then the 130 billion euro bailout coming from the rest of the european un yor for greece is conditional on this deal happening today. whatever happens, it looks like the situation is likely to trigger a credit default swap, the cds event that almost a year ago everyone was so terrified of but now the european union seems willing to accept. all of this is going to unfold over the next day, the next 24 hours. i spoke with the energy minister of this country, the energy minister is the former finance minister and the reason he is the energy minister is because he has been put in charge of the privatization process which is extremely crucial to greece's future because it's going to raise a lot of money and it's also going to make some of their biggest institutions here far more efficient and hopefully profitable and lead to a better economy. he sent the following message to any bondholders who are thinking of holding out. >> we are hopeful. it is a very good offer to private investors. it's the best offer they will ever get. and if it fails the situation will be much worse for private bondholders. >> reporter: if the deal fails. remember, they don't get the bailout package, they don't get the $30 billion, that's the sweeteners on the bonds. it looks like a full-blown default, bankruptcy, and that would be messy and could lead to greece leaving the eurozone. becky, joe, back to you. >> michelle, i'm sorry, at the very top of your report the microphone dropped out and i wasn't sure, did you say what we know so far in terms of how many people -- how many of these hold ers have signed off on this? >> reporter: we know more than 50% have signed up. 50% is the crucial threshold to begin a very arcane process that could lead to the imposition of action clauses that will trigger cds. they're trying to get all the way to 75%. ideal would be 90%. that would mean they wouldn't trigger the cds. it would be a completely voluntary deal. at this point we know from the announcement more than 50% have agreed. there could be a lot of institutions that have tendered but haven't is announced it. >> again, the deadline that we're waiting for, the announcement is going to come at what time? >> reporter: the deal expires at 3:00 eastern time today. we expect an announcement at 1:00 a.m. eastern time, because that would be 8:00 a.m. tomorrow in athens. >> okay, great. >> do you have more? >> i did. i did want to ask her more. there was an adviser to the german government who was out with some news today, it got picked up on some of the wire services talking about how the market is expecting at this point the credit default swaps to kick in and so they don't think it will be that much of a chaotic event. have you heard otherwise from any of the people you've been talking to? >> reporter: no, absolutely not. i think for several months now they've been trying to come to grips with the fact that they're probably going to have to trigger the credit default swaps in order to get enough bondholders to go along with this to get enough debt forgiveness for greece, and i think maybe members of the european union finally understand how cds works. one example, i know a hedge fund manager who more than a year ago bought credit default swaps on the bonds that are due in march for 10 million euro worth of bond. he's already been paid 9.5 million euros on those credit default swaps. there's only half a million more to give him. so a lot of this has played out already. >> thank you very much again. >> michelle, speaking of haircuts, your hair is back there somewhere, right? if you turn to the right or the left -- >> i see a ponytail right there. >> and i also want to wish you and becky -- >> what? what, what, what? >> a happy international women's day. >> oh, thank you, joe. >> did you see google? >> i did not. i'll have to check it out. >> judd gregg is here. i'm sure you extend those wishes to becky -- >> absolutely. >> and to michelle and your wife. it's been celebrated every year since the early 1900s. >> i do like google today. >> yeah. >> it sounds like michelle, we may not have her right now. thank you very much. we'll check in with michelle caruso cabrera throughout the day. >> i like it. >> the title international in front of it there's some sort of territorial effect of that term? it's a throwback is this. >> i wasn't but if -- >> i was just wobdering why you would even bring it up. >> i was searching google. whenever you search google and it has a different -- >> see, here is their logo. i'll show you. so you know it's a special is day. >> oh, really? they change it every day. they change it every day. >> it might be the 300th birthday -- >> that screen is too simple obviously for andrew because all these screens have is too many things on them. >> yeah, they do. >> that's how you nope it's a special day. >> dnc talking points, propaganda. the huffington post is on all four. >> yes, i can see that. >> the daily talk and moveon.org website. if you put your arrow on google it will tell you what it is. it might be some philosopher from the 16th century, the anniversary of him writing some speech. >> i just looked at the huffington post. >> i've only been on the show for, what, 30 seconds, and learned something is extraordinary. >> and i called you old, out of it. >> that's true. accurate. >> have you seen the story? romney punts on kur yid interest. >> that's good to see. it replaced andrew's story on goldman s is achs. >> why did he punt on carried interest? it should be capital. >> i don't think he punted. what he did was he said if it's -- if your money is at risk and long term it should be long term. >> it was a question joe asked him yesterday at the end of the interview. >> interest by did he haefiniti ordinary income so they definitely positioned themselves so it should be treated as ordinary income. it should be called carried capital if it really is carried capital and, in addition, this isn't about getting carried interest to be tacked it's about finding revenue to do other things with it. >> wait a second, what's your -- >> that's the purpose of the attack on carried interest. >> carried interest, carried capital, however you want to call this, ling which is six aside, this is taxed as 15% as a long-term investment. how do you think? >> i think in most cases that's what it qualifies as capital. there's going to be some instances where it's ordinary income where it's the person's earnings that should be taxed as ordinary income but i think this broad brush approach which essential isly the goal of which is to get revenue so you can spend it somewhere else, this isn't about the carried interest issue and this is about finding a source of revenue that congress can then use to spend on something else. >> are or the whole idea that we need -- that if we cut taxes anywhere, that it doesn't pay for itself in growth dollar for dollar. i mean, that -- what we're really talking about is really shrinking government and at the same time putting in growth initiatives that may not be dollar for dollar but we need growth. we're spending 25%. >> you probably need more revenue, too. you need to cut spending. it can't be 25% but it can't be 16%. >> did you know to 20 and then only raise 18. >> right now it's at 15% or 16%. >> why shouldn't it be -- why shouldn't ordinary income be taxed? the idea ordinary income is taxed at 42% if the president gets his way but being taxed at 35%. >> there are too many loopholes. you're not the getting 35% from a lot of people. the ones you are, you get hosed by the system. >> we should do what simpson bowles proposed. which was ignored by the president and eliminate a lot of deductions and exemptions. it was 21%, 9, 15, 21. >> what's 28 or 26? i've seen all these different -- >> there's been a proposal to take it to 28% by romney. >> 26%. >> 26% was the corporate rate under simpson bowles. >> that was the corporate rate? >> i believe romney is at 28% which was the top rate under reagan and rostenkowski. >> the interest rates, you can set aside, is it deficit neutral? does it bring in revenue? if simpson bowles raises revenue, right? >> the problem is cbo 0. cbo scores everything under a model which says there is no such thing as dynamic scoring and they will not give you any credit tore economic activity that results from reducing tax rates. that's the way they score. so -- >> because you can't predict it. >> well, because they have to have rules or else there's no way they can be consistent. their rules make no accepts at all. let's take for example, repatriation of foreign income. we know we have trillions of dollars sitting overseas. the cbo will score that as a loss of income if if you bring it back without taxing it. if you bring back a dollar from europe as an american economy and you give the american company a tax holiday they'll score that as a 35-cent loss. a 35-cent loss. you know the dollar is never going to come back. it's never going to come back if you hit it with a 35 cent tax. then those dollars will come back and be invested here and the dollars will flow back out through dividend and economic activity. you could give it a credit for, say, 15%, which would be the dividend tax rate. the simple fact is the cbo rules make no sense at all. make no sense is at all on tax policy because they don't give any credit offer to human nature if you lower taxes people do more things with their money and create more economic activity. >> we have -- we always have things we need to do. i mean, it's like an assignment almost. i have to read this now. >> eat your vegetables. >> we're talking about, i think, important, interesting things. but there are things that we need to get in here. >> is this going to be peyton manning again? >> no. it's going to be probably no change in interest rates at these places around the world. we are going to see interest rate decisions from the bank of england and the european central bank in the next hour, the boe is expected to stick to its ultra loose monetary policy and the ecb is seen keeping interest rates on hold. but you never know, right, and sometimes the language changes and the markets key off of it doesn't take much to move the markets in a fairly substantial way in this global arena we're in now. central bank watchers say president mario draghi will likely put pressure after the ecb has pumped more than a trillion yors in the last few months. he'll hold a news conference at 8:30 a.m. so you never know. we'll be watching that and sometimes you see moves in the f futures based on these news conferences. in corporate headlines, the treasury will sell $6 billion worth of aig stock. the sale expected to reduce the government's ownership in aig to about 70% from 77%. the treasury also striking another deal for the insurer to pay down 8$8.5 billion more. paying apple and five others that it plans to sue them. this is all in "the wall street journal" this morning reporting that the doj accuses the company of clueding to raise the prices of electronics books. several have held talks to settle the potential antitrust case. >> super tuesday has come and gone but the republican candidates are still duking it out for the title of nominee. in case you hadn't guessed it already, our guest host today is judd gregg, served as senator of new hampshire. senator, governor, which do you prefer? >> judd. >> all right. well, i have a hard time with that. senator or governor? you have to pick one. >> well, you know, historically it's supposed to be governor. >> governor you actual ly do something, right? >> that's a good point. for governor -- when you're governor, the difference between governor and senator, twh you're governor for every action there's a reaction. when you're in the senate it's like jell-o. you put your hand in, take it out, it's still there. >> it's the same. >> the issues just come back. >> and you kick things around and argue. >> it's intellectually challenging. >> you get great lunch. >> you can't afford them. >> can't afford them. some senators can. it depends on where you park your yacht. >> why don't we talk about -- >> romney and -- >> and what you think about the race at this point. >> because he has delegates. that's the lead story. delegate wise. >> it's over but nobody is dropping out. >> nobody is going to drop out because the other candidates have points to make and -- >> is that why? there's no pride? newt still wants some comeuppance. >> if you heard his speech in georgia it was disappointing. i've worked with newt for 30 years, but that was just -- he was a victim. he was a victim and he's been a victim and everybody is treating him unfairly speech. it was disappointing because the guy has great ideas. >> he does. >> he has gotten into this sort of attitude of meanness. >> i list en to newt and get transfixed because he's so smart but sometimes he compares himself to churchill. >> napoleon. >> i mean, he has some -- i don't know whether there are h issues. >> you actually don't get this far. you don't get to be a serious contender for president unless you have a pretty strong sense of yourself. i mean, the president shows that himself. >> or some delusions, serious delusions of grandeur at times. santorum, it's just his dream. he's come this far. you never say die. that's what we say, keep fighting, do it. pride wise. >> rick was really an excellent senator. i served with him for 12 years. he's speaking to a narrow constituency. it's big within the party. >> what does he want? >> to be a national player, which he obviously is already. >> and the problem, his problem is that where you get the nomination it's self-annihilation for our party. he can't get past that base. he cannot speak to independents. he has this i wear my social positions on my sleeve attitude and if you don't agree with me you're not christian enough. it's not viable and with independent voters it's viable within 0 our party because there are a lot of people who feel strongly on the social issues. most americans today are not wo worried about social issues. they're worried about their jobs, they're worried about tomorrow, for their children. they're worried about prosperity and concerned about international, they're worried about some terrorist coming in and attacking us and we want to make sure they get them before us. >> you bring up the point this is of a large base within the republican party. >> very much. we're a southern and western party now. no longer a northeastern party. >> so what does that mean for the fate of the republican party when you pick a nominee and go head-to-head with president obama? >> historically that had significant influence in our party but the nominee has never since, in years, carried that message as being their primary message which is rick's primary message. if mitt romney is our nominee, and i think he will be, then that's not his theme. his theme is about restoring the economy, about getting jobs, about confronting the obama administration which wants to take us into the social welfare state and return us to the path of conceptualism. and that's the romney theme and, yes, he has to address the social issues because they're important to a lot of people. they're important to me but they're not the primary thing that will move the vote and cause people to say, hey listen, i want that person to be president. what people are looking for is somebody who can lead back to the dynamism at our core. we're a vibrant country. that's why the economy is recovering. >> people who say that -- the people who are supporting santorum and looking at this from the outside say that is your problem. if you can't energize your base and get enough of your base to turn out then you will not be able -- >> it's going to energize. >> it will be energized like the president. he's still going to have his very activist environmental group. but it was just a ridiculous decision in my opinion. he will have our base groups. they're going to vote for our candidates. the can question is going to be what's going to happen with the independent vote in the six swing states? there are only six states. >> north carolina -- >> no, no. >> i hadered that this morning that north carolina was a swing. which way is it going? >> you'll have florida, ohio, pennsylvania, colorado, potentially missouri, and new hampshire. >> missouri even went for mccain. >> north carolina went for the president last time. >> missouri has always been a back and forth state. >> the show me state. >> a good title, isn't it? i like that. >> north carolina you say is not going to be swing? is. >> i don't think so. >> they voted for president obama the last time. >> they're going to settle out and i think they already have. this is an election really about ohio and florida. >> you say that this is already done in terms of the gop nomination. >> no, it's not done. >> the three candidates staying in it, could they get enough of the delegates to prevent mitt romney from getting -- >> no. these things come together quickly once they come together and i think after a couple more of these multiy state events it's going to come together very quickly. >> he's at 89 or so. 89 or 90. >> on in trade. >> on in trade on futures for romney to be the nominee. >> oh, well good. >> time for our -- we have 0 other things. >> i have many screens. >> you look like you have a lot over there. >> i though. can you clear -- >> can i take bets off this? >> if you just get rid of the daily cost website, is it coast or costs? >> i don't know. time for the global markets report. ross westgate is standing by in london this morning. and he is literally standing, standing by. i am standing. joe, good morning to you. european stocks near the session high as we broke three days of losses with slim gains at the close of play on wednesday. here on thursday ahead of the u.s. open pretty strong gains. more than 9-1 on the dow jones stoxx 600. we priced out any fear we may have had of an uncontrolled default in greece and it may look now like in the range of collective action klauss. will that trigger a cds. i think people would be happy if it did although it's bizarre to think we've gone through a process to avoid triggering that and that's now maybe where we're going to end up. the fotse, xetra dax up 2%, cac up over 2%, eads is the standout stock. strong forecasts of profits ahead up 9%. the ftse mib up 1.5%. and we've seen a bit of a tear for a tally in debt. the spread between btps now yielding 4.79% and bunds at the 1.8% below 300 basis points. the first time we've been there since the beginning of september last year. and it contrasts as well to the yield here on spanish debt. 5%. spain is now yielding substantially more than italy. spain has already got 40% of its funding for the year but the market clearly deciding the value is more in spain than italy because a lot of the bond purchases going on are the flushing through of the ltro money although we have substantial amounts on deposit at the ecb as well over $800 billion. ten-year guilt, nothing from the bank of england today from their rate decision. we'll have to wait two weeks for the minutes for that. certainly a very bullish turn in the market and oil in both euro and sterling terms in brent is now at an all-time high. back to you. >> ross, it's international women's day. is that okay with you. >> yep. >> okay. what about international -- >> good answer. >> what about international persons day? what about -- i said to becky, where is international men's day. >> i said that's every day. >> every day is international men's day. >> what was interesting the day has been used for a number of articles, the head of the confederation of british industry wrote an article saying how it was a time to keep that issue of women and boardroom representation -- >> that's good. >> today has been used to