Issues at play with two special guest hosts. Wharton professor of finance Jeremy Siegel and trusted american businessman steve forbes. Both onset and ready to start this discussion at 6 00. First, though, andrew has a few of the top business headlines. Lets talk about some of the headlines this morning. Cisco systems buying Cloud Network start up meraki for 1. 2 billion in cash. It was founded in 2006 by members of m. I. T. s laboratory for computer science. Joe, i dont know if you take credit for any of that. Bp plans to spend up to 5. 9 billion buying back stock. Last week the oil giant agreed to pay record criminal penalties over the deepwater horizon disaster. And americans are carrying more Credit Card Debt and being less diligent about making on time payments. Trans union now reporting that average Credit Card Debt for borrowers grew 4. 9 in the Third Quarter and meantime the rate of credit card payments at least 93 days overdue rose slightly to three quarters of a percent. This is still a historically low level suggesting most card holders prioritize card payments over other financial obligations such as a mortgage. And attention twinkie lovers. Hostess will be in a new york bankruptcy courtroom today to start the process of selling itself. The maker of wonder bread, twinkies asking the court for permission to sell assets and go out of business. This is d day. So i think we actually have a number of people, joe, if we grt some credit cards together, what do you think, want to go court today . Somebody will probably buy it in bulk. In our dining room, we have every type of, i dont know did you go hoarding . My wife and daughter, never eaten it before but the idea that you cant have it anymore, im totally with they will. They did get duplicates of most of the stuff, so i was able to open some saving it for 17 years, right . Thats the expiration date. Calorie count is much better than i imagined. I was studying the only 140 calories a twinkie. Better for you than a donut. Whats the one with Peanut Butter in it . I didnt like it that much. I dont think any of its really chocolate, right . I saw a lot of disparaging things written over the weekend. Chocolate cake, not really i saw something, one youd expect to slam the nontrue tr s nonnutritional value. Like the post or something. People can eat what they want. I grew up eating them and im not dead. And twinkies are an energy food. Perfect for bloomberg to go on if it hasnt gone bankrupt, he would have tried to shut it down. Jeremy, will you wear a rise a above you asked for one. Yeah. I saw you rising and levitating. Goolsbee wouldnt wear one because he was sure there was right wing conspiracy. Are you ready to wear one. Rise before has all sorts of con know takingnotations. But theyre all good. Yes. But i dont have a viagra pen. I asked goolsbee, what about be kind to animals. People see whatever they want. I will wear an i love hot dogs pin. Its a hint at compromise and thats what people dont like. In my mind, it doesnt hit a compromise. The president needs to compromise. Thats how i see it. The republicans dont have to rise above . No, theyve already put revenue on on the table. Now lets compromise on on entitlements. You can lower marginal rights and raise effective rates, right . If the president didnt stand in the way, could you have a 1986 tax deal, take off preferences. You could lower tax rates which help the economy. Everyone can declare victory. But he doesnt want to do it. Well get to this stuff as soon as we get the situation in myanmar settled a little bit. No twinkies. Still call it burma. Maybe thats why hes over there, figure out what to call it. Were continuing our call to rise above. Sunday morning talk shows discussing the looming fiscal cliff. And the negotiations. Nancy pelosi responded to some members of both parties calling to go ahead and go over the cliff. I dont think its my role to go to the table with a threat. I think its my role to go to the table with some ideas to be receptive to what we can come to agreement on. Im not criticizing statements others make. But what i am saying is that theres too much at risk. And even if you went over the cliff for one month and then corrected it, you would still have a loss of gdp. And weve already started our discussion with our guest hosts, Jeremy Siegel and steve forbes. Jeremy, we already had the beginning of this discussion. Ill start with you because i said you can see it sort of happening in some of the averages and you see the front page journal piece today about corporations cutting back on spending. Do you not ascribe much to the notion that people are already acting with some trepidation about this and it could be harmful . I think the fall since the election is clearly the cliff might be close. Theres hope that it had romney won, that force would mitigate or eliminate it, we would have an easy extension. And when he didnt win nor did the republicans do very well, theres an idea, oh, my god, that cliff is much more serious. And i think it has a lot of people with Capital Gains have been locked in saying imrequesting to take under 15 . Thats not even a fiscal cliff issue. Theyre going up no matter what. But i actually think that that issue of the taxes and locking in lower rates right now is more reason for why the market went down than the cliff itself. Why would the corporate managers just be pulling back . Well, you actually outside of housing, thats happened even beforehand. I mean, with weak demand, gdp going up at 2 , they tonight see a lot of need for increased capacity at this time. I think a lot of that is the pulling back. Until we see a stronger economy and stronger consumer growth, why increase capacity. Not enough people will buy it. But you think this is happening in spite of the fiscal cliff, not because of it . I think a lot of it and were still in a slow mode. I think well accelerate next year. I think we have the ingredients to do that. Were finally getting the housing on track which is so very important. So does the pull back represent is it attached to anything . Are you buying right now . I would say yes. The Capital Gains tax increase. And a worry certainly there is a worry that if we go off, well have a short term sharp recession. I dont think it will be long term. If that happens, where should the market be . Just on terms of a recession alone . What would the market be fairly priced . Is it fairly priced today . I think its underpriced. For a recession . For a short recession, yes. I even think well see 2013 stronger. First of all, i think even if a tax deal is delayed, it will be retroactive to january 1st. And sequestration isnt going to happen to anywhere near the degree. Only thing probably we can talk about what will be there, the payroll tax two percentage point cut i think will expire. And i think there will be a short term compromise on the rates and then a reconvening of simpsonbowles to get the Long Term Solutions right for this country. Steve forbes, you sat down and you youve written youve tried, youve tried hard, your other book was hcapitalism will save us if we let it. Why flee markets are moral. And Big Government isnt. You sat down and said i guess the battle will continue because this last election no one read those books, i guess. They must have, but not enough people obviously. You didnt give them away. Maybe thats why. But the one thing that i offered it to the romney camp, but they didnt take it. We tried to get romney on here a bunch of times. Dont get me started on people that ran that campaign for him. But you were looking for one Silver Lining when you sat down and all you could come up with was that there are some governors that might not implement the exchanges for obamacare. Is that the one thing youre positive about this morning in. Short term well have a lot of turbulence and no small part because the Federal Reserve is still out to trash the dollar. Europe, all the European Countries are raising taxes. Japans raising taxes. Were going to raise taxes. Just a matter of how much. So well have rough sledding next year. But the Silver Lining is obamacare will get a real adverse reaction, hostile reaction like it did in 2009, 2010. Exchanges are one part of it. So i think out of this in the next four or five years youll see a real push for free markets in health care. And on the monetary side, i think the fed is going over the the cliff so to speak will push reform there to get a stable dollar again. And on the economy, clearly the economy is not going to be in the kind of buoyant mode it was in the 80s and 90s. People will ask why. The new normal is the the new abnormal. There is no reason we should have the miserable growth rates. Lets say back in 1980 that reagan didnt win. We just have the notion that the 80s would have been great either way. A lot of people do. Whomever was there, it would have happened. Well get to check now whether any of these policies that were now going to pursue actually were the root cause for the slow growth or whether it was just a hangover from the financial crisis. We think he got a four year pass on that because it was really bushs fault, but now well see whether it actually happens. But if we have a slow growth for the next two years, if we have 1 to 2 and it just seems almost chronic, will that matter some hes not running for reelection doesnt matter. It doesnt matter to the president , but tu matters to democrats coming up for reelection in 2014. You have the whole house. You have a number of governorships. A third of the senate. So they care even if the president doesnt. And then the key thing is for the Republican Party, and i think they will because theyll be changes there, are going to have to learn to advocate free Market Freedom again. Unfortunately governor romney didnt do it consistently will the way Ronald Reagan did in 1980. So you you blame romney for not doing a better job of if you dont define yourself, at the speech at the convention, five points which had no overall theme was almost shoved in at the end before he had a good first debate, but didnt follow through on it. How much of it is the idea that president obama was able to capitalize with women, was able to capitalize with hispanics, with other people who may have felt alien meanted . You define yourself. Ronald reagan ran as a prolife candidate. But, again, he defined a certain agenda. He set what is positive things on out there. If you dont, the other side will do it for you. So they got away with war on women and the idea that gm was a choice between liquidation and reorganization xhrks is wasn reorganization, which is wasnt. Romney had a good plan that would have saved tax players 30 billion. So you dont think the platform of the party will be fundamentally a different platform . You dont have to change the fundamentals of your principle. Of you have to learn to get the message out there. For example, when romney announced paul ryan, you notice the background, all white. Why . Thats just stupid if youre trying to reach out to voters. Same thing at the convention you blame it solely on on the candidate himself not and the party. The candidate and the campaign and some of our senatorial candidates got it better which is why they faired fairly well. But you have to have the positive optimistic reaganesque message, sound money, lower tax rate, opportunity of controlling your own health care and the like. But people say demographics are going in the wrong direction. Demographics change. We assume if you start out in a certain part of life youre going to stay there forever . No. People move up. What about irish, italians were all seen as democrat. Ray began coeagan comes along, to republican. You ck didnt have 47 on th receiving end. Im allowed to say 47 . Im not running for anything. It wasnt 47 when reagan was running. And im with andrew on this, listening to the radio, there was this really smart Guy Organization he was talking about, god, i really wanted to vote for romney. All free market. Just but he goes im gay and i finally decided im going to vote for obama. So here is a guy, republicans would love to have this guy. And his partner. But they cant do it. And its the tent that needs to get bigger somehow. Why shouldnt the republicans have that guy in their party . Because the republicans didnt emphasize enough what their real priorities were. But this guy was worried that he wouldnt be as free as everybody else. Well, the gay issue just take that is on a state level. And for the first time ever, that was a referendum starting to win. Its already moved. The Republican Party is stuck and hasnt moved with public opinion. People can have different beliefs. Remember, american Political Parties are a coalition of people who often dont like each other starting back in the 1860s when the republicans had sger man immigrants who were catholic and no nothings who antiskath lick, anticatholic brought them together. United on on key principal things. Ray dweagan showed how it could done. Roosevelts had catholics in the north and racists in the south. You can bring coalitions in the south. Fdr the good war leader. Lets leave it at that. All right. Well have a lot more of this conversation this morning. When we can back, well call it cliff proving your portfolio. Well talk about stocks to buy and sell now. Based on what you think is going to happen regarding taxes and spending in washington. I always wait until the last minute. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. Weve been keeping our eyes on oil this morning. Its up a dollar that the point. Wti at 87. 29. This is coming as violence between israel and the palestinians continues. Israel continuing to hit tar gets overnight. An official close to netanyahu tells reuters that israel is ready for a Ground Invasion of gaza. But prefer as diplomatic solution. Lowes report being Third Quarter profit of 40 cents a share when you strip out certain items. That is above the expectations of 35 cents is share. Revenue also coming in line. It beat consensus as did same store sale which is rose 1. 8 for the quarter. That stock up by better than 2 this morning. Now time to talk weather. Todd santos joins us from the weather channel. At least a few things going on here. Satellite actually looks qui fret boston to buffalo. D. C. Travel weather pretty easy today. That area of low pressure off the southeast coastline, at least spreading some showers on toward North Carolina and this disturbance pushing at least a few clouds in towards chicago. On the radar, doesnt look like very much. Lightning trackers not picking up any lightning and as it makes its way across the eastern edge, a lot of the showers likely to fall apart. Chicago maybe a little drizzle today. That system off the east coast will slowly drift further away, but it is pushing a lot of water in towards the edge of the outer banks. Highway 12 had issues, had to close a couple times. Much of the activity will remain off the coast. Still will deal with some of those winds. Its limited as the effect of it, but still talking winds at 20 to 30 miles an hour range with some higher gusts. Just to the north, could see a few showers. But d. C. Itself, new york, boston, temperatures in the 40s with sunshine in the area. Tuesday, a beautiful set up there, as well. Even travel wise, still looking good. Wednesday, with that system still off the coast, mayy windsf the coastline. As far as a few other areas, the whole thanksgiving week, aside from the one disturbance in the central u. S. And the one other area off the carolinas, fairly quiet with the exception of the northwest coastline. Thats where were dealing with a lot of snow and a lot of rain. Much of the snow over 7,000 feet. Rain especially coastal oregon in some areas 7, 8 inches over the next few days. Tuesday, still fairly quiet travel wise. Wednesday, that persists in the northwest still remaining one of the trouble spots. Thanksgiving, looking pretty good across a good stretch of the country. Just a few showers up towards seattle. And as far as the numbers for friday are concerned, looking good there, as well. That may help some of the consumer numbers on black friday. Why do you have a cool there for thanksgiving . I thought it would be fairly mild here on thursday. I heard low 50s. Here we are in november, though. So cool, 50s. Its close to the averages. All right. Just wanted to make sure. I was paying attention. Supposed to be sunny and 50s. Are you going to the parade . Im going to try to go to the parade. We try to go every year. What about you . Youre already there. Were already there. We watch it indoors. We have friends, we watch it from windows. Were not going. Well watch on tv. My wife always goes to philadelphia thanksgiving. Its actually older than new york. Nowhere near as big. But they have the mummers. Thats new years day. This is macys. I know, its not as big or grand, but i think it is older. Squawk sports new, we start with last nights nfl game. The baltimore havens beating pittsburgh. 1310 for a Third Straight victory. Over the steelers. Ravens own a two game lead at on op the afc north. Chemical sports, notre dame had no problem with wake forest. Reached number one this both the Ap College Football rankings and bcs standings. Fighting irish only need to beat sc. Yeah, only. The quarterback had a strained shoulder or something and they lost to ucla. They did. Got it within three and then ucla scored a touchdown and never did come back. Alabama is second in both the ap rankings, bcs. For me its weird. Im back to questioning this whole was kansas state, theyre good, but baylor beat them handily. There has to be a better way to find who number one is. And the teams that are good, they may lose, but depending on how they lose. And stanford was able to beat oregon. And then were still talking only because people went here, but rutgers won. What do you mean only because . They beat cincinnati, your hometown. I did not go to 103. 100. No, 103. And the most boring game. But they won. Thats all that matters. I wouldnt have been excited about cincinnati. This is like a farm club. Like 00a aa league. Im not saying the