, china is winning but china has a lot of problems. I would like to see more of what were doing right. Particularly Silicon Valley and some of these other longterm issues like losing u. S. Productive. We have a lot of issues still to come to discuss in this election. Its obviously not over yet but we appreciate your time this morning. You bet, thank you. Got some big news regarding big money for the nba. They just approved the sale of jersey sponsorship. Youll see corporate logo opposite the nike logo for the nba. Its going to start with the 20172018 nba season. All 30 teams the statement says will be responsible for selling their own sponsorships for each particular jersey and remember adam silva, the commissioner of the nba says in the past this type of sponsorship is like manifest destiny. Those are his words. He goes on to say jersey sponsorships provide deeper engagement to partners. I should also point out that on the nbas agenda today they will also be addressing discussing this idea about charlotte and the allstar game scheduled to be played there in 2017 given the recent legislation in the state of North Carolina with regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender policy. Back over to you guys. All right. Back at headquaters with a news update on the nba. Heading into a big week for tech earnings. Ibm, alphabet, among the big names. Well t